To begin to describe the events of the night of Jodie’s eighteenth birthday party, an event that, for all who were there, would go down in history as one of the most remarkable displays of dysfunctional interaction in recent memory, would be hard, to say the least.
Jodie never worried too much about birthdays, considering them something of an anti-climax, much like any New Year’s Eve, with the exception of her most recent one, which at least culminated in a kiss from someone she really wanted a kiss from. No, for her, it was just another day, a day that would be followed by another and then another, on and on, meaning very little to her.
“You’re only eighteen once!”
was always an annoyance to hear from people. Yes, it was true, but then you’re only twelve, or ten, or even one once too. And sure, there were cards and presents and checks from distant relatives (her father excluded, of course), but she never felt any different, any older or wiser. So to call her reluctant to have a party thrown in honor of her turning eighteen would have been something of an understatement. She didn’t want it, never did. And what made it worse was that her mother insisted on it.
Katy wasn’t trying to be mean or cruel. Indeed, she felt that eighteen was something of a touchstone for her daughter. To see her grow up in to such a confident, smart woman was always a source of pride to Katy, but there was more to it than that. She wasn’t just proud, she was adamant that her daughter have everything that she had denied herself from the moment her daughter had been born. Katy never had an eighteenth birthday party, because she had to take Jodie to the doctors that night when she had a high temperature. Her life was peppered with such incidents. She often thought of the John Lennon quote:
“Life is what happens to you in the middle of making your plans.”
And it was true. There was the time she had to cancel a date because her daughter was having a tantrum, the time when she had to take her daughter to school play rehearsals, even though she was weak and sick as a dog with the flu. University, a more substantial career, all of these things and more had had to run a second to her daughter’s needs. But Katy never complained. She knew that her daughter was the best thing that had ever happened to her, even if she hadn’t been on her original agenda, or life plan. And it was because of this, above all else, that she had decided to throw her daughter a party.
That year, Jodie’s birthday landed on a Saturday. It was perfect timing really. Katy knew that the week following that, Jodie would be sitting two of her three exams and that being able to let off a little steam in advance might be good for her. She also knew that a surprise party wouldn’t be an option. Now of legal age, Katy knew that Jodie would be out on the town unless given another option. Sure, Jodie had been out on the town before and it had always been alright (a little more vomit than usual, perhaps, but never a phone call from the police at two in the morning) so it was that on the Saturday prior to her big day, that Katy posed the idea to her daughter.
“A party? Really?”
Jodie’s reaction was not exactly unexpected. Katy was sifting through her mail as she and Rob sat together on the couch, both into their second cup of coffee that morning. She rolled her eyes at her daughter:
“Don’t be so enthusiastic, please.”
“Sorry,” Jodie replied, “it’s just I thought we might go out or something?”
Katy shook her head and gave Rob a wry little smile.
“Oh no, I know how this ends. You disappear into town and I get a phone call at two am asking for a ride home, no way. Besides, I don’t want you hung over on Sunday morning.
Your Grandparents are coming over and you’ve got studying to do.”
Jodie almost instinctively shot Rob a quick look. She was half- embarrassed, half-waiting for him to step into the conversation. He merely smiled at her and shrugged, as if to say
“Hey, don’t look at me; it’s out of my hands.”
“It’s just a little get together, Jodie,” Katy continued, “I was thinking us, Laura, and the Lewis gang from next door. What do you think?”
Jodie felt slightly defeated as her eyes met her mother’s and her mother then gave her that look. It was a look that Jodie knew well, that slightly hurt, slightly excited look that she herself had used when she was younger, in order to get what she wanted, and was now humiliated to have come back as a weapon in her own mother’s arsenal. In the end, Jodie could do nothing but sigh.
“You’ve got your heart set on it, haven’t you?”
“Pretty much,” Katy smiled.
Jodie turned her gaze to Rob,
“And what about you?”
Rob, who was in the midst of swallowing a mouthful of coffee, put down his cup and responded:
“What about me?”
