An Uneasy Social

The party grows brighter and livelier as everyone is dressed to their absolute best. A live band plays to the crowd, performing a spirited tune that is keeping the atmosphere buzzing with joy. The crowd busy as they all chat, joke and gossip between each other, a fancy social like any other.

A young-lady watches the crowd as she finishes the last of the champagne from her glass. Wearing a billowy flower-patterned dress, her mousy brown hair tied back in a clean classic little bun. Smiling, as she enjoys the party around her, making small talk and looking polite.

A waiter goes towards her and motions to the tray they carry with empty glasses. She smiles and puts down her glass, but just as the waiter leaves another appears. Their tray filled with drinks and like clockwork, immediately hand her a new glass of champagne. She didn't have the time to say that she was fine and give it back before they left. At least the drinks were free, along with an open bar and numerous tables filled with all kinds of fancy snacks. So thankfully she won’t have to worry about robbing a bank to pay her share.

She wanders across the party, trying to find her companions across the extravagant crowds of people. She manages to find one of them, discussing matters with an older individual dressed in a rather formal tuxedo. Their friend, is a beautiful woman dressed in a professional grey suit, their skin a dark umber tan. Their black hair put in a curled plait, sprinkled with glittery golden dust, as if her hair was the galaxy itself. She holds a whiskey glass as she sips an amber liquid and listens to this older gentleman.

“This is an excellent opportunity for a lady such as yourself, Flavia…” says the older fellow, until Flavia put’s her hand up to stop him.

“Please call me Ms Maricruz, if you won’t mind. We haven’t reached that stage of our… partnership, for you to be calling me by my name.” retorts Flavia as she sips at her drink once more.

She sees her friend and smirks to her.

“Well if you’ll excuse me. I must enjoy the night with my lovely friend, Agata. Have a lovely time.” Flavia waltzes away as she takes Agata’s arm, as the two walk away from the gentlemen.

Agata smiles and gives a cheeky look to Flavia.

“Well, my oh my Ms Maricruz, show so mercy would you please!” giggles Agata as the two walk away from the older man who looks rather astonished.

“Just someone who thinks they know better of the work that I’ve been doing,” says Flavia.

“Well for now, how you enjoying everything?” Flavia asks as she looks to Agata, her eyes a bright hazel brown.

“Just being polite and everything, you?” Agata asks with a smile.

“Just business for me, Drucilla is probably schmoozing and looking pretty to whoever here. Alejandro, is probably around here somewhere.” Flavia looks around and across the flocks of people for their friend.

“It was quite sweet inviting us with him, as his plus ones to this.” Agata motions to the whole party, eyes wide as she looks to the extravagant party around them.

“He said it's a fancy family social, honestly didn't expect this." Flavia motions to the whole room, she continues "A bit weird thought that this is just a family reunion in disguise,” Flavia ponders on the extravagance for such an event.

“Quite a family he’s got I must say,” Agata whistles in surprise as she sips at her drink.

“Oddly in most events like this, he's being his loud, cocky and confident self. Kind of hard to not notice him. But this party has been quiet throughout, not even an outburst of his bombastic energy,” Flavia scrunches her brow thinking as she takes a long sip from her glass.

“Well, perhaps he’s just behaving very appropriately at this event. It is a family social? Maybe acting on best behaviours with his family here. True it is quite odd, but at least it’s a nice change of pace.” Flavia just shrugs, accepting this little conclusion of hers.

"I believe so, I'll go see if I can find him. Maybe get him a plate of snacks as thanks for bringing us along," smiles Agata as she's up that task of finding their friend.

“If you see him, tell him I’m having a ball so far!” Flavia winks.

"I'll make sure to tell him, that the lovely Ms Maricruz, is having an amazing time!" Agata gives mock courtesy and giggles.

The two depart ways as they each disappear into the crowd. Agata walks around some more trying to find Alejandro, she huffs in frustration and heads towards the table filled with snacks. That one is much harder to miss. She grabs a sweet fancy little cookie from a plate and eats it. Warm and chewy, the chocolate smooth and rich, truly they spared no expenses at this party for the dining.

