The Story of Us (6 page)

“Okay, yeah. That sounds great.” I
smile brightly.

“Mani-pedis? Dinner?
Movie?”

“How about mani-pedis, dinner, and a
party?” I ask, knowing it’s a long shot. I doubt Hailey will want
to go to a party without Drew.

She presses her lips into a thin line.
“What party?” she asks, skeptically.

“I heard there’s a big party Saturday
night at the Hansore House and I kind of wanted to check it out,
but I didn’t want to go alone.” The Hansore House is a fraternity
house on campus. I’m not even sure if they’ll let us in or if you
need to be specifically invited, but I overheard some people
talking about the party in my history class and I thought it
sounded like fun.

“I wouldn’t want you to go alone
either, Val. That’s not safe at all. You never know what could
happen. I’ll go with you.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. What are friends for?”
she smiles, but doesn’t sound overly thrilled.

Chapter 5

It’s a perfect day. Hailey and I sleep
in until late morning, get ready, and then grab some lunch at the
pizza place before we head out for our mani-pedis. She fills me in
on the new friends she’s met in her Monday/Wednesday classes. I
fill her in on the cheerleading girls and all their drama. I havn’t
gotten particulary close to any of them, other than Ashley and
Julie, yet. But I still hear all of their gossip and bickering. By
the time we get to the restaurant for dinner, it’s already after
eight o’clock and we can’t figure out how the time has slipped past
us. We splurge on an expensive dinner. After dinner, we go back to
the dorm to drop Hailey’s car off and walk over to the Hansore
House.

The whole street is packed with people
before we even get up to the house. How is this party not broken up
yet? It turns out, we don’t need to be invited at all. It seems
like the whole college has an open invitation and I wonder if
there’s anyone who’s not here.

“Did you tell Drew you were coming
here?” I ask Hailey as we walk past people on the porch while
heading into the house.

The music is so loud inside, she has
to yell for me to hear her. “Of course. He said he might show up. I
told him I was here with you though, so if he comes it’ll be to
hang with his friends.”

“You don’t have to
not
hang out with him if
he’s here, Hail,” I yell back.

“I know. But I don’t want to leave you
alone here either.”

“You make it sound like I
need a babysitter.” I huff with frustration. I’m beginning to feel
like a charity case, like she
has
to hang out with me.

“No. I know. But I want to. This is
girl time. Our time.”

I ignore her because she doesn’t sound
very convincing. It sounds forced and I wonder if she’d be having
more fun with Drew. I start to feel guilty for dragging her here at
all. “Do you want to leave?” I ask.

“No. Of course not. We’re here to have
fun, Val. I need this girl time just as much as you do. Now, c’mon,
let’s get some drinks.”

She pulls my arm and I walk behind her
through crowds of people, following her until she comes to a stop.
I look at the keg in front of us and before we can even ask, we’re
each handed a red solo cup full of beer. I’m not much of a beer
drinker, but I take a sip. Before I know it, I’m asking for a
refill. Hailey and I walk out into the crowd and bump into
Tyler.

“Hey,” he greets us, smiling. He looks
genuinely glad to see us and I can feel my mood
lightening.

Before I can even respond, I feel a
bump from behind and I’m jolted forward. Tyler grabs my arms to
steady me and we both laugh at the awkward encounter. I look up at
him and he looks back, staring straight into my eyes. I inhale the
smell of his cologne and savor the moment. When I look over at
Hailey, she raises her eyebrows in suggestion so I turn away
quickly, hoping Tyler didn’t catch her expression too.

“So how are classes going?” he asks
me, releasing my arms.

“Good. Not too hard yet, just really
time-consuming. I have so much homework and I’m exhausted by the
time cheerleading practice is over.”

“I know the feeling. I’m dead after
football and it’s only gonna get worse. Same with the workload.
Maybe we could help each other study?”

“What classes are you in?”

Drew and Craig walk up to us before he
can answer my question. Tyler and Drew greet each other with a fist
bump while Craig only nods his head and then turns to
me.

“Hey princess.”