“What do you think about it?”
Rob thought about the question. Certainly he could understand Jodie’s dis-interest in the party. He’d been through a similar situation following his graduation, when his parents had insisted on escorting him to his own graduation ball, before proceeding to drink too much themselves and embarrass the hell out of him by trying to set him up with Ellen Tobin, a family friend who was not only bored by his company, but also gay. However, he could also see that Katy had really sparked to the idea, and so tried to be diplomatic about the whole thing.
By siding with Katy, of course.
“It’s not up to me, your Mum’s been thinking about this for a while now.”
This was, in fact, a lie, but Katy appreciated it none the less, feeling that finally, she was with the right guy, someone who had her back when she was stuck in a tight corner. She placed her hand on his knee in quiet, loving solidarity.
Jodie, feeling defeated, kept her eyes on Rob and asked:
“Are you going to be there too?”
Rob, surprised by the question, looked to Katy for help, but she just gave him a sly smile.
“Do you want me to be?” Rob asked, tentatively.
Jodie tuned and looked out the living room window as she replied:
“I don’t mind.”
Katy jumped in with:
“Of course he’ll be there. So, we’re agreed then?”
Jodie turned back and looked at her mother. Then, Rob. There was an unusually long silence, before Jodie let her shoulders sag and gave a small, resigned sigh.
“I’d better go and study.”
And with that, Jodie headed up stairs to her room. Katy watched her go, before turning to Rob and tilting her head.
“Thanks for that. That’s the closest I get to a ‘yes’ from her these days.”
If only Katy had been aware that above her head, as she sat in the living room planning the party with Rob, that Jodie lay in her bedroom, staring at the letter that had been sent to her mother, the second that term and indeed, the second letter that Jodie had managed to swipe from the doormat before she or Rob had emerged from the bedroom, then maybe she would have reconsidered a small get together in the back garden. But then, Jodie had made such a good job of hiding any anxieties that she had about her future educational prospects, that nobody outside of Laura and Mr. Posner, Jodie’s Guidance Counselor, had any clue as to what was really going on. What made it worse was that Jodie herself didn’t really understand what may have been at stake for her, she was blind to many things; blind to her mother’s growing affection for him, blind to her own next door neighbor’s growing affection for her and possibly worst of all, given her past academic prowess, blind to the fact that a simple sit down and talk with her mother could have settled everything in half an hour: school, Rob, her future, everything.
It began with a bottle of cider.
It was Laura’s idea, of course, and by the end of the night, everybody would feel the aftershock of the three liters of cheap cider the girl’s managed to drink together that afternoon.
Each.
As far as Katy was concerned, the girls were going to go shopping, grab some lunch and maybe catch a movie, before returning that evening for the party. Jodie didn’t usually go along with Laura’s more extreme ideas, but she was in no mood that day for a party anyway, and felt that with her higher education prospects rapidly slipping away from her, not to mention any chance that she and Rob would ever get together, she felt she had little or nothing to lose, and that one last moment of madness couldn’t hurt her at this point.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, after all.
The plastic bottles hissed as the girls unscrewed the tops, sitting on a bench by the playground area. They would have looked like winos had it not been for their age, and the very short skirts they were both wearing.
Laura raised her bottle up in a toast.
“Well, here’s to you. Happy Birthday!”
Jodie raised her bottle to hers and they allowed their bottles to meet, with a dull plastic thud.
“I thank you,” she replied.
The two girls both took a series of very large gulps from their chosen poison, before placing the bottles on the ground. Jodie sniffed a little, the fizz of the cider tickling her nose, before turning to Laura and addressing what was going through her mind.
“Are you sure this is wise?”
Laura answered almost immediately,
“No, probably not,” she shrugged, “but, what the hell, right? You bought this yourself.
It’s all legal. Your first legal drink.”
Jodie looked towards the ground, feeling neither one year older nor one year wiser and replied:
“Probably my last too.”
