Unforgettable Charm

I was stressing, like I always did. I was in my bedroom pacing back and forth in front of my bed, thinking about tonight. I had been fine earlier, I was able to get showered and arrange an outfit for tonight. But as I thought more about tonight, the more nervous I got. Josh had told me he was going to be at the party, and I didn’t want to run into him and have a long conversation with him.

Tonight was an important night for me, as lame as that sounded. I wanted to make a good impression, and I couldn’t do that if I was worrying about running into Josh. I just had to keep busy, that was what I needed to do. Hopefully Josh would be too preoccupied with other people to talk to me. I thought about Josh being around girls, and a wave of jealousy came over me. I quickly shook the feeling off of myself. I didn’t know where that had come from, but I knew I didn’t like it.

I walked back around to my bed and started to dress in the outfit I chose. I was going to wear blue skinny jeans with a black oversized top that exposed my left shoulder. I chose to wear black platform pumps and a bring my blue clutch. If I was going out tonight, I wanted to dress to impress. A small part of me wanted to look good for Josh. Sure, I didn’t want to like him as more than a friend, but I still wanted to be taken notice of.

I changed quickly and started on my hair. I ran my flatiron through it until all of the waves were gone and my hair was completely straight. Next, I started to apply my makeup. I was never a big fan of makeup, but I knew it helped my features look better once applied correctly. I decided to only work on my eyes, applying black eyeliner to the bottom of my eyelid. Then I applied light blue eye shadow to my lids and put on mascara to top it off.

I checked the time and it was already a little after nine. I decided that it was time to go to Dianna’s party. I decided to drive myself, considering I knew I wouldn’t be drinking tonight. Tonight I wanted to meet people, and not ruin things by drinking. I wanted to stay sober and not make a fool out of myself, which is something I usually did when I chose to drink, which wasn't often. The ride to Dianna’s wasn’t very long. I had programmed her address into my GPS and the directions were easy to follow. Once I arrived I noticed just how big her house, excuse me, mansion was. When I stepped out of the car I noticed all of the cars that were parked in her driveway, and on the street. It looked like Dianna invited a lot more people than I thought she would’ve.

I was let into her home, and once I stepped inside I could see the party was already in full swing. People were everywhere, some with red solo cups in there hands, some with sodas and others just standing around with one another talking. But there were a lot of people, and I knew that more people were at the party than I knew there was. I shut the door behind me, and as soon as I did I heard a girl call out my name.

“Katie!” I looked around until I spotted who was shouting my name, it was Dianna. “I’m so glad you made it!” She came up to me and gave me a friendly hug.

“Yeah, of course, I wouldn’t miss it,” I told her, smiling.

“Well, good, I like you already. Now, can I get you a drink?”

“Sure.”

“What would you like?” She grabbed my hand and led me towards the kitchen and showed me an array of drinks.

“I’ll just take a Pepsi.”

She handed the soda over to me and grinned. “Are you ready to meet some people?”

“I sure am,” I said chuckling.

She grabbed my hand and I followed her into the living room. As we approached a group of people I noticed two of them immediately, they were her co-stars on Glee.

“Amber, Lea,” She said as we approached them. “I want you to meet my newest friend, and co-star, Katie Jansen.”

“Hey Katie, it’s nice to meet you, I‘m Amber,” Amber told me as she shook my hand.

“Thanks, likewise.”

“And I am Lea.” She smiled and also shook my hand.

“So, I hear you’re starring in your first movie, congratulations.” Amber told me as she took a sip of her drink.

“Thanks, yeah it’s pretty great. I’m really excited about it.”

“Is it true you’ve never acted before?” Lea asked with her eyebrows raised.

I chuckled, “Yeah, it’s true. I've never done any type of acting.”

“That’s incredible,” Lea said. “That literally, never happens. You must be a pretty good actress.”

“I try,” I said laughing.

We continued our conversation, and they turned out to be very nice girls. After we all talked, Dianna introduced me to other friends of hers. So far, everyone that she had introduced me to was nice, which was refreshing. I had always assumed people in the film industry were snobby, and obnoxious. But Dianna had proven to me that not everyone was as bad as they seem, and I was glad.

I’d been at the party for almost two hours, and I hadn’t left Dianna’s side.

“Hey Dianna, I just wanted to say thanks. I really appreciate that you’ve introduced to me so many great people.”

“It’s really no problem, I know how tough it is to try to fit in here. And I like you, you’re a really nice girl, and you deserve to meet great people who will become you friends.”

“You know, you really are a lot like your character, Lynn.” I told her, referring to her character on the movie that we were filming.

She laughed, “I really am. That’s why I auditioned for the role, I knew I could really portray her well considering I would basically be playing myself.”

“Well so far you’ve been doing a great job.”

“Thanks Katie, so have you. You know, I was pretty skeptical about them hiring someone who had never acted before, but you proved me wrong. You do such a great job playing Charlotte.”

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.”

We talked for a few moments about each other until she excused herself to use the bathroom. As soon as she left I felt someone get pushed into me. I stumbled, but once I regained my balance I saw who had bumped into me, and it was Logan.

“Katie!” He exclaimed happily, it was easy to tell that he’d been drinking.

“Hey, Logan. Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine! When did you get here?”

“Maybe two hours ago.”

“What?!” His eyes widened and looked genuinely shocked. “I can’t believe I haven’t seen you.”

“Yeah, I’ve been mingling,” I said laughing. I wouldn’t lie, he made a funny drunk.

“Well good, good for you, Katie. I’m glad to know you’re making more friends, I can’t be your only friend.”

“You are not my only friend,” I said smiling.

“Pssshhh, sure I’m not.” He rolled his eyes playfully, then attempted to wink at me. Which made his eye look it had a twitch.

