Catch 22

Dress to Impress

It was now an hour until the party. I rushed in the bathroom, turned on the water and hurried through my shower. Meanwhile Luna as a result of hearing me struggle in the bathroom yelled from the other side of the dorm, "Hey Brooke slow down in there we can be fashionably late to this party." As dumb as it sounded, it was true. That took a lot of stress off of me, It's not like we were going to a preteens birthday party where if I showed up 15 minutes late I would miss the cutting of the cake. I then stopped the water and got out of the shower. I immediately approached my closet and then in that moment I started to worry when I saw it. There in the back was the red club dress my mom had bought me last year. She got it for me when my dad left. I thought it was a little to revealing with with its deep v-neck and it only came to my knees, but it would prove to everyone I was ready to be out of high school. The next thing I grabbed where my hoop earrings and then put on my strapped heels.

"Damn girl I didn't know you had it in you" Luna giggled at me.

I responded with an unamused face.

"Brooke you know I'm kidding. Now let's go before we go from fashionably late to just late."

"Sounds good." I said while quickly running a straightener through my hair.

15 minutes later we arrived at the party. Man was this something that looks like it could be in a movie. I always would see parties in movies and wonder if that's how it actually was. To be honest it didn't seem as great as I expected though. We walked into a room jam packed with college students reeking of natty ice and sweat. The latest hits playing in the room and thumping techno music blaring from the basement. Failed attempts to pick up girls and drunken PDAs with complete strangers.

"Welcome to your first frat party."
A lanky blonde came up to Luna and I and said.

"Hey by any chance have you seen a curly haired boy with green eyes." I asked the guy.

"Oh you mean Harry? Yea I just saw him he should be around here somewhere." He said.

"Alright thanks." I responded as the guy walked away.

"Alright Brooke as much fun as it is standing here with you I'm gonna go find a cute guy to talk to you'll be fine finding Harry on your own right?" Brooke asked.

"Yea I'll be fine, go I want you to have fun we'll meet up later?" I asked.

"Yup." As Brooke walked away towards the other room.

Was I actually fine? I mean I was at a college party full of people I don't know. Everything about that gave me anxiety. Along with that I was looking for a guy who probably didn't mean much when he said "see ya at the party." Maybe he was just trying to be nice or maybe he was actually interested? Guess I'll never know unless I go find him and like I said I'm not gonna ruin my new year by being the same chicken I always am.

Next second I realized I bumped into someone to see that it was Harry.

"Hey we seem to Keep meeting like this." Harry said with a small smirk.

"Yea we do, Harry right?" I asked even though knowing his name wasn't even a question in my mind. He was the only thing I've been thinking of since our encounter this morning

"Yup and you are Brooke. See I didn't even have to question that." He said with small giggle. Great well now he probably thinks I just don't care about seeing him let alone remember him name.

"Well anyways you seem pretty alone so wanna come chill with me and my friends in the other room?" He asked with his big green eyes.

"Sure that would be nice, knowing my friend I probably won't see her around here for another hour." I explained to Harry.

I them followed Harry as he led the way into another room. I then noticed one of the guys in the group of boys we were walking towards was the lanky blonde that talked to me when I first got to the party.

"Hello gentlemen this is Brooke." Harry pronounced to his friends while I stood there trying to look the least awkward I could.

"We've met before." The blonde one stated. Harry quickly turned to his blonde friend in anger. I don't think he or any of the other boys really noticed but I did. Why was he looking at his friend like that? It was like he was mad his friend has talked to me. That being said he's interested in me? I didn't really know what this meant but maybe I was overthinking everything. Harry then stopped the silence and said, "so Brooke these are my friends Niall, Louis, and Liam." I now knew the blonde one was Niall.

"Nice to meet you." I said with a cheeky smile.

"Alright well I have to talk to Niall real quick, Brooke are you cool to stay with them for a minute?" Referring to the other boys.

"Not a problem." I responded.

I was now alone with Harrys two friends Louis and Liam. I decided I wasn't gonna be the shy girl I usually am. I decided was gonna take advantage of this moment and figured out what was up with Harry.

"So what are Harry and Niall talking about anyways? Didn't Harry seem a bit mad when Niall said we've met before." I questioned Louis and Liam.

"Yea well between us Harry doesn't like when things don't go his way. He has been talking about you since you've met so maybe a little jealousy struck him when Niall said you've met and Harry wanted to put Niall in his place or something. Not in a bad way but let him know that he's interested in you. Just a fare warning, Harry always gets what he wants." Liam said all at once.

That last sentence really stuck in my mind, "Harry always gets what he wants." What did it mean? That he was a spoiled brat or? I was just confused and in that moment I realized I had only found part 1 of all my mysterious questions and I still had a ton more to figure out. I then immediately was dragged by Luna to the front door of the party.
"Hey we gotta get out of here." Luna said with such short of breath.

"What why Luna? what happened?" I questioned.

"Kinda made out with this guy and he kinda had a girlfriend and I'm not tryna get in a girl fight at my first college party so can we get out of here." Luna asked.

As much as I didn't wanna leave and wanted to get to the bottom of this Harry situation she was my best friend and I know she'd do it for me.

"Sure I mean they'll be more parties." I said while hoping on the inside that there really will be more parties.

"Great I promise I'll make it up to you." Luna said.

We then existed the party ending the night with an unsolved mystery, an angry girlfriend, a bad headache.