Laura rolled her eyes. This had become something of a repetition between the two of them over the last few days; Jodie feeling sorry for herself, with Laura having to pick up the slack. Laura wouldn’t have minded so much, except that she was more used to the roles being reversed and, if she was honest, she wasn’t much good at boosting people’s confidence or relieving their tensions. That’s probably where the cider idea had come from in the first place.
“Is this going to be a recurring theme tonight, your exam anxiety?”
Jodie took another swig from her bottle, before answering.
“Laura, I’m screwed. I have two exams next week and I have literally no clue what I’m doing.”
Laura motioned towards her beverage.
“Keep drinking, it will all feel better when the bottle’s half empty....or is it half full?”
“Half empty,” Jodie replied, without any hint of hesitation...or humor. Laura was beginning to get annoyed now.
“Oh God, lighten up.”
Both girls then took a simultaneous swig. It wasn’t intentional and as they brought their bottles down again, both made eye contact with the other and shared a smile. Jodie then laid her head on her friend’s shoulder, in a sign of resignation. Laura brought her head to meet hers in a show of friendly solidarity.
“But we’ve got a party to go to in two hours,” Jodie continued.
“So, we’d better get a move on,” was Laura’s response, sitting herself back up, causing Jodie to slide down a little, and raising her bottle back to her lips, with a
“Cheers.”
Jodie did as she was told, and took a long, hard swig. She was not too fond of cider at the best of times and the bargain bottle’s over emphasis on fizz and alcohol, as opposed to taste, began to hit her.
“Ugh,” she exhaled with a sneer, “couldn’t we have sprung for some
Bulmer’s
or
Strongbow
instead of...” she held up the bottle and read the label, “
Marksman’s Pride
.
What’s yours?”
Laura did the same,
“
Scout’s Honor
. What does that have to do with alcohol?”
“Give it here.”
Jodie snatched the bottle from Laura and took a swig. She allowed the cider time to settle in her mouth, before swallowing it, almost as if she was a connoisseur. She then handed the bottle back to her friend, with a shrug.
“It tastes exactly the same as mine.”
They looked at each other for a moment. It was just a moment, but enough to allow them both to fall into laughter together.
“Come on, drink up, birthday girl,” Laura continued, encouraging the cider down her friend’s throat, “What shall we drink to?”
But Jodie just couldn’t let it go, her natural pessimism getting the better of her once again.
“How about failure?”
Laura leaned towards Jodie’s ear and screamed,
“YAWN!”
Jodie recoiled from the noise and gave her friend a nudge.
“Well, what would you suggest?”
Laura thought about it for a second, before standing up, bottle still in hand, and pronouncing, in as dramatic and soppy a voice as she could muster:
“How about true love?”
Jodie smiled a little.
“For who?”
“For whom?” Laura corrected, “Honestly, call yourself an ace at English?”
“It’s the only thing I’m any good at.”
Laura paced a little in front of Jodie, taking swigs from her bottle as she went, adding, suggestively,
“Let’s hope it’s not the only thing
he’s
good at. HA!”
“Are we talking about Rob?”
Laura giggled to herself,
“Who else?”
“I thought maybe we were talking about Sean.”
Laura let her bottle fall to her side and stood still for a couple of seconds before proudly proclaiming:
“Oh screw him, his loss, right?”
Jodie nodded and raised her bottle to Laura, in her own sign of solidarity, adding:
“Right. Cheers.”
Laura sat back down and winked at Jodie.
“Here’s to us,” she said, with a smile. Jodie winked back,
“To us.”
As they sat there enjoying each other’s company, like they had done for so many years prior, neither of them could have imagined where their evening was heading.
The cider had begun to take effect.
Katy had spent the majority of her afternoon preparing the garden; she and Rob had assembled some outdoor lights, pulled the large picnic table out of the shed, dusted and unfolded the patio chairs. And while the sun was absent from these events for the majority of the day, it had, thankfully, remained dry.
Party snacks duties had been assigned to Rob, whom, Katy had been delighted to discover, was something of a dab hand in the kitchen.