It was a Friday evening, and the late fall weather was hitting us pretty hard. Here in New York, it's always a little colder since we're up north. Fall is my favorite season. I like the way the colors shine on the trees in the morning and in the afternoon. It makes the trees look full of life. And there's a hint of gold on the tree if you caught the sunset at just the right moment. Luckily for me, my walk home from school starts at the perfect time to see it.
"Jessie? Jess where are you?" a familiar voice called out. I knew instantly it was Justin.
"I'm over here!" I yelled back.
"Oh, there you are." He ran his fingers through his hair and smiled.
"What's up?" I asked.
He stuck in hands in his pockets, I could tell he looked nervous. "There's a party tonight and I was wondering if you would go with me?"
I laughed, "Hah forget it! I have an essay for Mr. Dime, and it's a 100-point grade. You should be doing it tonight as well Mr. Donner. Besides, you know parties aren't really my thing."
"Oh, come on Jess, it's the weekend, we have Saturday and Sunday to do the stupid essay. I really need a date to this party, at least, until I find a someone there that I like. Then you can go or you could hang out and try to find a guy who will maybe like you." He joked. But it felt like a slap in the face.
"Justin, I told you I can't and you're never going to get into your dream college if you act this way about 'stupid essays'. They won't even consider your application." I snapped mocking him.
"My grades will be more than enough for Yale by the time I have to send in applications. In fact, they will be begging me to go there." He is so smug it is annoying. I roll my eyes at him.
"Please Jess?" he begs further giving me his puppy dog eyes. Who could say no to his gorgeous blue eyes? It was hard for anyone to refuse them, even me.
I let him sweat for a bit but eventually I bit my lip and cave. "Ugh! Fine, pick me up at 8."
"Yes! You're the best, thanks Jessie!" he kissed me on my cheek and ran inside to his house.
"Yeah, Yeah!" I roll my eyes and sigh. I guess I'd better go get ready.
I checked my watch it was already 7:20PM. I walk back inside and run up the stairs to my closet. I quickly find something to wear. I pick out some faded blue jeans with a hole in the knee. I pair it with a stripped polo tee that is way too big for my petite figure. Basically, I was 'showing any guy that I was clearly not interested', as Katie would put it.
Katie is my other best friend. She is the one I turn to with all my other issues that I can't talk about with Justin. She and I have a lot in common, but she cares way more about style, fashion and what people think than I do. I have always been more into books and she has always been into looks and pop culture.
Katie and I met when we were in the 5th grade. The kids at our grade school used to bully her. They would always knock her down on the playground and call her names. I saw this happen one day and I offered her my hand to help her up. Then we became instant friends. We started hanging out all the time. We had movie marathons and sleepovers almost every weekend. We would stay up late on the phone to talk about all the boys we thought were the cutest and the rest is history.
I search my closet for some worn out converse and throw them on. I look in the mirror and realize I have not done my hair. I quickly twist it and throw it back into a big clip. I look down at my watch- 7:54. I walk down the stairs; grab a book just in case, and my hoodie. I hear a honk from outside. That is Justin's so polite way of saying he is here.
"Mom, I'm going with Justin, we'll be back in a few hours."
I see my mom and Justin's mom, Mrs. Sherry, stick their heads out from around the kitchen corner. I didn't even know his mom was here.
"Is it a date?" they ask in unison and giggle.
"No! We are best friends and hi Mrs. Sherry. We'll be home around 11." Disappointed looks appeared on their faces as I turn away.
I open the front door and walk to Justin's 2016 blue Mustang GT. I get into his car and it smells strongly of Justin's Polo cologne. It is a scent I will always recognize as his. Even though it may be overpowering at the moment it is somewhat comforting. I beam at him to observe what he is wearing. He has on a white tee shirt with a black leather jacket and some faded blue jeans. It's your typical bad boy look if you ask me.
"How do I look?" he asks.
"Truthfully?" I give a playfully disgusted look. He gives me a stern look.
"You look fine." I fasten my seatbelt.
He then starts to examine me. I can tell by the look on his face he is not pleased and I am not going to like what he says next.
"What's with the oversized plain tee shirt? You're so pretty and you have an awesome body. Why do you always wear such baggy clothes?"
"Since when did you become the fashion police?" I defend tugging at my shirt, "I like it okay? I am comfortable. Besides, I have a fashionable hoodie in case I get cold." I stretch out the word fashionable sarcastically.
