just one drink and i'll fall down drunk

i met her on the stairs at a house party. i want to say it was in colorado, but i'm having a hard time remembering. it must have been the pills. the whole scene is a little foggy to me now. the stairs were kind of like the brady bunch stairs, but they were less open and much darker. still in the center of the room though. it was pretty late when i first noticed her. i guess i was just kind of standing there looking down over the party, red cup in hand. someone was playing something that sounded like exile-era stones, but i didn't recognize it. she was headed up the stairs but had her head down. she probably had a few drinks in her; everyone else did. "oh," she said as she bumped into me, "i'm really ... sorry." i was drunk enough not to impulsively glance away, and as she brushed her hair out of her face our eyes met for a moment. she smiled, looked down and moved past me. i hadn't even spoken to her, but our smiles and eyes said enough.

i've always had a thing for her sister, but there was something about the way she carried herself that night that made me forget about it. as the party thinned out i knew i wanted to find her before i left. i eventually ran into her leaning against a wall in a dark, lynch-ian hallway downstairs. there was a red glow from the room at the end of the hall in which all the snowboard kids were smoking weed. i don't know why the party was so goddamn dark, but i liked it. perfect for this move i was about to pull.

"hey." i thought she was going to be too drunk to want to deal with me, but she lit up when she recognized me. i think she was serious when she responded with "who are you?" but that's the kind of open-ended softball i'll smash out of the park. "christ. i don't know. who are you?" those kinds of terrible lines always work: they tell you whether the girl wants to joke around and bullshit with you or if she's too literal, humorless, or unimaginative to make it worth your while. frankly, i was surprised when she laughed. i assumed she'd fall into the latter category. i don't even remember what she said, but she got it. we talked for what seemed like a long time. i remember at some point putting my arm on the wall next to her and leaning in, struggling to contain a cheese-grin and really trying to listen to what she was saying. then we were on the sidewalk, arm in arm, outside. there was snow piled up on either side of of the walk. i didn't really know where we were going, but we ended up in some messy 2 bedroom condo with a shit load of clothes all over the place and the sun coming up. it was the kind of late night quiet you only get when you come home from a party with someone else. she disappeared for a minute. i opened a beer but didn't drink it.

i don't know why, but i left before she woke up. i don't think i ever went to sleep. i felt weird. in all honesty, i felt like i was in love.