Masked

Chapter Three

We finished getting ready and walked across campus to one of the student off campus housing apartments nearby. I wanted to live in one of them since the rooms are so much nicer and slightly cheaper than living on campus, but freshmen were required to live on campus unfortunately. Next year, however, nothing was stopping me from having my own room with a full sized bed.

We walked up to one of the doors on the side of the building and Yaël pulled out her phone.

"Hey Hachi, we're at the door. Can you let us in?....yeah the one at the side," she spoke softly.

"Who is Hachi?" I whispered to Athalia.

"That's Yaël's twin brother I think. I heard Hachi isn't actually his name, just a nickname everybody calls him," Athalia whispered back.

Just a nickname? Going to a "pregame" was enough mystery for me, let alone the fact that we're about to enter an apartment of some "mystery man". I started getting a bit fidgety, pulling down the dress Yaël gave me to wear for tonight.

The door opened and a bearded man appeared.

"Yall ladies look good, come on. We just got the drinks ready," Hachi complimented, looking at each of us with a grin.

We walked into the building and hopped on the elevator. Hachi and Yaël were talking about the drinks being provided. I just stood at the corner of the elevator quietly. I guess by drinks they meant alcohol. I wasn't sure how to feel about my first underage drinking experience but I didn't want to ruin the mood by not drinking.

We finally made it to the apartment which I could hear from the elevator. They had the music blasting from a speaker. We walked in and I began to recognize some of the people from the group chat. There was Jules, Jiro, and Ike pouring themselves some drinks. Anaya, Brianna, and Naima were dancing near them. Tati and Dante seemed to be immersed in conversation.

"Hey let us through too!" a voice exclaimed from behind us. It was Jovan and he had Lucian and Phoenix with him. The whole chat was in here. My eyes did a sweep of the room at everybody's outfits. They really took the "bad and boujee" theme and ran with it. All the girls' had the makeup done to perfection. The guys' outfits were crisp like the dollar bills they portrayed themselves to make.

"Get yourselves a drink ladies, we're getting LIT," Phoenix shouted.

I was handed a full cup by Athalia who was laughing at all the shenanigans the group was getting into. Girls were twerking. Some of the guys were mixing more drinks. Everybody seemed to be having a good time.

"Take a sip Mar, it doesn't taste bad I swear. It's like drinking an innocent cup of juice," Athalia tried to reassure me. I looked at her skeptically, but took my first sip. It did taste like juice, but the alcohol burned as it went down my throat.

"That's it, a few more sips sis! Come on yall! It's Marsai's FIRST drink!" Athalia shouted.

Everybody started crowding around me, encouraging me to keep drinking the liquid until the cup was empty.

"See? It wasn't that bad right? Here, eat something real quick. You don't wanna drink on an empty stomach," Athalia giggled. Her words were a little slurred, but so were my thoughts.

The pregame continued as people kept drinking. I started feeling very loose, like I was invincible. I began dancing with girls while drinking more and more. It was the most fun I had since starting college a few weeks ago.

"Aye! Y'all ready to go? It's already almost 11pm, and you know they like to end plaza by 1am. We'll come back after," shouted Hachi, walking towards the door.

We all started heading down towards the party, but for me, it was more like stumbling. I was definitely drunk.

"Hey girl, get it together. You won't be let in if they suspect you're drunk," Yaël whispered to me. I nodded and tried my best to walk properly. I wasn't sure how well I was doing, but we all managed to get in without any suspicion, so I think I did pretty well.

Plaza was more insane than I thought. The group was right. People went all out for their outfits for this party. I thought we looked amazing, but the amount of brand names I saw was ridiculous.

"Come on baby girl, let's dance," Jovan said in my ear. I just giggled stupidly and let him pull me in by the arm. I wasn't very aware of what I was doing, but I was getting some cheers so I just kept doing whatever. I definitely wasn't going to remember any of this in the morning.

The night continued on and the next thing I remember is seeing Jules strolling with her sorority sisters.

"OKAY I SEE YOU JULES," screamed Tati, recording Jules on her snapchat.

That's when I blacked out.

When I woke up, it was no longer at the party. I was lying in a bed that definitely was not my own. I felt movement to my side and noticed there was another person laying in the bed with me. I got up from the bed and ran into the bathroom of this person's bedroom. By the contents of the bathroom, I was definitely in a man's room. I just didn't know who.

"That's the first and last time I ever drink," I whispered to myself. This would be a lie. I used the bathroom real quick and headed back into the bedroom to try and find my phone. I had no idea what time it was but it had to be sometime during the day.

I found it amongst my clothes on the ground. That's when I realized I wasn't wearing the dress I wore last night. Just a large tshirt.

I looked at the body in the bed, down at myself and immediately panicked. Was last night just a night of firsts?! I froze when the body rolled over facing me. His eyes were still closed, but the rest of his face was still covered so I couldn't tell who it was.

He stretched his arms above his head and that's when I finally saw his face. It was Phoenix from the group chat.

"At least it wasn't some random stranger," I thought to myself.

His eyes opened slowly as he felt around his bed. They immediately found mine, and I heard him sigh with relief.

"Good morning to you too," he mumbled, sitting up in his bed.

"Um, good morning...why am I in your room?" I asked hesitantly.

"You don't remember what happened last night?" he replied. I shook my head no. I had no recollection from the night.

"Honestly, the last thing I remember was seeing Jules stroll, but even that's a bit fuzzy," I chuckled nervously.

"Well, you blacked out while she was strolling. Thankfully, two of the girls were able to catch you. We went to the closest dorm building to get you some water and try and wake you up. Eventually you did, but you were super drunk still. We tried sobering you up, but nothing worked. So the girls changed you out of your clothes, and put you in my bed. You've been asleep till now, and its...."

He grabbed his phone and looked at the time.

"It's 11:30am."

"11:30?! Oh I'm so sorry," I apologized while grabbing all of my stuff.
"Aye, don't worry about it, but if you don't mind, I'm going back to sleep. If you're leaving, you can just close the door behind you," he grumbled while laying back down in his bed.

I immediately took off towards my room.