After Party

The house was a mess. Plastic cups and junk food wrappers strewn everywhere, covered by a thin veneer of confetti, silly string, and paper streamers. There were stains ground into the carpet. The dishwasher was inexplicably missing.

Worst of all, Brad’s parents were due home in a matter of hours.

“What’s the plan?” Dean asked. “Burn the place the rest of the way down? Flee the country? Start calling mortuaries to make your funeral arrangements?”

“Not helpful.”

Dean held up his hands. “Just trying to help.”

“Sorry,” Brad muttered. “I’m just not sure what to do. There’s no way the two of us will be able to clean this all up in two hours.”

At least it was one hell of a party. The class’ other post-Homecoming spot had fallen through and, despite having serious reservations, Brad had volunteered his parents’ place while they were out. In one epic night, he had gone from the fringes of popularity to the inner circle, celebrated by the most popular kids in school.

There wasn’t much else to do but start cleaning and get as far as they could before Brad’s parents got home and he had to beg their forgiveness.

After a few minutes, they heard a car outside.

Were Brad’s parents home early?

Then they heard another car, and another. Peeking out through the curtains, Brad and Dean saw their classmates arrive with cleaning supplies. One guy even had a replacement dishwasher in his pickup.

“We couldn’t let the guy who saved Homecoming go down alone.”

Brad and Dean grinned as the other kids made their way inside and got to work. Maybe they’d get it cleaned or maybe his parents would find some discrepancy that gave it away, but the new friends he’d made were a fair trade-off.


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300 words

Originally written for the "Daily Flash Fiction Challenge"  and "I Write in 2018" .

Prompt: Write a story that includes the line: “What’s the plan?”