I'm Restless, Obsessed With Your Future

The door swings open, and the girls can see everything. Black lights, dirty dancing, bottle upon bottle of vodka. The party clearly started earlier than they had expected it to. They see that they've come to the right place. What's taking up most of the doorway, though, is Alex. His face shows excitement as he sees Riley, Dessa, and Morgan. "Ladies!" he says, opening his door further and stepping out of their way. "Welcome to my humble abode."

It's anything but humble, of course. There are at least two stripper poles (one of them in use), which isn't exactly a sign of modesty. Also, the place is huge for an apartment in New York. He obviously has the money to own this place. It's kind of impressive. Not impressive enough for Dessa, of course, but impressive.

"Well, thank you," says Morgan, smiling at him. She looks to her friends. "Shots?"

Riley's eyes become wide. "Yes."

"Dessa?"

She shrugs. "I guess," she says, simply hoping to fit in. She doesn't love drinking. Something tells her she'll need it tonight, though.

"Here," Alex says, making his way backward. "I'll find some friends and some glasses and we'll all take a shot together."

Riley grins. "Awesome, thanks!" she says as he walks away. She faces Dessa. "Please tell me you guys are hooking up tonight."

"Absolutely not," snaps Dessa.

"Why not?" Morgan asks, almost offended that Dessa would turn Alex down. "He's really hot, and he's totally into you. And he's in a band."

As much as she tries, Dessa cannot convince herself that she wants to hook up with this guy. "You can hook up with him, Morgan, honestly," she says sarcastically.

Riley unexpectedly grabs her by the shoulders and starts shaking her back and forth. "Dess, you need to get over Ty!" She stops shaking the girl. "This can be your rebound!"

Dessa pushes off Riley with a surprising amount of force. "Whatever, I'll find another rebound, and not at some party."

At this rate, though, she knows a rebound is nowhere in her near future.


His eyes get covered by an anonymous hand, temporarily blinding him. “SHOTS!"
 
Jack laughs. He’s not in a terrible mood, surprisingly. Danielle is nowhere to be found, and he’s not exactly drunk, but he’s buzzed and is actually enjoying himself. Also, if Alex doesn’t find a girl to have relations with, he gets a bed, and if Alex is asking to do shots with him, the odds of him being sober enough to have relations are slim to none. Jack attacks Alex’s arm, receiving his sight in the process. He spins around, facing his friend. “Shots!” he says excitedly. “Just us?”
 
“Nah, man,” says Alex, looking to his left. “I’m going to get Rian and Zack, too. And we’re all going to do them with these three girls I met backstage.” He begins to walk toward the kitchen.
 
As Jack follows him, he processes this, frowning. He didn’t consider girls doing shots with them. He’s not going to complain, but this means that Alex has a motive with these shots. The chance of him getting a bed for the night just decreased dramatically. They enter the kitchen, closing the door behind them, quieting their surroundings. There's an unopened Corona on the table, which Jack sees as a hidden blessing. He grabs it. Still cold. “The ones that were with Vinny?” he asks, trying to remember what they looked like. He can't seem to recall.
 
Alex nods, trying to hide his smirk. “Yep. They’re all really hot. One of them I haven't talked to much. There’s one girl that was really cool. Her name was Morgan. But, uh…” He begins to stop hiding the smirk, looking back at Jack. “Dessa. I haven't talked to her much either, but she’s…” He holds his fingers out in the 'OK' shape, indicating his approval.
 
Jack tries to picture Dessa. Probably a brunette. Long hair. Nice ass. These physical traits are easy to think of, due to Alex’s preferences. But who looks like a Dessa? It’s a cool name, but he’s never heard it before, so he can’t really compare and contrast her to other Dessas. He'll find out when she leaves Alex's room in the morning, he supposes. “Go for it. You think she wants to?”
 
“Honestly?” Alex asks, becoming slightly less excited. “She’s giving off a hard-to-get vibe. I kind of need a challenge though.” Then his mood changes within a second, and looks back at Jack. "So, shots?" he asks enthusiastically.
 
The door opens. “Jack!”
 
The voice is familiar. It pierces his ear like a bad speaker feed and rings in his head. It’s Danielle. He refuses to turn around and face her. He keeps looking at Alex, glaring at him.
 
Alex smiles. Mayhem. “Actually, I’ll just leave you two alone,” he says, grabbing some shot glasses and a bottle of Bacardi. As walks away, he winks.
 
Jack watches him leave, and his eyes end up on Danielle. He opens his beer.
 

“Let’s get fucked up!” says Rian, holding his shot glass in the middle of the circle that he, Zack, Alex, Dessa, Riley, and Morgan have formed. They all cheer at his proposal, then break the toast and drink their shots, then their chasers.
 
