Love's Not A Competition

The week seemed to fly by and it shocked me to realize that it was Friday already. Brittney and Katie had helped me select a dress and we had planned on getting ready together after our classes let out. I followed my normal routine, training, breakfast, classes, lunch and then more classes. I was trying not to listen to all the excitement from the students that were going home tomorrow. I didn’t listen to any gossip about the party tonight either. Everyone was talking about it and the first years were complaining that they weren’t allowed to go.

It was a tradition and the dorm head held this party every year. I had remembered being a first year and complaining about not being able to go last year but now I wasn’t as excited as I thought I would be. It was good to be getting out of the dorm buildings for the night but I knew that everyone would end up drunk and stupid. There would probably be a few fights and a whole lot of mistaken hook ups but it wasn’t that that I was worried about. I didn’t want to see Katie and Zeke together. I didn’t want to see them kissing and dancing and laughing and having a good time while I had nothing.

“Hurry up in there!”

I sighed and took a final look in the mirror before walking out of Brittney’s bathroom. They were already dressed and they both looked amazing. Brittney’s gold dress fell to just above her knees and clung to her perfectly. It was strapless and silky and she had tied her hair back so half was up and the other half down. Katie’s dress was a royal blue and one shouldered. It was a little shorter than Brittney’s but it was not short enough to look trashy. My dress was a purple halter neck that fell all the way to the ground. At the bottom of my dress the purple turned lighter and faded into a lilac color half way down. I had left my hair down and so had Katie. We were all ready and looked great, if I did say so myself.

When we came down the stairs I was tottering a bit. I was wearing six inch heels and I was not used to being taller than normal. When I stood next to Eric I was only a few inches shorter than him and I felt great. I smiled triumphantly as we all walked outside to where the car was sitting to pick us up. We didn’t get a stretch limo but a car with an actual driver was pretty cool. I seemed to be the only one who found it exciting that we were being driven around. We pulled up to the hotel and there was a sign telling us to go up to the penthouse on the top floor.

“It’s in a penthouse, really?” I asked.
Everyone looked at me quizzically.
“You’ve never been in a penthouse?” Katie asked.
“Well, yeah but it wasn’t for a party.”

I could feel a blush creeping onto my cheeks and decided to keep all my other comments to myself to avoid further embarrassment. When we reached the top floor we found out that the dorm head had booked out the whole floor, not just one penthouse apartment. People were everywhere and the music was loud. The night was actually looking up for me. Brittney grabbed my arm and led me over to the drinks table. She poured herself a shot and tried to pour one for me but I refused. I sipped on a cup of the punch but put it down when I realized that someone had spiked it. I didn’t want to drink any alcohol.

I wanted to remember this night. The others joined us and Aidan dragged Brittney over to the dance floor. Zeke asked Katie to dance and they walked off as well. I smiled at Eric and he held out his hand. We walked over to the others and I tried my best to dance in these killer heels. Two hours later and a lot of people were already drunk. I had been separated from the others when I had gone to find the bathroom. When I was walking back to the dance floor I ended up taking a wrong turn and found myself in an empty room. It was bigger than half of my house back home. I walked over to the window which took up most of the back wall and looked out over the city.

Los Angeles was nothing like Vegas at night. I hated to think it but I really did miss Vegas. It was my home and I had grown up there and nothing would ever compare to it. I sighed and sat down on the king-sized bed. I was enjoying the temporary silence when there was a knock on the door. They didn’t wait for my answer before coming in. I was surprised to find that it was Zeke, alone.

“What are you doing in here?” he asked.
“Do you believe me if I said that I stumbled across this room by accident whilst coming back from the bathroom?” I asked.
“No, I would think that you were hiding out.”
“Well sort of but I really did get lost. This place is pretty big.”
“Yeah,” he said before sitting on the bed beside me.
“What about you? Why are you in here? Shouldn’t you be dancing with Katie or something?”
“I should but I just needed some quiet time. It’s pretty intense out there.”

I nodded in agreement before flopping backwards on the bed. It was nice and soft. I could feel my eyes start to close as I felt the bed shift. I opened my eyes and wasn’t surprised to see Zeke’s face close to mine. He was on his hands and knees on top of me and I blushed at the closeness. He leant down and kissed me before I could even blink. My whole body seemed to sigh into his touch. It was so familiar and so right but so wrong at the same time. I knew he was with Katie and that he liked her but right now I couldn’t think about anything. Just as the tip of his tongue ran over my bottom lip there was a crash from outside. We jumped apart but nobody came into the room. I stared at him pointedly as he stood up.

“You have to do something about this,” I said quietly.

He left without saying a word and I sighed before slamming my fists into the soft mattress. I finally got up and went looking for my friends. I found Brittney passed out on the couch with Aidan looking over her protectively. Eric was kissing some girl and I couldn’t see Zeke or Katie. I sat by Brittney’s feet and Aidan smiled kindly at me.

“Are you having fun?” he asked.

I shrugged, not sure how to answer that question. I had been having fun right up to when Zeke left the room after kissing me like he did. It wasn’t playful like those other times. It was been full of raw emotion and a sadness that was almost a longing. When Aidan told me that he was heading back to the dorm buildings I decided to go with him. He helped Brittney up and put her arm over his shoulder while his arm went around her waist. I had informed Eric that we were leaving and ran down the corridor to meet up with Aidan and Brittney by the elevators. There was another car waiting for us outside and as we slid into the backseat Brittney stirred.

“Where are we?” she mumbled.
“We’re going home,” Aidan soothed.

She nodded and closed her eyes again. We pulled in front of the dorm buildings and I thanked the driver as Aidan carried Brittney to her room. I watched as he kissed her cheek and made sure she was tucked in. He turned off the light and closed the door as he stepped out of her room.

“Well, goodnight,” he said before walking down the corridor to his room.

I sighed and turned into my own room. I didn’t want to face Zeke but I knew that that was inevitable as we shared a room. I was glad that he hadn’t come home yet and changed before getting into my bed.