Chapter 7 : Party with the Bedlam Knights

I’d never been the kind of girl interested in parties, but when Becca came knocking at my dorm room door with tears in her eyes at half past seven because Noah and her had gotten into a fight, I couldn’t say no to her. Not that I was ever really able to say no to her or Sasha.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked her for the millionth time. “I’ve never seen you guys fight like that.”

She was quiet for a moment before she shrugged her shoulders nodding. “I mean… no but it’s whatever. He wouldn’t tell me what he was talking about and brushed me off. I mean, we have been together for almost a year and that’s how he acts… I don’t know.”

I didn’t know how she felt considering I’d never really been in a proper relationship, but I did know that if I were in her place I’d probably be upset too. Noah was always super sweet, and the way he acted felt completely out of character. But it wasn’t my place to say anything. Instead, I was Becca’s moral support, and looking at what she put me in, I was definitely taking one for the team.

“You know how I feel about this crap,” I mumbled with unapproving glances in the mirror at the attire she had picked for me. The tight black dress with the midriff cut out, was definitely not something I would have picked out but I had to admit it fit me like a glove accentuating every single curve of my body. “We don’t even hang out with these people. Are you sure you don’t want to just… stay in and binge-eat food and watch a movie?”

“No,” she snorted as she reapplied her pink lipstick for the fourth time. “If Noah thinks that he can act that way and that he isn’t replaceable… he’s fucking wrong. Plus, we can’t just hide away. We need to have fun, Nessa.”

Per usual she was being slightly dramatic, but I wasn’t going to be the one to point out the obvious. “Is going to this really going to make you happy?”

She turned to me with a raised brow and a dumbfounded expression. “Are you seriously asking me that?”

“Uh, yeah…”

With a small sigh, she nodded. “Okay, yes… kinda. I mean, it will be good for both of us and you have looked super distracted lately so…”

She wasn’t wrong there. School had only just started and I was already flustered with shit. Classes, Trevor, and now Nash. I honestly couldn’t handle much more and as much as I didn’t really want to go, it didn’t seem like a bad idea and then I could at least say I went to one event this year.

My biggest problem though was my fear of not being directly on campus where I was safe. Trevor could find me outside of campus grounds, and outside of campus grounds was where the party was. With how I treated him at the bar and running away after graduation… there was no telling what lengths he would go to if he got his hands on me.

But Becca was right. It would be good for both of us.

And if I ran into Trevor, at least there were other people around to help me.

“Okay,” I sighed giving in to her wants and needs. “Let’s go tear this shit up then.”

“That’s my girl!” she exclaimed as she grabbed her small clutch and headed towards my door. With the way she was already acting and the fact she had already had two gin and tonics, I had no doubt that it was going to be an interesting night.

Twenty minutes later we pulled up to the white pillared mansion of a frat house that screamed bad choices and poor decisions. People lined the front of the home, scattered across the grounds with red solo cups in their hands and smiles on their faces. The party obviously was a better hit than I initially had anticipated.

However, it still wasn’t the scene I wanted to be around. Places and events like these never sat well with me. Which one would probably find odd considering I was a college girl who should be having the time of her life and making memories… or so they called it.

But it just wasn’t me. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the occasional drink, but not like this. The gyrating bodies of drunk individuals looking to fuck weren’t exactly the highlight of my night. Nor was having drunk guys who thought they could get lucky with me breathing all over me with their breath smelling like stale beer and bad pizza.

“Jesus there are a lot of people,” I muttered as we stepped out of the Uber, the driver quickly leaving us standing on the curb without a care in the world. My fingers instantly went to the hem of the dress as I attempted to pull it down but failed.

Becca paid no mind to my disapproving comment as she made her way up the driveway toward the bumping music and grinding bodies of horny college kids. It wasn’t until we stepped through the front door that I really began to second-guess myself, the smell of pot and stale beer lingered in the air. Not just on the breath of the men nearby.

“God,” I mumbled. “It definitely smells like a frat house.”

Becca gave me the side eyes as she shook her head laughing. “Oh come on. It isn’t that bad. You have to live a little.”

“You keep saying that, and yet I keep regretting the decisions I make.”

My anxiety spiked at the idea that I was in this place. There was barely room to move with the bodies scattered about, shoulder to shoulder as people danced on each other or simply caught up with others they hadn’t seen in a while. This was the kind of place where bad shit happened, and as much as I wanted to scatter to the wind and leave this god-forsaken place, I couldn’t.

I had promised Becca I’d go with her and I wasn’t one to back out of a promise.

At least not yet… though she did make me question myself on a regular basis.

She turned to me the moment we made our way into what looked like the kitchen. “Do you want a drink?”

I glanced around at the littered empty glass bottles and kegs that sat on the floor. “If there is any drink left to have.”

She laughed at my comment as two of the juniors I had seen around the campus came stumbling into the kitchen drunk. Their eyes were on the keg by the end of the large white bar, completely ignoring the fact that Becca and I were in there. The once beautiful white marble counters quickly became stained with the red liquid of a cup that was knocked over by one of the guys who couldn’t seem to stand upright.

Their drunken stupor was amusing by far but also a bit sad. To think that they thought the way they were acting was acceptable, regardless of them being at a party. They were grown men acting like children who didn’t know how to carry themselves.

Not that I was being a prude or anything, but just aware of my surroundings.

That is until a brunette called Heather made her way in behind them, her happy smile quickly turning into one with a scowl as her eyes landed upon Becca. My stomach instantly dropped as the amusement left me knowing that shit was about to go down.

“Who the fuck let you in here?”

Shit. Heather and Becca had a hateful kind of relationship that started way before either of them came to this school. I didn’t know all the details, but what I did know was that Becca stole the girl’s boyfriend back at a summer camp when they were fifteen.

Guess old grudges don’t die easily.

“Says the bitch who can’t admit when she’s lost,” Becca replied, placing her hand on her hip.

“For fuck’s sake. Can we not do this, guys?” I asked, trying to diffuse the situation. Usually, when they had these kinds of displays of powers, I found a way to escape leaving Noah to handle the issue. Unfortunately for me, he wasn’t here tonight.

“Aww, why don’t you listen to your dog, Becca? After all, this isn’t something you want to do with me tonight.”

Dog? I always liked to hit the high road but hearing her call me a dog really grated on my nerves. Gritting my teeth together, I turned my attention to Heather and sighed.

“Heather, why don’t you go find some other poor fuck to mess with and choose not to do this shit tonight before Becca beats your ass again, just like she did the last time you got into this shit. Because I’m not Noah, and I’m not going to stop her.”

I didn’t need to look at Becca to know the bitch was smiling. She knew what I was saying was true, and by the way Heather’s smug smile fell off her face… she did too. Her eyes darted towards the doorway behind us as she seemed to contemplate her next words carefully. Her mouth opened and closed before she settled for saying nothing, as she turned and walked out of the kitchen.

The laughter and hollering that rang out around us drew my attention in, and I suddenly realized that the little display of power had drawn in a few unwanted viewers who had just witnessed “quiet Nessa’ completely going off on one of the campus mean girls. Not that I was quiet… I had a backbone and didn’t take shit. It was just that most of the time I chose to ignore stupidity unless it got in my way. Then I made my sentiments known.

Damn it.

“Didn’t realize that the golden one had become a spitfire,” a cool collected voice said from behind Becca and me, causing us both to turn around. “Hello, Becca.”

Fuck. It was Logan Mitchell.