Bad Reputation ; s.m.

1

I laid on my bed staring at the celling, contemplating what to do with my Saturday night. My phone buzzed three separate times. I quickly picked it up and looked at the notifications.

Party at Andrea's. 11pm

All three messages said basically the same thing just in slightly different wording. I sat on by bed feeling confused. No one ever invited me to parties. I always assumed it was because I didn't do sports or really have an 'cool' friends. Most of my time was spent studying or working at the local coffee shop, I had to get to college somehow. My first party invite and it was to a party being held by the most 'popular' girl in my school. I usually didn't care much for the popular kids, they weren't any better then anyone else in this shitty school. But every time I saw Andrea I couldn't help but stop and stair. She was so gorgeous. I've never had the balls to ever talk to her, she probably wouldn't ever give a guy like me a second glance. We've never even spoke and now I was invited to her party.

At any given time there was probably three or more rumors about Andrea going around school. Some of them were so outrageous but others seemed almost believable.

After clearing the three messages and not responding I called my best friend Jack.

"Hey what's up man," Johnson asked as soon as he picked up the phone.

"Are you going to Andrea's party tonight?"

"What party? Wait. You got invited and I didn't. What the fuck," Jack jokingly acted angry.

"Well I guess you can be my plus one then."

"What time are you picking me up?"

"Uh how about 10:30?"

"Okay its a date. See you then babe," Jack said in a mocking tone. I made a fake puking noise before laughing and hanging up.

I threw my phone on by bed then headed to the shower. Not even the gentle mist of water and soulful voice of John Mayer could calm me down. What if I was only being invited to the party to be make fun of. What if it was like in the movies where the geeks get publicly humiliated in front of their whole grade. But what if I don't go and it was a real party. Then I would've just missed the only party I will probably ever been invited to and be an even bigger loser.

I turned toward the shower head letting the water run over my face one last time before I got out. I grabbed a towel and viciously ran it through my hair then rubbed it over my body. Once I returned to my room I walked into my closet. After who knows how long I sat on my floor feeling defeated. My closet mostly consist of a variety of flannels, a limited pair of skinny jeans, and sweatpants/joggers. Definitely not party attire.

"Ugh," I groaned in frustration.

I stood up for one last look through my closet. After flipping through a bunch of my flannels I found a tight fitting V-neck long sleeve tee shirt. I grabbed a pair of skinny jeans that weren't ripped and slid them on then I put on the grey shirt. Once all my clothes were on I slipped on a pair of socks and black ankle length boots.

I rummaged through my bath room drawers looking for any type of hair gel. The last time I used hair gel was for the first day of freshman year. That's when I thought I could be cool in high school once I realized that there was no way I was going to be 'cool' I stopped caring what I looked like. I would wake up in the morning, roll out of bed and go to school.

"Dad where is your hair gel," I yelled from the bathroom to my father who was downstairs.

"The bathroom in my room," he yelled back.

I jogged downstairs to the bathroom, passing my family who were all sitting at the kitchen table. The hair gel was sitting on the counter top, front and center. I dipped my fingers in the container not knowing how much was too much. I ran the small amount through my hair and spiked it up. After running my hand through my hair what seemed like thousands of times I decided it looked good enough. I walked back into the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water.

"What are you wearing," my sister Aaliyah chuckled.

I looked at both of my parents who weren't paying attention to us before I help up my middle finger and mouthing fuck off to Aaliyah. Her mouth dropped to the floor in shock.

"Mom shawn just flipped me off," she whinned.

"No I didn't," I rolled my eyes and turned toward the stairs.

"Shawn be nice to your sister," My dad yelled to me.

I sprayed a layer of axe cologne on before grabbing my phone and looking at the time. To my surprise I had more text notifications.

Where the fuck are you

Dude hurry up

I don't want to be late

You're the worst date.

Chill. I'm leaving now. I texted Johnson back. It was only 10:40 and he had his underwear in a twist. I walked down stairs and headed directly to the front door.

"I'll be back before 1," I yelled to my family. I closed the door and got into my car before they would stop me. My parents were pretty lenient when I wanted to hang out with my friends. That was probably because I never got into any trouble and I've hung out with the same people since I was three. I'm not sure how they would feel about me going to a party where people would be drinking. They were pretty straight edge and probably wouldn't want me doing anything that could possibly harm me. I've never drank before so I don't know how much of a lightweight I would be so I decided I should probably take it easy.

"About time," Jack said impatiently as he got into the passanger side of my Jeep.

"Calm down. Its not like anyones going to know we are there anyways, this was probably just a pitty invite."

That shut Johnson right up, the rest of the car ride to Andrea's was quiet.

"Holy shit," I mumbled as I saw cars lined up the street. The only spot I could find to park in was three or four blocks away, I took what I could get. Jack and I got out of the Jeep and started toward the house that was swarming with people.