Red Volkswagen || h.s.

You Need To Calm Down

"Almost ready?" I question, plopping down on her bed like I own the place.

"It's Frankie you wanna worry about." She chuckles, securing the braid in her hair. "But yes."

"True. Is there gonna be food at this thing? I'm getting hungry."

"I have no idea." She shrugs, standing up from the floor in front of the mirror. "Jones would know."

"Whatever. I'll find out there."

"We should probably go soon. Go bang on Frankie's door and see where he's at."

I stand back up, heading back out into the hallway and walking all the way down to the last door on the left. With 'Bad Romance' by Lady Gaga blasting its way out into the hallway through the closed door, I knock loudly once, not receiving an answer, so I just go in instead to save time.

"Hey!" I yell, earning his attention. "Let's go!"

"I'm coming! Let me live!" He yells back, standing in front of the mirror..

I roll my eyes, leaving the door wide open so the song is loud and clear from the damn kitchen. Thankfully, most of the other tenets here are already gone. Plus, either way, we are all very familiar with Frankie's antics.

Kalani comes out of her room as I'm halfway down the hallway and shuts her door, rolling her eyes and smiling as she slips her phone into her back pocket. We both head into the kitchen and the song cuts off suddenly, and a few seconds later, Frankie is skipping down the hallway with his black shorts and completely unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt adorning his body.

"Channeling your inner frat boy?" Kalani remarks.

"If I was going for frat boy, this shirt would be stained and I would've skipped my skincare routine. And that is not the case."

"Okay, let's go!" I urge them on.

"We're going!" Both of them say at the same time.

I'm antsy to get going because, like I said, I've never been to one of these things before. I'm just looking forward to it. I also am so hungry, and the faster we get there, the faster I get to– hopefully– eat, and the risk of me becoming hangry is much less.

"Are we walking or driving?" Frankie asks.

"It's, like, a three minute walk to north campus." Kalani responds.

"But it's humid!" Frankie groans dramatically.

"I think you'll live to see another day." I say.

It takes maybe five minutes to walk through campus and come up on the gathering crowd; there's no huge fire yet but I can smell one burning. With time and as the sun continues to set, there will be half the student population here and you'll be able to roast a marshmallow from fifty feet away from the fire.

"Okay, where's Jones?" I ask sort of rhetorically as we approach the grass.

"Probably somewhere with four beers in hand." Frankie chuckles.

We start to weave our way through so many people on the grass, all sipping from red solo cups and laughing enthusiastically. Some have wet hair, so I assume they've come from the beach. It's decently dark already so it's kind of hard to see, but it would be much harder if it weren't for the fire building up. I actually have no idea what it's for, if anything– the fire, that is– but I honestly don't think it matters. This is probably just an excuse to drink.

"I see him, he's over here." Kalani raises her voice slightly over the music. Frankie and I begin to follow her and she takes us in a different direction, and I have no idea how she spotted Jones in the midst of all this.