Noelle

Wednesday September 19 2018

4:05pm

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“Hey!” ...Huh?

“Noelle! Helloo?” Was I spacing out? I flinch back as I finally notice Nathan frantically waving a hand in front of my face. Wait where is everyone?

“Oh, hi?”

“You alright?” Nathan asks with a chuckle.

“Yeah I’m fine sorry. What’s up?”

“Well first of all, we gotta get going. As you can see, everyone’s already left.” He gestures to the empty room. I really did space out. The last thing I remember before Nathan waking me from my daze, was the teacher starting his lecture.

“Well what are you waiting for? Come on let’s go!” He says with a big grin as he starts rushing for the door.

“Wait for me you ass!” I tease as I shove my things into my bag.

I rush out the door expecting him to be already down the hall, but of course, it was Nathan.

“Boo!” He yells in my ear as he grabs my shoulders. I should have known.

I scream like I always do when he scares me, then I proceed to hit him repeatedly in the shoulder as he laughs.

“You always do this!” I grumble.

“You always fall for it!” Ugh I do. This has got to be at least the fifteenth time he’s scared me in the short time I’ve known him. You could say Nathan is one of my ‘better’ friends, but I honestly know nothing about him.

“So, your going to Landon’s birthday party later right?”

“Oh right, that was happening.” Landon’s a bit cute, a bit annoying, but his party’s are insane.

“It’s going to be amazing as usual, but even better today, cause it’s his birthday! It’s at 10 so don’t forget!” He raises an eyebrow, elbowing me lightly as he says the last bit.

“Yeah yeah, whatever.” Jeez is he ever going to let me live that down? The first party he invites me to I arrive a little late, that’s not that bad. Okay, I forgot about it and came when everyone was leaving. Whatever okay!

“Well I’m heading this way, so see you there! On time!” Oh, that was quick.

“Bye!” I wave as he heads to who knows where.

Ugh.

I was supposed to work on my paper today for Friday, but I keep putting it off. There’s always something that comes up in the days I want to work on it. God, but I can’t miss Landon’s party. He always throws these annoying, extravagantly extra party’s, and since it’s his birthday it’s going to be even bigger. I can’t miss it.

I try to work on my paper in my dorm till I have to get going for the party, I made sure to get a ride since I won’t be able to drive myself back. The party’s at some place Landon rented so it was huge. There’s a DJ, food, drinks, lot of drinks, oh and drugs. Oh god, it’s so loud. Fuck this is horrid.

The place was already pretty crowded, but thankfully I actually know a lot of the people here. I take a drink immediately. If I’m going to get through this night I’m going to need a lot of drinks. Kind of sucks I’ve already grown such an intolerance to alcohol, I might not even get that drunk no matter how many drinks I take.

“Hey you made it!” Nathan yells as he brings his arm up for a high-five.

“Yeah! Great.” I respond, while giving him that high-five. At least Nathan’s here.

He starts to bring me over to a group of people sitting around in a circle. I can’t help but notice that they all already seem drunk out of their minds. “Come on Noelle, enjoy yourself! It’s a party!” I watch as Nathan chugs an entire cup full of some strong, foul smelling alcohol.

This is fun. Right?

I spent a couple hours, I think, with Nathan and his group before I got sick of all the party games. God, my head hurts like hell. Where can I go where it doesn’t feel so damn lou-

“Heeeyyy!” Crap, who?

“Glad you came! Get me anything?” They say with a sly smirk. Ah it’s Landon, asking for a birthday gift of course.

“Your capable of throwing parties like this on a regular basis. What more could you want?” I ask with a chuckle.

“Youuuu.” He mumble by my ear.

Oh god his breath reeks.

I push his face away gently as I try to escape. Landon’s cute but definitely not the guy for me. “Yeah no thank you. Great party though!” I say with a wink.

“Awh come on! It’s my birthday!” He yells back with a laugh.

Once I get a safe distance from Landon, I look back to see he already seemed to move his attention to another girl. Maybe I’ll get another drink. But that’ll make my head hurt more. But it could might make me forget about my senses entirely. I might do something dumb though.

Ugh, I wanna leave.

No! Stay strong Noelle! Maybe a few more hours will suffice. This is all for your own benefit. Your future self will thank you.

Right?

I go to grab the last of one of the drinks, when I accidentally smack my hand against someone else’s.

“Oops, sorry. You can take it.” Oh well.

“We can split it if you want.” Oh?

The guy was kinda tall, he had this dirty blonde hair, and his eyes were a colour I couldn’t quite make out. He’s attractive I’ll give him that, but I don’t think I’ve seen him before.

I watch as the guy reached over for two cups, then pours an equal amount of the drink into each.

“Cheers.” He exclaims as he reaches out, handing me a cup.

I look up at him dumb founded. People would usually just take the damn drink. what is this?

“U-uh, thanks?” I stutter as I fumble to grab the cup from him.

He gives me a warm smile, something you wouldn’t usually see at a party like this. Wait wait, I could be tripping. I seriously could! What if I’m imagining this guy and just embarrassed myself horrifically. Oh god, no no no no no-

“You okay?” He asks with that same warm smile.

This is weird.

