Independence Day: Part One

I had a Fourth of July barbecue and while it was pretty uneventful, I felt like it was a good send off. Scott and Darlene came over early to help clean up my backyard, arrange the food, and put out tables so we could play drinking games.

"Scott, you better still hang out with us while Caroline's away," Darlene said as she poured potato chips into a big red bowl I found in my garage.

Scott laughed. "Oh, yeah. We'll hang out all the time."

I knew Darlene was joking but it was an awkward thing to say, so I began involuntarily turning red. A minute later, Darlene walked into the garage to put some ice and beer in a cooler. I walked over to Scott and gave him a long, lingering kiss.

"What's that for?" Scott asked with a half smile, leaving his hands on my waist.

"Just because," I replied. "Thanks for coming today and helping me set up. You sure you don't wanna invite any of your friends?"

"Nah," Scott said with a wave of his hands. "I don't want the task of entertaining them. That'll take my attention away from you." He lightly kissed my nose before asking if I wanted a drink.

"Sure," I said with a shrug. "The white sangria, please."

Scott nodded and walked towards the table. I continued cleaning up a few more things in my backyard before checking my phone. Everyone was arriving soon and I had two text messages. One was from Anna that said she was on her way with Jessica and asked if I needed anything. The second was from Moose, saying he was on his way with cups and ping pong balls.

I told Anna that I didn't need anything and told Moose to tell Beth that I made white sangria, since I knew she liked it. He responded right away.

"Beth's not coming."

Okay, awkward. I put my phone back in the pocket of my old checkered shorts and was greeted by Scott and my drink.

Everyone began arriving and other than a quick period of light rain, it was a beautiful day on Long Island. I'd miss nice days like this, but definitely not the snow we were bound to get come the winter months.

After some casual games of beer pong and lots of eating, Moose proposed that we play slap cup. This is honestly one of my favorite drinking games and if you haven't played it, I highly recommend getting a group of your loudest friends together for a few rounds.

I was a little curious why Moose didn't bring Beth and due to his obvious social awkwardness, he didn't volunteer the information. I didn't know if they broke up or if she just had other plans. I would've asked one of my other guy friends, because I'm nosy, but I didn't feel like filling my last fun filled day with Moose drama.

So we all collected ourselves around a long table with cups set up on it. Scott isn't usually clingy at events with my friends. It's one thing I love about him. He can start a conversation with just about anybody and I don't have to make sure he's having a good time. This day was a little different and I felt it, too. I didn't want to leave his side. So, of course, we went right next to each other.

"Nope," Moose said as he pointed at the two of us. I scrunched my face up and gave him an annoyed look.

"What?" I aggressively asked.

"Couples can't stand next to each other. It ruins the game."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Whatever," I replied. "My house, my party, my rules."

Moose started huffing at me and I could see how angry he was. I'm all for fairness in games, but Moose goes way too far with it. The guys stopped inviting him to play basketball on the weekends for a while because he would jump down everyone's throats for what he deemed a foul.

"Babe, it's not a big deal," Scott replied as he placed his hand on my lower back. Then he leaned down and whispered to me. "I'll move across from you so I can watch you."

"Okay," I pouted. His words put me at ease but I was still pissed at Moose. Just because he's miserable doesn't mean he has to ruin everyone else's time.

If I was mad at Moose then, I was ready to murder him by the time the game was under way. There's a particular way to target in on a specific person in slap cup if you get your ball in the cup on your first attempt. This is what makes the game so fun, but it can also be dangerous. Due to this, I ended up having to chug three or four cups before I even got a chance to shoot my ball. Moose was heavily involved in this.

I felt like I was about to puke when Scott had the ball. Everyone was cheering for him to get it in so I'd have to drink again when I made eye contact with him. He winked at me and purposely missed his cup. Then he continued going very slow so I would make my cup before he made his. I was grateful and shot a smile his way.

"This is ridiculous," I heard Moose say.

Without even looking in his direction, I told him to shut up. He is such a child. And it was my going away party!

Anyway, because of that, Scott ended up being targeted next. It was all in good fun, but I felt really bad when he had to continuously drink more than I even did. Of course, Moose had to add his two cents.

"That's what happens when you try to protect your girlfriend," he laughed.

Scott luckily didn't puke, but I was so angry at Moose and decided to tell him so.