Normal //Ryan Metzger

01: red lips and red cups

"Are you sure going out on the first night of moving in is a good idea?" I said, trying to carry my voice across the apartment.
I nervously pumped the wand of my lip gloss in its contents as I stared at myself in the small bathroom mirror. I applied the gloss over my ruby red lip for what felt like the millionth time.
     "I mean, why do we have to go out?" I said again into the silence of the apartment. "We could just walk downtown, maybe catch a show, or-"
     "Lauren," my roommate Jess, the ambiguous one out of the two of us, said as she stood at the door frame with her arms crossed over her chest. "It is our first official night as students at Columbia, and you wanna waste that perfect opportunity on watching Friends for the millionth time while eating ice cream?"
     I rolled my eyes and turned back to the mirror, fixing the gloss around my lips, trying to suppress the nerves building inside of me.
     "We have to make an impression," she said. "They're already talking about how there are some exchange program students from the party school of the Midwest. We have to go all out, CU style."
      "But why can't we do it Jess and Lo style, is all I'm saying," I whined, throwing the gloss into my makeup bag that was sitting by the curling wand. "We can order a true New York style pizza and rent a cheesy 80s horror flick."
     "Hmm," She said turning me around. She placed the back of her hand on my forehead and felt my cheeks. "Are you feeling alright? Because this is definitely not the Lauren Pearson I know."
     "Sorry, I just-" I started, but turned back around and pretended to fumble through my makeup bag. I looked up and caught a glimpse of myself. I looked at the short curls bouncing around the line of my jaw and the thick framed glasses that my worried eyes sat behind.
     Jess came behind me and wrapped her arms around me, resting her chin in the nook of my neck. She stared into the mirror with me, smiling a little.
     "How did I get so lucky to be blessed with such a pretty best friend like you?" She said to me, making me smile a little. "I mean really, here we are in this big city and I'm standing here with my best friend since we were thr-"
     "Fine," I said whining and laughing. "Anything to stop the friend speech."
     Jess clapped her hands together in victory, knowing every time that when she recites our friend history, she wins almost every time.
    "Hell yeah, there is the Lauren Pearson I know and love" she laughed, giving me a quick peck on the cheek. She held her hand up for a high five and I reluctantly slapped mine against hers. "Now, cmon pretty lady. Let's go show New York how Ohio does it."
    I laughed as she left the bathroom and down the hall, typing in her phone the Uber information. I turned back around and looked into the mirror at my reflection, the thoughts flooding in.
   You know that Jess is two sizes smaller than you, this dress looks terrible on you, my mind swarmed again with the thoughts I couldn't ever shake. Also, take a brush to your hair sometime. Maybe this is why no one loves you, you can't even take proper care of yourself.
     I stared at my own eyes in the reflection, seeing the hate behind them for the person in front of me. I saw the all to frequent tear forming in the corner of my eye
     "Lauren," Jess called from the living room. "The Uber will be here in five minutes!"
     "Coming," I said as I quickly swatted away the fragile tear from my cheek. I walked out of the bathroom, flicking the light off behind me as I did.
***
     The Uber we were in pulled up to the large house just on the edge of campus. Even thought we were on the edge of the hill, I could clearly hear every word of the Drake song that was playing in the house.
"Ah, the smell of pre-staged alcoholism and sorority girl desperation," Jess said laughing as she stepped out of the car.
     I laughed with her and shut my door behind me. I tugged at the seam of the dress, trying to make it longer on my legs. Despite my effort, it pulled right back up as we walked up the block.
     Jess eagerly walked up the brick sidewalk, clutching onto her purse as her little legs galloped along. She stopped behind the line of people waiting to get into the brightly lit frat house.
     "Holy shit," Jess said, trying her hardest to peep her head above and out around the tall people in front of her. "I think the guy at the door has an ID scanner?"
     I stood on my tippy toes to look over the shoulders of the guys in front of us and saw a short frat guy holding an ID scanner in one hand and a thick black sharpie in the other.
     "Think its a little excessive, huh?" She said, rolling her eyes and walking with the moving line as she dug for her ID in her bag. "They never had shit like this at OU. If you looked like a freshman, you didn't get in, simple."
