I met you in the dark, you lit me up
You made me feel as though I was enough
We danced the night away, we drank too much
I held your hair back when
You were throwing up
Then you smiled over your shoulder
For a minute, I was stone-cold sober
I pulled you closer to my chest
And you asked me to stay over
I said, I already told ya
I think that you should get some rest
December 1985
Sharon didn't go out much, she was 19 and in her second year of college at UCLA. She was always too focused on her studies to let anything like partying distract her, but when her roommate Andrea told her she was going to a party down on the beach alone at night Sharon had no choice except to go with her to keep an eye on her, it also helped that she needed the distraction away from her "let's take a break" boyfriend. Sharon wasn't planning on having a good time, she never did at these kinds of things.
It was mid-December in Los Angeles and the temperatures at night were still in the 70s so she dressed casually in purple fitted tank top and blue jean capris, she wore her sandals but took them off once they got to the beach. When Sharon and Andrea arrived, they made their way over to the bonfire once they were able to spot it. The fire was going strong and was located not too far from the pier, there were many other students already dancing and having fun.
The somewhat large group of 20-30 young adults were there to celebrate the end of finals, it was a combination of students from UCLA and USC. They all had the same professor who taught a political science class at both universities and it had been a very rough semester. Mr. Beckerman was one of the toughest professors but the students who studied hard and passed his class tended to do very well throughout the rest of the course load for political science and criminology majors.
Sharon was pre-law and studying to be a lawyer and then she wanted to follow in her father's footsteps and become a judge, her father was a judge in Dakota County, Minnesota and was known as being a stickler for the rules. Andrea was also pre-law and that was how they met actually, they were paired together as roommates their freshman year and had become inseparable ever since.
Sharon was also still trying to decide what to do about her boyfriend, Jack. She had met him last spring and they had hit it right off, but at the moment he decided they were on a break because she wouldn't hang out with him that much. The only reason she wouldn't was because she really had to pass her class, but Jack didn't think she needed to study because he had passed Beckerman's class easy without a lot of study. Sharon told Jack she wasn't him and needed the extra time, which led to an argument and her current predicament.
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Andy was ecstatic he was one of the only 20-30 students out of 150 who had managed to pass Beckerman's class this semester. He was in his last year of college at USC and needed the class to graduate before heading off to the academy in the fall. He still had no idea how he passed though because he liked to go out with his friends and didn't usually need to study, he was just always able to get by with the knowledge he'd gained from his detective father growing up.
Once Andy figured out it wasn't going to be an easy class he worked his butt off to pass and turned down his friend Louie on many occasions to go drinking and picking up girls, Louie on the other hand didn't pass and was going to have to repeat the class next semester so he wasn't invited to the beach party. Andy didn't care at the moment he was just happy to pass and planned to have a great time celebrating.
When Andy got to the party he was late because Louie had tried to talk him out of going but he finally managed to get out of their apartment. As he walked up to the party he noticed a girl standing off to the side looking like she would rather be anywhere else but where she was. She looked a little younger than him and she was gorgeous, she had long auburn hair that she wore down in waves and he laughed when he noticed they were both wearing the same color purple. Andy wouldn't readily admit it but purple happened to be his favorite color, he joked with his friends that he wore it to make the ladies think he had a sensitive side.
Right now, Andy was trying to stay away from girls, he and his longtime girlfriend Sandra were taking a break because she wanted to "date around" and not settle for her high school boyfriend. So even though he wanted to celebrate his class he still had something to be bummed about. Andy was upset because he thought he was going to spend the rest of his life with Sandra and he was in a dark place romantically at the moment. Andy decided to walk up to the girl and try to talk to her since she also seemed to be down about something.
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Sharon saw him walking up to her out of the corner of her eye, she wasn't in the mood to fend off some guy hitting on her so when he introduced himself she was determined she was going to tell him to leave her alone.
"Hi, I'm Andy. I can tell you probably don't want to have some strange guy hit on you, but I promise that my intent was just to try to get you to enjoy the celebration since you managed to pass unpassable Beckeman's class."
And just like he actually had her smiling and before she knew it she was reaching her hand out to shake his outstretched hand and saying: "Hi, I'm Sharon."
"I think we are the only ones here who got the memo to wear purple," he said to try and get her to laugh.
She did laugh and then replied: "I think you may be right about that."
"Do you want to grab a drink?"
"Might as well, maybe I will actually start to have some fun. Just be careful, when I drink I like to let loose and dance."
