After Party

After hours of unpacking and campus tours, I finally had the room to myself, sort of. Katie was still here, but she had been on the phone for two hours. It was finally peaceful. I had freedom and the rush of the day was over. I was just about to fall asleep.

"Let's go!" I heard her shout as she threw my jacket at my head.

"Go where?" I questioned sleepily lifting myself on my elbows to see her more clearly.

"You know, you're going to have to get over that whole sleep thing. You rarely get any in college anyway."

I heaved a heavy sigh as I buried my head back into my pillow. I felt like giving her "The Mom" answer of just five more minutes.

"What time is it anyway," I spoke into the pillow not really expecting an answer to the muffled question.

"It's ten-thirty on a Friday," she exaggerated the word Friday like it was supposed to mean something special.

I glared at her questioningly still angry she had interrupted my almost sleep.

"And now that the parents are gone—first party of the school year!"

"A party?"

I had never even been to a high school party, yet alone be ready for a college party. How was I supposed to act? What was I suppose to wear? Would guys be there? Of course they would. That was probably the worst place I could socially and mentally put myself. I was a walking embarrassment waiting to happen.

"A party…," I whispered out almost to myself.

"How many times are you going to say that? Yes, a party! Now get up!"

The look on Katie's small face was full of frustration. Even angry, she was prettier than me. What would I look like beside her at a party? I slowly dragged myself out of bed and to my closet. I didn't really see much point of trying. Not that I had much, if any, partying clothes. I was not going to look better than her anyway. I tossed on some worn jeans and found a soft pink tank top in my dresser. I slowly rustled through my closet until I found my brown flip flops and slipped them on. I took my hair out of the pony tail I had it in all day and looked in the mirror. My long, too curly hair was everywhere. I was disgusted with my hair. Katie came up behind me in the mirror putting on make-up. I turned to face Katie who, of course, looked like she just came off a runway even though she was nowhere near as tall as a model. I looked so tall and clunky next to her. Kind of like an elephant next to a graceful deer.

"What's wrong? You look sick."

Were my emotions really that prevalent on my face? I'm glad she thought I was just feeling bad and not that I was nervous about going out.

"Oh, it's nothing. I was just wondering if I should put on make-up, too."

"Are you serious? What makes you think you need make up? I wish I had your smooth skin so I wouldn't have to worry about doing this."

I seriously thought my roommate had lost her mind. I looked back in the mirror at my face. Having a black mother and a white father, I could never compare myself to either, really. I was literally mixed in every aspect not taking on any prominent features of either of my parents. I had always thought my green eyes looked weird against my golden-tan, freckled skin. My hair was not curly enough to wear in an afro, but there was also no point of trying to straighten it—it would always go back curly. My hips were weirdly disproportionate to my waste. Finding jeans were on my list of worse things to do. I was a walking circus freak. How this girl could think I was any form of decent was a mystery to me.

"How do I look?" she said with a worried expression on her face.

I figured if I told her that she looked like an "angel turned runway model", it would creep her out.

"Cute," I decided to use even though that was under exaggerated. It seemed to please her because she smiled.

"Let's go before there's no more beer left!"

"Beer?" I questioned, but she pulled me out of the door before I could debate against it.

We did about fifteen minutes of speed walking before we got to the party. The two story house looked old and not well taken care of. You could hear loud music playing two houses away before you even made it there. There were several people outside talking with cups of beer in their hands.

"Whose house is this?" I had a bad feeling about the house, but for some reason I kept walking toward the excitement. I kind of wished that my weird voice-like conscience would lead me in the right direction now, but it was nowhere to be found. Nobody else seemed to feel the same around me, though, so I brushed it off as feelings of insecurity.

"My friend's frat house. Don't worry, you'll have fun."

I followed behind her as she walked up to the door where a guy was standing holding a stack of cups.

"Hey, Alex!" Katie greeted the guy at the door before giving him a hug.

"What's up, Katie. Looking good as usual," he said eyeing her up and down as she tossed her hair to one side.

"Of course," she giggled, "I wanted you to meet my new roommate, Jazz. She's only a freshman so be nice to her," she sternly stated, but still jokingly poking him in the chest.

He held out his hand to me and I took it. What I thought was going to be a hand shake was a kiss on the hand.

"Nice to meet you, sweetheart," he said smoothly, "See, I can be nice, Katie," he said as he stuck his tongue out at her.

"Yea, I'll be sure to keep her nice and far away from your 'niceness', too,"

"Aw. Come on, Katie, don't be that way. I don't bite, I promise."

She smiled at him.

"Just give us a cup already. You're holding up my new best friend's first college party."

I no longer knew if I should be more nervous about the party or the fact that probably the prettiest girl on campus just made me her best friend.

"You better be glad I like you Katie Jacobson or I would make you pay double for a cup instead of it being free."

She waved him off as we walked pass him through the door. It was dark inside the house with the only lighting being a few light globes on the floor and a black light. Some people were up dancing while others were on the couch chatting and some were playing beer pong. She handed me a cup of what looked like fruit punch. I started to sip it and realized it was bitter and spit it out.

"What is it?"

"Something is wrong with this fruit punch!" I said disgusted.

Katie buckled over in laughter. I couldn't find anything funny about the fact that she just gave me bad fruit punch. I would have stormed out and left if I knew how to get back to campus.

