CHAPTER TWO

When we get to the party it is in full swing. I have never seen so many people inside of the same house. It is loud and with all of the people bumping into each other it is more than I can take. “Cindy,” I said as quietly as I could while still making sure she could hear me over the loud music, “please just don’t leave me alone in here.”

Cindy looked at me like I was crazy. “Hailey, seriously, you will be fine. You just need to relax already.”

I looked down at the ground to break eye contact, embarrassed by what felt like Cindy giving me a reprimand. “I’m trying.”

“Look,” Cindy placed her hand on my forearm and I looked back up at her. “You just need to relax. Let the music help you get into the spirit of things. Maybe you should grab a drink so it will help you loosen up.”

Cindy grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the kitchen where a keg was set up and red solo cups of beer were being passed around to the people waiting for a drink. She grabbed a cup that was filled and handed it to me, then she took another for herself. When Cindy turned up her cup and took a large swallow of the foaming liquid, I figured I should follow suit. One swallow and I knew that beer was not for me. It took everything in me not to spit it out in front of Cindy and the kitchen full of people. I forced myself to swallow it and decided to get rid of the rest as soon as I had the chance without Cindy noticing.

It wasn’t long before the opportunity came up where I could dispose of my drink out of Cindy’s sight because her eyes were caught by a boy. “Come on,” Cindy said when she grabbed my arm and drug me across the room. She stopped in front of a tall, and incredibly muscular blonde boy. His hair was spiked up with gel, and his tan skin and blonde hair looked good around his green eyes which locked on Cindy the second they stopped in front of him.

“Cindy! I was hoping I would see you here.” He smiled at Cindy and I was sure that it was his most alluring smile. It was bright and only made his already handsome face look even better.

“Hey Jeff,” Cindy said. She was twirling her hair with her finger and I wanted to gag at the blatant bedroom eyes she was flashing this guy. Sure, he was good looking, but this was her first day at school too which meant she had just met Jeff today. “I knew you would be here so I had to stop by to see you.” I shuffled my feet a bit which apparently caught Cindy’s attention enough to remind her of my presence. “Oh, this is my roommate, Hailey. Hailey, this is Jeff.” Cindy gestured between the two of us and I offered a timid hi, but Jeff barely acknowledged my existence; his eyes never left Cindy.

“Since you came all the way here to see me, how about a dance?” Jeff winked at Cindy. It was obvious that he didn’t give a crap about meeting me. He just wanted to get her on the dance floor.

Cindy didn’t even hesitate when she answered him. “Yes.”

Without either of them saying a word to me they took off for the dance floor in the middle of what should have been the living room, and I was left alone just outside of the kitchen. On the plus side, it did allow me the opportunity to dispose of the beer Cindy had given me without her noticing. If her behavior towards Jeff up until now was any indicator, I was going to be alone for most of the night. I noticed a group of girls hanging out together and decided to give the whole making new friends thing a try.

I walked up to the girls and introduced myself. “Hi, I’m Hailey Rose. Are you all new here too?”

The girls seemed to be focusing on one girl in particular, like she was someone they looked up to. It felt like they were waiting for her opinion before they responded while she checked me out. She was short and so skinny I worried that she hadn’t eaten in ages. Her hair was jet black and she had brown eyes. Like the rest of the girls with her, she didn’t look like the typical popular mean girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, and that was what had made me feel like I could approach them in the first place. When the girl finished looking me over and met my eyes, I knew that I had been wrong in that estimation.

“Where the hell did you come from?” the girl asked me. I heard one of the girls beside her whisper the name Anna, and the girl glared at her effectively shutting her up.

“I’m from Kansas. It my first …”

The girl, who was apparently named Anna, burst into laughter. “You’re shittin me, right? Kansas? That is perfect. It matches your country ass clothes. Where’s Toto at Dorothy?”

For a moment I stood there shocked. How could someone I just met be so incredibly cruel for no reason. When her friends started laughing I turned around and took off for the front door. I was fighting to hold back my tears and looking at the ground to keep people from seeing my face because I was not doing a good job against my tears. Without looking where I was going I slammed into something solid and warm.

“What the fuck!” a deep voice bellowed. When I looked up to see what I had ran into I was staring at a solid chest. I looked up and into the piercing blue eyes of a handsome boy. He’s quite a bit taller than me, and his brown hair flops down over his forehead just above his right eye. “Why don’t you watch where you’re going?”

He brushed past me, grumbling and angry, towards the group of girls I had just left. I didn’t waste any more time and quickly made my exit. I practically ran back to my dorm room and as soon as I was inside the damn broke and I burst into tears. My very first attempt at putting myself out there to make friends and it was horrible. I couldn’t think of a worse way for my first day on my own at college to have gone. All I can think about while I cry myself to sleep is that I was right and I should have stayed home in Kansas.