PICTURED: Isobel Giles
If Gia stabbed me in the eyeball with her eyeliner one more time I was going to kill her.
Despite my protests, she still insisted I should be grateful that she was offering her expertise to make me look good for the party. It wasn't like a pair of wings across my eyelids would miraculously make me confident, though.
"Hey, you guys should try this tequila my sister bought me for graduation last year," Isobel said, not hesitating to enter my room with a handful of shot glasses. Maybe makeup wouldn't help my confidence, but alcohol sure stood a chance.
When my chest was warm and my eyes were framed with black we made our way down the staircase and towards our destination, Echo, a club just off of campus. On any regular night, it would most likely be dead. We weren't exactly in a big city, and even though the young-people population was substantial because of the university it still didn't hold enough to fuel a busy clubbing industry regularly.
Tonight though, was the annual start of semester party, designed for all the new and returning students to socialise. All of our friends were going, Isaac included.
The three of us linked arms, trudging down the darkened streets, the footpaths wet with evening dew. The sound of crickets was loud around us, the surrounding national park housing an abundance of insects and wildlife.
Outside, club Echo barely looked like a club. But, after following vague instructions and travelling down a staircase beneath what looked like a general store, sure enough, clusters of teenagers greeted us. As soon as we entered the club I shed my jacket, the humidity striking me despite how cool the air had been outside.
"Want to get drinks?" Gia asked. I sensed Isobel was at least a little inexperienced as I was, her arm hung awkwardly above the elbow of her other.
"Sure," I said, amplifying my voice as much as possible so it would carry over the music.
Gia grinned and led us towards the bar, her hips swaying a little to the beat. Since when did she frequent a club enough to be so comfortable?
There were already plenty of people around, most hanging in groups and sipping drinks, some taking shots and tapping their glasses together in booths. The place was pretty fancy, the decor taking a trend with crystals. Chandelier's, which looked like they were worth a lot less than they first appeared, dangled on the high ceilings above us, surrounded by coloured strobe lights.
The dance floor was large and tiled, holding a few different levels. I could already see a bunch of drunk girls swaying upon a platform which seemed too high to be safe, and I smiled to myself. Even though they were clearly heavily intoxicated, they looked like they were having so much fun.
Just as Gia had ordered us a round of drinks, the rest of the group found us, Gia and Bel already embracing them. I hovered on the edge a little awkwardly before a girl, Kate, who I'd exchanged a handful of words with, pulled me into a welcoming hug. I was relieved with the contact.
And then I locked eyes with Isaac, and instead of cowering away, I decided to push my confidence and met his gaze evenly, before an embarrassed smile crept onto my face and I was forced to look away. Somehow, word that he could like me was giving me some hope that I could flirt with him. It was probably destined to end terribly.
Then I felt Isobel's elbow dig into my waist as she raised her eyebrows in an enthusiastic gesture, heating my cheeks even further. This would not be easy if they were going to make a big deal of it.
We milled by the bar for a while, ordering more and more drinks. I was shielded from the group by Gia and Isobel, which gave me the opportunity to just watch the interactions before me rather than try and embarrass myself by participating.
"Aspen, bathroom?" Isobel asked, her arm already linked with Gia's. I nodded briskly, grabbing her other as we wormed through the clusters of people. The crowd had doubled since I'd last looked around, it was thick with students.
"I can't believe Aaron thinks I'm drunk already," Isobel said as soon as we entered the girl's bathroom, the music muted as the door closed behind us.
"You're totally not," Gia said. "He's just being a douche because he's not allowed in our room with the college rules."
"It's totally not fair!" Isobel whined. "That woman at the building reception desk just hates us."
Gia rolled her eyes dramatically. "Oh come on, they're just rules, Bel. You just have to be sneakier at breaking them. Right, Aspen?"
"Totally," I said. The three of us spread apart to let a few girls past to use the toilets.
"Okay, so, can I talk about me for a second?" Gia asked, distracting Isobel enough to smooth out her pissed off expression.
"Sure, go," I said. "But I really need to pee."
Gia feigned an impatient look. "I found this girl I really like."
"Really?" I said, my grin matching Bel's from across from me.
"She's in my French class. We're meeting here tonight."
"That's great! What's she like?" I asked.
Gia gave me a tipsy look, her cheeks flushed red from the alcohol. "She's definitely gay, if that's what you mean."
I rolled my eyes. "I mean, as a person."
"As a person, I don't know yet. But she's hot," she said.
