her mother, who is the TINIEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD. I mean, this woman is smaller than Kelly is. I didn’t even know that was possible. She is very sweet, and she was setting out plates of food for us, and Kelly kept telling her she didn’t have to, and she kept smiling at me and offering me food.
Eventually Kelly dragged me off to what I later learned was her and her brother’s wing of the house. Yes. Wing. They have a whole wing. Their house is this big, modern thing that sort of looks like an airport. Or an airplane. It has a central entrance, kitchen and living space, a giant open room with whole walls of glass windows that go floor to ceiling, and then on the left side of the house are her parents’ bedroom and offices on the upper level, and guest rooms on the lower level. On the right side of the central area are Kelly’s and Kyle’s rooms upstairs, and then downstairs, a giant sitting area and bar area that is really a full kitchen. There’s a fireplace, and the whole back wall of their house is glass, too. It looks out onto a big pool and hot tub. The sliders on the lower level open all the way up and disappear into storage compartments.
When we got downstairs, Jess and Brandon were playing pool while Pete was mixing a cocktail at the bar. Jess looked up and saw the look on my face, which was one of the “holy shit” variety. She laughed, and Kelly acted all embarrassed. I said, Jesus! What does your dad do? Kelly was sort of sheepish, but she said that he runs a big manufacturing company that finds factories to make parts for companies like Apple and Samsung. She told me he goes to Japan and China for months at time, and is there now.
Kelly said she had to go talk to her brother for a minute and while Jess and Brandon were shooting pool, Pete slid me a vodka tonic with a lime squeezed into it, and then made himself one. He said, Sure am glad you’re here tonight. I said, Why? And then I whispered, Oh wait. Do you guys have more ecstasy? And for just a split second he frowned, and it was almost like I’d hurt his feelings. He said, Nah, I just liked hanging out with you the other night.
There was something sweet about this, but I didn’t really think about it much because at the time I was disappointed that he and Brandon hadn’t brought any ecstasy. I guess I’d secretly hoped that there would be some, despite what I told Jess. I took a sip of the drink, which was strong, and just as I was taking another drink I heard Kelly say, Don’t drink too much of that!
When I turned around, Jess glanced over at me and then at Kelly, who was grinning like she’d gotten away with something. Jess said, NO WAY! And Kelly laughed and said, Told ya. Brandon asked what they were talking about, and Kelly said, My brother found some E. Pete frowned and said, Cool, but where are we gonna do that? Kelly told him that we could do it right here, right now. Pete asked if that wasn’t going to be a little difficult with her mom around. Kelly assured him that after we went upstairs and ate all the food she’d laid out for us that her mom would retire to her wing of the house with a book and a glass of red wine, and we’d have the run of the place. Plus, she said, Kyle is in his room upstairs working on a paper he has due this week. He promised me to keep an eye out for Mom. She’s generally pretty clueless.
The idea of doing an illegal drug under the nose of somebody’s parent who was in the other room seemed crazy to me, but Kelly wasn’t kidding. After we ate a bunch of food upstairs, her Mom thanked all of us for coming, poured a glass of wine, and headed down the long hallway, closing the door to the main area of the house behind her. Kelly’s house was an awesome place to roll. It’s so sleek and white. The light from the fire was beautiful and the pool and hot tub glowed outside like an alien ship had landed in the backyard.
The tabs Kelly got from Kyle were pink