She turns around and looks over this sea of people, till she finally sees him. She brightens up, grabs a small plate and picks several snacks from the table. A mix of all types from savoury and sweet, baked and fried, to fruity and crispy. With her little plate of treats, she heads to him and crosses through the moving crowd to them. Till she finally arrives at Alejandro's side, before she could cheerfully say hello, she finds him close by with very similar looking people to him.

Alejandro is a tall fit figure, with smoky and wavy black hair. His skin a shining bronze tan, and eyes of a golden bright brown. Dressed casually in a tux, a black shirt with golden buttons, his coat and pants in a crimson colour. A colourful tattoo on his chest peaks out from his outfit. The illustration is the head of a black jaguar with a crown of red and gold flowers.

Agata sees him look stiff around these individuals, firm and unmoving, compared to the rest they look relaxed and at ease. He holds a large glass of a bubbly dark soda with lots of ice and two slices of lemon. Alejandro holds this glass tightly with the both of his hand, as if holding on to it with dear life.

Agata sees around four other individuals with Alejandro, speaking and smiling. While he remains tight-lipped and quiet. The individuals are three men and a woman, with the same bronze skin and golden eyes. Dressed in elegant outfits, the three men are wearing different coloured suits and the young woman, in a beautiful backless dress.

One of the men, a bald figure dressed in a pitch black suit, an orange marigold shirt with bright red buttons. He laughs showing a shark’s grin as he holds a crystal glass filled with an amber liquid and a large cube of ice in it.

“So I stared down at this fucker in court, he seemed absolutely calm and collected on the stand. But the moment I popped the question, I never saw such composure drop faster as he began to sweat bullets!” the bald man laughs heartily as he tells this story.

Alejandro gives too big of a smile and tries to laugh along.

“Well, that must of been quite a case you had, Manolo. You really showed that guy, who’s who!” he tries to remark with his confidence, as he covers with his awkward tone.

Manolo takes a breath to recover and then looks to Alejandro with a smirk.

“Well it was just a simple criminal case to me, but I did manage to crack through a very important corruption ring with it. Might have been on the news I think?” he sniggers as he takes a sip of his drink.

“Well, I’ve been on and on, about me throwing scum under the hammer of the law. Ambrosio, you must have done a few things of interest?” asks Manolo towards another.

Ambrosio, a broad individual short, but quite muscular. His dark hair cut short in a crew-cut style. His suit an icy blue, with a striped white and black buttoned shirt. Agata feels cold around this man, she shivers just being close to him.

“Nothing quite much, travelling a bit, a couple of new contracts for work in places. Russia, a few of the Scandinavian countries, haven’t decided where to go just yet.” He shrugs, his hands in his pockets, looking quite uninterested at everything around him.

“Honestly Ambro, you need to find somewhere a lot warmer than those. Surely Cuba, South Africa or even Iran could be good,” mentions the beautiful woman.

“Yeah Marisela’s got a point, you need to find something far warmer than the places you’ve been going. You might just go pale up there!” chimes Alejandro, still with that too broad of a smile.

Ambrosio looks to him coldly, ponders on it and nods.

“Iran would be a good place to change things up. Very excellent mountains for skiing I might add.” Ambrosio agrees as he thinks on it.

Alejandro gulps nervously and takes a swig from his drink.

Marisela sighs and smiles, as she takes a sip from her drink. A shapely woman, in a form-fitting black dress, with a stunningly multilayered necklace with gold, red and jade. Her long curly hair a deep black brunette shines under the party lights.

Marisela looks to her siblings, enjoying this little social they are having. She looks around them sipping her drink and notices Agata standing by Alejandro. She gives to her a very polite smile as she steps closer towards them.

“Well hi there! Who must you be darling?” greets Marisela towards Agata.

“Oh! I’m Agata, a friend of Alejandro, he invited two friends and me to this lovely party here,” says Agata, blushing at the beautiful Marisela.

“Really?” says the third stranger who gives a look up and down towards Agata and turns to Alejandro.