      "They didn't have it there because it's Ohio University, Jess," I said with a chuckle as I picked my ID under my nail. "You really think the fraternities there had the funds for something like that?"
     I ushered at the guy at the door, who was now only a few people away from us.
     "It is New York," Jess laughed. "I guess their CEO daddies gave them a trust fund allowance."
      "No kidding," I scoffed and quickly changed my demeanor as we presented ourself to the frat guy at the door.
     "Hello ladies," he said as he held out the scanner to us. "IDs?"
      "Here you go," Jess said, handing him the stiff card. The guy scanned it and a loud beep came from the machine. "Oh shit."
       "What?" I asked her as she dug in her purse again.
       "I never threw away my fake," she said and pulled out her actual license, still from Ohio and not North Carolina like the fake.
       The guy scoffed and scanned the real ID, clearing her to not get the X of shame on the back of her hand.
       I handed him mine and passed as well, following Jess into the crowd that was congregated in the living room area of the house.
      The loud music blasted into my ears. I couldn't tell what was even playing because of the vast amount of people and the speakers almost busting at the seams.
       "Alright," Jess yelled, turning to me as she clapped her hands together. "I'm going to go scope out the scene here, okay? Don't get kidnapped or drugged."
       "Sounds like a plan," I said laughing. Before I could say anything else, she bolted down the hallway, disappearing into the masses. I knew she was off to find the keg like a hunting mountain lion with a deer.
       I snuck myself around the many people, some of them smiling at me and waving like they knew me. I smiled back, trying to make it to the alcohol as fast as I could.
    I finally found my way to the kitchen island in the middle of the set up. Alcohol bottles flooded the countertop with all varieties and types. 
     "What can I get you?" A guy said to me, coming up behind me. He placed his hand on my hip, making me jump a little at his presence.
      "Uh," I said, shaking away my nerves and getting int what Jess called my flirty 'party mode'. "Do you guys have any beer?"
      "Uh, yeah lemme go grab you one," the guy said and made his way to the fridge, but not before giving me a confused look like girls drink beers?
      The guy opened the fridge door to show the massive collection of full beer bottles that were neatly stacked on the shelves
        I thought I'd give a good laugh to the frat boy and took the bottle with a flirtatious smile. The guy was obviously into my act, almost melting at my wink I threw at him. He was about to introduce himself when I cracked open the beer bottle with my K-9 tooth, a party trick my papaw taught me when I was little.
     "What the fuck?" The frat boy said in confusion. The guy disappeared into the crowd and I laughed as I sipped on the brown bottle.
      I fought my way through the many crowds until I found the backyard. The cold fall air hit my exposed skin in relief. The many bodies inside the house grew the temperature, and my body thanked me for going outside.
     Even though the weather was near 60 degrees, people were jumping in and out of the in ground pool with little to no clothes on. Fog was wafting off of the pool, signaling it was too cold to step foot in it, but their drunk selves didn't care. The alcohol swarming in their blood heated their bodies.
   I found myself a small lawn swing in the back corner of the yard, overlooking the whole pool scene. I fought my way to the swing, with the heels of my pumps sinking into the soft ground with every step.
    As soon as I sat down and observed my surroundings, my thoughts overtook my mind, killing my 'party mode'.
    Look at you, they said in a disgusted matter. You're sitting alone in the dark corner of a party, secluding yourself. You blame your shitty life on everything else, but you aren't even trying.
   With every word my brain told myself, my hands began to tremble, grasping onto the cold bottle of beer.
'No one likes me' because you don't like opening up to people, and you shouldn't. You know if you do, you will ruin them, so why bother.
    "Shut up," I said quietly to myself, my hands trembling more, but they kept going. The same tears formed as earlier, they puddled in the corner of my eye and a single tear fell.
   "Now what is such a pretty lady like yourself doing out here," a guy's voice said,walking up to my spot on the swing. I looked up and swatted away the tear, hoping he doesn't notice. "Woah, are you okay? You're trembling."
   Shit, he noticed.
   "Oh," I said like it was no big deal. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little cold and homesick, I guess." I lied.
   I sniffled away the remaining tears and took a drink of the amber liquid, grimacing.
