Ice Cold

05

Landon Reilly

My head throbbed with every step I took. I had no idea where I was and my phone was dying. Eventually, I made it near that coffee shop I had gone to a few days ago and I could finally make my way back to my dorm.

There was no use going to class considering it had already started and I was still hungover and about fifteen minutes from my dorm room.

When I finally made it back onto campus, class had just let out and the walkways were crowded with students walking slow as shit to their next destinations. I wanted to plow over them, knock them off of the path and keep moving. But that was just the angry me trying to take over, the one with the misplaced anger.

It was no one's fault but mine that I decided to go out last night or that I ended up getting drunk and somehow sleeping in Wren's bed for the night. I could admit that the fact I had stayed the night with Wren was contributing to my agitation.

My teammates had intercepted me at the dining hall last night when I was getting dinner and dragged me out to the bar with them. What happened after, I couldn't really explain. It started with shots and ended with shots. I figured if I was being forced into a social situation, I should at least take the edge off.

It was a bad idea. I hadn't gotten drunk since I drank almost an entire bottle of tequila and walked myself over to Micah's house and cried. Crying and the brief memory of Micah and Elijah dropping me into bed were the only things I remembered from that night.

The only thing I remembered from the night before was getting to the bar and having the first couple shots. The rest was gone.

I wasn't looking where I was going, causing me to almost bump into someone. I stopped before we collided, ready to shout some rude remark, before I realize the person was Jess. She stared up at me with a playful expression, twirling a piece of her braided hair with her finger.

"Hey, Landon," she said with a wide smile. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"Like shit," I grumbled.

She looked to be perfectly fine and I knew she was with us at the bar last night. She was one of the ones that left me there. I couldn't even let myself be truly angry at her or the rest of them. They had no obligation to me. They weren't my friends, and that just reminded myself of how truly alone I was.

"I figured," she chuckled. "You were still going by the time I left. You're quite the party animal I guess."

She looked down at my clothes with a puzzled expression, then glanced back to my face.

"You're wearing what you wore last night," she pointed out.

"I haven't exactly had time to change," I said in a clipped tone.

"Did you go home with someone?" Jess asked, that playful glint back in her eyes.

Not in the way she was thinking.

"No," I snapped. I was not in the mood to be talking to her.

Jess's expression turned to one of confusion as I pushed past her and continued toward my dorm.

Back in high school, I would have jumped at the opportunity to entertain someone like Jess. She was pretty and outgoing and seemingly not looking for anything serious. That was what I would go for when I was trying to force myself to like girls. Nothing serious, purely physical. But I didn't have the energy anymore and I wanted to be left alone.

I stomped all the way back to my dorm and let out a sigh of relief when I walked inside to the room being empty. My roommate was almost never here, and that was a blessing.