Falling Apart Together

Chapter 3

She had changed her outfit three times and her hair twice, and she still wasn't exactly satisfied with how she looked. She realized that it didn't really matter, and most people there were going to be so drunk they wouldn't even notice her anyway. Although she knew all that, she still wanted to look good.

Dale had just got back from work, and was trying on different outfits as well.

"Dale, it's almost 9 PM. We should get going. You don't want all the single girls to be taken when we get there do you?"

She'd been surprised at how quickly Dale had gotten over his breakup. Maybe he was just pretending, but after he had got back from work, he had seemed a lot more cheerful.

"I'm going as fast as I can Amy, don't stress me. Just one more button… Alright, let's go!"

He walked up on her while she was fixing the last part of her hair. "You look, excuse me for the cliché line, amazing. But I don't think that doing that thing with your hair again and again is really going to make a difference."

She blushed a little, glanced at her reflection one last time and followed Dale out the dorm.

It had finally stopped raining, but there were still puddles everywhere. Amy was really starting to regret the high heels she was wearing now, and she could barely keep up with Dale. Soon her breathing was puffed.

"Not so fast! I'm no good as a dancer if I faint out here!"

Dale slowed down after that, and they both walked on in comfortable silence.

She heard the party long before she saw it. The unmistakable bassline of a dance song being played way too loud. Then the lights reached her eye. Someone had written out "Welcome Freshmen" in neon. There were easily a hundred people standing and dancing outside the house, and they all seemed to be having a good time.

Amy looked at Dale and said: "Well, you wanted to get over your girlfriend, this seems like the place to do it."

"I'm not really sure I'm ready for this though…" Amy wasn't used to being the one who was actually trying to get someone else to a party, so she just pulled him with her.

"Come on Dale, I don't want to be all alone in there. Let's just have fun." The look on her face quickly stopped Dale's objections.

The music got louder as they approached the building, and when Amy opened the door she was greeted by an explosion of sound. The smell of beer and weed hung in the air, and fluorescent lights pierced the thin smoke that hung in the house. Some guy waved at Dale and after agreeing on where to meet after the party, he went over to him.

Amy had wanted to meet new people, but right now she just needed a familiar face. She went looking for Raven, and luckily her purple extensions made her easy to find. She was standing next to a pretty brunette, and seeing her wavy hair immediately reminded Amy of Karma. Shaking off the memory, she went over to them

"Amy! I was starting to doubt you'd show at all!" She looked from Amy to her brunette friend. "Oh, right. Amy, this is Felicia. Felicia, Amy. Felicia's my roommate, and we went to college prep together."

Amy and Felicia exchanged greetings, and Felicia went to grab some drinks. Amy's eyes must have lingered a bit too long, because Raven was giggling again.

"Stare all you want, but Felicia is religious as fuck. She wouldn't even think about doing anything that goes against her precious holy book."

"Just for the record, I wasn't thinking about that. You don't sound too fond of her though."

"No, no, she's amazing. The religion thing is literally the only bad thing I can say about her. That and she snores like a hippo, but you get used to it."

Felicia returned with their drinks and the three of them were quite for a while. Felicia broke the silence by saying "Have you guys seen the DJ yet? She' a third year, DJ Rachel or something, I forgot. She's amazing, apparently she's got a sponsorship from Monstercat Records."

Now that she mentioned it, the music was good. Amy was already moving to the rhythm, and she felt an urge to join the dancing crowd. Then she realized that she had heard this particular song before. Two years ago, to be exact. During what was one of the best months of her life. "Felicia, this DJ. Could it be that her name is Reagan?"

"Yeah, that's her name! Reagan, Rachel, I wasn't that far off…" Raven had noticed the sudden change in Amy's mood. "Do you know this Reagan, Amy?"

"We used to be… friends." They had of course been more than friends. After she had proclaimed her love for Karma and had gotten her heart broken, Reagan had been there to put it back together. She was one of only two people that she'd ever been in love with. But Reagan had felt like Amy had never gotten over Karma, and in a way, that had been true. Eventually Reagan couldn't handle having Karma around all the time, and when Amy was asked to choose between the two of them, she had picked Karma. Even though their friendship had ended a week after that, Amy had never felt like she'd made the wrong choice.

"Excuse me, but I just remembered I have to… uhm… be home on time. See you two!" As Amy hurried to find Dale, she realized how totally unbelievable her excuse had been. Too bad, she thought. She'd explain it to Raven later. She would have to make up another excuse for Felicia however, because she didn't think she was going to tell her she was into girls anytime soon.

She pushed some sweaty guys out the way, dodged a couple that was kissing like it was their last day on earth and ducked under a guy with eight beers in his arms just to run into Dale.

"Dale, I-"

"Look, I'm sorry but my ex is here and I'd really like to get out of here."

"Yeah, same story here. Let's go."

They ran towards the exit, which unfortunately meant passing by the DJ table. Right in front of it Dale stopped.

"Dale, I really need to go like NOW!"

"Julie, my ex… She's right there." He pointed at a blonde girl not 10 feet from them. "Oh god, who's that guy with her?" Dale looked like he was about to burst into tears, and to make matters worse, Julie spotted him, looked him right in the eyes and kissed the guy that was holding her hand. Then Dale looked at Amy, sputtered "I'm sorry, I'll make it up to you" and kissed her.

She was immediately reminded that she did not like guys. He tasted like burnt coffee and his body odor was so strong she almost couldn't breathe. She heard the music stop around her and in the corner of her eye she saw a girl coming down from the DJ booth. Dale finally backed off, and she was almost too scared to turn around. Then she heard a familiar voice whimper "Shrimp?".

-sk1dr0we