Adore

Chapter 1

"Welcome to Pi Beta Phi!" Our sorority president welcomed all the new sisters. They weren't very many entering the sorority this year, which I was okay with. Honestly, I just hate welcome day.

"Smile, Auddy," my friend Mary nudged me.

"You know how much I don't want to be here," I folded my arms across my abdomen. "Especially when it's on my birthday."

"Your birthday is tomorrow," she gave me a weird look.

"You get the point though."

"Look, Troy is having a party in a couple days at their frat house and I know you live for things like that," Mary reminded me.

Mary and I have only known each other for a year but she knew me better than anyone back in Connecticut, where I grew up. I was considered popular there; head of the cheer squad, graduating in the top 15% of my class, always partying. I lived in a rather large house with my parents, happily married. I'm an only child so I never really knew what it was like to be super close to someone. But everything for the most part was handed to me. I know, it sounds bad but I still learned how to take care of my wants and needs and my parents knew that. I never was into dating but you would often find me at a party with the boy of the night. And I mean, that's how I was. I was often referred to as the whore of the school because of it but things never went far and I'd walk out before anything serious happened. I'm still like that too.

"Maybe you'll find someone this year," she suggested.

I shook my head. "Not happening. I'm independent not dependent."

"You depend a lot on your parents," she reminded me of how I grew up.

"When I was a junior in high school and got my own job, I stopped depending on my parents so much and you know that."

She just laughed.  "Come on, let's just dip out of here and go meet Troy."

++++

I pulled into a parking spot not too far from the house. It was about 7:30 and it was the night of the party which started at 10:30. I walked through the front door to the house and everyone seemed to be in their rooms. "Is anyone in the shower?" I yelled as I made my way up the stairs.

"No," I heard Ella say from her room which was right next to the bathroom. If you wanted to know whether or not the bathroom was occupied, you asked her before you knocked.

I reluctantly closed and locked the bathroom door as I turned on the water. The water ran down my body once I got in and eased my body from the stressful volleyball match I just had to coach. Normally, I'm just the assistant but the head coach had an emergency and couldn't make it. It was a difficult match to watch but the girls pulled through. I turned off the water after about thirty minutes, which was way longer than I needed but moving didn't seem worth the effort.

I looked at my phone to see if the coach had texted me but I didn't have any new messages. "Audrey!" I heard Mary yell for me. "Come on, you need to hurry! I told Troy we'd get there by 10!" She banged on the door.

I wrapped my towel around me and opened the door. "Doesn't it start at 10:30?" I walked past her.

"Just hurry, it's almost 8:15," she said before I closed the door to my room.

I love Mary to death but she needs to chill out a bit when it comes to me getting ready. I slipped into my favorite red dress. It wasn't form fitting but it was enough to make a statement. I end up using over the allotted time Mary gave me and finished getting ready at 10:15.

"I let Troy know we're running late," she seemed a bit irritated.

"Relax, Mary. We'll get there in no time at all," I climbed into the driver's seat of my car. It was about a five minute drive there but finding a place to park was already dreadful. "Why are there so many damn people here, already?" I said after we finally pulled into a spot.