Darcy's First Party
William Darcy was in his second month at college, and he was already falling behind. He had taken the hardest courses he could, while still meeting his needs for a degree in business. The only problem was this darn sociology class. As if the abstract observation of human behavior could be defined as a science.
He could not grasp the concepts of a man being defeated by his circumstances. His father had been the son of an iron worker, but had gone on to run a multinational company before the age of forty. William was a believer in the American dream.
Still, he would apply himself. He would try to figure out how to come up with the answers the professor was looking for. He would succeed, because that was what Darcys did.
So, he found himself at the library until nearly midnight on a Friday night, rereading a chapter, on problems with hidden curriculum. When he finally made it back to the dorm, all he wanted to do was take a nice hot shower and go to bed. Unfortunately, his roommate had other plans.
William could hear the music blaring from the stairwell, but he figured someone was having a party. He would, obviously, be getting some use out of his noise canceling headphones tonight. But as he got closer to his sweet, he knew that there would be no avoiding this party, because it was being thrown by his least favorite roommate, George Wickham.
When William had arrived at the dorms, he had been disturbed to find that he would not be in one of the few single rooms, as they were reserved for resident advisors. He had the option of medium sized room shared with one stranger, or a room barely big enough for a bed, with a four person shared common room. Being the type of person who did not need much space, but did value privacy, he went with the quad.
George Wickham, who was in the room right next to him, had soon become the bane of William's existence. He never cleaned up after himself, he ate other people's food from the refrigerator, and on several occasions he had tried to check his answers by "borrowing" William's homework. Not to mention the fact that he was forever bringing woman back to the room at all hours, which was strictly forbidden, but William was not a nark.
Frank Churchill occupied the third room. He was a lady's man, but at least at the decency to observe quiet hours. In the fourth room was Eddie Bretram. He was serious when it came to studies. William had often seen him in the library. But when the other boys were in the common room devising weekend plans, Eddie would be right beside them trying to get in on the fun.
Knowing the library to be closed now, William had no choice but to try and make his way through the party to his room. In the first four steps past the main door, he had already had strangers touching him, been offered a little herbal refreshment, and had someone hand him a beer, which he passed off to the next person who bumped into him.
He had given up the idea of a shower, and has happy to just get into his room in one piece. He put his books on the shelf and plugged in his laptop, before checking his drawers to see if there was anything left from his sister's last care package.
"Will, Hey Will!" George was pounding on his door. William thought about ignoring him, but after a solid 30 seconds of knocking turned into George playing bongo on his door, he gave up.
"What's up?" William yelled through the door.
"Yeah mate, remember when I ate all those cookies your sister sent you last month? Well, I got some brownies from my mom today, if you want one."
William pulled open the door intent on grabbing a snack quickly. He had always had a hard to time sleeping on an empty stomach and the noise wouldn't help either.
"They are my Aunt Mary's special recipe, but I wanted to make sure you got one man, cause you have been so cool about letting me bum food now and then." George patted William on the back.
"Thank you." William replied before trying to disappear back into his room.
"Whoa, Will, it's Friday, chill with us for a while." George stopped him, throwing am arm around his shoulder and leading him over to the couch.
William sat uncomfortable on the couch; eating his brownie and listening to the girl on George's lap tell them all about how she had won a wet t-shirt contest last year at spring break. He was getting really tired. Then all of the sudden, the music was quieter and slower, and William got this weird feeling that everyone was looking at him.
He decided it was time to go back to his room, only he was having trouble getting up. His body was just so heavy. What if he could not get back to his room? He looked to George for help, but the other side of the couch was now empty. Panic set in.
His eyes panned the room for a familiar face. Anyone that could help him get to his room, but the every face seemed to belong to a stranger. William did not like strangers.
"Hey, you ok?" A voice asked him.
"Ummm?" William could not decide how to answer.
"I'm Lizzie, Lizzie Bennett. Are you okay?" the voice asked again, only now William noticed the body that went with the voice. Lizzie Bennett, as she called herself, was an ordinary enough girl. She had brown hair, and brown eyes, and there was nothing particularly threatening about her, and so William introduced himself.
"I'm William and I'm fine, just a little heavy right now."
"Ok Will, well is there anything I can do to help?"
"Not Will, William."He replied absently. He was much more focused on trying to remember where he had left his room.
"Cool then William, I'm gonna go, see you in sociology." She wandered away, but he didn't notice.
The next thing William did notice was that he was hot. He thought that if he could just get some fresh air, then he would feel much better. He remembered that the stairwell had roof access. He flexed his fingers, not to heavy. Then he tried to push himself off the couch.
