Inevitable

Party Time

The way I felt every time I saw Liam always took me by surprise. It was a combination of excited happiness and nervousness. He looked really good tonight. He had on dark jeans and a light blue and white plaid button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His dark brown hair had gotten longer on top and was styled away from his face. The light blue of his shirt accentuated his tan skin and dark brown eyes. He came over to me and leaned down for a hug. He smelled good too. He always wore the same cologne. It was something light and subtle.
He pulled away from me to give Jess and Jane hugs as well and he shook Nick's hand after Jess introduced him. From the way he was talking, I could tell he already had a few drinks.
He turned back to me and grabbed my hand to pull me towards the entrance of the house. As we walked past the line I heard several comments about how unfair it was that we got to jump to the front. I was extremely aware that Liam was holding my hand and I wasn't sure how to feel about it. He must be more than buzzed because it wasn't something he had ever really done before. I had made a promise to myself months ago that I would stop reading into everything that Liam did and said. I was just setting myself up for disappointment. We were just friends. That's how he saw our relationship and I had to force myself to see it that way too. It wasn't healthy to be fixated on someone who had no romantic interest in me at all.
When we got inside, Liam still didn't let go of my hand. He pulled me through the front hallway and down the steps into the basement where the bar was. He finally let go of me so he could go behind the bar to grab all of us cans of the cheap beer they were serving. We moved into another room that wasn't as crowded. The five of us stood in one of the corners sipping on our cheap beer.

"So how are my favorite ladies doing? I feel like I haven't seen any of you in forever" Liam says to me, Jess, and Jane. I open my mouth to respond but of course Jess cuts me off.

"Well whose fault is that? You're the one who is too busy with your new frat boy buddies to hang out."

And here we go. Jess loves to start drama. Liam chuckles and holds his hands up in surrender. "Listen, I know I'm awesome and you must have desperately missed me. I promise to try to come around more." I forgot that he can handle Jess better than anyone. We all laughed at his perfect response to her including Nick.
After a few more minutes of catching up, Liam turns to me and says "be right back." I knew what that meant. He had put in his obligatory face time with us and he was off to find better company. It had been the same way at every party. If we were lucky we would randomly see him throughout the night.
    I turned to Jess and asked her where her roommate, Melissa, was tonight. She started telling me about how she went home for the weekend because it was her mom's birthday and that was crazy because there were so many good parties this weekend. In the middle of Jess's rant, Liam came back to our group with another round of drinks. He handed them out to all of us and said he didn't want us to have to wait in line. I must have had a shocked expression on my face.

"Why do you look so surprised Em? I invited you here to spend time with you."

"Well usually you get busy at these parties. I didn't think we would see you again."

It was the nicest way for me to let him know he hasn't been that great of a friend this year. He looked at me with a serious expression on his face.

"I'm really sorry for doing that. You have no idea what it's like to pledge a fraternity. I have to be at their beckon call 24/7. Especially at these parties. I've missed you so much and I promise it'll be different from now on."
   
I didn't know what to say. I was in shock that he actually said something ernest and sincere to me. I could feel Jess watching me to see how I responded. All the feelings I've been pushing away this year started to creep back in.