Disclaimer: The following story contains activity that would be considered of homosexual nature between consenting college students. While none of it crosses into a gratuitous nature, if such material is offensive to you or you are not of the legal age to read such material in your area, please do not. Other than that, please enjoy the story!
The Living Years
Chapter 4 "Unordinary Circumstances"
He was here.
That was all Trey could think about. The fact that Noah was actually here. At the school. Close by. In Statham Hall.
Here.
That itself probably wouldn't have been such a bad thing, considering they had got along really well during summer orientation. Of course, it actually was a bad thing because before summer orientation was even over, the two of them had shared a kiss he hadn't really seen coming.
Thinking back on it now, Trey wasn't sure who'd initiated the kiss in the first place. He wasn't even sure what was running through his mind at the time it happened. All he knew was that the two of them kissed and now things were awkward because they knew they were both here.
His plan of action was simple: he was going to do his best to avoid Noah at all costs. He had to. Otherwise he'd probably start thinking whatever he was thinking when they kissed the first time and there was no way he could let it happen again. Because he just couldn't be gay.
It was one thing to be gay, but to be black and to be gay was worse. He didn't even want to think about it because he knew that he wasn't gay and that was the end of it.
Too bad Shawn probably felt differently.
Trey had been less than comfortable sharing space with Shawn the past few days. It was probably because they were completely different people, as he definitely knew for sure now.
Trey hung all of his clothes in his side of the two conjoined closets up on hangers. He folded everything else neatly and put them in the drawers. He always made up his bed when he got up, had all of his books neatly arranged on his side of the shelf, and his shoes neatly lined up under his bed.
He wasn't exactly a neat freak. In fact, he wasn't sure why he was so neat when it came to his dorm room. When he was at home, he usually had to be told to pick up his things, even though he knew better than to make a mess in the first place.
And here, it was different.
Here, Shawn was obviously different, in every possible way.
Shawn took off his clothes and threw them in a pile next to his bed, which had yet to be made up. His cabinets and closet doors were always wide open and his side of the large desk in the upper middle of the room was all in disarray. The only thing that wasn't out of order on his desk was his 2,500 dollar Apple G5 computer that his parents had gotten him for his 18th birthday.
Other than that, he was a complete slob which just further showed how different the two of them were.
Trey wasn't even quite sure how to start conversations with Shawn just because it seemed like he was annoyed to have him as a roommate. And the things he did to annoy Trey were just as bad.
Trey was a quiet person, who because he was used to not doing much, liked time to himself and the quiet that went along with it.
Shawn made that hard for him in several ways. The first being how loud he liked to play his music. Trey wasn't really a fan of any rock music and could only name one white musical artist that he liked, and he was a rapper who did no rock whatsoever. Yet a good 90 percent of all the songs Shawn practically blasted through his computer were just that, rock. Trey noticed that was the first thing Shawn always did whenever he was in the room. Walk straight to his computer, after stepping over his pile junk, and started his music before IMing people he could have easily talked to otherwise.
He pretty much stayed gone all day and then came back when Trey, who was used to having a room to himself and wasn't a fan of light, sound or people talking to their friends on their cell phones at 3 in the morning, was long asleep.
Trey had never tossed and turned so much in his life.
Shawn was driving him crazy.
Even if he wasn't petrified of initiating the correct conversation that was required for the situation, Trey had enough common sense to know that Shawn's parents were paying the same ridiculous $698 a month for their so called `dorm room', so it wasn't like he could ask Shawn not to play his music, or mess up his side of the room, the sink, the bathroom and all the other annoying things he did. It was his room too.
Unfortunately.
Trey was sitting on his bed with his back to the wall behind him while Shawn was on his computer, which aside from sleeping and taking a shower was the only thing he did in the room.
Trey turned the page of his book and looked over at Shawn who was simultaneously IMing nine different people.
He was particularly upset with Shawn as last night had been especially rough for him to get to sleep because Shawn had brought some girl back to their room late.
Girls, or any guests for that matter, weren't even allowed on the floor past 12, yet Shawn had shown his complete disregard for the rules by not only bringing a girl back at 3 in the morning, but being loud enough to get caught, what with their laughing and talking after nameless girl had finished puking her guts out in the toilet.
Which she probably hadn't even bothered to make sure was clean.
Then when he'd gotten up to go to class the next day, Shawn was missing and the random girl was in his bed, probably more passed out than asleep, letting Trey know exactly how threatened Shawn felt by him.
It was weird and awkward and he really shouldn't have had to be putting up with any of it.
He had to wonder where Shawn's common sense was.
It was almost like taking care of a child.
He didn't pick up after himself, and the only reason part of their room and bathroom was clean was because he was the one that had been making sure all of it was kept in order, more for himself than any of his lazy room or suite mates.
Either way, everything he'd ever heard about college, about it being crazy and fun, was turning out not to be true in his case.
Trey looked back down at his book, but looked back up when he thought Shawn was watching him.
Shawn had turned out to be weird like that since he'd been here.
For starters, Shawn always slept at the bottom of his bed, whenever he did finally get around to getting to sleep. And if Trey had to get up, which usually was always before Shawn, Shawn would turn around in his bed to where he was facing him, like he was watching him or something.
It hadn't failed yet.
Wake up and get out of the bed, Shawn would turn around. Get out of the shower, same thing.
He didn't want to be a paranoid nut job about everything, but Shawn was leaving him no choice.
For all that he said he hated about Shawn, there was this...feeling that he had inside him that seemed to overshadow his feelings of hatred.
Seeing Shawn all the time bothered him, but not seeing him worried him to the point where he wondered about him.
He'd never had feelings quite like them before. They were strange and they worried him a little.
Reading what was supposed to be distracting him at the moment. He wasn't feeling very distracted though.
He looked back over at Shawn.
This time, Shawn really had been looking over at him, but looked away and went back to typing.
Trey sighed and flipped another page in his book, even though he hadn't really even read the page.
"Do you...do you plan on always being here?" Shawn asked, catching Trey a little off guard.
Trey looked up, a little confused that Shawn had asked him the question.
This was half his room, as far as he knew. And he did spend close to ten hours a day away from the room, from 9 in the morning to 6 in the evening, which was far from `always being here'.
Shawn turned slightly in his seat to watch Trey's reaction, but didn't look directly at him.
Trey narrowed his eyes as he put his book aside.
Shawn was pissing him off again.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
Shawn hesitated for a moment before he turned to face Trey.
"It's just...some nights I might wanna bring...guests back to the room and...I don't know...you're just...here."
Trey stared at Shawn staring at him.
He wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to say in response to that. He couldn't understand how Shawn would even have the gall to ask him something like that, yet here they were.
And from what he understood about Shawn, he seemed not to have a problem bringing `guests' back anyway. Guests that puke in toilets.
"It's...my room too, Shawn," Trey replied.
"I know that," Shawn replied. "I was just wondering if maybe...you had any friends. You know, people you could hang out with every once in a while."
Trey knew where his limits were. He knew that for whatever reason, he had problems talking with people. But there were certain times when he felt compelled to speak his mind, as if nothing in the world were holding him back.
And this was one of those times.
"Oh I'm sorry, do I ask you about your friends?" Trey asked. "Because FYI, I don't really care what you do."
Shawn sighed, frowning at Trey.
"I'm not trying to tell you what to do-"
"Good, then don't," Trey cut in, now fully fuming.
Shawn stared at Trey before turning back to his computer and letting out a sigh, going back to what he was doing before.
Trey stared at Shawn a little further before picking his book back up and starting back on his reading, a coy smile spreading on his face.
And for the first time since he'd been here, he actually felt like he was in control.
"Oh piss off!" Jesse exclaimed, as the sunlight from outside his window hit his eyes.
Amber giggled at what she saw as Jesse being a cute non-morning person as she jumped into bed next to him.
Jesse, without opening his eyes, pushed at her until she fell out of the bed.
"Jesse!"
"I'm fucking bloody useless without sleep, love," Jesse grumbled, turning to the side not facing the window.
Amber, only slightly pissed off, stood up and sighed.
"We have class," Amber replied. "I mean, I think you have class. You do have class, don't you?"
"Class is for people who expect to learn something," Jesse replied. "I'm learning all I need to know right here in this bed."
"Jesse, I know you're like rich and all-"
"I'm not `like' rich sweetheart, I can buy you and your family if I wanted to," Jesse spoke, still half asleep. "That is, if I were in the market for yanks."
Amber scratched her head trying to figure out what Jesse meant for a moment before she sighed and crossed her arms.
"Look, Jesse I'd love to let you stay in bed all day," she started.
"Good, so we're in agreement that you should leave me the hell alone then."
"I just can't though," Amber replied. "Me and Heather are the only people that know you're staying here. If the wrong girls found out, we could both be in a lot of trouble."
"Everyone loves cash," Jesse replied. "Just remember that little fact the next time you find yourself facing the governor."
Again, Amber had no clue what the hell Jesse was talking about but she was more than a little frustrated with Jesse.
"Jesse, get up!"
Jesse didn't respond, hoping Amber would leave already.
Amber stood around for a few seconds before she sighed and grabbed her backpack.
"Fine," she spoke, annoyed. "Hope you have enough of that cash you talked about. You're probably gonna need it."
Jesse barely heard Amber as she headed for the door and left, locking it behind her.
He was just glad she was finally gone so that he could sleep.
He'd worry about later, later.
"And so the Puppetmaster controls the Oracle, which you can't really get to until you reach level thirty five, something I managed to do successfully in two days, mind you, before you-"
Noah was trying his best to tune Jeremy out as he tied up his sneakers in preparation to head out to class.
Apparently, Jeremy was taking online courses just so he could be around his computer non stop. That only bugged him a little because he knew that no matter what, 9 times out of 10, Jeremy would most likely be in the room whenever he wasn't.
Fortunately, Noah had managed to meet Zoey when he first arrived, so he could spend as much time in her room as possible. He'd become good friends with both her and her roommate, and neither one of them minded Noah using their room to work out new songs on his guitar when either of them weren't in it.
Besides them, however, he hadn't exactly made any other friends. Which was actually okay with him. He hadn't exactly come to college looking to make any friends. He already had some, back home.
Now more than ever did he actually find himself actually missing the comforts of his own familiar territory. His home, while never an altogether great place to be, was still comfortable enough for him to miss when he was away from it. And given his current situation, he had plenty reason to miss it.
For starters, his roommate was less than ideal.
But that paled in comparison to his other big problem which haled in the form of one very old and extremely familiar face. Trey Jackson.
He and Trey had gotten along quite well over the summer. In fact, he had been more enjoyable to hang around with than a lot of the people he was used to being surrounded by at home. Something about Trey had made him feel so comfortable to be around. That was probably why they'd hit it off so well.
It didn't matter how well they'd gotten along after they shared that brief kiss. It was one thing to have the kiss happen, but to have it happen in front of the two other people they'd each been sharing a room with was even worse. That meant that there were at least three people running around this school that knew Noah had kissed a guy, something he wouldn't really want anyone to know about, let alone have actually witnessed.
And he'd be lying to himself if he said he didn't care. Because he did care. This was the beginning of his college experience. He was going to be spending the next four years living what most people considered the best years of their lives. And he didn't want to start out with a label. A label that told everyone that he was gay just because he'd kissed a guy.
He couldn't have that.
Which meant that there was one thing he needed to do to make sure things sailed smoothly for him: avoid Trey at all costs.
"Oh wait, I didn't finish telling you about the Superior Mage," Jeremy spoke as Noah started towards the door.
Noah was used to being a sarcastic hard ass, but the last thing he wanted to do was piss off his roommate. Otherwise, his stuff could turn up missing or damaged and there would be plenty of fights, something he was getting a headache just thinking about. So the best thing for him to do, he realized, was to just be neutral.
"Maybe some other time," he replied, with a slight apologetic smile.
As weird as Jeremy was, he'd rather have to hear about the Superior Mage a thousand times over having to have to face Trey again. ***********************************************************************
"Maybe you should ask him to come partying with us one time," Ben spoke as he and Shawn walked past the on campus library. "I bet you he's wilder than you make him seem."
"Are you kidding me?" Shawn asked. "No fucking way!"
"You don't gotta be a dick about it man," Ben spoke. "I'm just trying to help you out."
Shawn sighed and looked down at the ground while Ben's eyes wandered over to each passing attractive girl.
Shawn wasn't entirely sure how he felt about anything or what to say but he felt like he needed to say something before his best friend started thinking he was some kind of fag.
"Look you are helping me, okay," Shawn said, looking up. "Taking me to all these parties is keeping me from having to spend too much time in my room."
Ben, who really hadn't been paying attention, and had only heard the last part, turned back to Shawn.
"About that," Ben started. "I got invited to a rush party."
"Sweet another one-"
"It's kinda only for the pledges," Ben spoke.
Shawn didn't say anything and instead just nodded his head slowly as the two of them continued to walk.
"So what, you saying I'm on my own tonight?" he asked.
Ben put his arm around Shawn's shoulders.
