The Patron Saint of Monsters

Chapter Five Part One

Ian was very uncomfortable, he wasn't really the type of guy who went to parties. He was more the kind of guy who stayed home reading books and watching television. He was a nerd and he didn't particularly like going out of his comfort zone, but Oleander was beautiful and witty. He had been crushing on her since elementary school; when he was just the class clown, despite the fact that she had never really laughed at his jokes and antics.

Oleander was certainly worth breaking the no party rule; a  rule that he did not enforce, nor even implement. It wasn't so much that he wasn't one for parties, nor was it that he never got invited to any, he was just never invited to any that he could work up the courage to attend. He nervously grinned as he walked in the entrance, not only was he hopefully going to get to spend time with Ole, he was also going to hopefully make some fond memories. Do the types of things that he was fairly sure that normal teenagers did.

Teenagers who weren't wrought with insecurities galore. Teenagers who could make friends that they actually considered friends and not just mild acquaintances. Teenagers like the ones on his tele. He tried not to let his thoughts get too negative, he didn't want to ruin his perfected facade of happiness and quirky humor. He took a deep breath and told himself that tonight he was on a quest, like one of the adventures the protagonist went on in the fiction books he favored.

Books that Oleander seemed to like too, he remembered. Oleander was quite the oddity. The girls he always saw her hanging around weren't anything like her, at least they weren't anything like he had imagined her to be. A mental image of her comprised of what he had overheard of her, seen her reading and wearing.

Oleander was brilliant and sexy. She had pouty lips and a mouth that was quick to profanity, but she wasn't a vulgar girl. Not like the redheaded Rebecca who sometimes made fun of him. She was sweet, genuine, and kind, like the fairhaired Valerie. She was immensely intelligent in fact, she always knew the answers in the class, like Trina but without the overly defensive wall of self-righteousness. Ian couldn't fathom how it was possible for him to know all of her friends so well but not really know Oleander. He blamed himself and his anxiety, too nervous to talk to the girl who had haunted his dreams since he was old enough to wake up drenched in sweat and swearing over stained sheets. She danced through his daydreams too, a naked dance that he really shouldn't be thinking about while standing in a crowded room.

He saw Oleander in the kitchen standing around a few kegs with her friends and some guy who looked to be about their age and vaguely familiar. He couldn’t quite place the guy, which left him with the tip of the tongue feeling that always irritated him. The way the guy was gazing at Oleander didn’t sit well with Ian, his smile faltered at he felt nervous and panicked, he was ready to turn around and head back home when Oleander looked up at him and smiled shyly.

“Hey dork!” Rebecca called out to him, Ian could tell that she was kidding but the name calling still bothered him slightly. Rebecca made her way through the crowd with an extra red plastic cup filled to the brim with beer. She approached him and it sloshed slightly onto his shirt. He hopped it didn’t stain.

“Ole was worried you weren’t gonna show. C’mon.” She said pulling him towards the girls and the guy before he had a chance to respond.