(Josie
Sayz: I know that I haven't exactly written anything for a while, I’ve been
busy. Anyway, here is a flash fiction piece that came to me whilst at my work’s
Christmas party. I know it’s not brilliant and I hate writing in first person,
but I gave it a shot. I have proof read it, but I know that I probably haven’t
found all of the mistakes yet.)
The Christmas Crush
I took
a deep breath. Lowering my head, I stepped inside. I looped my thumb around my
bag and stuck close behind the girls. A blinding light shone at us as we
hovered in the doorway. Eyes spun in our direction. They were watching us. They
all were. Throwing a hand in front of my eyes, I ducked behind Chloe. She
flicked her peroxide hair over her shoulder, wafting it in my face. I
shuddered, as they began muttering to themselves. “That one’s too close to the
boss,” hissed Alicia, jabbing her thumb at the table closest to us. She jabbed
her elbow in in Chloe’s side and pointed at a table on the face side of the
room.
“That’s
too far from the hotty table,” Melissa whined. I rolled my eyes. It didn’t
matter where we sat, so longs as we did it quickly. People were still staring
at us.
Looking down at my outfit, I tugged at the hem of my
dress. I’d only walked across the car park and it had already ridden up. I was
so not used to dressing up. My stomach spiralled as I caught a girl nudge her
friend before laughing. I threw a hand across my stomach and wandered over to
Melissa’s side, while she chose our table. Both Richard and Andie from our
department wolf-whistled as Alicia, Melissa and Chloe brushed past them. “Hi
boys!” they sang out, waving as they walked by. Dave winked at Chloe as she
smiled at him. I forced a smile at the table, dropping my eyes to the floor as
I followed the girls.
Crossing the room, they chose a spot a little too close
to the DJ for my liking, but we were far enough away from everyone else – and
the bar, so that was fine by me. The tables were huge though. Sliding into a
seat I stared that the empty spaces. There were only four of us. Vacant seats
lined both sides of the table. That meant only one thing. Company. I held my
breath and stared down at the tablecloth.
As the girls dove into their handbags searching for
their mirrors and makeup, I shuffled lower into my seat, placing my bag on my
lap. “Want a drink, Honey?” asked Alicia after pouting into her mirror. I shook
my head.
“No
thanks,” I told her. “I’m fine.”
“Awww,
come on,” she huffed. “I’ll get the first round – my treat.” I shrugged at her.
“I’m
fine,” I mumbled. “Really.” She turned to Chloe and Melissa. The three of them
muttered something before bursting into giggles.
“Mind
our bags, Love?” Melissa called over her shoulder as she, Alicia and Chloe
skipped off to the bar.
My heart crashed against my ribcage as the music blasted
around me. Folding my arms I sunk deeper into my seat as I stared out at the
dance floor. No one was dancing yet. They were all too busy buying drinks and
comparing dresses. I guess you’d have to be drunk to want to dance looking like
that. A group of girls tottered past in their sky-high stilettoes and skimpy,
skin-tight dresses, slopping their drinks everywhere. None of them could walk
and that was before they had a drink.
I glanced back at the door. One of the older secretary
ladies, Judith, was standing at the door gossiping with Beverly from the
canteen. This sort of party really didn’t seem like their thing to me. Then
again, it wasn’t mine either.
To the right of the doorway on the big central table sat
the bosses. All the men dressed up in tuxes and the women in flashy sequin
dresses, showing far too much flesh. You wouldn’t believe they were in charge
of the company looking at them now.
Seeing Alicia, Chloe and Melissa returning with drinks I
sat up, forcing a smile at them. “Lemonade, Honey,” Chloe smiled as she placed
a glass in front of me.
“Don’t
look so worried, Love,” laughed Melissa, sitting down opposite me. “It’s just
lemonade. We didn’t spike it.” As they began to chuckle, a nervous laugh
escaped me.
The room grew dark. Red, green and blue lights began to
flash around the room. The DJ increased the volume of the music. I gave a
groan. “Having fun, Hun’?” asked Chloe, nudging me. Squirming away, I forced a
smile, managing no more than a, ‘um hmm,’ in reply. The girls threw back their
drinks, downing them in an instant. I stared.
“Anyone
for seconds?” asked Alicia as she slammed her glass back down on the table.
Chloe told her to calm down.
“Not
too fast, Ali’,” she warned. “We promised her a quite night.” Quiet?
They call sitting at a table in the middle of work’s Christmas party, in a room
full of people, with a DJ blasting music that no one has heard for decades
quiet. I rubbed a hand across the back of my neck.
I knew they were a loud lot. Alicia and Melissa would
take it in turns sitting on the edge of the guys’ table, asking them how to
work various parts of the computers whilst twiddling the ends of their hair
around their fingers. Chloe would join in on occasions too, only to get
wolf-whistled by the guys for her revealing blouse. So if I knew what they were
like, why did I say, “Yes?”
I don’t know how I let them talk me into going. They’d
been pestering me for weeks. “Come on, Hun’,” Chloe had sighed.
“You’ve
gotta get out sometime, ya know,” Melissa added with a wink.