"Look man, now you got some time to try and find something in common with that roommate of yours," Ben spoke. "You might just find a few things too."
Shawn didn't put up a fight. He knew that there was nothing he could do in this situation. He couldn't party every night. He was just hoping that the night he had nothing to do would be a long time from now, where ignoring Trey was common place.
But now he was actually going to have to find something else to do. And if he couldn't, that meant that he'd be stuck in his room with Trey all night, a fate that was bad for more than one reason.
Trey was feeling nervous about his approaching Psychology class. It was going to be the second time he saw Grace. And the reason why he was nervous was because he wasn't sure exactly if he wanted to see her. He liked her sure enough, but there were several things that were deterring him from being natural towards the entire situation.
First, because he just absolutely had to think everything through, he wasn't sure what to make of Grace's hospitality towards him. She could have, for all he knew, just been trying to extend a friendly gesture towards someone she left obviously could use such a thing.
He didn't know if sitting with her in the one class they shared and then being invited to sit with her at lunch later made them friends in the slightest way at all. And the last thing he wanted to do was even assume that of being the case.
And then there was her boyfriend, Dro. He knew guys like him back home. The kind of guy that went out of his way to seem especially intimidating. That was pretty much every guy but him back home. And Dro was obviously extremely protective of his girlfriend. He wasn't sure how he'd feel about him trying to befriend Grace. It obviously seemed like he didn't even like him.
And what was he supposed to do about that?
There was one thing he could do. He could just forget about Grace altogether and stop being so pathetic.
But the not being pathetic thing had yet to work for him, and Grace was the only friendly face he recognized in the entire room. And once again, as it was fast filling up, he was panicking. Only this time, for an entirely different reason. Should he try to sit with her? Should he not acknowledge her presence and blow the only chance he had at making a friend at the school?
They were huge choices for him, even though they'd probably seem entirely pointless to anyone else in the world.
And if he looked at it hard enough, he could even see himself that he was being stupid. He was in college now. And at a certain point, he was just going to have to take a few chances. So what if Grace wasn't trying to be his friend. He'd just have to be hers instead. And so what her boyfriend scared the shit out of him.
The worse that could happen was an ass kicking, something he doubted would really even occur.
So he went for it. He walked straight up to where Grace was sitting and took a seat next to her. He hadn't even seen previously that Dro wasn't even around yet. And because he wasn't around, he felt a bit more at ease with his decision.
"Uh, hey," Trey said, trying to seem more comfortable than he actually felt.
"Lunch guy," Grace smiled. "Why're you sitting by me?"
Trey's mouth dropped a little. This was exactly what he'd been worried about. He wasn't sure what to say, and was having a hard time looking for something.
"I'm just playing with you," Grace replied. "Need to chill out a little more, Trey."
Trey was happy that she was joking and even happier that she remembered his name. The happiness he was feeling quickly wore off once he noticed Dro approaching.
Trey had briefly locked eyes with Dro, and noticed he didn't look happy, before looking away, trying to look a little less threatened.
When Dro reached their row, he started making his way through, `accidentally' bumping into Trey's legs while trying to get over to Grace's right side.
"Baby-"
"What? Nigga's legs all in the way."
Grace looked over at Trey with an apologetic look on her face, sighing as their professor entered the room.
Trey made sure not to even glance over to his right, deciding that if he was going to get by, he was going to have to try not to piss Dro off.
"Shut the fuck up!" Jesse angrily exclaimed, throwing his pillow at the window Amber had left open, where birds were chirping merrily in the tree outside of it.
He rolled over on his back and stared up. He had never slept on a futon bed before coming here, and now he knew why. It was next to impossible to get a good night's sleep. But he also knew that right now, he couldn't exactly be a chooser if he was a beggar. Otherwise he'd have to find some other place to stay. A place where he wasn't surrounded by three dozen gorgeous women.
After lying still for a little while, he turned to his right and noticed it was nearly eleven.
He'd have been in that stupid music class if he'd decided to go to class today. But he was just too tired. And there was nothing he could really do about it, seeing as how the birds outside were gonna keep him up.
"I could bloody have your little chirp spot cut down if I fancied it!" Jesse shouted, staring towards the window, before falling on his back.
Since he wasn't in class, and nearly everyone he knew more than likely was, he wasn't sure what he'd actually do.
It was too early to party. And he didn't have a car, so whatever he did, he'd have to do it here.
He just sat in bed trying to figure out what he was going to do before being startled at a sudden loud knocking at the door.
His first instinct was to go answer it but he stopped when he realized that he wasn't exactly supposed to be in Amber's room, let alone sleeping in her bed permanently.
The knocking continued a few times where Jesse just stood shirtless in the middle of the room waiting for it to stop before finally, something was slipped under the door.
He didn't retrieve it immediately, instead opting to wait a few moments until he was sure that whoever had dropped it off was gone. With a yawn and then a sigh, he walked over to it and picked it up. It was some kind of letter, addressed to Amber, with the front desk address stamp on the front.
Curiosity getting the better of him, he decided to open it, not really caring what Amber would have to say about it later.
"Weekly room maintenance?" he read aloud curiously. "Please have room spotless for day's checking?"
Jesse looked around.
He had not once ever cleaned up any of his messes. At home, he'd always had people to do that for him. Besides that, he never really stayed in places that were messy for too long, because by the time he returned, the mess was usually gone.
He'd been doing just the same here, throwing all of his clothes on the ground. Apparently, so had Amber, who had twice as many clothes as he did and probably changed outfits more than twice a day. Needless to say, their room was a complete disaster.
The letter mentioned a room safety and spot check, but besides that there was a complete list of other things he and Amber apparently were supposed to be taking care of. Things that Amber had failed to fill him in on.
He looked around, not really sure what to do or where to start. Cleaning was going to be new to him. He walked over to a pile of clothes next to the bed and picked up a shirt lying on top, smelling it and quickly throwing it back to the ground in disgust.
He knew that he had his work cut out for him, something he wasn't looking forward to in the least.
"Hey I think the Death Ray's are playing at Brown's tonight," Zoey spoke, sipping on her latte. "I wanna go. You wanna go?"
Noah looked over at her curiously.
The two of them were in the student union, the indoor area, enjoying a couple of lattes not talking about anything in particular. Noah hadn't realized that his attention had been elsewhere until he'd been forced back into reality.
"What?" he asked.
"Looking for your stalker?" Zoey asked. "They should make stalker repellant. I mean at some point in our lives, we all have stalkers right?"
"What?" Noah chuckled. "And I don't have a stalker."
"Kay," Zoey replied. "And I so wasn't being serious just then. You're okay right?"
Noah frowned.
