It was the strangest phenomenon, to be returning home from a party, tired and exhausted, and yet not a single ounce of alcohol was consumed. Gwendolyn Caspian had talked with other people and danced, yet she dragged her feet as though they were nothing but lead weighing them down. She wasn’t necessarily a lazy person. In fact, Gwen prided herself in being very physically active, despite the amount of video games she played (no doubt most of that activity came from running and only a fraction of it came from gymnastics and P.E.). And it hadn’t been that long since she danced, though this was her first excursion at a rave party…

Gwen was exhausted, cranky, and yet she loved every minute of that dance. Even with the crowd constantly bumping into her, the loud music and seizure inducing lights, Gwen would not have given up that experience for anything.

Her exhaustion must have shown through the minute Madelyn had opened the door, as a look of concern overtook her features, and her first question was typical for someone addressing someone who was walking in at three in the morning. “How much did you drink?”

“Nothing… I’m fifteen years old, Maddy,” Gwen said, indignantly and silently regretting that fact. To think, the one moment where they didn’t card her and she didn’t take the bait, but she recalled being too tired to even think of ordering a drink. Not that she’d know what she’d want; she knew absolutely nothing about mixing drinks and didn’t know the difference between rum and tequila. Not exactly something she wanted to test, after the night she had. “I had water, and peanuts.”

Madelyn motioned to the table, her ‘mother mode’ turned on immediately. “I can make you a sandwich. Wheat or white?”

Gwen shook her head, the mere thought of food escaping her in lieu of the bigger desire. “I’m not hungry… just tired.”

’Bed sounds really good right about now…’ Gwen thought to herself, trying not to rub her eyes as her sister followed her to her bedroom, and she didn’t say a word, dropping her basket and falling face first on the bed, Dorothy costume still on and all. The only movement that came out of her was to move her head sideways so that she could breathe, and she stared out the window, looking past the buildings and skyline and at the moon. ’Maybe if I sleep, I’ll dream about that guy…

Madelyn sat on the free part of the mattress, the shift breaking Gwen’s concentration and she began to work on removing the costume, starting with the sequined ruby slippers. Now that the initial concern was gone, Madelyn began assaulting her with questions, much like an older sibling had a want to do, even though all Gwen wanted to do was sleep. “So, how did it go? Did you meet anyone new?”

“It was a rave… there were lots of new people…” Gwen mumbled, but she wasn’t in the mood to get in a tussle with her sister, not when she couldn’t win. She was just too tired. She changed her tune, just as the obese little rat finally poked his head out of his igloo and sniffed around, now that it had the familiar scent of his owner present in the room again. “Met a girl with really nice eyes… they glowed in the dark, like a cat, but I said raccoon… wasn’t thinking. She used to go to St. Mag’s… but not anymore…”

She remembered the girl in question, knowing that Madelyn wouldn’t have recognized her as she never attended the Catholic school herself, and she still envied those eyes, or the rave lights’ effects on the eyes, as she carried on. This time, she spoke with a smile, even as Madelyn began to untie the bows and undo her braids. “Then there was a guy… maybe my age, short, but handsome… danced with him for a bit. It was great…”
“Oh, so the might Lynn now has a crush?”

Gwen laughed it off. “He either has a girlfriend that didn’t come… or maybe gay… I wouldn’t stand a chance with him, I think…” That didn’t stop the blush from brightening her pale cheeks, bringing out the black markings all the more. “Still… it was nice. He was nice… may never see him again anyway… but it was still great… then some dark skinned girl bumped into me... don't remember much else, too tired... so gorged out on water and peanuts at the bar...”

She could feel her eyelids drooping, the vision of the moon and the stars in the sky beginning to grow dark and fade away. Then, just before sleep took the drained girl, she mumbled, a hint of anger evident even as sleep whisked her way. “Dammit… didn’t get his name… idiot…”

(Word count: 783)