  "Suppressing with alcohol, huh?" He laughed but when I didn't, his laughter went away with his smile,but I wanted his smile to stay. "I'm doing that too actually. See, I'm on and off with Columbia and I'm a little homesick too."
   "Where are you from?"
   "Oh," he said peeking up. "I'm from Chelsea."
   I scoffed at his statement, knowing the suburb of Chelsea was in the city. He gave me a questioning look at my laugh.
   "At least you're not ten hours away from your home," I said, staring into the bottle.
   "Damn, I'm sorry." He said. "What about you? Where is ten hours away?"
   "Columbus, Ohio."
   "Good ol' CBus." He said, lounging back in the swing, making the swing go back violently. The swing of the seat caused my beer to splash all over the front of my, well Jess', dress.
   "Holy shit," he said, hands going towards the splash. "I am so sorry."
   "No you're good," I said, lying again to him and myself.
   "Here, lemme go get some napkins." He shot up but I grabbed his arm to stop him.
  "Really, it's fine, uhm-" I hesitated, realizing I had no idea who he even was.
  "Oh, Ryan. Ryan Metzger." He said, holding out his free hand for me to shake.
   "Lauren Pearson." I responded, taking his hand that was the size of my face.
   "Well, Miss Pearson. How about we go have some fun? And get you cleaned up," he laughed, standing up and holding out his hand. "I have just the cure for our homesickness."
   I debated even getting up, I mean he was a complete stranger and Jess did say to not get kidnapped, but before I knew it he was holding my hand we were running to the back door towards the bulk of the party.
   "Wait!" I said breathless and laughing. We stopped running across the yard and I had to slip off my high heel pumps and begin running with him again, laughing.
  We entered the frat house, him holding our arms up so we could shimmy through the crowd of people. My bare feet hated the sticky floor feeling, not knowing if the substance on the floor was alcohol, vomit, or something else. 
  He took me to the dining room where fewer people were standing, but a lot nonetheless. He started forming a triangle with ten cups in either side of the table.
   "Woah, city boy," I said stopping him in his tracks. "You really think you can beat me in cup pong?"
   "I don't think I can," he said, continuing to form. "I know I can."
   "Do you realize I grew up in Ohio where the only things we did for fun in high school were go to Walmarts and play party games in a barn?"
   "Pearson, I've been doing this since the early years. Now," he said holding out the little plastic ball to my face. "Ladies first."
   I gave him and look and he returned it as I stepped to my side of the table. I took my time aiming before cocking back my arm and letting the ball fly across the table and into a red solo cup.
   He picked up the cup and drank the beer that from the keg. He shrugged and picked up the ping pong ball and landed it in one of mine as he drank his.
   "Okay, Metzger." I said and picked up my cup from my formation. I started to drink the liquid, that was obviously a stale beer, without breaking our eye contact. I could see in his eyes that this was driving him crazy, which made me smirk.
   Back and forth we went, sometimes arguing over the rules. The most common? The elbow rule.
   The alcohol grew heavier in our veins as we were down to one each and the ball was in his hands. I stared down the ball as it traveled over the dining table and into the cup, spinning on the rim and sinking into the liquid.
  "God dammit," I said under my breath as Ryan cheered from the other side of the table.
   "Drink up, Ohio." He laughed and I chugged down the cup which tasted even more stale than the others.
   "Congrats, city boy," I said giving him a fake applause. He pretended to be a Broadway star soaking in the glory. "What's your prize?"
   "Can I pick what we do?" He said, which I was very hesitant about. He saw the look on my face and quickly cleared it up. "Not like that, no."
   I laughed and let him continue with his glory win.
   He pulled out his phone and typed for awhile. While he did this, I tapped my fingernails on the table, waiting for him.
   "Boom," He said clicking his phone off. "Our Uber will be here in 5 minutes."
   "Uber?" I said, my word slurring a little bit as it came out.
   "Yeah, we obviously can't drive." He said, not understanding why I questioned him.
   "No, where is the Uber taking us though?" I asked.
   "You'll see," he said with a grin.

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-hi I had to break this up into two chapter bc of how long it was!
-this chapter was obviously inspired by Call My Dad by AJR (kinda like a playlist, I'll do it for this book.)