"Because I don't want you getting all unnecessarily emo goth on me," Zoey replied. "A little emo goth is okay though."
"No I'm fine I just...I was getting a better look around the place," Noah replied. "For some reason, I haven't actually stayed on the inside long enough to know what was here."
"They build all the good stuff off campus, god forbid they think we might actually want to have fun here." Zoey said, looking around while Noah did the same. "I mean, that's okay with me because this place is just a little too `go team go' if you know what I mean."
Noah did know what she was talking about and could specifically remember having to be a cheerleader during his summer orientation session. The place was beyond being team spirit obsessed.
But he was having a hard time trying to stay focused on what she had to say while thinking about his own problems. Not that he really even had multiple problems. He just had one problem and even that wasn't really a problem-problem. He was just trying to do his best to avoid running into Trey, and so far, it was working.
Zoey was proving to be a good diversion for him, even if he wasn't exactly holding up his end of the conversation.
"Still, I wanna go but have yet to start going over the notes for my classes," Zoey said. "I mean, I'm used to a certain level of academic brilliance. You might be a bad influence on me."
"Me?" Noah laughed, tossing a piece of his cookie at Zoey who dodged out of the way, giving Noah perfect viewing access of a face he'd been doing so well to have avoided all day.
Noah quickly dodged himself as if someone had tossed a cookie piece at him just as Zoey was sitting back up.
"Um, yeah okay," Zoey chuckled at Noah's odd behavior.
"Uh, yeah I think I'm done," Noah spoke, considerably lower than he'd been talking previously. "So I'll stop by later and we can talk about it?"
"Noah-"
"Yeah, I think that'll be good," Noah spoke, standing up while still keeping an eye on Trey, who didn't appear to have noticed his presence.
Zoey just watched Noah as he backed away from the table slowly, bumping into another nearby table in the process, before turning and hurrying off.
Trey was feeling more than a little distracted.
There was all his self induced drama with Shawn, more self induced drama with Noah and of course now he was feeling hostility from Grace's boyfriend, Dro, also probably self induced. Needless to say, it all left him feeling more than a little distracted.
This wasn't his first time feeling distracted. He was only human, so it was normal for him to get distracted. The only difference between him and anyone else on Earth was the fact that he never had anyone to talk to when he was feeling distracted, so no one really ever noticed that he was. Therefore, he was a bit shocked when it seemed that Grace, a girl he'd only known three days, had picked up on him feeling distracted.
It was definitely a first.
"You okay?" she asked.
Trey, who'd been idly staring at his plate still full of French fries, looked up and realized that he hadn't even been paying attention to what was going on around him.
Just like the previous two days, all the couples around him were staring at him as if he were the only white person at the table or something, while all the other people were either talking loudly or playing dominoes or cards.
He looked over at Grace who had a slight smile on her face and Dro's arm around her shoulder, of course while also leaning towards him.
He wasn't entirely sure what to say but he realized that he had to say something.
"Uh..."
"I know what's up," Dro decided to take the liberty of speaking up. "Homie's got girl trouble right man?"
Trey looked over at him, not really sure what was going on.
"Huh?"
Dro laughed and leaned back.
"First you gotta have a girl," he spoke, knocking fists with the guy across from him.
"Dro keep it up," Grace spoke, slightly threateningly. "You might not have a girl either."
Dro stopped laughing and sat up a little.
"Besides," Grace started. "How do you know Trey doesn't have a girlfriend? Do you have a girlfriend Trey?"
Trey looked back down at his fries.
No one had ever asked him that question. Of course, the answer would have been the same all his life. He never really actually looked for a girlfriend. He'd never even really known if any girls were attracted to him. He wasn't conceited or anything, but he also knew that he would be seen as an attractive guy to most girls. He just never really put himself out there to get a girlfriend.
And now he had to answer the question.
"Uh...no, I don't," he replied.
It was already hard for him to look anyone besides Grace in the eye, but now it was hard to look even her in the eyes.
"That's okay," Grace spoke. "Fine ass guy like yourself, you'll find someone."
"Grace-"
"Nigga please, don't start," Grace sighed, turning away from her boyfriend to face Trey. "So wanna be in a study group or something?"
Trey looked over at her.
"Sure...I guess," Trey replied.
"What do you mean you guess? Either you do or you don't," Grace said, firmly.
Trey, feeling a little better about actually having a normal conversation with someone for once, thought about it before answering confidently.
"Yeah. I do."
"Good," Grace started, turning towards her backpack, fishing around in it. "Give me your number."
Trey raised an eyebrow in slight confusion, but decided that he'd rather stay the little bit confident he felt and took his cell phone out of his pocket to retrieve his number, since he didn't know it by heart, never having to.
"I'll give you my number and Dro's-"
"Grace-"
"Don't start with me Dro," Grace warned, before taking Trey's phone from his hands to enter her number into it. "Don't pay any attention to him, Trey. I'm making him study this semester since he barely passed last semester."
"Nigga don't need to know all that shit," Dro mumbled.
Grace handed Trey his phone back.
"Don't worry, I found yours too," she said. "Now you have connections."
"Connections? Really?" Trey spoke, a slight smile on his face.
"And by the lack of numbers in your phone, I'd say it's about time you got some huh?"
Trey looked down at his phone, feeling excited about something for the first time all week. Now he at least knew he had a friend.
"Eat boy," Grace spoke, snatching one of Trey's fries off of his plate. "Nobody wants to be here all day."
Trey looked down at his plate, his mind suddenly far away from where it had been previously.
Jesse frowned upon looking around.
He hadn't stepped a foot inside the student union. Not in the summer orientation session and not since he'd been back. He didn't usually make it a habit to shop places that sold clothes right next to a rack of condiments. He preferred to separate the two.
He wasn't lost. Just overwhelmed.
Already he hated anything about the place that didn't have anything to do with girls or partying. And considering the girls he knew were in class and no one would dare have a party this early on a Wednesday, he was stuck with himself.
He hated that. He rarely went anywhere in public alone. And while there was nothing wrong with that exactly, he was just so used to always having someone around to talk to. Someone to play off of and bounce ideas around with. He didn't do so well on his own.
The union looked like some kind of poor mans mall. There were two different bookstores, a food court, and several other places Jesse had no real interest in. The only reason he was here now was because as per according to his unfortunate little to-do list, he was supposed to be getting an on campus mailbox.
When he'd told Amber to piss off, he'd actually meant for her to leave him in peace, not leave a sticky note tacked onto the computer screen with a bunch of trivial shit for him to do. In fact, he was almost certain the note hadn't been there before she left, which told him that she specifically had come back just to give him stuff to do. Just like someone's mother. Or a clingy girlfriend. And all he was hoping for was maybe a quick shag, none of this errand business.
