Hazel

"Going to get lucky tonight, Dan?" a sharp elbow jabs my ribs with the words. There was so much just about that sentence that made me want to punch the owner of it in the face but everyone who knows me knows that I am too nice and would never harm a fly. I just shrugged off the whole thing, even being called Dan. He knew I hated being called Dan. Maybe I wouldn't so much if my name was Daniel but it was far from that.

I look at him, shake my head, and then turn to walk away. There was nowhere to go. The room was now flooded with people and I honestly just wanted to go back to my dorm. I did not hate parties, but I have never been a big fan of them, especially one just full of drunken people that I didn't know.

I have many friends but sometimes it is nice to be alone. I did not really talk much in high school and mostly kept to myself until I was a senior. I never felt like there was that much of a reason to be surrounded by people. Why should I depend on others for happiness, I should be focusing on making myself happy. That does cause a problem sometimes but to me it is over all better just being alone. Maybe that is why I love the whole idea of having a single's dorm. It was nice to not worry about the whole idea of wearing clothes when I get out of class.

"Oh come on drink a little. Don't be such a bitch tonight. Loosen up. Make a mistake for once," a girl's voice giggles. I am surprised I can even hear it over all the other muffled voices and loud Dubstep music blaring out from speakers all around the house.

I look around till I see a tall overly skinny brunette trying to shove a beer into a tiny blonde’s face. The blond keeps pushing the beer away making some of it spill out onto her. It keeps going on like that and it was making me smile. This model like brunette already seemed drunk when the party must have only started a half hour ago and then there is this petite blond who didn't even want to touch one drink. Good for her. I wouldn't take the drink either. I was never much of a drinker, but I did drink I just always knew when to stop. But the blond soon gave in and took the beer.

"This is it, okay? I am only saying yes because I like these. You need to slow down though. You have probably had enough for three people by now," the blond mutters and then takes a sip of the beer.

The brunette rolls her eyes and then shoves past the blond and makes eye contact with me. I knew I shouldn't be watching the two but it was amusing.

She stops and points at me, finger almost touching the tip of my nose. "DO-I-LOOK-LIKE-I-HAVE-HAD-TOO-MUCH?" she shouts at me with every word slurring into the next.

My eyes widen at her shocked that she was asking me out of every other guy in the room with us. I also didn't know if I should side with the blond or just be a typical tool and tell the girl to drink more. If I didn't, I knew some other guy here would pour shots down her throat and then do the nasty. At least if I did it, I would make sure no one used the girl. But then again maybe that was what she wanted. To be the drunken girl that guys fucked at parties because she had a bad father and this was her way of getting back at him for never being there.

"You should listen to your friend. You have had enough. At least take an hour off of alcohol and eat something. Give your liver a break," I take a quick glance at the blond. She has stepped closer now and I can see what she looks like. Her skin was almost perfect minus one simple pimple on her chin. In the dull lighting her eyes look like a mix between green and gold but I am not quite sure but I do know I want to see them in better lighting. Her lips seem soft and kissable and her nose was one of those girls wish they had.

"Please listen to the attractive guy with the beard. He knows what he is saying. Now let’s go get you to sit down or maybe lie down," the blond wraps her arm around the brunette and then locks eyes with me. "Thank you for not trying to get her drunker. She definitely asked the right guy for advice," a shy smile creeps onto her lips.

“You’re welcome. I-” before I can finish my thought the blond is pulled away by the drunken model. It was probably for the better. I would have just made a fool of myself. I did want to keep talking to her though. She was beautiful in an innocent kind of way. Like a sixteen year old that still had her virginity and no wish of losing it. I am not even sure if my thoughts are making since right now. This tends to happen when I see someone I want to get to know. But that was it. I knew nothing about her. She was blond, shirt and pretty but I knew there was a lot more. Just by looking at her and hearing her talk for a few seconds anyone would be able to tell she was not like the other girls roaming around this party.

I push the thoughts of Her out my mind just because I know it will make me think too much and I want to actually enjoy myself tonight and not think of a girl I don’t even know. Plus, I should probably not think of boning a girl I don’t even know the name of. Doing that would take away her innocence anyway. But maybe she really isn’t as innocent as she comes off as. I did want to find that out. But this week has been hell and I need to come out of my shell, live a little and have fun.

