stay

Chapter 80

"Ten minutes!" A drunk frat boy yells from the stair case.

"Lets go get some good seats." Harrison says as he walks towards the stairs.

"Seats where?" I ask hesitantly.

"You'll see." He smiles and turns to continue up the stairs. I return the smile and followed through the crowd of people. He opens a wooden door at the top of the staircase.

"Um..." I start.

As if reading my thoughts he continued to explain. "There is a place that we can watch the fireworks that go off from the football field." I walk into the dark bedroom and follow him to a window. "Right out here." He climbs out the window onto a small balcony and helps me through. He climbs up a small latter to the roof of the house. I take a seat right next to him on the roof in the cold air. "Ten... Nine... Eight..." The crowd downstairs begins to scream excitingly. "Three... Two... One..."

"Happy New Year!" Harrison and I yell in unison. We laugh as the fireworks in the horizon catch our attention. "This is an amazing view." I say as the fireworks begin to die down.

"You can stay in my room if you would like."

"What?" caught off guard by his offer.

"I mean. I'm not going to try anything that you're uncomfortable with, but I've had a really great time with you tonight."

"Harrison, I have had a great time too, but I don't want to cause any trouble with the person I am with."

"Yeah. That's no problem." He looks down at the cup in his hand. "You can sleep in my bed and I'll sleep on the floor."

"No, I wouldn't want you to do that. I already requested an Uber to come and pick me up in an hour."

"I hope I'll get to see you again sometime."

"You probably will." I smile at him and head towards the ladder. I walk back into the room and down to the main floor. After an hour of dancing to the pounding music my phone vibrates to let me know that the Uber had arrived in front of the house. "Hey Alyssa. I got an Uber. I will text you when I get home. You going to be ok here?"

"Yeah. I wish you didn't have to go." She said slurring her words.

"It was a lot of fun!" I didn't want to sound rude for the real reason I wasn't staying – I was extremely uncomfortable with sleeping in a house full of drunk college students.

"Ok. Text me! Happy New Year!"

"Happy New Year!" I gave her a hug and walked out to the Uber sitting in front of the house. I climbed in the back and looked down at the watch on my wrist. This time last year, I was with Logan. This year was no different. I was with him, but he wasn't here.