The Edge of Something Final

[Brackie]

((Mikki Swift continued from I Turned Into A Martian))

The sun had finally come up, and the party was over.

Officially, at least. Mikki had stopped the music, and most of the people had already left. Those who stayed behind slept where they could, be it in Forrest's seemingly endless supply of bedrooms, couches, closets, bathtubs, or even a particularly soft bit of carpet. It was mostly those too sick to leave, but it was also the people Mikki actually liked, or those who missed out on rides home. Either way, Mikki wasn't ready to bang the pots and pans in their faces yet to indicate it was time to go - maybe she could get them to help clean up, if anyone besides the usual suspects were left.

At least the cleanup wasn't as bad as it could have been. A vase was broken, but no limbs were, or drywall, or anything else irreparable besides the one inciting incident that got Demetri Futscher out of her fucking party for good, and good riddance. She might have regretted inviting a lot of people, especially the ones who seemed to be causing trouble by not even trying to get into the party spirit, but all in all it didn't really matter what Mikki felt at the end of it, it was all about what they said.

Or rather that they said anything at all, really - she wanted this party to be known, and the debris in the form of red cups and empty plastic bottles left in the hallway heading to the front door said that this was a party that was going to be talked about for a while.

Mikki eventually met the front door, and she saw that Claudeson had left at some point. She hadn't come to check on him since the garage incident, so she never got to do anything more than the superficial, but considering she was paying him in pizza, that was better than she expected of him since he turned up at all. She wondered where Marco and Benny were - considering they both looked like they'd been deep-throating a Smurf and Bruce Banner respectively, they probably didn't hang around too long after. And she'd checked the backyard right after, and nobody was on the roof. It might have been ages ago, it might have been right before she showed up, or it might never have happened at all, for all Mikki knew. She'd check Facebook in a few hours just to be sure, maybe someone took photos.

As she stood at the front of the house, watching the occasional car go by on their way into the city, Mikki began to feel just how exhausted she was. Rather than keep on standing, she sat down on the edge of the front porch, rested her head against the nearest wall, and closed her eyes. She wasn't asleep just yet, but maybe if she got some shut-eye even for a few minutes, she'd have enough energy to deal with the rest of today.

She had so many people to thank for this. She needed to thank Erika, for giving her the idea in the first place. Claudeson, for doing a thankless job for what had to have been no reason Mikki could have figured out. Charelle, for even showing up. Forrest, for the house, and for putting up with Mikki's boundless ego in the endless desire to name something after herself when it really should have been about the three of them, and at some point she was really going to have to apologize for that. Andy, for putting up with the distance that had formed between them because of just how focused she'd been on the whole thing. Those were all people she'd need to thank in person, probably with some gift of sorts like she was a middle-aged lady from the suburbs.

But most importantly, she was going to have to send out a thank you to everyone who showed up and made it the best party experience that a bunch of teenagers could have, before they headed into the drudgery, misery, and pain that awaited them; the exams, of course, weren't going to be a cakewalk for everyone.

But all of that could wait - for now, Mikki just needed some rest.

((Mikki Swift Pregame: END))