Cool Girl

10: Seniors Meetup

Dad has a meeting with his board of directors the night of the class meetup. Adam agrees to meet me at the Aaron Limited offices since his father will be at the meeting too and then we can head to the party together from there.

I decide on a brown silk top over a black skirt and a pair of pretty brown sandals with a short block heel. And of course, my Hazel tree necklace to complete the look. I've just set down my curling iron when I hear a knock on the door. I grab my little black purse and wear it across my body which already has my belongings in it and answer the door to find a helper outside.

"Sir, is waiting for you downstairs." She informs me and I leave the room to meet dad.

"Ready?" He asks, when he sees me walk down the stairs.

"Yes." I say and we call out goodbye to Sebastian who is in the living room with two of his school friends. Mom is still at work so on the drive to dad's office I send her a message to let her know that we've left the house.

When we get to the office, Jeremy or Jemmy as I call him, dad's secretary, is waiting by the entrance.

"Hi Jemmy." I say as I give him a hug.

"Long time no see. How was UCLA?" He asks and then looks at dad who says, "She's dating Bryant's son."

"You leave for summer school and return with a boyfriend? Awesome." Jemmy holds up a hand for a high five which makes me laugh but I clap his hand anyways.

"You're not being a good influence." Dad says, looking up from his phone.

"Doesn't matter because I spot your boyfriend walking up to us." Jeremy says and sure enough when I look behind me, Adam and his father are walking in through the building's automatic doors.

"Hi." I say as they reach us.

"Hey." Adam smiles at me and then looks to dad, "Hello Mr. Aaron."

"Hello Adam." Dad returns the greeting and walks away with Mr. Davis and Jeremy follows them after giving me an exaggerated wink that makes me laugh.

"What?" Adam asks.

"Nothing." I shake my head, "Just something we were talking about."

"I thought Aaron Limited's New York office was amazing, this is marvelous." Adam looks bewitched by his surroundings. "It's amazing that there are twenty headquarters like these all over the world."

"When mom started working with WILLIS + PERKINS again, dad used to bring Sebastian here with him until he started attending play dates. Ben and I were allowed to come here whenever we had no homework, which was rare but we always used to get so excited about it." I smile at all the memories of hide and seeks and tags that we played here.

"Fond memories?" Adam smiles at me.

I nod, "Very much."

I close the distance between us and kiss him. Thankfully, the lobby's empty or we would be the new office gossip by tomorrow morning.

"Shall we head out?" I ask and Adam nods.

The driver who drove dad and me here is waiting with the car in the parking lot to drive us to the bar where the party is.

When we reach our destination, the driver stops the car outside the bar's entrance and Adam steps out first before holding out a hand to help me out. I clutch his hand as we give in our names to the bouncer outside and he lets us in. Since it is an underage party, there's no need for IDs and the whole bar is booked so no one except those on the list will be let in.

We're half an hour late so the bar is full with fellow seniors. I spot Liam talking to some of his debate teammates.

"Liam!" I call out over the music.

"Hey Hazel!" He says back, pulling me into a hug and then turns to Adam to holds up his hands, "I'm good without a hug."

"Now that you've said that", Liam reaches out and pulls Adam into a hug too.

"What is going on here?" I hear Ben ask from behind me.

"Just welcoming the newbie." One of the guys from the debate team says.

"Okay, enough." I tap Liam's arm and he lets go of Adam.

"We're seniors baby!" Someone shouts from among the crowd and the bar fills up with cheers, claps and hoots.

Adam laughs and looks at me, "Please tell me school will be this cool."

"It'll be fun. Come on, I'll introduce to some of the people from last year's soccer team." Ben says then looks at me, "If it's okay with you."

"Go on. I'm going to catch up with the others." I tell them and they walk away from me.

"Hazel! Was that your boyfriend?" I hear my friend Angelina ask as she appears in front of me.

I nod, "Yeah that was Adam. Also, hi! How was summer break?"

She shakes her head, "I worked at the local Starbucks. I can proudly say I've been yelled at, complained about and almost fired. But from your Snapchat stories, your summer was definitely more eventful than mine."

"I mean, I'm dating aren't I?" I shrug.

"After what? Freshman year? And that was one date! I'm so glad that you finally have your first official boyfriend!" She squeals, taking hold of my shoulders and shaking me.

"I really like Adam." I tell her as Angelina tilts her head to one side and smiles, "Well, I'm glad to hear that and now we need to catch with the other girls. Let's go!"

"There you are." Adam finds me forty minutes later at the bar, sipping on a Coke can.

"Yeah. I just needed a break from all the talking and standing." I say, setting down the Coke.

Adam places his hands on either side of my body, bracing them against the bar behind me and kisses me. I place a hand on his cheek so that he doesn't pull away. When he finally does, I'm left gasping for air.

"That was nice." Adam smiles at me.

I blush as I meet his eyes. Before I can say anything, Liam finds us and invites us to join him and the others at the dance floor.

"Shall we?" Adam holds out a hand and I take it as I hop off the bar stool and let him lead me to the dance floor with Liam leading the way.

The dance floor is packed with people and I spot several familiar faces who I wave to and they wave back in greeting. Ben takes my hand and twirls me around and before I know it we're following the same dance routine that we've followed since we were five.

Halfway into the song, Ash emerges from the crowd and takes Adam's arm as they waltz around the rest of us. An hour of dancing later, I begin to feel light headed and tell the others that I'm stepping out onto the street for some fresh air.

A few minutes later Adam joins me where I'm sitting on the steps of a closed boutique.

"Feeling better?" He asks.

I hold up the half empty can of cold Coke that I grabbed from the bartender, "Just the humidity and warmth in there."

After a moment of silence, he says, "Thanks for inviting me along tonight."

I look up from the can in my hands, "You're a Rushmore Academy senior, you were invited."

"But it's your friends that made sure I had a good time." He smiles.

"I'm glad you had fun." I smile back and then rest my head on his shoulder as we look out at the road in front of us where cars zoom past into the night.