"Just drive!" I command. I completely ignore his 'you're so pretty' compliment because it was overshadowed by the insults, he hurled at me.
We drive until we reach Bird Street. His football buddy, Kyle, lives over here. Apparently, he is the one throwing the crazy house party tonight. I can see his house because it has about 20 or more cars in front; we pull into his driveway, somehow, find a spot and we park.
While I am unbuckling my seat belt, my door swings open. "After you?" Justin gestures his arm to the house.
That was definitely one of the things that made girls fall for him. Justin is always so very chivalrous. Thankfully his mom taught him the importance of having manners. He's somewhat gentleman. However, I know that I am not special. He is like this with all the girls. That's just his charm.
We walk into the extremely loud and crowded house. There are so many people here I almost feel claustrophobic.
"I'll be right back; I'm going to get something to drink." I find the kitchen and pour myself a drink. I hope this helps ease my nerves a little
"Hey Justin!" I hear someone call his name from the kitchen.
"Who's your friend?" he said. Suddenly I can feel eyes staring at me.
"Jessie!" Justin calls to me.
"Yeah?" I take a sip of my drink and turn around.
"Come here." He commands, motioning me to him and some guy.
"Okay." I walk to them shyly.
The more I look around this place, the more I realize this is so not my scene. I am not a party goer who gets drunk all the time.
"Jessie, this is Kyle, the host of this crazy shin-dig," he gestures to Kyle and then me, "Kyle this is Jessie. I'm warning you though, no funny business Kyle. This is my girl okay, just do what you do best and entertain her." Justin is joking but serious at the same time.
"You get to just keep all the pretty ones to yourself Justin? They can't all be yours." he replies rather snarky.
"Hi." I say shyly. I am shoving my hands in my pockets wishing I was anywhere but here.
Kyle gives me a flirty look. I smile and look around to find where Justin has run off to. I have no luck, he is gone. He probably went to find a girl to make out with no doubt.
It has been about an hour now and the amount of people here has more than doubled. I walk outside to get some fresh air. It reeks of alcohol and teenage desperation in there.
Looking around I see people that don't even go to our school here. Not that I'm surprised but this guy has a lot of friends. I suppose that is natural when you are linebacker for the state's best high school football team.
I still am not used to this whole high school party thing. Even though Justin takes me to enough of them. I don't think I can ever get used to being a gazelle in a den of drunk lions.
I look around once more and come to an obvious conclusion. I do not have any friends here except Justin and he is nowhere to be found. I wonder why I let him talk me into coming to this. I flash back to his puppy dog eye and sigh. I start walking to his car so I can read my book that I brought. Thank goodness I did that. There is still a chance for me to salvage the evening with my book. I just realized how sad I sound, but the characters in my book don't care.
I hear a familiar voice call after me. "Jessie" it shouts.
Justin runs up to me and grabs my shoulder to turn me around, "Where ya going?"
"Oh, I was thinking Mexico or Panama. Somewhere I can get a nice tan." I say sarcastically tapping on my chin.
"Very funny. Why are you out here?" He looks concerned. "Did Kyle do something?" he raises his eyebrows.
"No, but to be honest, these are your friends. You know parties like this aren't really for me. Besides you, I have no one else to talk to."
"People come up and talk to you, you just don't say much then you walk away," he looks as if I hurt his feelings, "You come to parties like this with me all the time. Why is now different? Just do what you normally do." He pleads. There are his puppy dog eyes again.
"You normally drag me to these. I always just sit around and watch." I joke nudging him. "I was just going to stay out here to read my book. We don't have to leave. Maybe I can take your car and go to a coffee shop, read my book and come back?" I raise my eyebrows hoping he lets me drive his precious mustang. He treats the car as if were his child. "I can be back at 10:30?" I prod him for his answer.
"Okay just be careful. I don't want you to hurt her." he refers to his car. Carefully he hands me his keys.
"I'll bring her back in one piece." I grad the keys from him. "Thank you."
"Alright. I'll see you in a little bit." Smiling he turns away and walks back into the house.
I drive into town until I reach the closest Starbucks. Which to my surprise, isn't too far from Kyle's house? I walk up to the barista and order my favorite drink. A tall Java Chip Frappuccino. I wait a few minutes then receive my coffee.