I can see Tyler scrunch his brows in
confusion over Craig calling me ‘princess.’ I want to do something
to assure him that Craig is nothing to me, but something stops me.
I can’t explain it, but I can just tell that Craig is more sullen
than usual. It was only one statement, one hello. But he doesn’t
have his usual smirk and his voice is flat. I can see the weight of
the world in his eyes. Something’s wrong. So instead of giving him
a hard time, I reach my arms up around his neck and hug him
tightly. I normally wouldn’t do this. Not only because it’s Craig,
but also because I’m not normally so brave. But I think the beer is
taking effect and seriously messing with my better judgment, so I
don’t think it through. Somehow, I just know something’s not right
and that he’s upset. Suddenly nothing else matters. I just want him
to be okay. So I embrace him without trepidation. And he grabs a
hold of me with a need that tells me I’m right, something’s
definitely wrong.

“You okay?” he whispers in my ear,
giving me chills.

I loosen my arms so I can
look at him, but he doesn’t relax his grip right away, so I wait. A
few moments later, I feel his grip loosen and I lift my head up to
look at him. “I’m fine. Are
you
okay?” I counter.

“Right now,” he says, rubbing my arms
and gesturing to our closeness, “I’m more than okay.” But it still
doesn’t sound right. There’s no pep in his voice. No usual smirk.
He’s so serious. With any other guy, the sincerity would be
romantic. But, with Craig, it feels almost sad. It’s just not like
him at all.

I lose myself in the feel of him for a
moment. He looks down at me with sleepy bedroom eyes and I have a
fleeting urge to kiss him. But before I allow myself to really
think about it, I’m suddenly very aware of our closeness and I
begin to realize how bad this must look to anyone else watching. I
pull back, away from Craig’s grasp, and look around hastily.
Tyler’s talking to Drew, but he keeps looking up from their
conversation. I can tell he’s trying to figure out what that was
and I can’t blame him. I’m still trying to figure it out
too.

“Princess, c’mon…” Craig urges,
lightly latching his hand in mine and gesturing for me to follow
him.

I quickly pull my hand away. “I’m
actually gonna get another refill,” I tell him as I walk away. I
make my way past a small group of people and head over to the keg
about fifteen feet away. When I get to the keg, I finally allow
myself to look back. Craig is still standing there, just looking at
me, while everyone talks and dances around him. I can feel his eyes
burning into me, so I turn back to the keg and hold out my cup. I
need to focus on something other than how sad he looks. This
serious side of Craig Morgan is just temporary. If I allow myself
to be with him tonight, whatever’s bothering him right now would be
gone tomorrow and he’d be back to his normal self, trying to pick
up every other girl he can.

“What was that?” Hailey says, scaring
me half-to-death. I didn’t even realize she followed me over to the
keg.

“What was what?” I ask,
playing stupid. I know exactly what she’s talking about, but I
don’t want to admit it because I’m not entirely sure what
that
was myself. I take
my newly-filled cup and walk through the crowd, not waiting for
Hailey to re-fill hers.

Why didn’t I just keep talking to
Tyler? I was in a great mood ten minutes ago, before I saw Craig.
Now, I’m in a sour mood and I’m not even sure why. I can’t even
blame Craig because that was all me. I reached out to him. In front
of everyone. And now Tyler probably thinks there’s something going
on there when there isn’t. Craig isn’t serious about anyone, never
mind me. I just thought I saw a vulnerability in him and it caught
me by surprise. But that’s not who he is. I might have even
imagined it. I probably wanted to see something in him that just
simply isn’t there. And just as I’m thinking that, I catch sight of
him again. But he’s not looking at me anymore. He’s with that girl
who works at the Grind, Tiffany. The same girl he admittedly hooked
up with before. They’re tangled in each other’s’ arms and it’s like
a car wreck; I want to look away but I can’t. So I watch as his
lips graze hers and then they’re making out. I know I don’t want to
be with a guy like Craig Morgan, so I can’t explain why it feels
like someone just punched me in the stomach. I feel physical pain
coursing through my body. Why am I letting him affect me like
this?

I walk with purpose, keeping my
distance from everyone I know. I walk from one room to another,
until I’m standing outside on the porch of the Hansore House. I
feel the sting of the cold air, unusual for early September, so I
wrap my arms around myself as I look around. I’m only wearing a
tank-top with a sheer black shirt over it. At least I opted for
jeans and heels instead of the skirt I was originally going to wear
tonight. I can feel the goosebumps on my arms as I rub them, trying
to create warmth.