Isobel and I laughed and my bladder's overcapacity finally won out and I left to use a toilet stall. Gia had never had a girlfriend before, as far as Bel and I were aware. Her parents never approved of her sexuality and living in a small town didn't help the dating pool.
When we returned back to the bar we saw that the others had already moved towards the dance floor. Dancing wasn't my expertise, despite how much I tried, but by ordering another drink I had the opportunity to do something with my hands instead of standing their awkwardly.
"It's good to see you out"
My clumsy hands almost succeeded in throwing my drink to the floor, but some internal force within me managed to pull me together enough to give Isaac a smile. "You too."
"How have you been settling in?" he asked, ducking his head close to my ear so his voice would carry through the loud music.
"Pretty good, how about you?" I asked, already worrying that my conversation was too boring.
"Good. What's your favourite class so far?"
His mentioning of classes brought the horrified feeling back of my memory deficiency. I'd managed to stuff the confusion to the back of my mind in order to enjoy myself tonight, and his reminder only made me switch into panic mode again.
"Um, chemistry," I said, saying the first class that popped into my mind. "Which is yours?"
He gave a smile, possibly mistaking my drop in demeanour as some kind of flirty shyness. "Probably politics. We spend a lot of time arguing in that class."
"You guys want drinks?" A voice said loudly, interrupting our conversation. I recognized Evan, the red head.
Isaac nodded and I did the same, and then the whole group of us shuffled back towards the bar. From there, the girls caught me again and Isobel and I danced together as Gia went off to meet her mystery girl.
"I wonder what she's like," Isobel slurred. The alcohol she'd consumed had clearly started to settle into her system.
"Me too. I wonder what Gia's type is," I said, mostly humouring her thirst for conversation as we swayed our hips and raised our arms at appropriate moments. Over her shoulder, I met Isaac's gaze, and he smiled, creasing the corners of my own lips in response.
"Bad girls, for sure," Isobel said, shifting her eyes around us as if worried that someone might overhear. "But I think she is a bad girl herself. So maybe it's innocent ones who she can corrupt. I don't know, she's never had a girlfriend before now."
I laughed at her theory, just as a solid pair of arms gripped around my dancing partner and pulled her into his arms, whispering in her ears.
Isobel's eyes became dreamy as she hooked onto everything Aaron said, and I wasn't surprised when she waved me off to go and join him to do god knows what.
I meandered back to the side of the dance floor. It was almost midnight according to the time on my phone, and I looked to what members of our scattered group were visible through the huge amount of people surrounding me. It didn't look like we'd be winding up the night anytime soon.
A hand on my shoulder alerted me that Isaac had found me again. I couldn't help the grin which lit up on my face at the giddy feeling he erupted within my chest.
"How are you going?" he asked.
"Good," I said, my breath hard to find in the confined club. The heat and humidity didn't help, a thin sheen of sweat coating my chest from dancing. "I could use some air though."
"Me too," he said, and then his hand was on my back guiding me through to crowd. He was so tall, people seemed to part for him when the sensed him nearby.
The cold air was such a contrast to the heat within the club that it almost brought a burning sensation to my skin, especially because my jacket was still hanging in the cloak room.
"I don't know where Gia and Bel have disappeared to," I said, filling the space between us with words.
"I don't know where my roommates are either," he admitted, his smile sweet. "But I'm kinda ready to leave already."
"Not really your scene?" I asked, my eyes flitting back to the club's entrance. He shook his head. "Mine either. This is the first time I've even been to a club."
"Really?" he asked, surprised. "I knew you lived in the middle of nowhere but I didn't realise you'd been that isolated."
I rolled my eyes at his attempted dig, glad at how easily I was handling his banter. It must have been the alcohol finally kicking in. "We don't exactly have night clubs in the countryside."
He laughed, his breath coming out in icy tufts of steam.
"I get you though," I said quickly, with a sheepish smile. "I'm kind of ready to go home too."
"Would you like me to walk you back?" he asked.
I hesitated, my stomach doing little somersaults within my abdomen. "Sure."
We kind of stood there for a moment, our gazes playing games of meeting and then looking away. "I'll go get my jacket."
I disappeared back into the haze of people, trying to scout out Gia or Bel to let them know I was going. But neither of them were anywhere to be seen, so I decided to just text them when I was home instead.
Isaac was where I'd left him, his smile wide when he saw me exit the club. I wrapped my leather jacket over my shoulders and we started walking down the paved path which led through a park and back to the campus.
"So you said you weren't that isolated back at home," Isaac said. "What was it like growing up on a farm?"