Needless to say, he realized that if it weren't for Amber and her hair brained scheme, he wouldn't even be living on campus. And in the luckiest place a straight teenage guy could ever hope to stay in too. So he was going to do Amber's little tasks, even if he'd never have even considered doing something like this for someone ever in his life.
But there was a problem. Having never really been in the union, he had no idea where the post office was supposed to be.
Looking around, he grabbed the nearest person who just so happened to be passing him, pulling him over to him.
"Where's the postman's office?" he asked.
The guy frowned at Jesse before pulling himself free.
"Why don't you think about how you asked that question first," the guy replied.
Jesse gasped and took a step back. He couldn't understand why everyone in America was so antagonistic or crazy. The way he saw it, it was always everyone else who had the problem, not him.
"So...."
The guy stared at Jesse staring at him.
"So where's the postman's office? What are you deaf?" Jesse asked.
The guy made a move towards Jesse before shoving past him and continuing on his way.
Jesse turned to call out after him.
"Well aren't you just a right gent and a half!"
The guy just held his middle finger up behind him as Jesse let out an annoyed sigh and turned around.
Jesse had never been so pissed off with as many people in such a short amount of time as he had been since coming to America. It seemed, to him, like the whole place was bad for his well being. Or maybe it was just this place in particular. Maybe he picked the wrong state and should have tried Florida. Or Hawaii. Or maybe even California. Those places, to him, sounded like they'd have been better that where he was now stuck.
He decided that it would be better for him if he just ignored the guy and went about looking for the postman.
Looking up slightly, he noticed a sign with an arrow pointing straight ahead. Apparently, he'd been close all along.
"I knew I was good with directions," Jesse mumbled confidently as he started towards the post office area.
The post office was located at the end of a short hallway with two large open doors, swung out and latched on the sides of the wall. Directly in the middle was a large counter he assumed was for people to write on. On either side of the counters were section blockers that made up two lines. He saw the front counter, he saw people in line, he saw a stupid counter in the middle of the front desk, but what he didn't see were any mailboxes.
"What the hell goes through you peoples minds when you build things?" Jesse asked aloud, before starting towards the back of the post office, ignoring the looks of everyone as he passed.
That was about when he saw them.
The mailboxes, tiny as they were, built into the wall, something he'd never seen before, and went on for several rows. There had to be nearly 6 or 7 thousand of them.
Fortunately for him, Amber had given him the number of her mailbox without realizing it. She had probably meant for him to get a mailbox of his own, but the way he saw it, if they could share a room, they could share a mailbox.
He wasn't quite sure why he was getting her mail, but he figured he might as well since he was here, and headed to the back row, where the 6's started.
Amber's mailbox was 6938. Upon reaching the back row, he noticed several people all trying to retrieve their mail, and others standing around reading what they'd gotten.
Most of them were at the very end, so he didn't really pay any attention to them before he started trying to work the lock to Amber's mailbox. He'd never seen the type of key that was for the mailbox before and thought it was strange how everything about the post office spelled `unnecessarily complicated'.
After trying a few times and quickly running out of patience, he grabbed a hold of the nearest person passing him, who dropped whatever piece of mail he was reading. While he was bending down to retrieve it, Jesse turned to the mailbox to ask his question.
"These things...how do you figure you open them?"
The guy he'd stopped, stood up, sighed angrily and tried to leave. Jesse turned to stop him but stopped himself when he realized who it was.
"What, the collection agency telling you that you still owe them money?" Jesse taunted.
Noah sighed and rolled his eyes.
"The least you could do is tell me how to get this bugger open," Jesse spoke, somewhat aggressively. "I mean, for my pain and suffering."
Noah snorted at Jesse before deciding to humor him.
"What pain and suffering? They run out of ten dollar mineral water at the Four Seasons?" Noah asked.
"For your information, I've been forced to stay on campus with the rest of you ingrates," Jesse replied.
"Figured as much. Seeing as how it is kinda required for freshman," Noah replied.
"Too bad I didn't know that," Jesse replied.
"Wait...so where are you staying then?" Noah asked.
Jesse looked down. He never really hesitated to tell people things, but he wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to share with Noah where he'd ended up finding a place. So he figured he'd change the subject.
"You still snogging the lads around school then?" he asked, beginning to try the lock to the mailbox again.
"What?" Noah asked, obviously caught off guard.
"I gotta say, I never met a fag before what with me caring about the ladies and all-"
"I'm not gay!" Noah objected.
"What are you daft?" Jesse asked, turning towards Noah abruptly. "I saw you kissing another member of the male sex!"
Noah frowned impatiently at Jesse.
"If you're always so unhappy and willing to cause trouble, then why don't you just go back to...wherever and leave me alone!"
"I could go back, but I don't think that's gonna cure your little problem now will it-`
Noah stepped forward and grabbed Jesse's shirt getting in his face.
"What are you gonna try and kiss ME now?"
Noah stared into Jesse's eyes before shoving him backwards and turning the corner, leaving Jesse feeling quite pleased with himself for getting under someone else's skin.
Trey turned another page in his book.
He hated not having any homework to do. But he was a freshman who was only into his first week, so he could see why his professors hadn't really assigned him any work, even if that theory wouldn't entirely hold true.
Not having any friends meant that he didn't have anything else to do when he wasn't in class. His options were to wake up, go to class, go to the lunch, go to the library and study and then come back to the dorm ready to go to sleep and repeat the process all over again.
Without the work though, he went straight from the go to lunch part of the equation to the come back at 4 in the afternoon waiting until he got tired so that he could do it all over again part.
Only two hours had passed since he'd met with Grace and her friends at lunch and he had to admit that talking to just one person always made him feel better about himself. It always left him feeling good inside, even if he only talked to said person for a few minutes.
Being `trapped' in a room with the roommate from hell only sought to dissolve those feelings. And quick too. He'd been surprised to find Shawn in the room when he got back. He hadn't been surprised that he was on his computer lazily IMing people he knew for a fact, thanks to his late night phone calls with said internet friends, not only stayed on campus but in this dorm. Trey would always silently mock Shawn for not having a life when he did this, even though he knew it was just the pot calling the kettle black.
The thing he wondered was why Shawn was here. He always felt that Shawn was purposefully avoiding having to come back to the room until he knew that he would be sleep. He was here, and had been here when Trey got here.
And by the looks of it, it kind of seemed like he was going to be here all night, something Trey didn't relish the thought of in the least.
