I walked out of the shower to find an empty living room. I guess Jared left. As unconventional as last night was, I had fun. And I felt so much better. Jared made me forget about Zeke and his smugness and, honestly, disrespectfulness. Zeke choose not to be my friend, and I just have to accept that. We clearly weren't made for each other, and I can't help that. 

I walked into my room, changed into comfortable clothing, and went back to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. Today, I have to get my homework done. Cleo came out of her room.

"Cleo!" I squeaked excitedly. "Come on, girlfriend. I want the dets!"

"The details of what?"

"The details on your date last night. How was it?" The mention of her date put an enormous smile on Cleo's face. It's clear to see that Theo had some sort of effect on her, and it's cute. 

"Oh," she smiled. "It was amazing. He took me out to Benos, and we ate and talked for ages."

Benos is, basically, the fancy Italian restaurant of our neighborhood. The food there is amazing, but oh-so-expensive.  The restaurant offers the full Italian meal, include multiple courses, drinks, appraisers, everything. It's bellissimo; that's right, I know some italian. 

"We talked about everything, and he's so sweet and, honestly, gorgeous," she continued. "I wanted to pay for my meal, but he insisted I didn't, which I thought was super sweet. Then, he dropped me off at home, and I offered him to come inside, but he didn't want to. Instead, he kissed me outside and said he'd call me. I just couldn't stop smiling when I got home."

"You know what's funny?" I asked. "Your names basically rhyme. Cleo. Theo. Can't you hear it? It's like God planned for you guys to be together." I teased, while I gave her a fake shocked face. 

I've only known Cleo for a little less than a year. I met her last semester when she was chosen as my roommate on campus. We both didn't have a roommate ready before the semester. Actually, we were the only two girls in our dorm who didn't have a roommate picked out beforehand, so we ended roommates by default. But it worked out better than okay; now, we have our own house, well rented house. 

Cleo's been textbook and study nutcase since the moment I met her. She's an architect major though, so I understand her need to succeed; it's an intense field. But it's still nice to see her popping out of her shell a bit. And even though I've only know her for a relatively short time, I don't think I've ever seen her this happy. 

"Haven't you heard of a coincidence?" She asked.

"There are no coincidences in life," I answered.

"Shut up," she laughed. 

"WELL, AM I WRONG?" I dramatically yelled. She flipped me off as she walked away. I love messing with her. I headed back to my room and got ready to start doing the insane amount of homework I've been avoiding. 

****

Thursday night, I came home to find Cleo sitting in a black long-sleeved shirt tucked into a white mini-skirt. Her hair was straight, which is odd since she almost always had it up in a pony-tail.

"Hey, why are you all dressed up?" I said as I placed my book bag on the chair. On Thursday, I finished my classes at four, but I wanted to study for an upcoming test so I just spent three hours studying with Anthony for a test that we're both extremely unprepared for. It doesn't help that we were goofing off the entire time. Anthony and I could spend hours taking about boys and looking at memes. Technically, I'm his tutor for the past three months, but we've become good friends. 

"I'm going to a party."

"You're going to a party? You?"

"Yeah, Theo invited me," she blushed at the sound of his name. "It was kind of a last minute notice. The guys told people about it this morning." 

Apparently, Theo lives with three other guys, and I'm guessing these guys are real shark-heads for partying.

"He's picking us up in an hour, so hurry up and get dressed."

"What?" I scoffed. "Who said I'm going?"

"I did." Cleo explained. Her tone was direct.

"I don't want to go." I said as I sat down on the couch and propped my feet onto the table. I'm really not that much of a party person. Or well, I don't know. I don't usually go to parties, so I don't really know. Honestly, if I wanted to get drunk, I could do that here in my own home, not around some strangers. 

"Come on, Val, you barely ever go out. Neither do I. I finally found someone who wants to take us out and have fun. And do something that doesn't involve sitting at home like losers"

"Okay, I am not a loser. And who says I'm not happy," I exclaimed. "I don't need a party to get happy." Let's be honest, I need a bowl of ice cream to be happy.

"Please," Cleo pleaded.

"Okay, okay, okay. Let me get dressed." I headed back to my room to put on some appropriate party clothes. I was extremely tempted to just go in my sweats, but, for Cleo'sake, I tried to cooperate. Ugh, the things we do for friends.  

I looked in my closet and found a short baby pink dress; the sleeves are long and wide, which may seem weird but it looked cute. This will have to do; it may be a little too formal for a casual party, but I really didn't own anything else. As a final component of my "cooperative-friend-party-outfit-duo," I quickly straightened my hair, since it's the easiest way to make your hair look nice. 

Thirty minutes later, I heard a knock on the front door. Let me guess; the man behind this party nonsense. 