“It’ll
be fun,” Alicia insisted. They had repeated this conversation every lunchtime
since the end of November. Every single day the girls pestered me and my answer
was always the same: “No.” So why I changed my mind at the last minute, I’ll
never know.
There was a loud shout from the far corner. Glasses
clanked against tables. Curling my hair from my face, I turned to watch. Dave,
Andie, Richard and various guys from the office were all shouting at Adam. “No
fair!” one bellowed.
“You
cheat!” cried another. Smiling, Adam shrugged at them with a full pint glass in
his hand. The others had all appeared to have finished their glass and with
half of it down their fronts. Adam must have sensed me and the girls watching
him, for he turned towards our table and smiled. I shot my eyes back down to
the table, feeling my cheeks tingle. Chloe gasped.
“He
was smiling at you,” she said nudging me.
“No
he wasn’t,” I muttered.
“Yes
he was,” the others agreed.
“He
was totally checking you out,” Melissa added winking at me.
“Was
not,” I protested. “He smiled at all of us.”
“You,
Missy, need to learn to take a compliment,” Chloe said, poking me on the arm.
“If a bloke thinks you’re gorgeous, Honey, you should go for it.”
Letting them go back to their girlish giggling, I
groaned. Delving into my bag I pulled out my phone. I needed something to take
my mind off the burning in my cheeks. Barely half an hour had passed by. I
sighed. My phone had no signal – but they didn’t need to know that.
As the girls gossiped, I rolled my eyes. Frustrated with
their constant giggling and squealing, I ventured my anger out in text messages
that I would never send. Not one of them noticed me. I had made an effort. I
really had. After deciding to go, I picked out a really nice outfit and spent
longer than normal on my hair and even did my makeup. At the office they were
always moaning at me for not taking much care in how I dressed, but when I
actually tried, no one noticed. It’s not like I craved attention. I just wanted
to be noticed for putting in a little effort is all. Not Alicia. Not Melissa.
Not Chloe. But me! Was that so bad? Alicia, Chloe and Melissa always get
noticed by everyone. All Melissa has to do is walk into the office with
different coloured nail varnish and everyone acts as though they want to be her
best friend. I wasn’t after claws of attention. Just a, “Have you done
something different with your hair?” or, “Nice dress,” would have done. Okay,
I’d have blushed, but at least someone would have noticed me.
Whilst I was on my phone, Alicia, Chloe and Melissa had
already got and drank another round of drinks. “Would ya mind our stuff, Hun’?”
asked Chloe as the three of them left for the toilet. Putting my phone back in
my bag, I agreed. Watching them leave, I sat up straight and stared down at the
drink in front of me. I hadn’t touched it. Not a drop. Now there was another
beside it. Nudging them away from me, I gazed down at the confetti on the
table. Trees and reindeer were scattered amongst the napkins and bowls of mints.
“Mind if we join you?” came a voice. I flinched, looking
up. It was Adam with Andie.
I
felt myself blushing, as I managed to squeak, “Sure.”
“So
where is everyone?” he asked as he took a seat at the far end of the table.
“Toilet,”
I replied.
“At
the same time – that must have taken some skill,” he said. I giggled at him.
“Say,
have you seen Richard? He said he’d meet us here.” I shook my head before
taking my phone back out of my bag again.
As the girls returned, Chloe gave me a big grin before
whispering in my ear, “I knew he’d show his face if we left you on your own.” I
felt myself blushing again as I shook my head.
“He
was looking for Richard,” I told her.
“Uh
hum,” she replied with a grin. “He was with him when we left.”
The music boomed louder. The piles of empty glasses grew
greater. Alicia, Chloe and Melissa seemed to find any excuse to flutter their
eyelashes at the guys as they joined our table. The group broke into constant
laughter, regardless of whether what was said was funny or not. Slouching down
in my chair I folded my arms. People were actually drunk enough to dance now.
Beth and Derick from the third floor office were circling each other, whilst
two of the managers decided to tango down the dance floor. I got my phone back
out to check the time. Over an hour had passed since Adam and the guys had
joined our table. The girls’ giggles and squeals had grown even louder and Adam
wasn’t even among them anymore.
I gazed across the table at the empty seat between Andie
and Richard and sighed. Hooking my bag over my arm, I stood up. “You okay?”
asked Chloe.
“I’m
going home,” I said as she pouted at me. “I’ve got a headache,” I told her.
“Sorry.”
“D’you
want me t’ walk you out?” she asked. Smiling, I shook my head.
“It’s
okay,” I told her. “I’ll be fine.”
Pushing the door open, I closed my eyes. Taking in a
breath I smiled as the noise from the party grew distant. “You leaving
already?” asked a voice. Opening my eyes I spun my head around. My stomach
fluttered. It was Adam.
“Err,
I…” I stuttered.
“No
worries,” he said with a smile, as he shoved his phone in his pocket. “It’s not
my sort of thing either. I only showed my face, ‘cause the guys asked me to.”
“Same,”
I smiled with a shrug.
“You
need a lift home?”
I
shook my head. “I’m okay. Really, I’m fine.”
“You
look nice by the way,” he added as I turned to leave. Arching my head over my
shoulder I smiled at him as I felt myself blush.
- Josie -