He couldn't really concentrate on his book as with this particular day, Shawn was IMing people AND playing some kind of game with explosive pool balls, because he kept hearing them explode. That solved the question of whether or not he was capable of multitasking.
Then all of a sudden, Shawn surprised Trey by turning in his direction, staring at him.
Trey did his best to pretend like he didn't see Shawn staring at him. In fact, he always did that. Anytime Shawn did anything, Trey just pretended not to care, unlike Shawn, whose first instinct apparently seemed to be following people with his eyes.
"Are you just...shy?" Shawn decided to ask.
Trey knew that he had to look up and did.
"What?" he asked.
"I mean, is that why you don't go places?"
Trey put his book aside and sat back.
"Why do you care? It's not like you invite me to go partying with you or whatever it is you do-"
"I'm just busy-"
"Right."
Shawn sighed and stared down before looking back up.
"It's just, I was serious about wanting to know why you were always here," he said.
Trey couldn't see how Shawn was justifying himself at all in the conversation and was starting to feel just as pissed as he had been the previous evening.
Shawn was just as dumb and jockish as he looked, apparently.
"Why don't you just go back to doing that stuff and I'll go back to my book."
Shawn sighed and turned back to his computer.
But Trey found that he still couldn't concentrate. Yesterday, he felt like he had the upper-hand on Shawn. But today, he felt so lost and pissed off, he felt that he couldn't just sit back and let Shawn do this to him.
He wasn't a doormat. At least, when he didn't want to be. Which translated to a good 5% of the time.
"I hear you're all talk," Trey started.
He wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean or what he was even doing. He was just hoping to try and mess with Shawn's mind.
"From who? No one talks to you," Shawn replied.
Trey felt even worse after that comment. He felt like there was no real way that he could get an upper-hand on Shawn and picked his book back up, still feeling upset and pissed.
Many thoughts were flashing through his head, but the one that stuck out the most was the one that bothered him the most. He knew that Shawn was absolutely right. No one talked to him. Sure, a girl from one of his classes was showing a friendly interest in him, but that wasn't the point. The point was that Shawn seemed to have Trey so figured out and that pissed him off because he wasn't sure that he'd ever be able to figure out Shawn.
This whole experience was turning out to be so miserable for him, and thinking about the fact that it was only the third day of school only made things worse. He had until May to put up with Shawn and all of his shit.
"Look...I--"
Trey looked up and over at Shawn who actually looked like he was sorry about something but he stopped when Trey noticed his cell phone was actually ringing for a change. It was so foreign to him, he almost didn't know what to do. The only person that ever called him was his mother, and he'd already talked to her earlier.
He stared at his phone and Shawn stared at the phone before he turned back to his computer and Trey grabbed and answered his phone.
"Hello?" he asked.
"Nigga, who answers their phone `hello' anymore?"
It was Grace.
"Oh...I--"
"I'm just playing Trey," Grace giggled.
Trey felt relieved, nervous and excited all at the same time. This was his first time talking on the phone with another girl.
"Hi," Trey said. "What's up?"
"You busy?" Grace asked.
Trey looked up and over at Shawn, who of course had been staring at him and quickly turned his head before answering.
"Nope, just bored," Trey replied, making sure Shawn had heard the extra emphasis he'd put on the statement.
"Maybe I can help," Grace replied. "A friend of Dro's is throwing a party tonight. Thought I'd see if you wanted to go."
Trey still felt three emotions at once. He'd never talked on the phone with another girl and had never been asked to go to a party by another girl. And even though he was nervous at the thought of going to one, it sounded a lot better than spending hours alone in his room with Shawn.
"Uh, yeah sure," Trey replied. "Uh, but I don't have a car."
Trey, out the corner of his eye, noticed Shawn staring at him again, only not being so overtly obvious about it.
"That's okay, you can tag along with me," Grace replied.
"That gonna be cool with your boyfriend?" Trey asked.
"He's already there," Grace replied. "And who gives a damn, he's my boyfriend not my father."
Trey turned to get one last look at Shawn before replying.
"Okay," he replied.
"Cool," Grace replied. "I'll meet you in the lobby. Oh and you know you don't gotta get all dressed up right? It's a black party, we don't dress up."
Trey laughed before hanging up and standing around for a second.
His first party. That he was actually invited to. By a girl!
"Who was that?" Shawn asked.
Even though Trey found the answer to be none of Shawn's business, he was so happy that he figured he'd humor him.
"One of those friends you didn't think I had," he replied, before grabbing his keys and starting for the door.
Noah had been strumming cords on his guitar for a few hours before he stopped and sat back on his bed.
He had so many thoughts going through his mind. The first second he says he's going to try and avoid running into Trey, he does. Nothing ever worked out right for him. He had a messed up life, and no matter where he went, it stayed that way. He was trying to change, but it didn't seem like he was going to be having a normal life anytime soon.
He felt so conflicted, he was even compelled to actually talk to Jeremy, who as usual, was at his computer, although he wasn't playing games like he normally was.
"Say Jeremy, have you ever done something you know isn't exactly right but that you couldn't stop thinking about?" he asked, regretting it instantly.
"Oh sure," Jeremy replied, turning in his chair to face Noah lying on his back in the bed. "Just yesterday, I sold a pair of silver horse mail to an orc for nine times what it would have cost him in the shops...he was newbie you know...but still man...I wonder if I did the right thing."
"Jeremy," Noah started, losing his cool. "That's a god damn videogame! I'm talking about in real life."
"Relationship woes?" Jeremy asked.
Noah shot up. He'd already written Jeremy off as a videogame playing freak who couldn't possibly understand the trials and tribulations of relationships but was amazed to find that he could have been wrong.
"Yeah, thought so," Jeremy replied. "What guy doesn't go through the love-jones at least once in his life?"
"So you know what I'm talking about then?" Noah asked, keeping himself up by his elbows.
"Oh sure...several of my internet girlfriends have dumped me over the-"
Noah tuned Jeremy out as he fell back on his bed. There was no one that he could talk to about this stuff. Not even his roommate.
Not much time passed before there was a knock on the outside of his door. Feeling relieved that someone besides Jeremy was in his immediate vicinity, he jumped up to answer it, opening it in a hurry.
"Well aren't you just Speedy Speedster all over today," Zoey spoke, standing at the door. "I mean, you ran off so fast earlier I barely had a chance to see if you were gonna come to the show tonight or not."
"Noah's having relationship issues," Jeremy called from his seat, which was now turned to face the two of them.
Zoey exchanged glances with Noah before looking back over at Jeremy.
"Uh...hi," she spoke, sounding uncertain about whether or not she was greeting a human being or not.