I’m not sure what I’m
going to do now. I know I don’t want to go back in there. But can I
just leave? I came with Hailey, so I’d feel bad taking off without
her. Although, she does have Drew. But still, all that lecturing
her about me being worried while she’s out late will be completely
hypocritical if I take off right now without even telling her. The
people standing out on the porch start to eye me curiously, since
I’m not just passing through like everyone else outside of their
group. I see a tall guy approaching and I can tell by his
blurriness that I have quite the buzz on. Undoubtedly why I reached
out to Craig without thinking through the
consequences
. God, why did I do
that?

“Hey. I’m Mark,” the tall, blurry guy
says.

“Val,” I state blandly.

“You look a little lost. We’re all
getting ready to play a game on this side of the house,” he
gestures toward the far left end, “if you wanna come join
us?”

I think about it for a minute. It kind
of sounds like a trap. I should be suspicious of his intentions,
but right now I just can’t seem to care. All I care about is not
going back in that front door and since I can’t exactly leave, I
follow Mark over to the other side of the house.

He opens a door and we’re in some type
of a sunroom. It’s chilly in here, but not nearly as cold as it was
outside. And to my pleasant surprise, it’s not a trap. There’s a
bunch of people sitting around, circle style.

“Guys, this is Val. She wants to play
too.”

Oh yeah. He said they were playing a
game. I was so intent on getting away that I forgot about what else
I might be getting myself into. I figure it’s kind of late now, so
I sit down with everyone else.

“For the rookies who’ve
never played, the rules are simple. Some of you may have played
‘Never Have I Ever’ before. This is a little different. One person
will tell a ‘Don’t Judge Me, But…’ where you list something
peculiar or embarrassing that you’ve done before. If someone’s done
it, they drink. If no one drinks, that means you’re weird as hell
so
you
drink. On
to the next person. Got it? Everyone have a drink in hand? I’ll
start. Don’t judge me but… I’ve slept with two girls in the same
night.”

Almost every guy around the circle
drinks. I can’t help it. I laugh out loud. I just can’t refrain
from speaking my mind right now. “Bullshit,” I retort, albeit
somewhat under my breath.

I can tell Mark hears me, so it
doesn’t surprise me when he speaks up, “Okay, Val’s turn,” he
announces with a smirk.

Shit. What the hell am I going to say?
I stare blankly for a moment, thinking. Finally, I say, “Don’t
judge me but… I’ve only gone to private school my whole life until
now.”

Everyone eyes me suspiciously, like
this is an absurd concept to them. No one drinks.

“Drink up, Val,” Mark instructs
me.

I tip my drink back while everyone
watches.

“Katie, you’re up,” Mark says to the
girl beside me. Even sitting down I can tell she’s tall and I
realize I must look ridiculous sitting beside her, like a small
child in comparison.

“Don’t judge me, but… I can tie a
cherry stem with my tongue.” She sits up straighter, pushing her
breasts out further, flirting dramatically.

All the guys hoot and holler and then
watch intently to see who else, if anyone, will drink. I debate
lying and not taking a drink, and ordinarily that’s exactly what
I’d do because admitting that I can do that, and that I know I can
do that because I’ve tried, is a little embarrassing. But I’m
feeling the buzz of the alcohol, so I own up to it and drink. When
I do, the commotion gets louder. The guys around the circle go
crazy and I hear a mix of reactions- some teasing, “oooo naughty
private school girl,” comments, and some much harsher “what a
slut!” comments. I’m pretty sure that one came from the girl
sitting next to Mark, who I can only assume is his girlfriend by
the way his hand keeps traveling up her leg, stopping on her upper
thigh. I just brush it off so they’ll move onto the next person.
And they do. Before I know it, they’ve gone around the whole
circle, right back to me. I don’t even remember what I’ve taken
drinks for. Although, I know I’ve been consistently drinking. Have
I even been playing the game or am I just drinking to drink now?
Everyone looks at me expectantly, so I think about what I can admit
to. Something out of the ordinary.