When We Write the Stars

Chapter 23: Cassie

 "A little party never killed nobody." – The Great Gatsby

     The Hockey House was located on what would've probably been frat row if Seaport had Greek life. It was where all the houses that typically hosted parties were, and they almost all had nicknames of some sort. The closest Seaport got to Greek life. The ones I knew of were the Hockey House, our destination for tonight, then there was a basketball, volleyball, and soccer house as well. There was Madison Billing's house, she was a kind of famous influencer who went to Seaport and hosted a lot of parties, then a couple of other houses along the street with all the telltale signs of a college party house.

     I'd be willing to bet that at some point all of these houses had been owned by locals, but over the years as more and more of them became college rental properties, the locals had moved out making this neighborhood, which was only like three blocks away from campus the party destination.

     I'd only been here twice before, we'd gone to one of Madison Billing's parties last year, just to see what they were like. Then I'd been to a party at the soccer house back when Lyra had been dating a guy on the team. I wasn't sure what it was with all the sports teams living in houses together, but I was really glad Hayden didn't live at the Hockey House. It looked like a biohazard waiting to happen. It was clear that a few of the other houses had tried to have their own New Year's parties, but everyone had kind of migrated towards the hockey house where the biggest party was happening.

     I wasn't entirely sure why we'd decided to come. I'd let the girls know about the invite when we'd all gotten back yesterday, assuming they'd say no since we traditionally spent New Year's Eve binge-watching a show and drinking way too much champagne while coming up with absurd resolutions, but this year they'd said we should go out. Start the winter quarter off with a bang.

     Hayden hadn't said what time the party started, so to play it safe we decided to not show up till around ten, that and we spent way more time than necessary getting ready, but half the fun of going to any college party was getting ready while pregaming with your friends. I also wanted to make sure I looked hot. I hadn't seen Hayden since we'd both left for our breaks and since Thanksgiving things had just felt so off with him. I wanted to look hot tonight because I guess a part of me thought if I looked hot things could just go back to normal with him, whatever that meant.

     So we took our time getting ready, and figuring out what exactly to wear. We wanted to look hot, but not like we were trying too hard. Seaport was a very casual dress school, which being in the Pacific Northwest shouldn't be much of a shock. So that ruled out a lot of the pretty dresses we saw on Pinterest. There might be a few girls in dresses, but Seaport parties tended to be more of a jeans and some sort of going out top kind of place.

     I ended up wearing a pair of low-waisted jeans and my favorite black corset top that I didn't wear often enough. I had a black shacket I'd be leaving in the car when we got there though, Lyra had graciously agreed to be our designated driver tonight saying she wasn't feeling like having a hangover all day tomorrow. She and Adri both ended up in sexy-looking black tops as well, but Alyssa never to be outdone had this lacey red top on that I had no doubt she'd be hoping to get a certain hockey player's attention with.

     We all, minus Lyra, had a slight buzz going, enough to make getting ready and going to the party more fun, but not so much that we'd be out of it. By this point in our senior year, we'd mastered knowing how much to drink to have a little fun, how much for a lot of fun, and how much to be completely wasted. There was a fine line, and I think we all wanted to avoid getting completely wasted.

     That's how we end up parked on the street, walking to the hockey house, somewhat in awe of the sheer amount of people they've gathered. Despite it being cold outside there were a decent amount of people outside of the house playing around with sparklers and other tiny fireworks, and others dancing and drinking. There were speakers all over blasting the most basic college party music imaginable. I was somewhat shocked they hadn't gotten a band, it seemed like there were hundreds of them in town.