Station 53

Vanessa

The loud music blared throughout the building. I wanted to break the speakers on the head of Samuel Jensen who happened to be the host of the party and my worst nightmare. 

"Isabella, my belle," he grinned at me as soon as we made eye contact. "I thought you wouldn't come!" 

"Where is she?" 

"You break my heart," he pouted. I held in the urge to cringe. 

"Where is Vanessa?" I probed, not in the mood for his rubbish. 

He sighed, "Anyone see the Loch Ness monster?" he called out to his friends. I'm emphasising the word "friends" because the average human would not describe any of those people and their relationships with each other as those of friends. They all hated each other and saw the other as their competition. The only reason they even interacted was to raise their social standing. Watching them smile at each other's faces only to break off into their groups and backbite each other disgusted me to my core. 

All the boys shook their head 'no'. I groaned before leaving them and searching the house for Vanessa. 

Vanessa and I weren't exactly friends. However, she helped me out when I was at my lowest and I owed her big time. Although we didn't hang out much, the moment we called out for each other, we would be there without any questions asked. We had some sort of unofficial mutual understanding. 

So when Vanessa sent me a message urgently asking me to find her, I didn't even think twice about it. 

"Vanessa?" I called out as I went through each of the rooms upstairs. The girl was no where to be seen. I decided to call her but as expected, she didn't pick up. 

"Looking for someone?" I heard Samuel's voice from behind me. 

"I already told you I was looking for Vanessa."

"Surely the Loch Ness monster can't be more interesting than me," he said as he leaned against one of the doors. 

"Stop calling her that," I ordered as I walked away. 

Since childhood, Vanessa was the opposite of the conventional beauty type. She was a little on the chubby side and she had freckles, pimples, braces and glasses. So you can only imagine the bullying the poor girl had to endure. As she grew older, the only thing that was left was her freckles but unfortunately the bullying hadn't stopped. It was disgusting behaviour. Fortunately, Vanessa didn't take the bullying to heart anymore and joked around about her childhood nickname too but I couldn't help but think that deep down it still haunted her. 

I felt a hand snake around my waist so I stopped in my tracks. 

"Remove your hand unless you want me to break it off," I warned. 

He chuckled in my ear, his disgusting breath trailing across my neck. 

"Are you really not going to let go?" I asked.

Instead his face drew closer and closer to me, annoying me even further. 

"Fine," I said as I pulled his hand off me and turned to face him, twisting his hand in the process. He screamed and fell to his knees, making me twist even more. "Why, does it hurt? But I thought this was what you wanted," I pouted. 

Samuel swore as he groaned, begging me to let go. 

"You're lucky I'm in a semi-good mood at the moment," I said as I let go of his hand. "Next time ask a girl before you decide to lay your dirty hands on her. And if she's not interested then get lost and stop bothering her. It's really not that hard to be a decent human being." 

He swore even more as he stood up. 

"You're f*cking crazy!" he hissed as he walked around me, too scared to make eye contact. This was the millionth time the idiot was bothering me and I wasn't even the only girl who had to deal with his rubbish. I'm too scared to even think about what he would have done to a girl who wasn't able to defend themselves. 

Once Samuel was out of my eyesight, I dialled Vanessa's number once again and thankfully this time she picked up.

"Izzy," Vanessa slurred before giggling, "I have been looking for you." 

"Where are you?"

"I'm at the party," she giggled once more. I heard someone shout truth in the background, hinting at her whereabouts. 

"Do you know where the truth or dare game is being played?" I asked a girl who was sitting on a couch by herself. She pointed towards the back of the house at the back yard. I thanked her before going out. 

The scene before me bothered me. There were semi-naked people giggling and drinking while others were literally boning as others were egging them on. I looked around for Vanessa only to find her playing some sort of drinking game with a group of guys. 

"There you are," I said as I walked towards her. "Let's go."

"You called a friend!" one of the guys cheered. The others followed suit shortly after.

"She's hot," one of them called out. "Bet she's hotter with her clothes off."

People often tell me I have anger management issues but if they hadn't said stupid things to piss me off then I wouldn't be angry in the first place, would I? 

"Vanessa, let's go," I said through gritted teeth. 

"But the fun is only starting now," she whined. 

"If you wanted to play, why did you call me?"

"Because I wanted you to join in on the fun," she said as if she was doing me a favour. 

"I'm going home."

"It's your turn," one of the guys called out to Vanessa just as I was leaving. I turned around to see she was shakily picking up an alcohol filled cup. 

Groaning, I walked towards her and took the cup out of her hand. 

"I think that's enough. You're drunk enough already." 

"But the game hasn't ended yet," she whined as she tried to pull the cup out of my hand. Annoyed, I downed the contents of the cup before rising my eyebrows and showing her the empty cup. 

"Ended now."

To my complete and utter horror, she pointed to more cups filled with liquid. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths.

"Fine," I said as I stomped over to the table, "but you're paying for the taxi fare." 

With that said, I starting chugging down the liquid. By the end of it, I felt a bit fuzzy and I couldn't help but stumble as I walked away. 

I felt two strong arms steady me and despite wanting whoever was holding me to let go, I couldn't bring myself to say anything. I just drunkenly let him take me wherever it was he was taking me with the hopes that he was at least not a dumb jock like the rest of the idiots around.