Escaping Reality

Chapter 13: Curious Gaze

As I slammed my shot glass back on the counter I noticed the girl from earlier looking at me from across the room. She held her gaze confidently undeterred even after I had noticed her. I couldn't get a read on her. Was she checking me, just observing the situation, was she party psychopath. As I talked myself in circles I realized I may have caught a little bit more than a buzz. Rather than overwork my struggling brain I pulled Madeline aside to get the inside scoop.

"Who is that girl over there with the brown hair? Is she single? What's her type? Does she go to your high school?" I fired off drunkenly.

"Easy there love bird" Madeline taunted "Her name's Lola. She's sort of mysterious, a cool girl but she doesn't let her guard down often and rarely for a guy but yeah she is single. Anything else you'd like to know prince charming?" She asked with a chuckle."

"No, no that's perfect. Thanks so much" I offered back only partially engaged in the conversation. The rest of my mind was determining if I had enough liquid confidence to approach Lola tonight or if it was a mission for another time.

It didn't take long to get my answer. My legs didn't seem to be fully functioning as I stumbled on my way to grab a glass of water. Ah probably not in the best condition to approach a girl like that I concluded. However, I made mental note to strike up conversation again as soon as I could. Now that I had her name I could maybe even do some social media stalking and see what she was all about.

I spent the rest of the night roaming around the room introducing myself to people, telling them what I was doing in Miami and making small talk. It was an interesting crowd and interesting to learn about their lives thousands of miles away. I found that despite the wildly different socio-economic classes our lives were largely the same.

At some point I befriended Darren, who was the school paper editor and looked like he had gotten his entire wardrobe out of an Urban Outfitters magazine. After shooting the shit with him I hit it off with Jason, who happened to be the star running back for the school. He told me that he had been fielding offers from Notre Dame and Louisville but wanted to stay closer to home so his parents could watch him play. Everybody appeared to be in good spirits and everybody was surprisingly friendly toward me. I don't know if it was because it was my party but I had not expected this level of kindness from the get go.

It neared one in the morning and the party was starting to die down but I didn't anticipate it clearing out for at least another hour or two. I had been up since four in the morning and desperately needed to go to bed. However, abruptly kicking everyone out was a no-go and reputation ruiner. Still, something didn't feel right about letting random strangers roam my room while I slept. Eventually, my eyelids became too heavy and my worries fluttered away. I bit the bullet and crashed on the king bed tucked away at the back of the suite. The noise of the party drained on and slowly blended together until everything faded out completely and I drifted off.