Alright, I'm having some really good ideas for this story so I'm super excited!
And I do not own the fabulous Next to Normal :) And I researched all the different cocktails featured at the college party, so I didn't come up with any of that on my own.
Please enjoy and review!
Natalie could not believe how much time had gone by. She had two days left at home. Then she and Henry were roadtripping down to California to start off their freshman year at UCLA. They were both insanely excited, but Natalie had to admit she was nervous. She wasn't good with people. She'd have Henry, but would she have anyone else?
And she was still pretty shocked her Dad was letting her go. And he was being so cool about it!
Senior year itself had flown by. There was a lot of school work, then a fantastic spring break with Henry's family in Miami, followed by a crazy prom. She had never dressed up that much in her life. And Henry had rented a tux and everything. Of course graduation day was special. They had spent the summer going to various parties and gatherings. She really wished it didn't have to end.
But it was going to, she thought, sighing and continuing to pack up her clothes.
"Need any help?" a voice asked. She turned to see her mother in the doorway.
"Mom!" she said, running to give Diana a hug. "What are you doing here?" She hadn't seen her mom since her graduation party at the end of June.
"I just wanted to say goodbye and everything. I'm going away for a few days, a therapy group spa trip thing, you wouldn't find it interesting, so I just wanted to stop by. Can I help you out?"
"Yeah, sure, I still have plenty of packing to do."
"Great." And Natalie and Diana started to finish the rest of the work together. They talked, they laughed, sharing stories and enjoying the time. They packed well into the night, finishing much faster than Natalie had anticipated.
"Looks like that's everything," Natalie said, zipping up the final suitcase.
"We make an awesome team," Diana said with a smile. She checked her watch. "It's close to midnight. I have some packing of my own to do before I leave tomorrow." She gave her daughter a quick hug. "It was great to see you, honey."
"Same, Mom."
"I know you'll have the best time at school. And feel free to call me whenever. You know I'm here for you."
"I know, Mom." Natalie smiled. "Thanks."
"I have to go," Diana said sadly. "I love you, honey." She hugged her daughter again.
"I love you, Mom."
Her two days were up. Natalie stood in her driveway, watching as Henry put the last of his stuff into the back of Dan's SUV. He was nice enough to lend it to them for their four years at UCLA. And it would make moving in so much easier.
"That's it!" Henry said enthusiastically. "We are ready to hit the road."
Natalie took a deep breath and finally smiled. "Yeah. Great. Let's go."
"Not without saying goodbye," Dan said, hurrying over to the couple and giving them each a hug. He held on to Natalie for a long time though. "I love you, Nat," he said. "Have a great time, but be safe. Call me everyday. And don't forget about school work. That's why you're going in the first place."
Natalie pulled out of the hug. "I will, Dad, don't worry," she said. "I'll be fine." She reached for Henry's hand. "We'll be fine."
To Henry, Dan said, "You better take of her."
"Oh, don't worry, Mr. Goodman," Henry said. "I would never let anything happen to your daughter."
"We should go," Natalie said after they all stood around for a few seconds. Awkwardly of course. "There's going to be traffic and stuff, and it's such a long drive."
"Right, right," Dan said, "go on your way. Don't forget to call!" He hugged them one last time and then went back inside. Henry and Natalie got in the car, Henry behind the wheel. As they pulled onto the highway, Henry rolled down the windows and cranked up the radio.
"This is it, baby!" he shouted. "California here we come!"
After 18 hours, ten minutes, one thousand one hundred and thirty nine miles, and $130 in gas later, they were parking in front of their dorm. The girls had the first two floors, guys had the top two. Henry and Natalie gave each other a quick kiss before they had to seperate in order to move in.
Natalie was happy to find her room totally empty. Her roommate had yet to arrive. She managed to make her bed and put away all of her clothes before the girl showed up. She was about 5'4" with short curly blonde hair and bright green eyes.
"Hi," the girl said. "Are you Natalie?"
"Um, yeah," Natalie said, hating the fact that she was a good four inches taller than this girl. "What's your name again?"
