Page 12 of Shattered Saint
Me: No, nothing like that. I wish you were going to come here too.
Iris was a senior this year too and had her heart dead set on going to Westwick University. Thankfully, it wasn't that far from Brentson, but still, it would have been nice for us to be on the same campus.
Iris: I do too. Speaking of coming there, did you see Easton?
I'd told her about meeting Easton at my parents’ party a few months ago, and she asked me about him every so often. Nash and he had grown closer over the summer and had become best friends as far as I knew. However, I'd barely seen him since that evening at my house.
Me: No, I haven't. That's not surprising though since Brentson University is pretty big, and he has his own thing going on.
I continued to text Iris off and on as the afternoon quickly turned into evening. I'd showered, enjoyed my Chinese takeout and was vegging on the couch when I heard the faint chime alerting me that someone was calling me.
I recognized the name on the screen, but I was slightly confused about why they would be calling me. I accepted the call and put the phone up to my ear.
"Lucy?"
Lucy Brooks and I were friendly, but I wouldn't exactly say that we were friends. She was also a senior at Brentson High. I’d seen her earlier today, visiting Brentson’s campus as well. We talked briefly before we continued on our separate ways.
"Bianca! Hey! Come out with us tonight."
"Wait, what?"
"Come out with us tonight! We're going to go to a couple of parties, and I wanted you to come with us."
"Um… why?" I blurted the question out before I could stop myself. This sounded like both an amazing idea and a very bad one all wrapped in one big bow.
"Because it’s going to be fun to let loose like we’re in college. Come on…"
Her voice trailed off and I wondered if she’d already started drinking. I couldn't deny that I'd wanted an excuse to have a drink tonight but staying here alone had also been nice.
"We have shots of tequila and vodka waiting for you."
That was all the convincing I needed. "Where am I going, and when should I get there?"
Lucy laughed on the other end of the line before she rattled off the address and told me they were getting ready now and would be leaving the dorm they were staying at in about an hour. That didn't give me much time to pull something together, but I could make it work.
Showering earlier made this easier, but the most difficult thing was picking out an outfit for tonight. Luckily for me, I'd thrown some extra clothes in my bag. Since I didn't have many options, it would hopefully make picking out an outfit pretty easy. I picked out a black bra, a sheer shirt, a black blazer, a pair of dark denim jeans, and black boots.
I pulled on my ponytail for a moment before removing my hair tie. My blonde hair fell down slightly past my shoulders and had a natural wave that I could work without having to do much to it. Once I was happy with how it laid, I worked on my makeup, deciding that a lighter smokey eye and red lip was the way to go to tie the look together.
Was this a little much? Would I freeze? Maybe, but there was no turning back now.
After staring at myself for another moment, I packed the small black purse that I brought with me, making sure that I had my brother's keys with me.
I called a car and headed downstairs. Before I knew it, I was whisked back to Brentson University's campus to partake in whatever shenanigans the night would bring.
* * *
"I'm soglad you came tonight!" Lucy exclaimed after she opened the door.
I found myself taken aback. Lucy and I barely hung out in school outside of a few group projects we worked on together, but that might have said more about me than it did about her.
"What's your drink of choice tonight?"
"How did you get all of this?" I said, gesturing to the alcohol that was lined up on an unused desk in the dorm room. I glanced around the room and quickly noticed we weren’t alone. I recognized a couple of them from Brentson High, and the rest I'd never seen before.How Lucy had made friends this fast, I didn’t know.
She waved me off. "Don't worry about that. We have mixers as well."
Who was I to judge? I had no intention of getting completely shitfaced tonight because I needed to get back to Nash's before he got home. But I did feel awkward being in here with other people I barely knew. Deep down, I knew that I couldn’t let my guard down because there was always a chance that word would get out about what I was doing, and things would get back to my parents or to the media. I wasn't sure which one was worse.
