As soon as we got to the penthouse, I went straight to the shower, letting the warm water wash over me as though it could somehow erase the lingering strangeness of the day. It wasn’t just the fact that I had gone to a party—my first real party outside of family gatherings—but that I had walked into a world I’d only ever seen in movies or overheard in passing conversations.
The music had been deafening, the lights almost disorienting, and though I hadn’t touched a single drop of alcohol, I felt intoxicated by the sheer energy of it all. Every movement, every glance, every word exchanged at that party had felt charged, as if I were caught in a current I didn’t know how to navigate. I couldn’t believe I had even gone, much less stayed, but somehow, there I was, standing in a room full of pe
