Super Dating S2: Chapter 7 – It’s My Party

Parties are meant to be a celebration of something.  It’s usually to commemorate a special moment in our life, whether it be a birthday, a marriage or a retirement.  We want to share these milestones with the important people in our lives.

Parties are a great way for people who otherwise would never connect to become close friends.  That’s what I was hoping would happen with my best friend and my new friend.  I had planned on throwing Dara and her fiance an engagement party.  However with them just moving here and the only people I knew were my ex boyfriends, the guest list was rather small.  I wouldn’t have just invited someone Dara never even met to her engagement party.  So I figured let’s have a girls night out first.  If they clicked my party would go from an intimate dinner to a small gathering.  If they hated each other then at least there would be alcohol at the bar.

Many times parties don’t live up to the grand gatherings we have in our head.  It’s usually by no fault of our own.  Parties have tendencies to be the perfect place for chaos to breed.  I remember when I was 12 my parents threw me a comic book themed birthday party.  It was one of the only birthday parties I remember as a kid.  It could be because it was comic related or because it was a huge disaster. My parents knew very little about the superhero world.  All they knew was that my favorite character was the Green Arrow.  However the Green Arrow has never been the type of character you would find party supplies of at Party City.  Not being able to find Green Arrow my parents found what they figured would be just as good.  To this day I still don’t know how or where they found them.  Instead of getting decorations with my favorite emerald archer on them, I had party full of plates and cups and napkins with the least impressive Avenger, Hawkeye.  For those of you unfamiliar with him Hawkeye, I can’t say I’m not shocked, he is Marvels version of the Green Arrow.  He welds a bow and arrow, like Oliver Queen but for some reason is dressed head to toe in purple.  Yes purple, like Barney purple.  Needless to say I was shocked seeing his face plastered all over our basement, while my friends drank their fruit punch in cups covered with him shooting arrows in the air.  I was devastated.  My parents had ruined my party and at the time my life.  How would I ever explain to my friends that I could never like someone as useless as Hawkeye.  Now that I think of it I doubt many of the kids there even knew the difference between the two heroes (a reason I don’t talk to many people from grammar school).  Of course as I grew older I knew my parents hadn’t known what they did.  They were just trying to give their oddly obsessed tween daughter the party, they thought, of her dreams.  It was actually really sweet how hard they tried.  But that party will go down as one of the most shocking, unnerving parties I had ever been to.  That was until I decided to throw my best friend an engagement party a few weeks ago and my celebrity crush had somehow crashed it.

Do you ever wish to know someone’s secret but then instantly regret it the moment you find it out?  For the past few weeks I had been dying to know who Lilith’s mystery man was.  At first I figured she would tell me, she was just waiting to see how things went with him.  But after weeks went by and still no clues as to who he was I got curious.  At first I thought maybe they had broken up.  But Lilith was the happiest she had ever been and each time we were out her texts went off every two minutes.  Then I started to wonder what was wrong with this guy.  Was he a serial killer?  Did he have a furry fetish?  Was he secretly a Nickelback fan?  What could be so awful about this guy that Lilith didn’t want me to meet him, let alone even know his name.  I mentioned before how a had a ladies night hoping to connect my small circle of friends.  Dara and Lilith hit it off and Dara was more then happy to extend an invite to her engagement party.  I didn’t want Lilith to feel awkward at a party full of couples so of course I told her to bring her guy with her.  This was it I was finally going to find out why she had been hiding her guy for so long.  A guy she had told me was the perfect man.  I finally knew Lilith’s secret and I wanted nothing more then to forget it.  Lilith’s man was perfect.  How funny it was that this man was also my next door neighbor and at one time the man of my dreams.

Having a best friend means you have your own personal superhero.  What makes them a superhero you ask?  Well it would have to be their super powers. A best friend has the power to know when something is wrong and most times knows what that something is without having to ask.  They have the power to make you see things in a positive light when all you can see is the dark clouds ahead.  They have the ability to inflict pain on your mortal enemy with only a look.  Dara was my personal superhero.  She knew the second Chris Evans walked through my door that a bomb had just gone off inside me.  She reminded me of Joseph and how great things had been going with us.  And I knew if I asked her she would have thrown down with Lilith right then and there.  Even though there was no reason for a fight with Lilith.  She had done nothing wrong.  I was the one feeling like a super villain that night.

More often then not my favorite part of a party is the end.  Yes I’ve had fun and yes I’m usually stuffed myself silly and I usually have a nice buzz going.   And yes the company, for the most part was lovely.  But sometimes you’ve just had enough.  You want the quiet parties usually lack.  You want to be able to get out of that dress that was a little too tight before you decided to eat all the Swedish meatballs.  You just want everyone to go home so you can resume you’re normal everyday life.  Many parties in my life have ended this way, quiet, stuffed and alone.  It was my norm for many years.  Even when I was in a relationship most of the times the guy I was seeing left for the after party or wasn’t big on throwing parties in the first place.  I got used to ending the night by myself.  But then came Joseph.  He wasn’t that guy who was interested in the next party.  He wasn’t going to leave me for something better.  Joseph wanted to close out every party and every night for that matter with me.  I had spend most of Dara’s engagement party freaking out that the guy who I didn’t even know besides what I saw on screen was in my apartment that I forgot about the guy who had always been there, even when everyone else goes home.  Maybe it was time to get used to a new norm.  One where the end of the party only meant the beginning of the night with the man I loved.

One thing all parties have in common is there is always a mess to clean up afterwards.  Whether your the type to start clean up once your last guest leaves or if your the type to save it for tomorrow, secretly hoping it will magically disappear when you wake up.  No matter what there will always be a mess waiting for you.  I was the latter type.  I rode the party high all the way to my bed and didn’t want anything, including the smell starting to come from the left out food to bring me down.  What difference did it make if I waited a little bit to face the mess I had made.  Yes those dishes will be tougher to clean since I didn’t let them rinse.  That will be my morning workout, saving me a trip to the gym.  And yes that stain in the carpet had a better chance of coming out had I gotten it out before it set.  Now that I think of it I’d been meaning to get a new rug anyway.  Letting all that food sit out was a waste and had I only took the time to put it away I would have had dinner for a week.  However most of that food wasn’t allowed for the diet I kept telling myself I would start today.  You see sometimes it’s best to not face your problems right away.  Given them time to sit, sometimes is for the best.  Then again putting things off, for instance not introducing yourself to your new neighbor when you first move in, can cause a whole new kind of a mess.

We need to take the time to celebrate the important moments in our lives.  Some are big life changing moments, like a wedding or a birth or finally never having to work again.  But we mustn’t forget to celebrate those small moments too, like finding out you have an extra $100 in your account you weren’t expecting or getting the last Marc Jacobs bag in the big sale.  Or the one I needed to remind myself to appreciate more, waking up to a guy who’s ready to help clean up that mess you had been putting off.

:::SIDENOTE:::

If you’d like to download any of the characters or builds you see in this story I will post the links to them below, along with a great big thank you to the creators!

Erin created by swcheppes

Jospeh Gordon Levitt originally created by Snorkas, downloaded aiqueabsurdo (I’ve given him a bit of a makeover compared to the downloaded version)

Chris Evans created by yddam98