"But I told him life is like horse mail, if you don't wanna rip people off, just don't sell yourself short," Jeremy replied.
Zoey nodded in confusion.
"How...selectively progressive of you," she spoke, before turning her attention back to Noah. "Gee this looks fun, spending your passing hours with...him."
"I'm sorry about earlier," Noah replied. "I just...had something I needed to do."
"And hopefully you got it out of your system by now," Zoey replied. "If not, the Death Ray's cater to the hopelessly depressed. Although I think that's because they're always so depressed themselves. Or something."
"I'll go," Noah replied. "Anything to get out of here."
"Good," Zoey smiled. "And maybe if you're good you can tell me about these so called relationship issues you have."
"Maybe," Noah smiled playfully, heading to grab his keys and jacket.
"Hey, if you two are going out do you think you could bring me back some of those sour stringy candy things?" Jeremy asked.
Noah stared at Jeremy to see if he actually thought he just made sense then before deciding to humor him.
"Sure," he replied. "Whatever."
"Cool, thanks," Jeremy replied. "And remember man....don't rip yourself off."
"I thought it was don't sell yourself short?" Noah asked.
"Did I say that? Man that game's making me a freaking oracle!"
Noah just headed for the door, ready to head out with Zoey.
"Wow," Amber spoke, standing at the door of her and Jesse's room. "A maid like, cleaned up."
Jesse rushed over to Amber, grabbed her around her waist, threw her one the bed, shut the door, and turned around frowning at a giggling Amber.
"I'm not that easy you know," she spoke, sitting up. "I'm not gonna sleep with you just because we live together."
"Which might not be that long if you don't learn to be more careful," Jesse growled. "It was you that told me guys aren't allowed in this bloody place."
"I know," Amber giggled standing up. "It's just...my rooms never clean. Like ever...and now it is."
"And you expect a maid to have gone off and done the bit then?" Jesse asked. "What about me?"
"You?" Amber asked, somewhat shocked. "Your stuff was down there right along with mine. You're just as much of a slob as me."
Jesse watched as Amber peeled her backpack off and started looking around the extremely neat and tidy room.
"I don't know why you're acting so surprised with all this," Jesse said, crossing his arms. "You're the one that left me that to do list."
Amber looked over at Jesse with a confused stare.
"No, someone must have left ME a to do list," she spoke. "No one but Heather knows you're here and we all have to have these weekly safety checks and stuff."
"So I went out doing all this cleaning and mailbox retrieving shit for nothing?!"
Amber stared at Jesse innocently.
"Well...I think it's cute you got out of bed to clean and make yourself useful," she replied, cheerily.
Jesse rolled his eyes and walked over to the blinds, shutting them.
"What are you doing now?" she asked.
"I think I'm gonna have a lie down," he replied. "Blue collar work tires a fellow out."
"Welcome to America," Amber replied. "And as long as you're staying here, you can look forward to that a lot."
Jesse let himself fall face first into his pillow, groaning.
Trey got out of Grace's car and looked around.
He was nervous, but not just because this was his first party. What Grace hadn't told him was that the party was in his old hometown. That meant that people he went to school with everyday would probably see him. Not that they would know that who he even was exactly. He was almost afraid to even go inside.
There were several groups of people standing all around outside, most of them smoking things he knew weren't simple cigarettes.
It was weird being a part of what he used to try and blend into, but never really was a part of. It was almost surreal.
And being with Grace probably didn't hurt him much either.
There weren't very many cars parked around, but that didn't surprise him. Not many people owned cars around here, and he would know.
The music was just as loud as possible, to where he could hear each and every word being rapped, most of them offensive somehow. And again, because of where they were, no one cared.
"Only took us a damn hour and a half to get here," Grace mumbled as she walked around to joining Trey at his side. "I know this party better not be boring."
Trey wasn't sure what to say, as this wasn't exactly his area of expertise.
"I guess you wanna go find Dro huh?" Trey decided to ask instead.
"Let's have some fun first," Grace replied, locking her arm in between Trey's and leading him towards the front door.
"Ugh, what?" Shawn mumbled, tearing himself away from his computer screen to go answer the door.
Upon opening it he noticed two blonde girls, both hot, staring at him.
One was holding a bag full of random items and the other a sheet of paper.
"Hi, I'm Sierra and this is Megan," Sierra, the girl holding the sheet of paper started. "We're doing like a scavenger hunt and we need....cookies...got any?"
Shawn looked both girls over.
Megan, the hot, but not as hot as Sierra blonde, was twirling her hair with one of her fingers smiling at Shawn as she blatantly stared at him.
Sierra was staring at him hopefully, but almost like she was infatuated with him too, something he was definitely used to.
"You're on a cookie hunt?" he asked.
"It's for our sorority," Sierra replied. "Were pledges...trying to get in you know?"
"Yeah, my best friend Ben's a pledge," Shawn replied.
"Are you a freshman?" Megan asked.
"Yeah," Shawn replied.
Sierra and Megan exchanged glances, while Megan stifled a giggle, before Sierra turned back to face Shawn.
"Uh, so about those cookies...."
"Shawn," he spoke, introducing myself.
"Right," Sierra replied smiling.
"Well, I don't have any...my roommate might have some somewhere," Shawn replied, turning back to look over at Trey's side of the room.
"Aww...we don't have time to look," Megan spoke, actually sounding disappointed.
"No, how about you try the room next door while I stay and help Shawn look for some," Sierra replied.
"Sierra I don't think-"
"What?" Shawn asked, as Sierra let herself into the room and Shawn lost his grip on the door, letting it shut in a jealous Megan's face.
Trey was surprised with how no one seemed to care that he was here. He figured someone would have called him out as being a loser or something, but then he remembered where he was.
He was trying to have a good time, but he was too concerned with worrying about whether or not Grace might leave him to himself, which he was hoping wouldn't happen but would understand if it did.
"Where's Dro?" one of Grace's friends practically shouted.
"Girl, I ain't seen his ass all night," Grace replied. "And I know he knows I'm here too."
Trey didn't know half the people he was dancing with. The room was well lit but the environment certainly smelled like some kind of smoke, even with most of the smokers being outside.
In some corners people were playing cards or dice. In others people were just talking, which Trey found ridiculous considering how loud it was in the room. He didn't even want to think about what was possibly going on upstairs.
He'd seen parties on t.v. Black parties like the ones in Menace II Society or House Party. And white ones like in one of those sappy WB dramas, and this one was better than anything he'd seen or imagined.
There were so many people in the house, everyone was nearly touching everyone. He didn't care however. He was just too happy to be here.
But after all that `soda' he'd drank, he more than had to pee now.