Agata looks to the third gentleman, dressed in a beautiful coloured suit. The colours of it mixed with a ruby red and emerald green, with swirling patterns in a bright yellow. His black hair combed back in a pompadour with a finely groomed full beard.

“This is Agata, Colorado. Thought it would be nice to bring some friends, along.” Alejandro sheepishly replies to Colorado, the third gentleman of this little group.

"We are honoured to see that our brother, Alejandro, has brought some friends with him. Always sulking in event like this, not socialising at all. Thankfully seeing you Agata, is good to know that he at least can be friendly enough to make friends." comments Colorado as he grins and laughs, giving Alejandro a pat on the back.

Agata sees Alejandro look down to his drink embarrassed at the comment his sibling made.

“Well ain’t that cute! Good to see you being friendly and social now.” Marisela smiles giving Alejandro a look.

“Brother, you’ve been so quiet with us being such a great listener with all of us.” Colorado turns to Alejandro who gives a closed lip smile to him. “Tell us what you’ve been up to here?”

“Just keeping busy, ya know, doing what I can with work and so on. Applying for businesses, just lots of stuff ya know? Kind of like setting up connections with what I can.” Alejandro tries to be cohesive but waffles through his words as these four siblings look to him.

Agata sees that his siblings look to him expectantly. Examining him critically, like a jungle cat studying its small fearful prey. They watch him go and on, just going in circles as he squirms under their gaze.

“That’s all well and good, Alejandro, but surely grandmother didn’t just send ya across the world to be doing nothing. Besides with all this time you must have been doing some impressive things. Always filled with such confidence and charm, can’t be possible that you’ve been hitting a wall over and over.” Marisela interjects sharply into Alejandro’s rambling with a biting tone.

“Truly Alejandro, you’ve got such talents and grandmother would hate all the effort she’s put in for you to just go to waste, don’t you think?” Manolo chimes in towards Paolo.

“Agata was it?” Colorado looks to Agata, with a grin, “You’ve been friends with Alejandro quite a while here, tell us of how’s been doing. A second opinion would be good to judge our brother here fairly.”

“We hate to be disappointed with what he’s been up to so far.” Ambrosio remarks as he leers at Alejandro, who for such a tall man looks to have just shrunk down from the looks and comments.

“Well, Alejandro’s been…” She looks to him, and for all the time she knows, she’s never seen him in such distress.

Alejandro, always boastful, confident and fearless young man. Always smiling and in such a cheerful mood. His personality loud, rambunctious, playful and cheerful. Yet here he is now, rigid as stone, his eyes wide in fright. His relaxed smile, now withdrawn as if worried another word would be his last. His hands look to tremble slightly as he holds his drink. Agata feels forced on the spot by his judgemental siblings, waiting for the right to pounce and rip whatever walls that Alejandro is keeping up to remain stable.

“Alejandro’s actually been very active within the city,” Agata claims that causes quite a few surprised looks by the lot of them.

“He’s been working extremely hard from business to business, setting up quite a network himself right here in the city. From managers to owners of all sorts here. Alejandro is being quite humble so he didn’t want over-shadow anyone with his work here. Just busy with meetings, talks and the lot, I honestly don’t know how he can juggle all that so smoothly and be his usual relaxed self. Managing to have time to spend with his friends and be able to have fun for himself.” Agata speaking confidently for the anxious Alejandro, as his siblings listen to Agata’s every word.

“Well, that’s quite impressive Alejandro. Good to see you are doing quite well over here,” remarks Marisela as she takes a sip of her drink. “We need to trade tips sometime soon Alejandro, my little empire might need a bit of fine-tuning.”

“Umm, of course, absolutely sis.” Alejandro stumbles with words but nods in agreement.

“Good to hear you are being busy here, Ale, don’t want to hear any differing news.” Ambrosio scoffs and heads away from the group.

“A pleasure you are doing quite… marvellously Alejandro. I’m going to get myself a refill and see who else of interest in this party.” Manolo takes a big gulp of his drink, nods and walks away.

“Well I’m just going to head out to the terrace, maybe get another drink as well. Got a bit hot for me at the moment.” Alejandro comments as he too takes a much longer sip of his drink as well.