I watch as he takes a good sip of the drink, and takes a second to think. “It’s not bad, seems pretty strong though.” He laughs.

“Never tried it before?”

“Nope. A friend suggested it to me.”

“Ahh. You don’t seem like the type to party a lot.”

“I don’t, but that same friend insisted I came because it was going to be ‘the highlight of my year’. Seems I should stop trusting their judgment”

Well your pretty cute so I’m glad you did today.

Hmmm I should probably head out soon huh. I’m thinking weird now. Wait, why is he getting all red? Kinda cute, but why?

“A-uh, u-um well, thank you for the compliment, but I don’t even know your name.”

He says, his voice muffled lightly by the hand covering his face. He chuckles slightly as his face get a slightly brighter red.

Oh god. Did I say those things out loud? About me calling him cute?

“Yes.”

Oh dear lord, stop me.

He coughs loudly as is it would help.

He sticks out his hand as he says, “Well, hello I’m Joel, nice to meet you.” his voice still muffled by his other hand.

I shake his hand as calmly as I can as I stutter out, “N-Noelle. My names Noelle. Nice to meet you Joel.”.

We both laugh as we continue to shake each others hands, the awkwardness of the past few moments seeming to drift. What am I doing?

We finally stop shaking hands, and he lets out a sigh.

“I’m already pretty done with this night if I’m being honest.”

“Honestly, same”

What time is it? I look over at the clock on a wall not too far from me.

“1:52.” I mumble to myself.

“Wow, is it really that late?” I look back at him and he’s looking at his watch wth a surprised look. He looks back at me suddenly, for some reason he looks embarrassed again.

“Hey it was nice meeting you but I think I might head out now. Jeez, how can people keep up all this energy all night?”he says as he scratched the back of his neck.

“Drugs.” I mutter.

He lets out a good laugh that gives me a pleasant feeling. For a moment, I forget I’ll be vomiting my insides out I a couple of hours.

“B-but uh, yeah I’m going to get going now. Are you leaving anytime soon you think?”

I want to. I look around to see find can find my driver. Yep. Found her. Chugging some drinks.

Great.

“Well I wanted to leave soon but it seems I don’t have a way back at all anymore.” I chuckle nervously.

“ I-I could give you a ride if you’d like.”

“That’d be gre-“ Wait wait, hold on. Just met this guy. Do I really want to willing get into his car?

“I’m not going to kidnap you.” He laughs.

“I never said that!”

“You were thinking it.”

Go away.

“Really though, do want a ride or no? Last chance.” He says with a cheeky smile.

I don’t really want to go with this guy. But if I stay here I might actually end up taking the bus, cause honestly, I doubt anyone here’s actually sober. What a second-

“You’ve been drinking though! Would it even be safe for you to drive?”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry-“ he tilts his cup in my direction to show that it was still pretty full. “I didn’t have much more before this cup, and I barely drank any of this. So are you coming or what?”

My god, am I really going to? I watch as he walks off, dropping his cup and all its contents in a garbage. He heads for the door, lingering as he gives me another smile.

Shit. Okay fine, whatever.

I follow him through the door, sighing in relief as we walk down the street and the music starts to fade. The quiet streets are surprisingly calming. It’d be quite nice to take a late walk down some nice streets once in awhile, maybe not alone though.

What am I thinking? Peaceful quiet streets? Nice late walks with someone?

I really need some sleep. I’m not acting like myself.

Huh.

That statement just makes me feel weird.

I turn my focus away from the moving cars when I hear the sound of a car beep, and I see...Joel...

“Madam.” Oh my god.

He’s holding the passengers door open for me as he tips an invisible hat, a huge grin on his face waiting for me to respond.

Ugh! He’s not that cute!

“You’re an idiot.” I got to get in the car when, wow good timing Noelle, I stumble and hit my head against the car. That was just great. Just fucking great.

“Owww.” I put a hand to my forehead. At least it doesn’t hurt that bad. It’s just the embarrassment that hurts.

“Oh my, a-are you- o-oh god, sorry.” And now he’s laughing. I start to pout and when he looks back up at my pouting he starts to laugh harder. Just great. His laugh may be kinda cute but whatever! I’m hurt here!

“I’ll just be getting in the car then.” I grumble.

“S-sorry! I’ll get you back now.” He chuckles as he closed my door, then I watch him as walk over and get in his side of the car.

The drive was quiet, but not really uncomfortable. I just didn’t really have anything to say, and it seems neither did Joel. We finally arrive at the dorms, I assumed he would go to park but he didn’t.

“Are you not going to park the car?” I ask with a puzzled look.

“Oh, I’m rooming with a few friends in an apartment so, yeah.” He responds giving me a little smile.

“Oh, well thanks for the ride.”

“No problem. Hopefully I’ll see you around.” He says with a wink.

Yup, I gotta get outta this car. Right now.

I stumble out of the car and head to my building.

What’d I just do.

I get up to my dorm, slowly but I made it. Blaire isn’t back yet or course. For some reason the second I stepped into the building I got really tired.

I gotta work on my paper though. But I want to sleep. But I’ll have a hangover tomorrow. But...sleep. You know, whatever. I fall on my bed with all my clothes on, I honestly couldn’t care less at this point.

I’ll leave my problems to tomorrow’s me.