Dessa feels kind of weird, being the only one without a mixed drink to follow. The other five have some sort of soda with Bacardi. She has water. When Alex looks at her, he chuckles. “Water?” he asks, taking a sip of his alcoholic Sprite.
 
“I literally cannot talk after a shot unless I drink water,” she says in defense.

"Aw," he says, scooting over her way. "Yeah, you're tiny." He puts his hand on the top of her head, noting how short she is. "I've always been a bit of a lightweight myself."

As if on cue, Zack and Rian scoff in unison. Alex squints at them. "I'm sorry," says Zack, starting to chuckle at Alex humbling himself. "I can't believe you just admitted that."

Dessa watches Alex's expression, entertained by how annoyed he is. Then she turns to Morgan and Riley, who are whispering in each other's ears. Then Riley whispers to Rian. He nods.

"We're going to get some more rum," says Riley, backing off of Alex and Dessa. Rian, Morgan, and Zack go with Riley, leaving Alex and Dessa to themselves.

Dessa begins to look around anxiously, knowing she can't escape because her friends will simply find a way to abandon her again. Alex notices this. "Look, I'm sorry about them," he says, moving in closer. "They're being so stupid."

"Yeah," she says without hesitation. Then she realizes how bitchy she sounded. She winces. "I'm sorry, too." She looks down, unsure of why she just apologized.

"Don't be sorry!" His arms go around her waist, and she immediately feels uncomfortable. "Now we can get to know each other."

This throws her off-guard. If there's one thing Dessa is known for, it's her ability to read sexual implications. Alex is almost unreadable—and it scares her.

Fortunately for her, he can tell. "You alright?" he asks, sounding somewhat concerned.

"Yeah, I, uh…" She's awful in awkward situations. She feels like giggling again, but she's done that too many times tonight. It's like she can't help but feel out of place. She needs an escape. For any amount of time, even five minutes.

She breaks away, beginning to walk as fast as she can. "I have to go to the bathroom."
 

Jack is watching the clock, keeping track of how much time he’s been in this room with Danielle. Thirteen minutes of silence. She’s in the doorway, so he can’t escape. In this time he has finished his Corona and half of a Budweiser that was left on the counter. The buzz is growing.
 
Suddenly, she perks up. She tries to seem happy, but ends up looking somewhat embarrassed. “What’s up?” she asks.
 
“Oh, nothing,” says Jack, looking at the fridge and freezer. He walks over, opening both and immediately grabbing a can of Coke and a half-empty bottle of Grey Goose. Alex won’t mind. And if he does, serves him right. He slams the doors and grabs a red Solo cup off of the counter. “Just about to get wasted out of my mind.” He pours the vodka into the cup and fills it half way before deciding it’s enough.
 
He looks back up at Danielle, who is pouting. She hated it when he partied a lot. He intends to use this to his advantage. “I see you haven’t changed,” she says, walking forward.
 
“And I see you touched up your roots,” he sneers, referring to her newly-dyed hair. Any insult he can think of, he’s using it. He pours the Coke and fills the rest of the cup, then takes a big gulp. He can just barely taste the soda. Perfect. He glances back at her, looking smug.
 
“Seriously?” The pout’s gotten worse. “I told Alex this was a bad idea.”
 
He smiles, somewhat amused by the drama of it all. “Oh, really? So you showed up anyway?”
 
“I wanted to talk to you, Jack.”
 
“About what?” He takes another drink, believing it’s making him more confident. “And you better not say, ‘About us,’ or some shit like that.”
 
She sighs, looking away from him. “Look, I know it’s not an ideal situation to be talking about this, but I really feel like things have changed for me. You were great, and I took advantage of that.”
 
Jack tries to suppress his laughter, but it comes out, though not nearly as obnoxiously as he imagines it to be. “Okay, okay,” he says, collecting himself. “There’s a difference between taking advantage of me and talking shit about me to your friends.  You’re a shady bitch, and there’s a reason I broke up with you.”
 
“Jack, I think you’re overreacting.”
 
“Yeah, well,” he slurs, faking his drunkenness as he heads to the exit. “I think you’re a two-faced slut.” He heads back to the party, feeling some temporary pride.
 
But he knows she’s going to try to find him within the next five minutes. He needs a place to hide until she leaves.

The bathroom?

Sure. He's not planning on using the bathroom, but it's his best option. First off, it's in Alex's room, making it separate from the rest of the party. Second, it's the only room in the apartment that locks. It'll do. He takes a swig of the vodka and Coke and closes his eyes while he moves against the crowd, then holds his drink in front of his chest.

He’s hit in the arm, and the liquid in his cup pours onto something standing right in front of him. He then realizes that this can’t be an object. It’s a person. Shit. The person has boobs. So it's a girl. Shit. He looks up at her. She looks disgusted.

She looks gorgeous.

Shit shit shit.