The Party
It was summer, so most days someone was over at the house. It was so easy for someone to stop by and come swimming with me in the pond, or lounge in the yard reading a book. So even without all the boys around, I never felt alone.
Other times, someone would stop by to say hi to my parents before we headed out into the little town down the road, or went to the tiny cinema, or hung out behind the school. That kind of freedom that comes in those teenage summer days felt bright and warm.
Growing up in a small town meant everyone knew each other. The local school had kids from a bunch of the surrounding towns and villages, but it was still quite small. My group of friends hadn’t changed much from primary years on. Luna, a neighbor of ours from over the hill, pretty much was a staple at the Burrow for as long as Harry was. Then came Demelza, my best friend. We started football together when we were wee tots, and still played on the local team. There was Colin and Dean, and Seamus who was really Ron and Harry’s friend but was also close with Dean, so he usually tagged along. Then Sally and Parvati were around a lot as well and Padma, Parvati’s sister.
One night early in August, we had a bonfire, out in one of the farmer’s fields.
A small crew came over, as they always did, taking advantage of the pond. I laid out in one of the lounges, catching some sun and flipping through magazines when Vati texted me saying Sally and Padma and her were just driving around. I told them to come by and soon we were all lounging on the dock chatting about whatever.
We were talking about Vati’s latest plans for university when Sally spoke up, “hey the boys are wondering what we’re up to? Should I invite them over?”
“Yeah, of course, the more the merrier.”
Fifteen minutes later Harry pulled up in his truck, driving down the farm road by the pond, hanging out the window grinning and honking like a git. Seamus and Dean were standing in the bed of his truck, whooping and yelling until we were all shouting back at them for being so obnoxious.
They hopped out of the truck and crowded onto the dock with us, already in their bathing suits. Seamus shoved onto Sally’s towel while she whacked at him with a magazine. Dean flopped down with Colin on a towel while Harry just sprinted past everyone.
“Hey you knob, where are you going!?” Seamus shouted after him. But Harry just grinned and flipped him off while cannonballing into the water, splashing everyone.
It devolved from there, the boys jumping up and starting a king of the dock war until we were all in the water splashing each other.
Eventually, we’d all calmed down enough and were lounging back on the dock. Harry and I sat on the end of the dock and dragged our feet in the water talking about nothing in particular, when he brought up the idea of a bonfire.
“Ol’ Mr. Garry is fine with us out in the back field as long as we clean up after ourselves,” he offered, “we should get everyone together! Dean, Seamus, and I can go get some beers,” he said, grinning and bumping his shoulder against mine.
“Yeah for sure, that’d be great!” I turned around to ask everyone else how that sounded and they all were excited over the idea.
“Fuck yes!” shouted Seamus, the loudest among us. “We’ll bring the music!”
Vati rolled her eyes and said she’d text Lav and round up the other girls while Colin bounced with excitement in his seat and said he’d bring Dennis and some of their friends, rounding it out to be quite the party.
“Gin, want to come with Dean and I to get beers?” Harry called after me as I walked up to the house to get changed.
I yelled back the affirmative and ran up to change out of my swimsuit. I glanced back when I got to the door and caught Harry looking away quickly. Had he been staring at my ass?? I hid a grin and hurried upstairs.
We bounced down the road into town and I sat squished in the bench seat between Dean and Harry while Seamus and Collin laughed and shouted from the bed. Harry turned the radio on and popped Jamiroquai’s new album into the tape deck. And soon we were all shouting along as the music crackled out of the speakers.
I looked over at Harry, who was nodding his head along with the song, his hair still a bit damp and a full mess with the window down, his arm out the window, and my heart stuttered a bit. He was so damn hot, and he didn’t even realize it. I looked away before he could catch me staring but holly shit was he fit.
We pulled up to the corner shop with a crunch of gravel, Harry, Seamus, and Dean hopping out. I clambered into the back to hang with Collin while we waited. Collin and I became fast friends when he first transferred into the school. He was excitable and exuberant from the get go and as an excitable kid myself, we became fast friends. And then I helped set him up with Dean, which I still claimed credit for, always telling him he’s so welcome I was able to find him a boyfriend when he was hopeless at it himself. He tended to stick his tongue out at me when I brought it up.
We lay down in the bed of the truck and watched the light clouds drift across the sky, pointing out the random shapes we found.
“Oy, catch!” Seamus called as he plonked two thirty racks into the back. Dean whacked him in the back of the head which started a scuffle until Harry shouted he was going to leave without them.
Seamus scrambled in the back with Collin and I and passed each of us a beer and we cracked them open as Harry pulled out of the shop lot.
We drove out of town into the surrounding farmland. It was all rolling hills, small knolls, and rocky fields full of old stone walls and fences. The late evening sun cast the land aglow and the golden fields held onto the warmth of the day. I laughed aloud as the wind whipped through my hair as I stood up in the bed behind the cab, whooping and yelling.
It was moments like those that I felt too big for my body, too big to be possibly contained in anything less than the world in all its entirety.