Across the room Lizzie was nursing her first beer and wish she had not let Charlotte convince her that this party would be fun. All she wanted to be doing right now was sleeping. Being hit on by the creep guy from her modern history class was not her idea of a good time. But at least she wasn't as bad off as the quiet guy, William, from her sociology class. He looked like he was about to have a panic attack at any moment.
As she thought this, William finally got off the couch and made his way out the door. Concerned about what he was up to, Lizzie followed him out. She knew that being wasted and alone could turn into trouble pretty quickly.
William had just settled on a milk crate when Lizzie joined him on the roof.
"Watcha doin'?" She asked, not sure what else to say.
"I was having a private moment, until you showed up."
"OK," She looked out over the rooftop, "not much of a view."
"Do you make a habit of stalking people and badgering them into conversation?" He huffed.
"Take a chill pill, captain conceited. I was looking to avoid George the jerk. You don't own the roof, you know." She replied, frustrated with her concern being taken for granted.
"George the Jerk? If you don't like him, why are you at his party?" William asked the clean, cool air was helping him think clearly again, but now he was so tired he was considering sleeping where he sat.
"My roommate, Charlotte, has her eye on Eddie, his roommate. I said I would be her wingman."
"I see." He yawned.
"And what were you doing at a party you clearly didn't want to attend?"
"It is hard to avoid a party taking place in your common room. I had almost made it to bed, when George lured me out with the promise of a brownie."
"Was that you first time? Because you didn't seem to enjoy the high?"
"Oh lord, I should have known better." William mumbled to himself.
"He didn't tell you?"
"I should have known, but no he didn't. I think it was some kind of play back for me going off on him last week." He muffled another yawn, and a blinked a few times, trying to force his mind to stay sharp.
"Well, I would be more careful in the future, William. You, my friend, are not a person who reacts well to special brownies." She could see how tried he was, but wasn't sure what to do.
"Thank you for the memo, Miss Bennett, but I think I can handle my own affairs." He mumbled back eyes drooping closed.
"Of course you can, and where do you intend to sleep tonight, Sir Sleepyhead?" She asked smiling in spite of herself at his stubbornness. He didn't answer right away, so she gave him a gentle shake.
"What?" He groaned.
"Do you really think I could just leave you here to be eaten by dogs in the night?" She asked.
"Cats are more likely to eat you?" He almost incoherently replied.
"Good time know, do you want to crash in Charlotte's bed tonight?" She asked. She wasn't sure why she felt the need care for him, but she figured that he couldn't get into trouble when he was already snoring. Plus, she had pepper spray in her night stand just in case.
"Who?" he asked after another shake.
"Charlotte, my roommate, we have a double, but she isn't coming home tonight, she always manages to settle on some guy." Lizzie replied, though she wasn't sure why she bothered as William was asleep. "Come on big guy." She said heaving his arm around her shoulder and leading him toward the stairwell.
They were at her room when he noticed the change in scenery or maybe it was just the change in ambient temperature.
"Where are we?" He asked, one eye half open.
"My room, remember, two empty beds, and some much needed sleep." She said as she opened the door.
He looked, for a moment, as if he would ask more questions, but then he just went in and climbed into a bed. Her bed, but she wasn't going to try to make him move when he was already snoring again. Instead, she settled on Charlotte's bed and tried to turn her brain off. She counted her breathes. She tried to recite pi. She finally gave up and turned her phone on as quietly as possible and started her sleep playlist.
She had just drifted off, when something on the other side of the room moved. She chalked it up to William shifting in his sleep, and refocused on sleep, only to jolted awake again with a solid thunk, of a leg hitting the wall.
"William?" She whispered, but there was not response, except another thunk. "Will!"
When he still said nothing, Lizzie got up and went to see what the problem was.
"You ok?" She asked.
"Shh!" he returned, taking the hand that was lying on his shoulder and shifting toward the wall.
Lizzie tried to pull her hand back, but William had a good grip. She exhaustion won and she laid do next to him and quickly feel asleep.
The Next morning, William was very confused. He could remember bits and pieces of the night before, but nothing explained why Lizzie was currently sleeping on his chest. He gently shifted her and got up. He had an early meeting with his father, but before he left, he scribbled a quick note to the girl currently mumbling about waffles.
Several hours later, Lizzie was a little disappointed to wake up alone. That was until she found a note on her sociology book, asking if she was free for lunch. Maybe they could go for waffles.