Chapter 5
“Did I tell you or what?” Savannah yelled into my ear as she draped her arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer to her. The small gesture caused my red solo cup to tilt and splash all over some random guy who had passed by.
He didn’t even feel as the beer soaked into his sweater. I formed an ‘o’ with my mouth and giggled as I watched him push his way through the crowd, further away from where my best friend and I stood.
“Holland,” Savannah pressed, her hot breath hit my cheek and I turned to face her, a wide eyed expression had taken over my face.
“What?” I asked a bit confused.
What were we talking about again?
“Didn’t I tell you this party was going to be awesome?!”
I stared at my best friend, and felt a goofy smile take over my face. “Nope,” I began as I swayed on my feet. “You said you had a feeling we were going to end the year with a bang!”
It took her awhile before she replied, her words slurred together.
“You want to bang?” she asked, her big eyes grew wide and suddenly her eyebrows furrowed together. “I don’t roll like that, babe! I’m strictly dick-ily.”
In my state, instead of retaliating with a smartass comment, I stared at my best friend and busted out laughing. I barked out a laugh and threw my head back. Although the music was pretty damn loud, a few people looked over and gave us odd stares but I didn’t care. I was having fun, and they could go and shag themselves for all I cared.
What my best friend had said was the most hilarious thing I had heard in forever.
“Nooooo,” I gasped out through my laughing fit. “I said that you said that you had a fee-,” I stopped and gave her an odd look, my fit of laughter stopped and suddenly I was as serious as ever. “Wait, did you just quote that gay guy from Friends with Benefits?”
Savannah stared at me and tilted her head to the side in a way that reminded me of a confused puppy. “You and Isaac made a movie?” she gasped before she busted out in a fit of laughter. Soon enough we were both laughing in hysterias to the point where I had lost my empty cup and my best friend and I were holding on to each other as if our lives depended on it.
And although I was drunk off my ass, the small sober part in the back of my mind was shaking her head at me, mumbling, “You drunk bitch.”
++
Sometime between ten forty-five and eleven thirty, I had sobered up a bit. After Luke had stolen my best friend while I wasn’t looking, I found it pointless to drink anymore. It wasn’t as much fun doing it alone. If I had continued drink all on my own, Savannah would probably find me sitting alone in some empty room staring off into space as I thought about the last two years of my life.
So instead of drinking straight from the liquor bottle, I drank out of bottled waters. I was dehydrated which meant I was thirsty as hell and within two gulps I had finished yet again another water bottle and heading into the kitchen to grab another one.
Since Luke had whisked away Savannah, I was forced to walk around the enormous Frat house that I hadn’t been in before. At first, I had been in search for a bathroom but after I realized they were all occupied, I began to look for Isaac. I had seen him earlier when Savannah and I were drowning our livers and kidneys with the amount of liquor we were consuming but in my drunken state I hadn’t thought much of it. I had given him a military salute and winked at him before I turned back to my best friend who had been trying to convince some guy to do the Chicken Dance. Now, when I was in search for him he was nowhere to be found, so after searching both up and downstairs, I gave up and decided I was long overdue for a smoke.
Outside was no better than inside. Bodies crowded the back patio just as much as they did inside the house. Laughter and conversations filled the air; the only difference out here was that the music wasn’t as loud, so conversations could actually be held without having to scream into the person’s ear. A few people I knew- mostly friends of Isaac’s of Luke’s- waved me over but I shook my head and held up my box of cigarettes.
I needed a smoke.
As I descended down the three stairs off of the deck, I was too busy fishing out my lighter from my jean skirt pocket to realize that someone was walking also. Before I could move over, we collided with each other.
“Shit,” a deep voice said as he reached out and steadied me on my feet. “My bad, I didn’t see you.”
“Obviously,” I retorted, a bit annoyed. My head began to hurt, and I had a feeling it had something to do with the fact that I had walked into him head first into his chest- his abnormally hard chest. Were all guys chest that freaking hard?
The guy chuckled and I looked up.
I froze, and it wasn’t because he was just that handsome or just that ugly, I froze because I knew him. I fucking knew him. His light brown, almost blonde hair that was once so incredibly curly was cut short, almost like a buzz cut. His light eyes shimmered in the moonlight and the yellow lights that surrounded the deck somehow were now shinning down on the both of us.
I saw a flicker of reorganization flash in his eyes the playful smirk that had been there seconds before was long gone. He took a step back and cleared his throat, as if trying to clear something that had lodged itself in his pipe.
“Holland? Holland Sawyer?” My name slipped off his tongue and through his lips like liquid as if he had been saying my name for years. He had stuffed his hands into his front jean pockets as he had said my name, and he stood a foot away awkwardly.
“Grey Mathews,” I replied, his name passing dry lips slow and hesitant.
Well. I did not expect to ever see him again.
++
My urge to smoke a cigarette had disappeared the moment I ran into Grey. Instead of the irritating need to feel smoke fill my lungs, the urge to grab the nearest bottle of beer had taken over. The urge to feel the familiar buzzing inside my head was stronger than my need to pee half an hour ago.
Want to know something more awkward than running into someone from your past and not knowing how the hell to act? Well how about the fact that while you two stood there completely still, everyone around you was kissing someone in celebration of the New Year.
Now, that was awkward.
I cleared my throat, which should have gone unnoticed since everyone around us was yelling and laughing at the top of their lungs, but the moment the sound was made deep down in my throat, Grey’s piercing gaze was focused on me.
The corners of his lips twitched up as his tongue darted out and quickly moistened his plump lips. “Happy New Year’s Holly,”
Was it possible for your stomach to fall into your ass? Because if it wasn’t it was now. I felt my stomach flip and turn violently, my throat went dry and my heartbeat quickened.
Holly.
That bloody nickname.
Though on the inside I was freaking out on the inside more than a Justin Beiber fan meeting him for the first time, on the outside I was calm as ever.
“Holland,” I corrected him. “No one calls me that anymore.” I added.
Not since before…
The small smile quickly vanished and confusion was replaced in Grey’s eyes, “Oh.”
I shoved my hands into my jacket pockets and nodded. I had so many questions running through my mind, it was hard to keep them all in order, and before I knew it, the one question I kept asking myself slipped through my lips and out into the thick air around us.
“When did you get back?”
“A few weeks ago,” he replied slowly as he studied me head to toe.
When I was fourteen, Grey had been deployed to Germany. He had joined the Army a few months before he had graduated high school and as soon as he had his diploma in his hands, he had left. It was after his leaving that things had started to fall apart at home.
Grey was four years older than me. He had been dating my older sister at the time. He was also my older brother’s best friend.
“You look different,” he mumbled, the words tumbling out before he had the chance to think them over and fix the way they had sounded as they slipped off his tongue.
The way he had said it, it made it sound like a bad thing. Wasn’t different supposed to be good?
“It has been four years,” I replied, my words clipped.
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way,” Grey began but I wasn’t hearing any of it.
I rolled my eyes and turned around, throwing a ‘see you around’ over my shoulder before I slipped into the crowd and into the house.
Screw the bottle of beer. I need vodka.