Brandon started looking perplexed, and his eyes were jumping from one person to the next as if he was taking a head count.
We had been sitting in my apartment drinking and playing cards as we often did on weekends.
“Wtf weren’t there six of us?” Brandon said “There’s always five of us here. How does it make seven?”
“I mean, what makes you think there were six if there’s obviously seven?” I said.
“Sasha told me to get beer for six of us, Ginnie ordered pizza for six.”
“How do you order pizza for six? You don’t like pick up the phone and ask for pizza for six” Sasha said.
“No, she said are 3 pizzas enough for the six of us?”
“Brandon you’re high, man.” Marcus said, smiling from his eyes.
“No man, I’m serious.” He jumped to his feet and starting pointing and counting like the cranky teacher on the bus after a field trip.
Brandon could be a bit obsessive.
“Me. Ginnie. Brian. Sasha. Marcus. Sam.”
“Vicky” Sasha said, not looking up from her cards. “Vicky’s out on the patio.”
“How do we know Vicky again?” He asked, looking tense.
“Uhhh” Sasha started, scanning the room. “Brian brought her right?”
“The hell I did!” he said defensively, checking for Ginnie’s reaction.
Everyone knew they were messing around bur Brian still liked to act like it was some mystical secret.
Sasha rolled her eyes and kept playing spades with Marcus and Ginnie.
“Ginnie. You were talking with her for like an hour..” Brian said.
“Yeah, but I don’t know her.”
I also didn’t know who brought Vicky, but I hadn’t thought about it until Brandon made a big deal of it. It was my house after all and I started to get curious.
It wasn’t Brandon, Sasha, Brian, or Ginnie. Marcus was pretty zoned out and maybe that’s why he didn’t speak up about bringing her.
“Marc” I said softly and nudged my friend. “You brought Vicky then, right? How do you know her?”
Marcus looked up at me confused and laughed. “Nah, man. I didn’t bring anyone here. I thought she was your neighbor or some shit”.
“What the fuck, guys?” I started to feel pretty startled. “Guys. Pay attention. Who brought the girl?”
All four of my friends looked up at me with tired looking sincerity on their faces. Some shrugged, some shook their heads.
“Is this a joke?”
Brandon shook his head and walked into the kitchen, irritated that we had just now caught on to his concern.
“And she’s still out on the patio, dude. It’s like 30 degrees out there. Someone gonna talk to her?” Ginnie said, visibly shaken.
“Lock the door and call the cops bro. You don’t know who she is or what she’s capable of.” Brandon shouted from the kitchen.
“Not a good idea. There’s enough weed in here to get us all locked up. This isn’t an emergency, man. Kick her the fuck out.” Marcus said.
There was a roaring silence like I’ve never heard in my living room as all of my closest friends looked dead at me.
“It’s your house, Sam.”
“No shit, it’s my house, Sasha.” I said mockingly, slapping my knees and jumping up.
I’ll admit I was shaking as I approached the patio door. I scanned the patio from behind the glass door and didn’t see the woman. I assumed she had taken a seat in the lawn chair off in the far corner. I slid the door open and was hit by the bitter cold we had all been sheltered from all evening. “Vicky.” I started, walking towards the far end of my patio.
She was gone. Nobody was there. “How-“ I was interrupt by a rustling sound. A piece of loose leaf paper was stuck under one leg of my single lawn chair. Mentally, I had no clue what to make of the situation but there was a visceral reaction coming up from my heart to my throat.
“Thank you for your company tonight. I couldn’t bring myself to do it alone.”