Cam

Prologue

The party was raging, the music was nearing deafening. I suppose it did not really help that I was standing about two foot away from the nearest speaker - which was blasting dubstep, much to my dislike. Jenny, my best friend, appeared right in front of me, shoving a drink right in my face. She came to stand beside me, tugging down the front of her dark blue skin tight - almost second skin- dress.

I took it from her, looked at the liquid and grimaced, "What is this supposed to be?"

"It's the Jenny bomb!" She winked at me, and took a sip of her own 'Jenny bomb', "Wow, that's strong."

"No shit," I frowned, making a face when I tasted the bitter mixture of liquor myself, "What did you put in it?"

"Vodka, rum and coke," she ticked the ingredients off on her fingers.

As we chatted I inconspicuously chucked the poison in potted plant just beside me. This kind of party wasn't even my scene, Jenny had dragged me along because this was supposedly 'the party of the century' and she had been specially invited by the host of the party, Tristan Balfour. The host who has yet to meet my acquaintance.

I mean, we didn't even know anyone here and I didn't feel particularly in the sociable mood. I noted this to Jenny, and she chastised me, "How are you ever going to meet anyone with that attitude. You want to be some big shot you're going to have to network."

"Have you seen the company?" I gestured out to the crowd of people, most half drunk, half high, or generally falling over each other.

She shrugged, "You gotta start somewhere. Some of these guys are part of some seriously high profile families, or at least have an endless amount of incoming cash."

Her eyes light up suddenly to what I'm assuming was a homo sapien over my shoulder. I turned around in lieu of this.

"Jen!" the well-dressed lad exclaimed, wrapping his arms around her and hugged her tight, she looked at me over her shoulder mouthed it's him, "I'm glad you could make it, you look gorgeous!"

Good choice Jen. I approved Tristan Balfour in my head. He was around six foot tall, green eyes, black hair, totally towered he towered over me, which meant he definitely towered over her, who was a few inches shorter than me. Plus with that colour eyes and hair, he had the whole Harry Potter vibe going on to the tee... sans glasses and lightning bolt scar.

"We were in the neighbourhood, thought we'd drop by for a few," Jenny said smoothly, giggling, and genuinely blushing.

No we weren't.

"This is Aspen," she gestured at me, "Aspen, this is Tristan."

"It's nice to meet you," I politely smiled, and held out my hand, which he took and shook firmly.

"You too," he grinned back, "So how do you know Jen?"

"We're doing the same course at university," I explained, "There aren't many girls doing what we do so all us girls are pretty close knit. Jenny and I are pretty much like family."

Jen made a fake gagging noise, "Aspen tends to get emotional."

I snorted, crossing my arms, "Yeah, right, says the girl who always cries at the end of the Bug's Life."

"It's a really emotional film," Jen retorted indignantly.

Tristan chuckled, "I can clearly the sisterly bond there."

We chatted for a few more minutes. He was quite an amusing lad - in his last year of Law school, in the university football team, his school representative and into volunteering in law firms who do a lot of pro bono work.