We Owned the Night

"Can you slow down?" I huffed out as we speed-walked up the hill.

"No, this is my pace!" Bianca shot back, not slowing down one bit. I watched as she walked in front of me, her thick brown hair falling behind her. I had always been jealous of her hair, it was just so thick and it grew so fast as opposed to mine; blond, thin and only a couple of inches past my collar bones.

We were on our way to the Mclaughlin pit on foot, lugging our booze in two back packs. Erica was with us, but she didn't say much. She never said much when I was around; I always just assumed she was scared of me. Out of the three of us, she was kind of like the ugly duckling. She had always been a little chubby and was never taught how to properly apply makeup.

"Look, its right there! That's the school," Bianca said, pointing to a building in the distance, covered by woods. "See? It's not so bad,"

I squinted and searched for it, “Yeah, okay...” I sighed, jogging a little to catch up with Bianca.

As we got closer to our destination, I started feeling very nervous. I hadn't partied for two years! My ex wasn't exactly very easy going. We spent most of our time at his house, sitting around doing nothing instead of having fun, something that I was really regretting now, having lost all of my social skills.

We turned the corner, and the field came into view. It was my first time seeing the pit itself.

“This is it?” I asked a little surprised. I expected more grass, less mud and a little more forest. It really did look like a giant mud field for monster truck rallies. Nevertheless, I was dressed to party in my leopard print, and party was what I was going to do.

“Yeah, look there’s some people here, let’s go see who they are,” Bianca replied, speeding up.

“It looks like Lauryn... no wait, is it?” I heard Erica ask herself as I walked away and she fell behind us.

As we approached the girls, we recognized all three. Other than them and us, there was no one there, so we just hung around and tried to start a fire while we waited. After about an hour, guests started to arrive.

* * * * * * * * *

"Oh my god, look, it's Chris!" Bianca whispered to me as she looked his way.

I turned to look at my ex boyfriend. We had met at a party, dated for four days, then I dumped him and we never talked again. That was a few years ago and I looked completely different now. I took a sip of my drink while staring at him.

"He's still kinda cute..." I whispered back, "He probably wouldn't recognize me,"

Just as I finished speaking, he glanced over at me and I could see him checking me out. I gave him a little smirk and focused my eyes back to Bianca and Erica. Although I wasn't interested in him anymore, he was one of the best kisses I ever had up until then, so I couldn't help but feel a little attracted to him.

"Who's he talking to...?" I asked, watching the girl he was with reach up to hug him. He was so tall that she had to stand on her toes. My eyes fell to the ground as I remembered being the girl who was hugging him while standing on her toes.

Just as Bianca was about to answer, she was interrupted by the sound of a car approaching and headlights appearing as the host of the party arrived. I watched him get out of the car. He was dressed in baggy sweatpants and a hoodie, fit for the setting. I remembered how he had looked when we first met, all dressed up, and smiled. He was still attractive no matter what he wore, with his slight tan, beautiful brown eyes and cute baby face.

"You've been here for an hour and nobody's started a fire yet!" He yelled as he walked over and started greeting people. “What’s up with this?”

"Well we tried, but we need paper or something!" Some girl yelled back to him. All of the girls were always trying to get him, and he never minded, even though he had a girlfriend.

"There's Matt..." Bianca said, giving me a little look, "Go say hi,"

"No, not yet... he's talking to people," I replied.

My little secret? Matt was the host, and his dad was my dad's best friend. I had never been very interested in him, what with the whole boyfriend thing. We had met at my uncle's funeral, of all places, and there had been an instant chemistry, but I forgot about him soon after. I found out later however, that he had asked and basically begged my dad for permission to go after me, but he had said no, thus we never talked after that. A year later, a single me was ready to mingle.