"Oh, don't be mad, Jazz. It's just funny. It's called jungle juice. Its fruit punch mixed with tequila," she explained to me.

"Oh," I said as my whole face went red with embarrassment.

"Is this your first time drinking?"

"Yeah," I said hesitantly scared that she would burst out laughing at me in front of everybody in the party again.

"Why didn't you tell me? Now I know I have to keep an eye on you, first-timer," she joked but still sounding concerned. I gave her a half smile and took an even smaller sip than I had before. I didn't want anybody trying to refill my cup. As the night went on, I met more and more people—mostly guys that Katie already knew. Some who tried to get me out on the dance floor, but I had already embarrassed myself enough for one night. I decided that the safest place for me was on the one couch in the house.

"Why are you all by yourself?" I heard an almost familiar voice say. I looked up from my cup to see Alex. Katie had told me about different people all night, but she had told me the most about him. I really had not looked at him until this point. He looked slightly muscular like he could have been in football in high school, but stopped working out once he got to college. You could really see the clearness of his gray eyes contrasting against his black hair even in the dark house.

"I-I don't know," I admitted sheepishly. He sat down next to me making me feel even more uncomfortable. I could smell the alcohol on his breath.

"You are really shy even for a freshman," he stated almost accusingly. I would have been upset with him if I wasn't so nervous by his proximity. I could feel the heat run straight to my face. I had to get out of the situation before I did something stupid.

"I-I think I should go," I said as I tried to wiggle from beside him.

"Oh, don't go," he whispered in my ear almost begging me.

I finally was able to get up, but before I could take a step he grabbed me by my arm with enough strength to rip it from its socket.

"What makes you think you had the choice to leave?"he said angrily. I grabbed the cup of jungle juice I had and threw it in his face before I stormed out of the house. I didn't have to look at the other people's faces to know that most were staring at me now. I could hear the murmurs of questions going on along with the string of curses coming out of Alex's mouth. I could care less. I wanted out.

I walked down the porch, across the front lawn, down the street. I had no idea where I was going, but at least it wasn't in there. I knew I shouldn't have left Katie, but I really did not want to face Alex and the rest of the crowd.

"You shouldn't be out here at night by yourself," I heard the dark, captivating voice of my conscience say again. I heaved a sigh of frustration. Where was my conscience before I went to that party? I decided to ignore it and just keep walking.

"It's not safe," I heard it say again.

"I know. I know!" I yelled out in the air, "Great! Now you have people thinking I'm talking to myself!" I heard a chuckle come from my conscience. Now even my conscience was laughing at me? Maybe I should go check myself into some sort of mental ward.

"But you're not talking to yourself." I stopped in total shock. I wasn't talking to myself? I wasn't crazy? I slowly turned around to see if what I heard was actually there. There was, but he couldn't be real. He was perfect. He looked as if he was Asian, but his eyes were a weird red amber color. He was extremely pale and had slightly lavender circles under his eyes like he was sleep deprived, but it did not take away from his beauty. He was about six feet tall and looked like he was chiseled out of marble. You could see the outline of his muscles from the thin shirt he had on. He was something that only came out of a dream, but there he stood with a slight smirk on his face and his hands in his pockets making him even more gorgeous. He walked toward me, and I felt my heart beat quicken.

"I'm Jason Volturi," the words coming off his lips like sweet honey dew. I started to panic as I couldn't find my vocal cords or my breath. I took a deep breath.

"I'm Jasmine…," I sighed out in a whisper.

"Do you need help back home, Jasmine?"

I lingered on every word he said. I wanted to scream yes and tell him that I would follow him to the ends of the earth, but I nodded my head not able to find another breath. He gave me another smile that could have knocked me off my feet.

"Campus is back this way," he said to me as walked beside me so gracefully that he could have been floating.

"Oh," was the only words I could find. I felt my face turning red again. He probably thought I was the stupidest person alive. That had to be the only reason somebody this gorgeous would even look my direction.

"I'm guessing you're a freshman."

Could he really tell that easily? I guess I just radiated the fact that I was helpless in every sense. Great.

"Thought so."

I rolled my eyes. My social skills were worse than I thought. Not only did I have problems expressing myself, I couldn't hide my emotions on my face either. I was a walking social disaster. Something else I could blame on my overprotective parents.

"I'm not as helpless as you think," I stated once I found my voice again, but it was small and meek.

"Oh, so that explains why you were walking the opposite way of campus," he sarcastically said to me.

I nodded my head yes even though I knew it was a lie. I wasn't going to let him push me around even if he was gorgeous. He chuckled again.

"You're stubborn," he stated more than questioning. This time I had to smile.

"I think you're home."

I looked around me and noticed I was out front of my dorm hall. Had I been so focused on him that I did not even notice that we had walked all the way here?

"Oh," I said again. He came closer to me until I could feel his breath. I could feel my heart beat rising once again. I wrapped my arms around myself trying to control the rhythm of my heart.

"I'll see you around, Jasmine," he whispered to me in the dark, captivating voice I had once thought was my conscience. He stepped away and looked me in my eyes before turning around and walking away. I watched him walk about half a block away before I snapped out of my trance. I turned to the door to unlock it before I realized he had walked me here without asking me where I had lived. By the time I turned around to call out to him, he was nowhere in sight. I opened the door and took one last look behind me before I closed it.