"That is fine by me, I will be more than happy to keep you company even if you start making a fool of yourself," he responded with a slight laugh.
Sharon slightly glared at him for a minute and he thought he'd said the wrong thing until she started laughing and said, "Well, just so you know I used to take dance classes so you my friend will be the one looking like a fool," and then she started walking toward the keg. Andy smirked and then followed her to go and get a beer.
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Sharon actually found herself enjoying her night once her and Andy started talking and dancing. At one point her favorite song, Say you won't let go had come on the radio and she forgot she wasn't at home in her shower and started singing. She forgot about Jack for the moment and all of her issues with him and focused on the handsome man in front of her who took the time to cheer her up before having fun himself.
Andy decided he loved her voice and thought to himself that not only was she beautiful she had a great voice as well. He found himself enjoying Sharon's company and he decided he liked they way she made him feel, when he was with Sandra he sometimes felt like he was inadequate and that he was not living up to her standards. Sharon on the other hand, made Andy feel like he was enough especially with the way started to let loose and open up once he started talking to her. She actually seemed to be enjoying the party now.
At one point they took a break and went over to stand near the water close to the pier. Andy turned to look at Sharon and noticed a far off look in her eye and spoke up:
"What's got you so lost in thought?"
"Hmmmmm" she hummed as shed turned to look at him, "oh just my idiot boyfriend, well my 'let's take a break' boyfriend"
"Oh so you have one of those too," he said as he laughed slightly. Sharon gave him a quizzical look so he continued: "My girlfriend Sandra decided we needed a break too."
Sharon nodded in understanding and Andy all about why Jack decided they were on a break and he told her: "You deserve better anyway."
She blushed at his comment and then asked him:"And what about you, I can tell someone has you torn up inside too?"
"She decided I wasn't enough and went to try and find someone who she thought understood her more than I do, I mean who does that after being together for 5 years?"
"I don't know, I'm sorry Andy."
"Nah, don't be. I will get over it."
Sharon smiled and repeated his words back to him:"You deserve better anyway."
Andy smiled and then drug Sharon back over to the group and back to dancing. Her eyes lit up and she started laughing at his crazy antics. Sharon and Andy ended up losing track of how many drinks they had and by the end of the night Sharon realized that Andrea had done the same and was not drive them home. Andy offered to split a cab with the girls since it turned out their apartment was on the way to his, Sharon didn't mind since she liked Andy and wanted to spend a little more time with him.
Once they got to the apartment Andy helped Sharon get Andrea inside since she had fallen asleep in the cab. He was about to leave when Sharon suddenly turned green and darted into the bathroom. When Andy heard sounds of retching he walked into the bathroom and held her hair up and out of the way.
After she had finished throwing up, Andy spoke up: "I think that you should drink some water and get some rest, so hopefully you will feel better in the morning."
Sharon turned in his arms where she had ended up after being sick and said with a smile: "Do you want to stay?"
As Andy pulled her closer to his chest he suddenly felt stone-cold sober and like his heart was pounding out of his chest. She was still gorgeous even after she had been drinking and throwing up and he wished he was that guy that would just jump into bed with another girl after just breaking up with another. He had never felt about anyone like he felt about Sharon and he had just met her. But he was scared he would just be rebounding so instead of saying yes Andy said:
"No, you should really get some rest. I'm going to head home, if I don't go down soon my cab might leave me behind and then I'd have to walk home," he said as he started to help her up.
She answered with a small smile "You really are a good guy, aren't you Andy?"
He just shrugged and helped her to her room and into her bed. "Good night Sharon, I really do hope you feel better in the morning."
Sharon mumbled a thanks to Andy as she already started dozing off. Andy took it upon himself to make sure the apartment was locked up tight and both girls in bed before he let himself out and as Andy left he wondered when he would get the chance to see Sharon again. He could tell just from the night that he would really like to get to know her better.
What Andy didn't know that night was that he wouldn't get the chance to get to know Sharon anytime in the near future, it would be awhile before the two ran into each other again because due to the amount of alcohol consumed they never exchanged phone numbers or last names. Andy wouldn't even remember her address in the morning.
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So this concludes my very first chapter of my very first fanfiction story. I got the song "Say you won't let go" stuck in my head and every time I heard it I thought of Shandy and decided to try my hand at writing a story since I've read the majority of the wonderful ones out there. I hope you all will bear with me and please review to let me know how I am doing. Thanks for reading!