The Party

Walking down the street, my nerves began to bother me. This should be a party like all others, except for her. Abby, notorious for not going to work parties, was supposed to be going. I don’t know why she has such an effect on me, but it was enough to make me rush through my barn visit and show up to the party on time. I promised myself that I’d go back to the barn tomorrow and take Mack, my horse, for a long ride to make up for the rush today.

“Hey man, how’s it going?” I greeted Ben, the host. I set my bag under the table and added my beer to the cooler on the ground. I looked around. A few other guys from work were there, but no Abby.

“Glad you could make it! “ he said. “Looking for someone?”

I hesitated. No one knew how much Abby and I actually spoke at work. We appeared to move in different circles, but I considered her a good friend. I didn’t want her to be teased because of me. I didn’t have to answer because Phil came noisily down the stairs from the apartment.

“Abby won’t tell me what she’s making, or why, and she won’t let me stay and watch,” he complained.

“What?” I asked.

“Abby showed up about twenty minutes ago, said she was taking over the kitchen and we were only allowed in to use the bathroom,” Ben explained. “You can try to talk some sense into her if you’d like. I already told her that it’s rude to kick me out of my own apartment, but she didn’t care.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I said, trying to suppress the joy I felt knowing she had actually showed up. I headed up the metal staircase, and opened the sliding door to Ben’s apartment. I didn’t see Abby at first, I only heard her. Music was playing from something, but her voice was easily distinguished from the song. She appeared from behind a corner, but didn’t see me. I had never seen her outside of work before, and her casual clothes looked so much better than  her work clothes did. I watched her for a second longer before calling her name. Her singing stopped instantly and she turned around.

“George!” she exclaimed. “You came!”

“Of course. Now what type of a mess are you making here? Ben’s a little upset out there.”

“He won’t be when I’m done,” she said, “if I finish.” A look came over her face, one that I’d seen many times at work could never figure out what emotion it was. It lasted longer tonight, and it finally occurred to me that Abby was sad. Sad and lonely.

“Are you okay?” I asked. She looked up at me, with big, sad eyes.

“I shouldn’t have come,” she said. “This was a mistake. I can’t do this.” She began to move towards the door, her eyes filling with tears.

“Abby,” I whispered, grabbing her arm and pulling her into a hug. “Talk to me. What happened?” She clung to me, whimpered every so often. I could feel my shirt getting damp from her tears. Several minutes passed before she caught her breath.

“I’m sorry, George. I didn’t mean to,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it. My shirt will dry. Are you okay now?”

“I guess so. I just don’t think I should be here,” she replied.

“There’s always the front door. They’ll never know you’ve left,” I suggested. “I won’t tell them what happened either. That’s none of their business.”

“It shouldn’t be any of yours, either. I should be put together, have my life organized and everything.”

“The only one putting pressure on yourself is you. We only expect what you give us,” I said. Calming people down wasn’t my specialty, but I hoped that I could make Abby relax a bit. As we stood looking at each other, my brain finally registered all the noise coming from the back yard. Abby must have heard it as well, because she walked over to the door to see who had arrived.

“There’s at least 20 people down there,” she said.

“Do you want to go down or leave?” I asked. She looked hesitant, glancing between me and the door.

“I’m going home,” she said at last. I nodded.

“Will you be okay to get there alone?”

“Yeah, you go have fun.” She then gave me a bright smile, one that I kept picturing over and over all night.