I am thanking myself for bringing my book. I was so excited to read this book. All my friends said it was awesome. It's called, "Wamped. "It's a fascinating book about this girl, who is born a witch but she gets turned into a vampire by her boyfriend. The twist is she is still a witch so she is trying to cope with being both things.
I sit down in my favorite chair and prepare myself to enter the wonderful world that is fiction books.
I take the last sip of my drink and check my phone to take a break from the twists and turns of the supernatural. My eyes open wide, It's 11'o clock! I have 5 missed calls from Justin. Crap! I run out to the car and hurry to Kyle's house to get Justin. I hope Justin doesn't think the worst.
I arrive, and there is still a bunch of drunken high schoolers on the grass outside. They are now passed out. 'Wow already? They crashed and burned kind of early.' I think to myself.
I walk up to the house door and open it. There is a good amount of people who are awake dancing, and talking still. My eyes scan the room but I don't see Justin anywhere. I assume maybe he went upstairs. If he did that means he's probably making out with someone hoping to go to more bases than first. That's what he usually does.
I go through almost all of the rooms. I notice there is one more at the end of the hall. I open the door in hopes of seeing Justin. Instead, I see Kyle getting dressed.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry." I back away slowly but the door stops closing. Kyle has his hand on the door.
"Why leave now? Stay, let's have some fun. I can take the shirt off again." He gives me a smile that makes me sick to my stomach.
His breathe reeks of alcohol so I know he is drunk. He grabs my arm and pulls me into the room. Still holding onto my arm, he grabs my other one. I feel his tight grip holding me to him. He quickly throws me as if I were a football, onto what I'm assuming is his bed. I am afraid for what is about to happen. I tell him to stop but he doesn't listen. I try to push him off of me but his weight is no match for mine. He then tries putting his hand up my shirt. I squirm underneath him still fighting to get him off of me. I see that I am in a good position to knee him in his groin and I do so. He lets out a cry and then the door busts open.
"Get the fuck off her Kyle! You drunk idiot!"
I have never been so happy to see Justin as I am right now.
"Shut up man! You can't have them all to yourself." Kyle said still clutching his nuts.
Justin mumbles something to Kyle I that I can't hear. Then in one swift punch from Justin, Kyle falls to the floor. Justin grabs my hand and we exit the house. We walk to his car and get in. Without another thought Justin drives off.
"Are you alright? Did he hurt you?" he gives me a quick scan then looks back at the road.
I have never seen him this furious. I can see him gripping his steering wheel so hard his knuckles are white. I am not used to seeing him act like this. It's side of him that is very alien to me. He is normally the nonchalant, laid back guy.
I notice my heart still racing from everything that just happened. I cannot quite wrap my head around the fact that I almost got assaulted at a party by some jock. A party that I didn't even want to go to. A party that Justin begged me to attend. Anger suddenly boils inside me.
"Why do you care? You do that every weekend, except there isn't someone to save that girl!" I snap.
I can't take all this anger out on Kyle, so I let it out on Justin, the one who brought me to the party. I know my behavior is a tad out of hand but so are my emotions right now.
"Hey! I just decked a guy I thought was my friend for you; I deserve some sort of a thank you. And I don't force any girls into anything they don't want to do. I like my girls sober and willing. Don't take this out on me. I feel bad enough about it." I can tell he is frustrated and hurt. He probably already thinks this is all of his fault.
"I'm sorry, okay? You're right. My anger just got the best of me. I appreciate you for coming to my rescue." A moment of silence passes and I calm down, "...and I know you don't do that to girls."
He scoffs, "You're damn right I don't."
I peer at him trying to figure out what he is thinking.
"Why aren't you drunk like the rest of your friends?" my voice is quiet.
"I was being responsible." He says with a big smile on his face breaking up the tension.
I giggle, "Yeah right, you? Responsible, at a party?"
He gives me his charming smile.
I don't realize how tired I am until I feel my eyelids get heavy. I can feel my eyes close. It is quiet the rest of the way home and I fall into complete blackness.
We finally arrive in his drive way.
"I'll see you tomorrow?"
"What's tomorrow?" I ask.
"We are going to see that new movie. Remember?" he looks at me puzzled.
"Oh, right. Yeah. I forgot. I'll see you tomorrow." I close his door and walk up to my own.
"Night Jessie." He says with a smile opening his door.
"Night Justy." I smile back and open mine.