"Stella," she said, giving Natalie a quick handshake. "I'm from Washington."
"State?" Natalie asked excitedly. "Me too!"
"D.C. actually. Sorry."
"Oh."
"Hey, I think we can still get along. I love the beach, scary movies, Mozart, golf, doing make-up, Facebook-"
"Wait, Mozart?" Natalie repeated.
"Yeah, my brother played classical piano and it always fascinated me. I love listening to it."
"I'm a classical pianist." Natalie smiled. "I think we'll have a good time."
Natalie finished unpacking as Stella began, then she helped out her new roommate. Natalie was surprised by how good they were getting along. And of course when the topic of boyfriends came up, things got even better.
"So I have a boyfriend," Stella said as she put the sheets on her bed. "His name is Kyle and he's a freshman here too. It's so cool that we can be together."
"No way!" Natalie said, totally loving this. Hey, she never had a girlfriend in her life. "My boyfriend's here too. His name's Henry."
"That's so funny! Is he cute?"
"Oh, totally. How about Kyle?"
"Gorgeous. So you know what this means, right?"
"What?" Natalie asked.
"Haven't you heard the rumors?" Stella asked, putting her pillows aside and looking at Natalie.
"No."
"Well, apparently, every year on the first night of freshman year, you have your first super wild college party."
"Oh, I've heard that," Natalie said with a shrug. "I don't really party hard though. I kind of had a thing before...when I was sixteen. I didn't do hardcore stuff, just drinking and prescription meds. I'm clean, I swear. I just like to stay away from all that."
"I know what you mean," Stella said, nodding sympathetically. "But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about the rumor that if you already have a boyfriend...or if you don't, you always have...you know, sex, on the first night."
"Where'd you hear that?"
"Around. I mean, it's kind of...stupid. Like, you shouldn't have to be pressured into it because of something college initiation thing."
Natalie laughed. "Virgin?"
"Yeah," Stella admitted. "You?"
"Yeah," Natalie said.
"Oh my god! I have an idea! We should do it tonight. In honor of that rule or whatever."
"Really? But I mean...what if we're not ready?"
"Hey, we're only eighteen once," Stella said, going back to her bedding. "Why not have some fun?"
As Stella predicted, every floor was having a big party. There was dancing in the hallways, making out and more in the dorm rooms, and a never ending flow of alcohol. Natalie had been determined to avoid the booze, but Stella handed her a drink at the beginning of the party, and Natalie decided to just go with it.
"It's called a Hello Kitty," Stella had told her. "This really cute guy showed me how to make it. It's vodka and soda syrup and some strawberry stuff. So yummy!" The party had only just started and Stella was drunk. A few minutes after, Natalie wanted to get her cell out of her dorm to call Henry, but Stella and Kyle were already getting busy. She decided to look for Henry on her own. She picked up another Hello Kitty on the way up to his floor.
And she did find him, bopping to the music in front of his room talking to his roommate.
"Hey, Nat!" he called when he saw her. "Come meet Jake." She said hi to the really tall and thin boy with redish brown hair and blue eyes. He was relatively cute, but Henry was far better looking. "He's from Indiana and is playing football here."
Natalie noticed Henry was extra perky tonight. "What are you drinking?" she asked.
"All the floors are doing all these crazy cocktails," he told her excitedly. He gave his red plastic cup a little shake. "This is called Happy Monkey." He started laughing. "You know, vodka, Sprite, and banana schnapps. I don't even know what banana schnapps is." He continued laughing.
"Just liquor. Do you...maybe...maybe you want to come meet my roommate and stuff?"
"Sure."
She led him downstairs and to her room. Luckily, Stella and her boyfriend were finished. Kyle was lost in the sea of drunk teens again and Stella was giddily redressing.
"Hey, Natalie," she said. "Is this Henry?"
"Um, yeah. Henry, I'd like you to meet my roommate, Stella. We have a lot in common."
"Oh, awesome," Henry said, "Nice to meet you."