"That's a very broad question," I pointed out. "But, I guess it was kind of lonely. I have a brother, but our friendship could be a little... violent at times."
Isaac laughed, bringing goosebumps to my skin. "Sibling relationships at their best."
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" I asked. I hugged my jacket further over my torso. The path wasn't well illuminated, and my attention was trained on each step I took so I wouldn't trip over a stray branch.
He shook his head. "A few cousins, but I'm an only child."
"Oh, okay."
"I made friends with my neighbours as a kid," he said. "We were probably just as close as siblings."
I nodded, and our conversation fell silent for a few minutes. It was quiet, the sound of the distant club now muted. All I could hear was his breathing beside me and the fall of our feet on the ground. I could see the lights of my building ahead of us, though, and knew our walk was coming to an end.
"I'll see you Monday morning, I guess," I said, shyly, unsure where we really stood. Clearly, we both had some kind of interest in each other. I wasn't sure if that put us as friends or something more at this stage.
"Uh, maybe not morning," Isaac said, reaching to scratch the back of his head. "Can't say I've been very punctual lately. I haven't made it to psychology since the first lecture, I'll have to catch up on the content before I go back to them."
"Oh, really?" I asked, slightly amused, and also grateful that I wasn't the only one missing out on psychology at the moment. "I'll see you sometime then."
"I hope so," he said, a mocked panicked expression on his face. "I don't know if I could make it to anthropology on my own."
I smiled, his words stirring a lifting sensation in my chest. "Well I'll make sure to find you then."
"Have a good sleep, Aspen," he said, his eyes twinkling in the light cast by a nearby street light.
For a moment, I was sure he was going to lean forward and kiss me, and my senses went absolutely haywire. But, when he leaned forward, he simply found my hand. His was warm around mine as he squeezed it, in an intimate kind of way, before dropping it gently and taking a step back.
"You too," I said, the quietness of my voice carrying through the silent night. He gave me one more charming smile before turning away and walking towards the forest, in the direction he'd said his building was.
As soon as I'd climbed the stairs and entered my apartment I shook away the giddiness I felt and turned on the heating. I was on a high from my conversation with Isaac, the memory of it exhilarating. I couldn't wait to tell Gia and Isobel everything.
I went to my bedroom, turning on each light as I went, not liking the idea of a dark apartment while I was here alone. Just as I had taken off my jacket and was reaching for my cotton pyjama shirt, I heard a faint patting noise from the bathroom.
I froze, waiting in silence to hear if the noise would repeat itself. Given everything happening with psychology lately I wouldn't be surprised if my mind was playing even more tricks on me.
I'm going crazy.
Then I heard it again. The sound of wet feet against tile.
My breathing hitched and I immediately reached for my phone, as some form of protection. I could call the police. If someone was in our apartment, it would be easy to get security up here to help.
There was no way I could hide. If someone was in here, they would have heard me turn on the lights and heating. They were definitely aware of my presence.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. It might not be an intruder at all. It could have just been a leaking tap making funny noises on the sink. Or my imagination. That was still a big possibility. I couldn't call the authorities just yet.
Clumsily, I moved to my doorway, the rest of the hall containing Gia and Bel's room as well as the bathroom still darkened. The bathroom door though, was not undisturbed. It was about halfway open.
Without thinking too much of the repercussions, I took a deep breath, controlling my breathing as best as possible to form a voice. "Hello?"
There was more padding on the tiles. A wet, slippery sound.
And then I swear I saw a flash of tangled, black hair.
"Gia?"
There were more footsteps, as if she was circling the bathroom. Adrenaline sunk in, and my frozen fear was abandoned as I crossed the hallway and opened the bathroom door.
My mouth opened, ready to scream, to call for help, demand her to tell me exactly who had done this to her. But nothing came out. I was frozen in place as I took in my best friend.
She was standing in the middle of the room, her expression slack and her eyes so hauntingly cold it froze me to my core. Her hair was matted, leaves and dirt caking what had been combed and perfectly groomed strands only hours earlier. But that wasn't the most horrifying feature of her appearance.
Her whole body was covered in splatters and stains of black. She was covered in so much blood, it was thick and layered so darkly that it looked like ink. It was all over her fingers, thick around her wrists and heavy on her torso, other stains marring her pale white skin.
"Gia." My voice was gravelly, my mind hysterically processing her horrifying state. I needed to call her an ambulance, to make sure she was okay.
But all we could do was stand there, her expression cold, and mine completely terrified.