I leave the tiny kitchen and roam around the house in hopes of finding anyone I knew. Bodies are pressing against and shoving each other. Music drowns out not only voices in the room but the thoughts. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion and to the music. The smell of cigarettes and cigars fill up the room and then it hits me. Weed. The smell travels in with ever inhale. It relaxes my nerves and I know right away I wanted some. I enjoyed rolling joints more than actually smoking them but at this very second I wanted to smoke. I deserved it.

Almost on clue, Patrick, a lean jock with messy brown hair, holds up a joint in front of my face. I had two classes with him but it was like he read my mind. I take it without a second thought. The instant I hold it between my lips he makes his BIC lighter light fire and then light my blunt. I suck in my first hit slowly and then hold it in my mouth. I let the smoke burn my tongue but I loved the feeling. Sometimes pain was okay, pleasurable even. I let some of the smoke slither down my throat and then slowly exhale. I close my eyes and just take in the whole moment. It must have been over a month since I have had the pleasure of touching this stuff and it was already making me feel good.

Part of me wanted to just sit in a corner and keep smoking, another one wants me to actually mingle around. Maybe I should get lucky tonight? I have a dick might as well put it to work. That thought makes me what to punch myself. I wish it never came in my head but at least it didn’t come out of my mouth.

I decide to walk around the house some more. I look around for possibly a less crowded area but knew that would be impossible, it doesn’t stop me from looking though. I keep walking around but my blunt doesn’t last. I lick the last bit to put out the burning and then keep it in my hand. I was set for right now. It was reacting with my body in a perfect way. Making me feel light weight.

My search for a less populated area leads me to a door. I reach for the handle and smile as the coldness creeps onto my skin. I liked it. I pull open the door and stumble down the stairs. There was no lights turned on and I didn’t want to be the person to turn them on. I knew that I could probably be walking into a massive orgy but I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything right now.

I can see that there is some kind of light source in the basement. The basement also had such a wonder smell. It smelled like some kind of candle and the mixture of week and cigarillo wrappers. It could definitely draw a person in.

Once at the bottom of the stairs I can see that over 20 candles are lit and people are slowly swaying around to the muffled sound of the music that is being played upstairs. I can imagine this is what it was like in the 70’s. Friends going in each other’s basements playing music and smoking weed. I found nothing wrong with this.

My eyes then lay on Her. She is sitting on a couch with her body stretched out on it, legs kicked up and all. She looked relaxed with her eyes closed and bottle of water in hand. She probably had finished her beer a while ago and is now just enjoying the night. I want to lie beside her and make conversation but did not want to scare her or take her away from her relaxation. I don’t mind admiring from a far.

Her model friend is one of the girls in the middle of the room dancing around. A blunt in hand and a bottle of Jack. It didn’t surprise me. She seemed like a partied and she was doing a damn good job at showing it.

A girl screaming fills my ears and my eyes go right to the pretty blond. A guy has climbed on top of her pinning her down by the wrists. My legs had a mind of their own and I walk towards the scene. Another guy is trying to shove a blunt in her mouth but she keeps shaking her head back and forth keeping her lips tightly pressed together.

“Just one hit. Come on. You never do just fucking do it for once. You will love it,” the guy on top of her begs.

“Get off me, I don’t want it!” she shouts back at him.

The scene is driving me crazy but I didn’t know what to do. I was much smaller than both of the guys bothering her. I work out and have abs but I am lucky if I even weigh 125 pounds. I am just a really skinny guy. I hated it. I cannot gain weight.

The guy holding the blunt takes a long drag from it and he holds it in his mouth. I watch him now knowing he is planning something. I am always good at reading people. Maybe that is due to minoring in psychology.

“Take a fucking hit, slut,” the man on top spits at her.

I can see she is trying her hardest to break free. “Get the fuck off me! I-” she screams and is cut off by the guy holding the blunt pressing his mouth to hers. My guess is he took the drag and held it so he could pour the smoke into her mouth. That threw me off the edge.

I ran the rest of the way to the couch and first went to the guy mouth raping her and pulled him away. He falls back onto the ground laughing. She starts to cough harshly with smoke escaping her lips with each cough. The guy on top of her does not move.

Something comes over me and I grab a chunk of his shirt and try to pull him off of her. He lets go of her wrists but stays straddling her waist. He looks at me and rolls his eyes. I knew he thought I was weaker than him. I fake like I am going to give up and walk away. I wait to hear him laugh and then turn back around and sucker punch him right in the jaw. A rush goes through my veins. I have never punched someone before.

