So this was all pretty cool, Cassie thought, as she drifted from room to room with a soda in hand. When they'd arrived she'd stuck pretty close to Kate and avoided all offered cocktails (lesson learned, she was staying away from alcohol this time around), but was totally gorging herself on h'ors d'oeuvres. Once Kate was pulled up for a performance, though, she melted back in the crowd to watch and then went wandering. She'd catch up with Kate later to tell her how awesome she'd played; for now her friend would be at the mercy of the swarms of other guests that Cassie expected would also want to tell Kate how awesome she'd done. Cassie figured in her explorations she'd run into people she knew and that eventually she'd get a chance to say hi to the birthday boy.
In the first room she entered, after a mix up with the bartender- "No, just a Coke, not a rum and Coke"- Cassie secured her drink as a precaution against any more servers who might offer one. She moved from lounge to lounge, looking for any familiar faces. In the karaoke room she tried to slink into a corner, but fell victim to an overzealous group of middle-aged men and women who adopted her into their fold. They chatted with her, dragged her away from the table for dances, and had her cheering along with every off key but passionate performance. After a bleached blonde with a pink drink in her hand finished an emphatic rendition of I Love Rock and Roll, Cassie's lively acquaintances, brooking no argument, demanded that she have a go singing.
One of the women chose the song for her, turning to wag a finger in her face and inform her that if she didn't know this one it was a travesty. The lady began a rant about today's music that Cassie couldn't hear over the opening riff of a Fleetwood Mac song. She silently thanked her mom, a whole universe away, for the Stevie Nicks obsession that meant her daughter was not standing here now, dumb and confused, with a mic in her hand. And so, with the encouragement of a group of drunk forty-somethings, she sang, "Loving you isn't the right thing to do..." When the song was over she put down the microphone, red faced but grinning, and returned to her table and its rowdy tenants.