Sickening Desire

2. The hangout spot

(Aspen)

(1 week later)

I wake up in a cold sweat and bring my trembling hands up to cover my face as I sigh into my palms with exhaustion. I turn my body to look at my alarm clock sitting on my bedside table and see it's 3:02 am. Another sleepless night filled with the horrors of my past. Great.

My hands help me lift my body from the mattress and I tiredly stumble to my bedroom door and walk out into the kitchen to see my roommate Brandon sitting at the kitchen island reading a book. I audibly yawn into my hand which alerts him of my presence, he spins around and his tired eyes meet my own. "Another nightmare?" Asks softly with sympathy in his voice, I offer him a slight nod and a weak smile as I stand opposite to him on the other side of the kitchen island and take a seat so we're facing one another. "What are you doing up?" I ask him curiously.

It's not the first time we've been in this situation, we've been friends since high school and we got an apartment together when we got into the same college last year. Our apartment's nothing big or special but it's a roof over our heads that we are grateful for. I'm almost always up at this time because of my nightmares and Brandon is the only one who knows about them, the only one I trust enough to tell. We're sort of each others only friend, it's been like that since we were 14. He came out as gay and some small cock alpha wannabe's started to pick on him, so I stabbed the one in the hand with my pencil and shut his friends balls in my locker. And ever since then we've been best friends, he's my protector and I am his.

"Couldn't sleep. Wanted to get some studying in before tomorrows exam." He says while pushing up his black rimmed glasses to stop them slipping down the bridge of his nose. I give him another smile and nod my head as I stare into the darkness of our apartment before the reality of his words come back and slap me across the face, my brows pull together and my alarmed eyes snap to his once again as he carries a grin telling me he already knows what's coming. "You forgot about the exam didn't you?" He laughs as I start internally screaming over my stupidity and lack of knowledge about this stupid fucking exam. I groan and decide to go back to bed instead of studying, praying something positive happens like the school gets set on fire or floods or another world war begins in the school halls.

I flop back down onto bed with a sigh and allow my eyes to fall closed once more.

(A few hours later)

Bran has to basically drag me out of my bed so we don't end up Kate for this stupid exam, luckily we don't have any other classes after this so I can get some more rest before the party tonight. It's being held at some guys house while his parents are away. He's in my maths class and he flirted with me until I gave in and said I'd come over, also his house if ducking huge and off campus so I know his rich ass is gonna buy the good stuff to get me wasted so I agreed. I already forgot his name so when I was telling Bran about it he wasn't giving me a yes or no answer until I told him his name i had to accept he probably wasn't coming.

Then again Brandon's never really been the party type. In our four years of friendship I can confirm we've probably been to around five parties together. He'd much rather stay with his nose buried in his books and writing his poetry. His writing is actually pretty good, better than some of the shit I've read in English that's for sure. Anyway, I'm stuck on the twenty third question in the exam and I'm honestly just waiting for the bell to go so I can cry about my stupidity in peace.

I'm daydreaming while staring at my paper and from behind me I hear a familiar sound. An annoying sound. I turn my head to the direction of the noise and see Theo hunched over in his seat, once again aggressively sketching something in his notebook. His exam sits beside his notebook so I assume he's already finished it. Fucking smart ass. I roll my eyes at him even though he hasn't even looked up at me from his page. I face the front again and quickly write an answer down even though I am not even one percent confident on it. A few moments later I hear the bell ring from outside the class room and immediately start packing my things to practically run out of that dreadful room. Brandon gets fifteen minutes extra after each exam so before we parted ways this morning we agreed to meet outside the boys bathroom next to the hangout spot.

The hangout spot is literally just two couches and a small coffee table that the popular kids have claimed as their own. I quickly stop by the girls bathroom first to touch up my makeup and hair before stepping out and making my way over to the hangout spot. And low and behold it's already swarmed with boring pricks who actually think they have a shot in life. Among said pricks is the biggest one of them all, Theo Hughes. I roll my eyes as soon as our eyes meet and lean against the wall near the hangout spot, waiting for Bran to finish his exam and hurry his ass out. While I'm basically starting at the floor I hear my name called which brings my attention to the boy who flirted with me yesterday in maths, "Yo Aspen!" he's the one who invited me to his party. He's sitting on the couch opposite Theo with a few other boys.

"Yeah?" I ask back, confused as to why he's bothering to speak to me after I basically rejected him yesterday morning. He motions with his head to come closer so I lean off of the wall and walk over to the group of boys whose eyes are all over me, including Theo now. Once I'm standing next to them I make a facial expression to show my lack of enthusiasm to be near them and once again ask, "yeah?".

"Your still coming tonight right? To my party?" The boy asks with a smug look plastered over his face. "I was planning on it, why?" I reply unamused. His lips curve into a smirk while his shoulders shrug, "Oh I'm just checking baby, how else am I gonna get people to come if your fine ass ain't there?" His smirk only grows and some of his friends snicker from behind him, I don't even wanna know what Theo's doing so I keep my eyes focused on the guy speaking and force a smirk onto my own face, replicating his. "Yeah well I'll be there so invite some decent looking guys would you?"

That makes him slightly laugh again and as just as I'm about to walk away to meet Brandon I hear Theo's voice over all the laughing, "I don't see a decent girl around so why would you want a decent guy?" I pause my walk and turn in his direction to face him head on and our faces both radiate annoyance and boredom.

I purse my lips and slightly tilt my head to the side so I can judge him from a better angle while he's still sitting. "Please tell me your not gonna be there tonight" I sigh. "Sorry to disappoint smurfette but it's my friends house so you gotta bet your ass I'm gonna be there." He replies. "Your avoiding my question of why you should get decent looking guys so I can only assume your aware of your worth. Stick to the guys you actually have a chance with yeah?"

Damn fuck him. "Your buddies here would beg differ considering they'd sell their soul to have a chance with me, and as for your pathetic low IQ question, you can shove it up your ass along with some dick you find at the party tonight because by the looks of you I've had more pussy than that embarrassment dangling between your legs."

Probably a lie considering I'm straight but I did make out with a girl as a dare in high school before so I'll use it against him. I turn my back to him and his pathetic friendship group as soon as I finish talking, not even wanting to wait for his comeback. As I'm walking away I hear multiple 'oooo's and 'aaaa's from those around us, mocking him for being told by a girl. I walk down the hall till I'm finally met with a flushed Brandon. "Woah, hey, everything good? Your red as fuck." I ask once he's close enough to hear me.

"Hm? Oh um yeah I'm fine, let's- let's go" he breathes out, clearly out of breath. I mutter an okay with clear suspicion as he ushers me down the hall and outside. We begin walking back to our apartment and it's not far since it's on campus, just as we're about to walk through the front door his phone pings and the screen lights up in his hand. He looks down to read it and something flashes across his face but before I can ask what's up he quickly rushes out, "I uh I gotta go but I'll see you when you get back from the party okay? Text me when your there so I know you got there ok, okay? Bye love you." Before I can even say anything he quickly rushes back out the door and starts heading for the school again. What the hell?

I sigh, "Weirdo" i mutter under my breath and unlock the apartment door so I can start getting ready for the party tonight.