I am stopped dead cold in shock. The blond manages to free herself from under the guy and grabs hold of my arm and pulls me towards the stairs. I stumble behind her not really comprehending what is going on. I know what I did was not the smartest idea but the drug was getting to me. My head starts to buzz and I begin to get paranoid.

I am pulled all the way up the stairs and then through the mosh of people till we are both outside in front of the small house. There is still a crowd of people outside and I am amazed that there have not been cops called on the party yet.

The blond takes hold of my face, the palm of her hands insanely warm it almost felt like she was burning me but I cannot exactly register her or this moment in time at all.

“He is going to kill you. You don’t understand. That wasn’t just weed,” she seems frantic her eyes are searching my face and yet all I want to do is kiss her.

“I will be fine,” I tell her and try to smile but my mouth wouldn’t let me. Maybe it knew this was not the time to smile.

Her eyes go to behind me and she gasps and pulls me away from the porch and through the crowd outside until we get to a gray Honda civic. She forces me to get into the passenger side and then hurries into the driver’s side. She wastes no time and speeds off down the street. It is a good thing I didn’t take my own car tonight.
“That blunt they were trying to give me was laced with cocaine. Those two guys have been doing lines all night and then decided to mix it in with their weed. You just pissed off a guy on coke. He is not going to forget your face,” she tells me and then becomes completely silent and focuses on driving. Every so often she glances at me through the corner of her eye. My eyes never leave her.

I want to respond to what she has said but I really in all honesty cannot process anything good enough to say so I stay silent. I should probably tell her to just bring me to my dorm but I didn’t want to go there. I wanted to be as far from school as I could be.

The car ride stays quiet letting me get lost in thoughts. This always happens. I wonder if she ever gets lost in thoughts. As good as I am at reading people she is a bit difficult. She has a shell around her that for some reason I cannot break through to try to understand who she is. Maybe that is only because I don’t know her yet. She is just the pretty blond from the party who I still want to see the exact color of her eyes. I wonder if she has noticed the color of mine.

The car comes to a stop after a very long time. We are parked in the driveway of a duplex behind a black BMW. I am wondering if that car belonged to the model girl or maybe her parents.

She turns off the car and sits silently for a second taking a deep breath. She then turns to me but still remains silent. She shakes her head with a sigh and then gets out of the car. She heads to the front door and I take that as cue to follow her.

I watch her body move with every step. She has mothered baring hips and a rather large round ass. She has the body any black or Spanish girl would dream of but like any girl I am guessing she hated it. After all she was not black or Spanish. She was a white girl. A very pale one at that. She probably wished she looked like the model girl rather than being a curvy short girl. But she was beautiful in such a simple way.

I follow her into the dark house. She must have walked through here so many times in the dark because we manage to make it to the kitchen before she turns the light on. She faces me and has to look up due to the height distance. It was cute. I can see her eyes now and I take a step forward to really look at them. They are hazel and a very beautiful hazel at that. Around her pupil is a light brown then followed by a green and a mixture of both colors outlines her whole iris.

“The couch pulls out into a bed. Crash there and tomorrow I will bring you to wherever it is you need to go. You are not fully with me I can tell so please sleep. If you want, there is a shower upstairs. Just,” she takes a moment to stop talking and sighs. She steps closer to me looking up through her lashes. “Thank you,” she pops up onto her tippy toes and wraps her arms around my neck.

I hesitate for a moment and then hug her back tightly. It was nice to feel a woman’s body against mine. It has been so long. I wanted to take care of her as weird as that was. I wanted to know this stranger. I have never wanted to know a stranger in the way I want to know her. Right now, I didn’t want to let go but knew if I dragged this hug out she would kick me out.

“Pillows and blankets?” I ask. It was the only thing I could think of after releasing from the hug.

She awkwardly rubs her neck and then rushes past me and disappears. I stay put in the kitchen until she returns. She is empty handed and it confused me a little. I thought she was going to come back with what I asked.

“I put some near the couch. Um, I will be upstairs. Sleep well,” she bites her lip and then goes to walk away again. She stops in the door way and turns around with one hand on the door frame. “I’m Vanda. You can call me Vanna, its prettier I think,” she shrugs but she is right. Vanna was prettier.

“Aidan,” I give a small wave and she smiles at that before running off again. I stay in the kitchen for a moment and then exit and head to the living room seeing the pile of pillows and blankets waiting for me next to the couch. I was ready to sleep. I have no idea what time it is but I can only imagine.