Chapter 5: Party

It's finally party time! Emmie gets busy prepping her house, nervous that all the cool folks Sofia's inviting are going to see where she lives...

A working toilet is important, yes.

Let's also de-grime the shower. Nothin' invites more judgment than a disgusting bathing situation...

Emmie even manages to replace the grill that was stolen, as well as purchase some secondhand dining furniture and a small radio.

Please work, please work, please work. She doesn't have any CDs, but hopefully the ancient thing can get a few decent channels.

Yes! Ooh, it's this song! You know, that one. The song of the summer. It's everywhere! I love this song. Emmie gets distracted dancing for a bit until the doorbell rings.

DeAndre Wolf is standing on her porch, holding a parasol.

"Someone order a keg?" If he recognizes Emmie at all, he doesn't say anything.

"Um, yeah. You can just put it - anywhere - or actually, um - out back - follow me - "

Stop. Stuttering, she commands herself. She directs DeAndre to set up the keg on the back porch.

Let's see, how does this thing work... Inside, DeAndre has begun tuning up his guitar, and Emmie is too nervous to ask him how to use a keg.

Oh wait, got it. As Sofia promised, guests start trickling in. Emmie turns on the radio to let them know to come out back.

Justin shows up with an extra-cheesy pizza. Sofia is here too, with a strange man in a white suit who apparently insists on being let in formally at the door.

"Ummmmm," Emmie hesitates too long when greeting the man, trying to spot signs of dishonesty.  He introduces himself as Lord Al B. Trickle, but "call me Lord Al," he says pompously.

"Okay..." Emmie says. "I'm Emmie. You can call me Emmie. Where did you say you were from again?"

Lord Al just smiles. "I thought you said it would be a small gathering," he says to Sofia through the smile, barely concealing his discomfort.

"It's not that many people, honey," Sofia simpers, all traces of her usual aloof attitude gone. "Don't worry, I'll do the talking for you."

She looks at Emmie, her expression difficult to read due to the sunglasses. "He's shy," she says.

Emmie just shrugs, still studying Lord Al with narrowed eyes. She tries to think if she's seen him before - but no, she would have remembered someone dressed like that...

The party rages on. Thanks to Sofia, Emmie meets tons of new people. Wei Keane introduces himself; Emmie learns he's Justin's roommate.























She finds Sofia later in the afternoon to thank her.

"I never would have been able to put this together! This is the greatest party ever, thank you."

 Sofia whoops an uncharacteristic cheer. "Right on!" she cries. She looks happy and relaxed; Emmie begins to wonder if Lord Al is rather good for her after all.

Awkward dancing.

Who knew this many people could even fit on her deck?

After getting a juice refill, Emmie finds herself face-to-face with Lord Al. He's stayed on the sidelines for most of the party, rarely speaking except with Sofia. Emmie, drunk and feeling pretty good about life, is beginning to wonder if he is just shy. As a socially awkward sim, she can understand having trouble connecting with others.

Of course, as soon as she has this thought he starts flirting with her.

"I must say you're intriguing, miss Emmie," he says, his voice slippery smooth. "For some reason I find you... irresistible. What do you say you and I find a way to slip away for a bit?"

Emmie smiles politely and excuses herself, but inside she shudders. What a slime! Sofia has barely turned her back and already he's hitting on the host. And his breath - disgusting. The music is too loud for Sofia to hear, but Emmie resolves to tell her everything as soon as she can.

Lord Al thankfully doesn't notice Emmie's anger, so she tries to shake it off for now.

Or drink it off...

Or dance it off. "This is an awesome party, Emmie. We're like the cool kids now!"

Emmie laughs. "You're so right. Next we'll get mysterious million-dollar inheritances and move to enormous mansions like real-life royalty."

Dancing turns to flirting as the last of the lingering guests leave.

Things... escalate.

Emmie feels good. In bed with a boy she likes, for the first time in her life feeling like more than backwoods swamp trash. But she's also nervous. What do I say? Does he expect me to invite him to stay? Or should I play it cool? 

Thankfully, they both fall asleep before she has to say much.

The next morning, Justin is gone and Emmie is extremely hungover.

She just misses the toilet, but luckily there's not too much mess... Emmie dry heaves for a bit and washes up. It's good that Justin isn't here, probably. She feels way too sick to deal with the awkwardness of waking up in bed with someone she works with.

Cold pizza and smelly dishes probably aren't doing her stomach any favors, but Emmie is too hungry to cook.

After a shower and several glasses of water, Emmie doesn't feel much better. She seems to be coming down with a cold, but the house feels too empty after yesterday's activities and the thought of staying in bed alone depresses her.

Boredom drives her to tinker with the ancient washing machine. She's handy, so it should be fine, right?

Uh-oh, it's busted even worse than before. Before she can lose her voice cursing at it, someone knocks on the door.

The man is here to pick up the keg. "Hey, you look handy. Would you mind looking at my washer for me?"

The guy charges her $50, but it's worth sparing her the headache. Her head is already pounding, her throat itchy, her nose runny, and she knows she should stay home and rest but she's just so sick of being alone in that tiny house.

She considers calling Justin, but thinks better of it and just takes off. It's like her dad used to say: sometimes what a man needs is a good long wander.

---

I have never seen that maintenance truck before. Hmm. I guess my sims are usually fixer-uppers.

In-game, Sofia Carlton was studying her reflection in the bathroom the whole time Emmie and Justin were woohooing. I'm sure she would have got an earful if she'd been able to tear herself away from her reflection, lol. I couldn't get her to leave for most of the night. Also, Justin did spend the night, but he spent it dancing and flirting on the porch with Jenni Jones-Brown, who happens to be his other romantic interest. Which is... interesting, because I'm pretty sure she was already engaged to Goodwin Goode at the time. ~~drama~~

So yeah, SP has been having a field day with relationships already, lol. I might have to edit some settings because it annoyed me irrationally that Sofia married Juan Darer and moved herself and her cat into his tiny bachelor pad. Like, that doesn't even make sense! Grr. I moved them back into her mansion but didn't bother breaking them up, because Juan will probably die soon... Still, there must be a setting to prevent her moving out from that house.