This Feeling is Not Love

Chapter 3

"So," Ashley said as he lined his eyes with thick black layers of eyeliner in a way that Andy only ever admitted in his head made his best friend look incredibly attractive. "I'm going to a party tonight at a friend of a friend's house. Want to come?" Ashley asked, stepping back from the mirror to inspect his work.

"No," Andy immediately responded. Parties were not his friend. They were the things nightmares were made of.

"You can't seriously be working on a Saturday night," Ashley said. "We just finished midterms, and I know for a fact you finished all of your homework for Monday."

"I did," Andy said, pulling his laptop onto his lap.

"Hey," Ashely said and plopped down onto Andy's bed next to him after inspecting his appearance in the mirror once more. "Is this about what happened in high school? I'll be there this time. I can promise that won't happen."

Andy shuddered at the memory. He'd been to a couple of parties in 10th and 11th grade, usually held at friend's of a friend's of Ashley's, and he only ever went with Ashley, and only ever hung out with Ashley and whoever Ashley was hanging out with. But once, in 11th grade, Jackie Peterson, his lab partner for chemistry, invited him to a party that she said was at her place. It was at a time in his life that he had been going to special ed classes twice a week to meet with a tutor to help him with his homework and studying for tests. Some of the other kids in his grade had been particularly brutal in their taunts that year, but Jackie had always been nice to him. She promised it was just going to be a small party with a few of her friends, and that he could invite Ashley. There were also going to be a couple of other people there that he knew through Ashley, she said.

Well, Jackie lied. She told Ashley the party was cancelled, and made sure he didn't have a chance to talk to his best friend before she drove him to the party. He knew instantly something was up the second he saw the head cheerleader of his school walk in with Jackson Conners, who was a year younger than him, and also in special ed classes because of a car accident when he was young that caused a permanent brain injury. He was also the kid that once tried to fit an entire ball of yarn up his nose because some of the other kids in his class dared him to. Under normal circumstances, the head cheerleader would not be caught dead anywhere near Jackson. His suspicions were confirmed when he immediately snuck out of the basement where the party was being held to go to the 'bathroom,' when he heard two girls talking about their dates, and which one was worse. Apparently, that was the point of the party, to see which girl could bring the weirdest, dumbest, or ugliest person to the party. Jackie, in her desire to fit in with the popular girls, brought him. Andy snuck out of the house, and even though he may have been acting like a chicken shit, Andy never went to another party every again. The only person that knew why was Ashley.

Andy shrugged in response to Ashley, and pulled his knees to his chest, burying his face in his laptop and pretending to be completely absorbed on what was on his screen.

"Fine. I'll let it go for today, but I will get you to come to a party with me, and prove that not everyone is like that," Ashley said, grabbing the leather jacket that perfectly hugged his shoulders on his way out the door.

"Fat chance," he told his computer screen after Ashley shut the door quietly behind him. He was perfectly content spending his nights alone in his room, or at least that's what he told himself, and had been for the last two or so years. No need to break routine now.

Youtube was playing some random rock videos from a hardcore playlist he discovered a little while ago when a knock on the door startled him from his near doze. He pulled his sheet up his chest and muted the song, hoping whoever was knocking would think the room empty and leave. He knew who was behind that door. No one else knew where he lived and Ashley couldn't be coming back this early.