“We don't want to hold you hostage here Ale, so enjoy the party. We hope to see ya around soon!” Colorado gives a big smile, his tone though friendly hides a layer of contempt.

Alejandro nods looks to Agata and walks calmly away. Agata follows with him as he tries to keep his body straight. His chest not rising, as he holds his breath, his pace quickens as the two find the outdoor terrace of the party. Alejandro puts his glass on a table goes towards the ledge and puts his hands to his hips, looking up at the night sky.

Agata looks to her plate of snacks, approaches Alejandro gently and puts her hand to the small of his back.

“You alright buddy?” Agata asks as she softly rubs his back.

His body shakes and trembles, as she hears a sharp gasp for air. Alejandro takes his hands to his faces and rubs on his eyes. Mumbling to himself, he tries to take deep breaths as tears start to break out from his eyes. With every teardrop, he rubs them off with the bottom of his palm.

“Just give me a second, might have caught something in my eye.” Alejandro sniffles, holding back as his voice cracks with anguish.

Agata nods and pats his back, moves a couple of steps away as he takes this moment to recover. After a few moments, she hears a deep sigh come from him as he recuperates. He turns to her with his pretty brown eyes, red from crying, he gives an exhausted smile.

“I got you some snacks from the table, would you like one?” Agata offers warmly to Alejandro.

“I’ll take a few,” he replies as grabs a small handful from Agata’s little plate.

“They seemed nice.” Agata remarks as she looks back to the party behind them.

“Yep, just the best. Let’s not go any further about them, please.” Alejandro retorts as he chews on one of the snacks, as he stares out from the terrace.

“That’s okay, how are you feeling though?” Agata continues as she takes a bite from her snack.

“Like absolute shit, to be honest. Wanted to run away from that, just awful to be honest. I felt small with them, that they just tower over me. To keep up at their speed, to dance at their rhythm. I felt so sick with them from the bottom of my gut. My head aching as I try not to seem like total waste of air and space. I felt my nerves lock me up, my heart pounding like a racehorse and my own lungs restrict with every breath.” Alejandro takes a deep breath, as he tries to keep his composure, his hands shaking terribly.

“My god, I’m just an absolute mess. I haven't gotten the shakes like this for such a while, I manage to drink enough to keep my hand steady. Thought I could hold on for a little longer. That plan didn't turn out well. I obviously drank too much, because that glass was my fifth drink already. The floor started to spin and move, and then I really felt myself panic there. Had to keep it together or else everything goes down!” Alejandro cries out, as he laughs nervously. “Now it's just hitting me hard, because oh God, everything just aches you know.”

“I’m sorry that you had to feel all that Alejandro, especially alone and with them.” Agata soothes Alejandro, “Would you like we all go home?”

Alejandro takes a deep breath, he stuffs the rest of the snacks in his mouth and shakes his head.

“Nah, just needed some air you know. This party is far too good to leave so soon, ya know?”

“How about we all stay for an hour, if the vibes are still the same, we head back, get some take-out and get comfortable at home. Seems reasonable?” Agata offers, giving Alejandro a sweet smile.

Alejandro returns the smile, his cheeks full with a bit of crumb on his cheeks.

“That would be lovely yeah.” Alejandro swallows down the fancy snacks and brushes the crumbs off his cheeks.

“Perfect, let’s check on Drucilla, and embarrass her at front of whatever handsome fella, she’s got her hands around,” says Agata, giving Alejandro a mischievous smirk.

“Seem’s like a good idea.” Alejandro softly replies and nods, betakes another breath, brushes his hair and tidies his outfit up, “So how do I look?”

“Handsome as always, Ale, shall we?” Agata puts her little plate down on a table and motions back to the party.

Alejandro nods give his usual biggest cheerful smiles and heads back into the lively party. Agata follows along, she looks to her friend, happy she did what he could to help him from such a stressful moment. The two head in, ready to dance, joke and talk with the many party-goers of this festivity. The mood no longer tense and uneasy from the social of a critical family, but into an ambience filled euphoria and glee amongst the truest of friends.

#fiction #shortstory #creativity #realism