House Party Read Online Free PDF Page B

dance.”
    â€œMaybe we could dance later on,” I suggested.
    â€œFor sure.”
    I squeezed my way through the couples and off the dance floor.
    Jen looked worried. “What’s happened?” I asked.
    â€œWhere can I get a pail and a mop?” she said.
    â€œWhat happened?” I asked anxiously.
    â€œNothing serious. A bottle of wine got knocked over.”
    â€œI’ll get the bucket…where did it get spilled?”
    â€œDownstairs in the rec room.”
    â€œOn the carpet?”
    â€œYeah, but it’s not bad and it sort of blends in with the brown of the carpet.”
    I grabbed a roll of paper towels off the kitchen counter and handed it to Jen. “You start blotting it up, and I’ll get the bucket and water.”
    Jen rushed off and I went to the laundry room and grabbed a pail. I squeezed in some soap and filled it up with water. I grabbed a couple of rags that were hanging behind the door.
    The pail was heavy, and it bumped against my leg as I moved along the hall and down the stairs, sloshing water onto the floor. Water wasn’t bad. Wine was.
    Jen was on her knees, blotting up the wine. She was right. It had blended in, and I could hardly see where it had been spilled. I took a rag and soaked the spot with water.
    â€œI told you it wasn’t that bad,” Jen said.
    â€œNothing serious,” I agreed.
    â€œIf this is the worst thing that happens, it’ll be one successful party.”
    â€œIt
is
working well,” I said. “There are a lot of people, though.”
    â€œYeah, isn’t it great?” Jen shouted.
    â€œI guess so.”
    Jen started giggling. Her eyes looked all glazed.
    â€œJen, have you been drinking?”
    She giggled even more. “Nothing except the punch, like we agreed. I’m just happy that it’s all working out so well. Isn’t it a great party?” she yelled.
    â€œJust as great as when you said it a minute ago.”
    â€œOh, yeah, that’s right,” she said and giggled some more.
    â€œHow many people do you think there are?” I asked.
    Jen shook her head. “I don’t know…a lot… but most of them are people you invited.”
    â€œMe? I hardly invited anybody.”
    â€œThat doesn’t make sense. I didn’t invite most of them…I don’t even
know
most of them,” she said, sounding defensive.
    â€œYou don’t?”
    â€œI thought some of them had to be your friends. That you’d invited them.”
    â€œI hardly know anybody here. But if you didn’t invite them, and I didn’t invite them, how did they know about the party tonight?”
    â€œI guess they just sort of heard throughthe grapevine…you know, on msn or text messaging or something like that,” Jen said. “But they all seem like pretty good people.”
    â€œI guess so. It seems to be going pretty well.”
    A big cheer filled the air.
    â€œLet’s go and see what’s happening,” I said to Jen.
    We rushed upstairs. There was a crowd of people standing around watching four guys chugging bottles of beer. They were racing to see who could finish their bottle first.
    People continued to cheer as the drinkers got closer and closer to the bottom. Two of the guys finished, and then they turned their bottles upside down to show they were empty. The crowd cheered even louder. The bottles weren’t completely empty though, and some beer, mostly foam, dripped out and onto the carpet.
    I ran over with my pail and rags. Before I could even get there, the crowd surged forward, slapping the two guys on the backand grinding the foam into the carpet. There was no point in even trying to clean it up now.
    â€œJust go with the flow,” Jen said. “I saw a carpet cleaner in the storage locker downstairs. Do you know how to use it?”
    â€œOf course I do.”
    â€œGood. After it’s all over we can just clean the whole