"Where's the bathroom?" Trey shouted.
Grace, who seemed to have been looking around for Dro, turned around to face Trey.
"I don't know," Grace shouted. "There's always one around somewhere though."
Trey smiled before excusing himself and pushing through the crowd to find one. He thought he'd feel uncomfortable once he left Grace's side, but he actually felt completely at ease. He wasn't sure if it was because he was back in a place that was familiar to him, surrounded by people who were familiar to him or what. But he just knew that he was okay being on his own.
He spotted the kitchen easily, where someone was mixing a 40 ounce with Vodka into a large punch bowl, punch conveniently missing.
He already knew where the living room was. He started towards the back of the house. He would have thought that the bathroom door would be the one door that wasn't closed, but all of them were closed. There was no way to tell which one would led him to where he wanted to go.
So he randomly chose a door, immediately regretting it.
"Shit, my bad man," he spoke, quickly shutting the door, turning in a panic and deciding he didn't need to pee quite so badly after all.
"So you know you're like a slob right?" Sierra asked, looking around the room.
"Gee, thanks," Shawn mumbled, deciding already he wanted to get rid of Sierra as fast as possible.
"Who's your roommate?" Sierra asked, taking the liberty of checking Trey's cabinets for cookies.
"You wouldn't know him," Shawn replied, idly staring at his computer screen. "No one does."
`Yeah, no pictures or anything," Sierra replied, still looking around the room as if she had liberty to do so. "Is he hot?"
"What?" Shawn asked, surprised.
"Sorry, stupid question," Sierra replied, suddenly looking over at Shawn. "You know, I'm single."
Shawn stared at her.
"Okay..." he spoke.
Sierra took a seat on Trey's bed, staring across at him.
"What about you? " she asked. "You single?"
Shawn looked down at his hands. He knew that he was single and as hot as Sierra was, wouldn't mind trying to get to know her a little better. But there was something inside him that was making him feel strange even considering hooking up with Sierra.
And then for some reason, he started thinking about Trey and what he could have been up to. And thinking about Trey just angered him. He was such a loser. He....
"Get out...." Shawn mumbled.
"What-"
"Get the fuck out!" he shouted, pointing towards the door.
Sierra, who looked a bit stunned at first, grinned at Shawn.
"I get it," she replied heading for the door. "Attachments, they're so...not my thing."
Shawn watched as she stopped and turned to face him.
"But you know, if there's something I want," she spoke. "I usually get it."
And Shawn believed she meant it too, which just frustrated him even more. And he blamed Trey for being such a loser and fucking with his mind even when he wasn't here.
He just hoped he was having a bad time wherever the hell he'd went.
Trey had stepped out to get some fresh air, but to do that he had to go on the side of the house to get away from all the smoke.
A bunch of thoughts were running through his mind and he no longer felt comfortable being at the party. He actually just wanted to go home. Parties weren't his thing. He didn't even know what he was thinking now.
That was about when someone surprised him, putting their arm around his shoulders, clamping down tight.
"What's up you little punk ass bitch!"
Trey didn't have to see him to know that it was Dro. As it was, he was the only person that actually scared him. And now, he was alone with him and two of his friends, one being the only white person he'd seen all night.
"Look, about earlier-"
"You gonna forget you saw me with her right?" Dro asked. "Cuz that's some shit Grace don't need to know about."
"Yeah.." Trey replied, eyeing Dro's friends, who were snidely smirking at him. "I get it."
"No I don't think you do," Dro growled, clamping even harder onto Trey's shoulders.
He wanted to yelp out in pain and felt his knees buckling as Dro's friends just watched him obviously in pain.
"Trey?"
Dro immediately let go of Trey and pushed him out from the side of the house, into the immediate path of Grace.
"Oh hey, where'd you go off to?" she asked. "I was looking for you."
"Nothing," Trey mumbled. "Can we just go home now."
"Hey baby!" Dro called out, approaching Grace and Trey smoking a joint.
Grace immediately rolled her eyes upon seeing her boyfriend and glared at him.
"What?"
"Oh don't even- and gimme that damn thing!" Grace spoke, yanking the joint out of Dro's mouth and stomping it to the ground. "I told yo ass not to smoke around me."
"My bad baby-"
"Don't you my bad baby me..and where yo ass been all night?" Grace asked. "YOU invited ME here, remember?"
"Chilling wit my boys, you know that," Dro replied. "I even got to talk with your boy here."
"Really?" Grace asked, staring over at Trey.
The three of them stood around for a few moments before Grace, noticing the look on Trey's face, spoke up.
"You know what? We're leaving," she spoke.
"What?" Dro asked.
But Grace just ignored Dro as she walked towards her car.
"Come on Trey!"
Trey hesitated for a moment but allowed himself to follow Grace.
"We gon talk about this-"
"Shut up boy!" Grace shouted, holding her hand up in the air as she got into the car.
Trey got into the passenger side, feeling almost like he wanted to throw up.
"You okay Trey?"
"Yeah," Trey replied. "I'll be fine."
Trey looked out the front window over to where Dro was lighting another joint and glaring at Trey.
And suddenly, he felt like he never wanted to attend another party.
Ever.
"Hey, how was the concert?" Jeremy asked, as soon as her heard his door open.
He turned around in his chair and noticed Zoey helping a stumbling Noah into the room.
"Yeah, he tried to work through those relationship issues a little too hard," she spoke, helping Noah fall onto his bed.
"So no sour candy then?" Jeremy asked.
"Is he gonna be okay here?" Zoey asked, staring at Noah, concerned.
"I jumped on the stage!" Noah slurred.
"Yes, yes you did," Zoey spoke, adding the last part in a whisper directed towards Jeremy. "Naked."
Jeremy looked over at Noah, who already looked like he was falling asleep.
"He'll be alright," Jeremy replied. "He's cool. I'll watch him."
"Alright," Zoey replied turning towards the door but stopping to retrieve something from her jacket pocket. "Here."
She threw a pack of the requested sour candy towards Jeremy who caught it in glee.
"Night," she spoke, letting herself out.
Jeremy looked over at Noah and shook his head, turning his desk light out and the sound to his computer and went back to his game.
Noah turned on his side, pulling his legs up towards his chest in a fetal position.
Tonight was supposed to be about forgetting all about Trey. That was the only reason why he'd done anything that he had. The only reason he agreed to go.
But as it was, it didn't work. It probably just made him think about him more. And with all the alcohol in his system, he hoped that he wouldn't have any bad dreams.
Or dreams at all.
The night for him, was far from over.
Personal email: crossingboi2004@yahoo.com
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Copyright 2006