"You should meet Kyle," Stella suggested. "He has brown hair and is the green rugby shirt. I'll make you guys another set of drinks-something cool I was just taught. And then us girls will catch up with you guys." Henry smiled and headed into the hallway. Stella shut the door behind him.
"Oh my god!" she squealed. "I just had the most amazing time of my life. And I don't even care that I'm drunk!" She laughed. "Anyway, you have to do it with Henry. I swear, you won't regret it." Back in the hallway, Stella mixed them all new drinks. "This is called Strip and Go Naked Punch." She giggled. "You know why I mixed this, Nat." She nudged Natalie in the side. Henry gave the girls a weird look. "Anyway, it's vodka and lemonade with a splash of Bud Light and water."
"Don't you think we've been doing a lot of drink mixing tonight?" Natalie asked, slowly taking a cautious sip of the drink. She didn't really like it, but Henry seemed to so she decided to keep drinking.
"It's our first college party," Kyle chimed in. "You have to go all out for your first time."
"In more ways than one, if you know what I mean," Stella said, once again nudging Natalie.
"Alright, there's been a lot of suggesting going on," Henry said, downing the last bit of his punch. "What are you up to?"
Natalie said. "Stella made this drink for us because she really would like us to strip and go naked."
"What?"
"Like, have sex," Stella said. "Time for refills!" She hurried back to the drinks table.
"We did it tonight, bro," Kyle said, slapping Henry on the back. "It's sort of like first night of freshman year thing."
"So are we going to?" Henry asked Natalie.
"I made two Sex on the Brain's just for you two!" Stella squealed, rejoing them and handing two of the four plastic cups in her hands to Nat and Henry. "It's peach schnapps, vodka, a bit of melon liqueur, some pineapple juice and some orange juice. There should be gin in it too, but I couldn't find any, but it'll still be fine." She handed a different drink to Kyle. "Rum and Coke for my man," she said, laughing. "I'm back to the Hello Kitty myself."
The music started to get a bit too loud for Natalie, and she hated to admit it but Stella's giggles were getting annoying.
"Come with me," Natalie said to Henry, pulling him back to her room. She shut the door behind them. She sipped her drink, but hated it so ended up dumping it in the trash can. Henry did the same. "I've had about three drinks too many. I can't believe I drank in the first place."
"It's college," Henry said, giving her a quick kiss. "You're going to drink. But on a different note, what's up with all this sex talk? I didn't know you wanted to."
"Well, I didn't. I mean, I wasn't thinking about it until Stella told me about the first freshman party thing."
"But do you want to?"
"I don't know. I mean, we're ready, probably. We've been together a long time."
"Yeah, but do you want to?" Henry repeated.
"Do you?" Natalie asked.
"Well, I've definitely thought about it. And I definitely want to. What guy wouldn't want to? But I wouldn't want you to do something you weren't comfortable with."
"So let's do it," Natalie said simply.
"Really?"
"Well, not only is it expected but it's...right. I love you and I want to be able to show you in a different way."
Henry smiled. "If you really want to, we can," he said.
After a deep breath, Natalie said, "I do." Her voice was much firmer than she intended. But she was glad it came out that way.
And so it began. Henry took her by the waist and they began kissing with a newfound passion. It was Natalie though who took charge and led him to the bed. Henry soon began fumbling with his belt bucket as Natalie stripped off her shirt. Within seconds their bodies were pressed together and they were so caught up in the moment, they didn't even notice or care they weren't using protection.
They fell asleep in each others arms, completely blissful. Natalie didn't regret doing it at all. She loved Henry so much it was worth it. And Henry felt the same way. The whole night was perfect. In fact, it was so good that it became a regular thing between the two of them. It brought them closer together and happier than ever.
Yes, Natalie thought, sitting and doing homework at her desk a few weeks later, college is perfect. I'm having the time of my life.
If only she knew what was going to happen next...
Dun Dun Dun! LOL
I hope you liked the wild college chapter! Stay tuned for extra drama :)
Please review!