The party is still in that muted early phase. It's all background music, clumps of people standing around, creating a loud hum of getting to know you and how was your week?
Lauren hates this part, when nothing's kicked off. These early, sober, conversational moments require skills she does not possess and pressure she'd rather not feel. What she loves about parties is the calamity time. The thumping music, the heaving dancefloors, the hysterical laughter, the making out in dark corners. She's a moth to the light for those kinds of moments. They're all about the hunting out of sensations, the dulling of her thoughts.
Spotting Dan and Raf, she makes her slow way between bodies to the kitchen. Dan's fidgeting with his shirt collar and Raf's on the counter, legs swinging, in a hot pink t-shirt that says the eighties were better.
"How do you even know?" she asks, pointing at the shirt.
He shrugs. "I just do."
Dan skips hello and goes straight for, "Did you invite Helen?"
"Way to make a girl feel good, Dan," she drawls. "Yes, I did. She said she'll be here later."
"Oh, okay, good," he says, straightening his shirt again.
Raf grins at her. "So, the hair is out. Should we worry?"
"The claws are out. Should I worry?"
"Sorry." He actually looks slightly contrite. "It's just banter, you know."
"I know," Lauren says. "I'm still kind of surprised you personally invited me, though."
"Well, I was starting to think maybe you might think I'm an asshole."
"Why ever would I think that?" She smiles at him, though, to defuse the comment.
"Should I get drunk?" Dan suddenly says. "I mean, everybody else is. That's how you mingle, right? You drink. Should I have a beer?"
Raf and Lauren look uneasily at each other.
"Maybe just one beer," Raf finally says. "To loosen you up."
"But only one," Lauren says. A drunk Dan might be something she does not want to behold.
"Okay, which brand is best?"
"Who are you kidding" Raf scoffs. "It's a college party. You drink whatever you can find. Grab one of mine from the fridge. Blue labels." He turns to Lauren. "You want one?"
"Sure," she says automatically.
Dan hands Lauren her beer, craning his neck towards the front entrance. "Hey look. There's Helen's friend."
Lauren follows his gaze. It's Busy, wrapped in her huge purple ski monstrosity, eyeing the room from the entrance, two girls Lauren vaguely recognises from classes by her side. "I don't think she's exactly Helen's friend. She's more of a painful roommate situation."
Raf nods knowingly. "That's why I got the hell out of the dorms."
"What's she doing here without Helen?" Dan asks, still staring.
"She's allowed to know other people, you know," Lauren tells him.
"That's true." Dan twists the top off his beer. "I'm going to talk to her."
"Really?" Lauren raises her eyebrows. "Remember the other night? How rude she was?"
"Yeah, but it's good practice. Training for party small talk." And he's gone, beer clutched in hand.
"Party training." Lauren shakes her head.
Raf smirks. "I must be black belt by now."
"Me too."
They click beer bottles and watch Dan heading Busy and her friends off at the living room entrance, taking their coats. Under Busy's loud jacket is an even louder sixties yellow dress.
"I don't mean to be mean, but that dress is ugh," Raf says
"Yes you do. And don't worry, that girl can be a little ugh," Lauren replies.
He grins. "So, have you finished that essay for Film Appreciation?"
"Sort of. No. Not really." Lauren presses her hands to her face. She already knows how her Sunday is going to go. "It turns out I might have no appreciation for film."
"My friend who took the course last year said that if you want to do well, just mention some of the other films the same director has made. Even if you haven't seen them. Then the professor thinks you're a real film buff type, not just taking it for the easy credit."
"But that's what I am doing. Taking my liberal arts credit in the easiest class I could find. Which is why I've never seen any of his other films. I'm still not one hundred percent sure I even know what mise en scene is," Lauren admits.
"Oh. Maybe you should crack a book sometime?"
"I do. All the time," Lauren tells him, swigging her beer. "You try juggling biochemistry, and cellular biology and physics with this class."
"Yeah, nope," Raf says lightly. "I plan on enjoying my life. I've seen enough of Leyla going crazy over all her work."
"Where is Leyla?" Lauren asks. Evan, attic guy from last, is in the corner talking to a group of girls, but Leyla is nowhere to be seen.
Raf doing a visual sweep of the living room, makes a tsk tsk sound and sighs. "I bet I know exactly where she is."
"Where?"
He drops off the counter. "Follow me."
She follows him across then living room. Evan gives Lauren a cocky smile as they pass. She gives him a withering one back. What's to bet he thinks she came in the hopes of hooking up with him again? She quickly follows Raf down the long hallway, and up a flight of stairs, retracing her steps from her great escape last week. Instead of going up the next flight to the attic, though, Raf turns down a long hallway to a door right at the end. He gives it a loud rap, but pushes it open without waiting for a response.
There, cross-legged on a bed pushed right under the window, is Leyla, wrapped in a bright blue duvet, surrounded by books and papers
"Exhibit A" Raf says, sweeping out an arm like a game show host. He puts his hands on his hips and glares at her. "What in sweet Jesus's name are you doing?"
Leyla glances up, frowns, and looks back at her book. "What do you think I'm doing?"
"Do you happen to recall that we're having a party tonight? I don't know, perhaps the joyous, celebratory sounds from downstairs jogged your memory?"
"We? You're having a party. You and Dan and that idiot." She points in the direction of the attic. "I never agreed. I have a chemistry test next week, and then there's that stupid film essay." She points a pen at him. "You told me that class would be easy."
Lauren smiles. At least someone else is struggling, too.
"I told you that you can look at my essay," he says.
"That's cheating," Leyla grumbles. "I'll do it on my own."
"Can I look at your essay?" Lauren says hopefully.
"Listen, it's a party. Leyla." Raf folds his arms. "You're supposed to do party things, not what you do every single other day. Live a little."
"I am living."
"If you say so." He spins around, rolls his eyes at Lauren, and skips off down the hall. "Some of us are going to have some FUN!" he hollers as he disappears down the stairs.
Lauren lingers at her door, surveying Leyla's neat, colourful room with its thick ochre rug on the wooden boards, its deep green curtains, and the bright blue bedspread.
"What?" Leyla mutters, without looking up.
"I haven't finished the essay either, if it makes you feel any better," Lauren offers.
Leyla flicks a glance up at her. "I've done most of it, actually. I just don't like parties."
"Yeah, I kind of figured that's why you're so cranky."
"Ever heard that saying about pots and kettles and black things?"
"True." Lauren smiles and presses her back against the door jamb. "I'm not so sure I really like them either. Not the whole chitchat part, anyway."
"You don't exactly seem afraid of speaking your mind."
A couple of girls stumble down the hallways, gossiping loudly. "Bathroom?" one of them asks as Lauren peers out at them.
Before she can say anything, Leyla lets out a small hiss behind her. "Downstairs!" she yells.
"Okay," the girls says, turning on her heels, grabbing her friend by the arm.
"Wow," Lauren says as the music suddenly gets louder downstairs. "Well, at least tonight will be good for Dan and his girlfriend hunting project."
"It sounds slightly sinister when you put it like that," Leyla rests her chin on her hand. "I'm worried about it, honestly. He's so…"
"Innocent? Vulnerable?" Lauren says. "Kind of like a post-pubescent deer in headlights?"
Leyla smiles for the first time. "Exactly."
"We'll look out for him," Lauren assures her.
There's a loud slam, a door or something falling. Leyla flinches. The stony look returns. "I am never sleeping tonight," she mutters.
"Well," Lauren says slowly. "If you're not going to sleep, and you don't like parties, any chance you fancy a bit of cat spotting?"