“Logan, maybe you should slow down with the drinks. You do have scenes in the morning.”

"Oh, I’ll be okay, don’t worry.” He stopped speaking, and his eyebrows moved closer together, showing that he was thinking. “Hey, you never called me!”

“Oh yeah, well you told me if I ever had questions to call. I didn’t have any questions to ask you, though.”

“Katie,” He dragged out the ‘e’ in my name. “You know I didn’t mean that.”

“What do you mean?”

He then stepped closer to me and looked down at me. “I just wanted you to call me, to talk.”

“Oh, well why didn’t you say so?”

“I thought you knew what I meant.”

“You said to call if I had questions, I didn’t know that was code,” I said laughing.

“Well, it was. And now I’m sad because you didn’t call.” He crossed his arms and pouted his lips at me.

“Sorry Logan, I’ll make sure I’ll call sometime.”

“Good, now can you do me a favor?”

“Sure, Logan.”

“Would you help me get outside to get some fresh air?”

“Sure thing.” I grabbed his drink and set it down on a counter. He then put an arm around my shoulder to help steady himself and we went out back. No one else was out back, and I didn’t know why. Her backyard was wonderful, she had outdoor lamps hanging outside, and had lights around her in ground pool and there was lots of open space. Logan and I headed over towards the pool and started to talk.

“You’re awesome, Katie.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“I really mean that, I think you’re great.” He turned to face me and put his hands in his pockets.

“I think you’re great to, Logan. You’re a really nice guy.”

“We should hang out sometime.”

“Yeah, that’d be fun.” I didn’t object to it, because I knew I didn’t have any type of feelings toward him. He was a nice guy, and I couldn’t see him as more than a friend. Logan then put his hands on my hips and stepped closer to me. “Logan, what are you doing?”

“Shh, nothing, I’m not doing anything.”

“Logan, you’re drunk. Maybe we should just get you inside.”

“No please, not yet.”

“Why not?”

“Can I do something?”

“L-Like what?” And at that moment Logan moved his face closer to mine. I knew what he was trying to do, so I backed away immediately and put my hands on his chest to stop him. “Logan no, don’t,” I said firmly.

“Oh come on Katie, just one kiss.” He then tried to lean in again, and this time I pushed him back.

“Logan, I said no.”

“Why not?” I could tell right away that was upset.

“Because I don’t want to, Logan. You’re my friend and nothing more.”

He stepped towards me again and tried to kiss me. I turned my head and he ended up kissing my cheek, but that didn’t stop me from pushing him away and slapping him.

“I said stop!” I shouted at him.

“Katie, Katie are you okay?” I knew that voice, it was Josh. Josh came over to me and stood in front of me.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Logan was just leaving.” I looked at Logan and he took the hint.

“Yeah, that’s what I was doing.” With a hand on his cheek where I slapped him, he stumbled back inside.

I let out a sigh of relief. I wasn’t mad at Logan, I knew that he had drunk a lot. I knew Logan was a better guy then that, and I knew that the alcohol was just getting the best of him. He probably might not even remember what happened by the morning.

“What happened? Did he hurt you?” Josh took my face in his hands and looked at my face for any signs that Logan had hurt me.

“No, Josh I’m really okay. He just tried to kiss me, I kept saying no and he didn’t listen. I slapped him, and he got the point.”

The look on Josh’s face was indescribable. I could tell he was concerned, but their was a mix of relief, and anger on his face. He shook his head in disappointment.

“I can’t believe he did that to you. I’ll talk to him about it tomorrow.”

“Josh no, don’t do that. I can handle myself, really. I’ll call him in the morning and I’ll talk to him.”

I didn’t know why he was so angry. He didn’t know me that well, in fact he barely knew me. I guess that was just how he was. He always seemed like a caring guy, but I didn’t think he cared about me in the slightest bit.

“You’re sure you’re alright?” He asked me, once again.

“Yes Josh, I’m fine. Are you okay? To be honest, you seem more upset then I am.”

Josh put a hand behind his neck and the other on his side. “I just don’t like to see guys force themselves on girls, especially girls as nice as you.”

“Oh, well I handled it. So it’s nothing to worry about, Josh.”

Josh nodded his head at me. I didn’t know else I could to say to him. Josh seemed like he genuinely cared about me, and I was flattered. And I couldn’t believe that he had come out to try and help fend off Logan. I knew that in this moment, I was starting to see him differently, in an even better way then before.

“I should get going,” I told him. “I have to shoot scenes tomorrow.”

“Oh, yeah, okay. I’ll walk you out.”

Josh and I walked through the house and I bumped into Dianna. I said my goodbyes to her and exited out the front door to the car. Once outside the driver’s side door I turned around to face Josh.

“Thanks, for helping me out back there, and for walking me out.”

“You didn’t need my help, you really did have it covered,” he told me smiling. “But, you are very welcome for the walk to your car door.”

I chuckled, “So I’ll see you tomorrow on set?”

“Yeah, definitely.”

Unexpectedly, Josh leaned in and gave me a hug. I smiled and wrapped my arms around him and hugged him back. It felt so nice to hug him, and I liked it. I almost didn’t want to let go, but I knew I had to. Josh and I pulled away from each other, and stared at me and smiled. For some reason, neither of us stopped looking at one another. But what was weird, was that I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. Then I noticed something, his face was inching towards mine.

I could tell what was happening, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop him. I continued to stare into his eyes, when suddenly he blinked several times. It knocked me out of my daze and I pulled away from him, and he did the same.

“I’ll, uh, I’ll see you tomorrow.” I quickly opened my car door and got in.

I could hear Josh walking off quickly and I sighed and shut my eyes. Well, that was close.