Moments after, Cleo escaped her room and ran to the door. 

"Hey, baby." I heard from my room. I walked out of my room to find Theo and Cleo standing at the front door. Cleo and Theo, clearly excited to see each other, were in the middle of a make-out session, apparently. It's cute to see young love. I cleared my voice to indicate my presence in the room. 

"So this the famed Theodore I've heard so much about." He was cute. I'll give him that. He had short blonde hair that fell onto his face. He was dressed in casual flannel shirt with jeans. 

"Y'all ready?" He asked. 

"Yeah, let's go." Cleo answered.

When we arrived at the house, the three of us walked in together. Once the door was opened, we were exposed to the scene of, what seemed like, a hundred people near each other. The music was ear-shattering loud, and there was barely any room to move; this was a-thousand-percent not the environment I wanted to be in. The air smelled of a mixture of alcohol, sweat, cigarettes, and weed. It was a bit repulsive and toxicating.

"I'm gonna go get a drink," I said to Cleo before walking further into the crowd. I could literally feel the the breath of people around me. It was beginning to make me feel a little catastrophic.

I walked into the kitchen to the find it less crowded, even though the kegger was there; and I thank God for that. It's insane how unsettling a crowd can make you feel. I grabbed myself a drink and leaned against the counter.

"Hey." I turned to find to my left to find a boy with a devilish smile.

"My name's Lucas," he said. He had an obvious charm to him. It's clear to see that he was the type of person who got what he wanted, when he wanted it. He was a black-haired-beut. He kind of reminded me of a hottie you would meet on vacation but probably never see again.

"Valerie." I said, taking a sup of my beer. I wasn't about to act all girly for some guy I just met at a party.

"Are you new here? I've never seen you around here before." He asked, inquisitively.

"No, I don't usually come to parties."

"That's a shame. Someone as pretty as you should show everyone their beauty, daily." 

I laughed at him. Was that suppose to be a pick up line?

"And you assume that would mean coming to parties?"

"Hell yeah."

"Yo, Luke. Get your ass over here!" Someone yelled from the other side of the room. He ran out of the room and waved bye to me.

I headed back out to the living room. Back to the heat-invested-stink fest.

I needed to find the bathroom. As I tried to get to the stairs, and I passed a blonde girl dancing on the table. She was wearing a tight, mini-shirt, so pretty much everything was visible; so, of course, she was surrounded by guys gawking at her. What is this, a strip club? 

Well, I guess that's one way to get guys attention.

I came out of the bathroom to find Zeke leaning against the door frame. He startled me.

"Jeez, can you not scare me?" Woah. The strong odor of alcohol and weed came off his body. 

"Come here," he said as he grabbed onto and starting to kiss me. I tried to push him off of me, but he kept firm. Struggling to get away from him, I kicked him in the shin and shoved him away from me. 

"Ow! Valerie, what the fuck?"

"Get off of me, you stupid prick," I said. Zeke grabbed a hold of my shoulders, pinning me against the wall, placing weight on my shoulders so it was hard to move. Hate filled his eyes as he stared at me. 

"What? What I'm not good enough, for miss prissy little prude? Huh? Come on, you know you want me." He said as he grazed my face with his hand.

"Get off of me, you pyscho!" I screamed louder than I intended. I heard the footsteps of someone coming up the stairs. Thank God. I turned to find Jared come up the stairs, anger filled in his eyes. 

"What the fuck? Get away from her." Jared said as he shoved Zeke against the wall. The push was so intense that Zeke's body bounced off the wall behind him. 

"Or what?" Zeke spat, getting closer to Jared's face. 

"Or you'll fucking see what."

Zeke turned his face to me. "Seriously, I'm gone one week and you got yourself a little guard dog. How desperate are you?"

"How desperate are you to have to corner someone when they're clearly not interested in you?" Jared snarked back. Honestly, it was kind of hot to see Jared like this. 

"Whatever. You're a low-class bitch, anyway." He stared me down. "I'll get you back some other way." Zeke said as he walked away from us.

"Are you okay?" Jared asked as he placed his hand on my shoulder. 

"Yeah, I'm alright. Thank you." I said, giving him a hug. He was startled by my gesture, but he soon wrapped his arms around my back. My arms were wrapped around his neck. I held onto him tightly, breathing in his smell. It was a mixture of cologne and wintergreen mint. Somehow in his arms, I felt safe. I tried to let go of Jared, but he held onto my waist, keeping our bodies close.

"So let me guess, that was shithead Zeke?" He asked.

"Yeah," I let out a deep breath and rolled my eyes. Jared looked into my eyes for a moment with a look I couldn't read. 

"Wanna get out of here?" Jared asked.

"Yeah. Can you take me home?"

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