The Damage Of Denial

Chapter 5

~The night before the Prologue~

  It was a Thursday evening, the night before the final day of classes prior to Thanksgiving Break. Everyone knew almost no one was going to class tomorrow, even the professors. Some profs just outright cancelled class to save themselves the hassle. A lot of kids had already left to take their trip home, or would be leaving the next day. But with Friday basically being a throwaway day, that meant one thing for this evening: parties.

  Ryan, Spencer, Jon and Brendon were all on the list to go to a fraternity party at Psi Alpha Delta. Dallon was a member there, and lived in the house, so he put all their names on the list to get in. He also put down Haley and Cassie's names too. Those were the girls that Spencer and Jon had recently started seeing. They were both in the marching band as well: Haley was a flute player, and Cassie played clarinet.

  Ryan was really beginning to regret agreeing to go to this party. He wouldn't even have Zee there to keep him company. He'd asked her to go, but she'd already made plans to go to dinner and out to the movies with some of her girl friends. Ryan understood - he couldn't be monopolizing her time now that they weren't dating. But that meant he'd be be the only one of their group there without a date. And even worse, it wasn't like he could even meet anyone new to date while he was there. Ryan was done lying to himself and other girls that he could make a relationship with a woman work. He just guessed he was going to be alone, romantically speaking.

  He also knew that it was going to kill him, having to watch Brendon and Dallon hanging all over each other. They'd been spending increasing amounts of time together, and Dallon had even been around the dorm some. The last time he'd been in the dorm, Brendon brought him up to Spencer and Ryan's room. When Dallon left, Ryan saw him kiss the corner of Brendon's mouth gently, and had promptly excused himself to the bathroom so he wouldn't have to hide just how much that was hurting him.

  Despite his jealousy, Ryan couldn't bring himself to dislike Dallon. He really was just as nice as Brendon had said, and for that reason alone, he could see why Brendon was so drawn to him. Never mind the fact that Dallon was really attractive (though not Ryan's type in the least). Dallon and Brendon really did make a beautiful couple, although from what Ryan knew, they were still just going on dates, and weren't boyfriends yet.

  Ryan was lying on his bed reading when Spencer got back from his last class. "Ok," Spencer began, "just...fuck calculus."

  Ryan snickered. "I'm sorry, dear business major. Become a liberal arts major, and you can skip all that bullshit."

  Spencer sent Ryan a withering stare. "Yeah, sure, when my level of story writing tops out at 'See Jane Run'." Ryan cracked up. Spencer really was too much sometimes.

  "So, do you want to go down to dinner soon? We need to be back in plenty of time to pregame for the party with Brendon and Jon," Spencer reminded him.

  Ryan groaned. "Yeah, we can go to dinner, but I don't know if I'm gonna go to the party."

  Spencer stared pointedly at Ryan. "Ry, we've been over this already," he huffed.

  "I know, I know. But I'm the only one of us who is going alone. And that is going to suck," Ryan explained for what felt like the 100th time.

  "Ryan...you met Zee within 5 minutes of walking into your first class. I'm pretty sure you could meet someone else new!" Spencer shook his head.

  "Yeah...I guess..." Ryan muttered. Spencer just had no clue why that wouldn't work, and Ryan wasn't prepared to tell him.

  "I'm not taking no for an answer, Ry. Go for an hour. If you're having a shit time, get a ride home from the sober driver, ok?" Spencer bargained.