Chapter 18: Chapter 18

So far, I'd say the party is going well. It's fun and there haven't been too many problems. I'm getting along great with Abby, and I'm meeting new people and making new friends.

Kyle finally got home from work and went straight to the dining room to join a game of beer pong.

I can hear noise coming from the living room, and so can Abby. We both turn our heads to find out what's going on.

"Don't look now," she said. Abby grumbles when Piper and her clones walk in. All of them looked great in short skirts, halter tops, and gold jewelry. It seemed like a wave of perfume followed them wherever they went.

"If you don't like them, why invite them?" I ask Abby, and she laughs.

"Because the anger and drama would be worse than just putting up with them." As they walk over to the ping-pong table, she shrugs, and I roll my eyes.

"Elle!" She calls, and I see a blonde girl with wavy hair stacking empty cans on the kitchen counter. "Come meet the new roommate of the guys!" She gives a nice smile and runs over.

"Hi, I'm Ellis!" She says this while quickly hugging me, and I smile. "It's great to meet you! I had no idea you were a girl.

"I've heard that a lot lately." I laugh, and so does she. Ellis was tall, her blonde hair was more wavy than mine, and she was wearing a macrame top and loose, low-rise jeans. She gave off an air of ease. "I'm Julianna."

"This will be a lot of fun! A new girl in the group who isn't anyone's girlfriend or sneaky link. She keeps on, and I just laugh. "Sydney is my girlfriend. You should meet her." She says this as she looks around the room with her lips pressed together. "She's around, so I'm sure I'll see her soon."

"How long have you both known each other?" I ask, and she gives me a shrug.

"I think it's been four months?" She says this to Abby, who nods her head. "She's cool, and you'll like her."

"I believe you." I smile, and she keeps looking around, so it's clear she's still trying to find Sydney.

"You should get to know them." She tells me, and I nod as I watch Ellis walk away, that the two people she was pointing to earlier were playing pong with Kyle and Mark.

She brings them back, and my heart starts beating faster again. What the heck is in the water around here? These guys were also pretty.

"This is Darren, Julia," he said. She gives the guy on her left first and smiles. I think he was about five feet five inches tall, with dark skin and white teeth.

"It's great to meet you." Kindly, he says. I nod and put out my hand for a quick shake.

"Hi, my name is Chase." She says, "The taller of the two had short, bouncy curls on top of his head, and his eyes were deep brown." He was taller than me, but he didn't seem very tall for a guy. He was probably just under six feet.

"Hey." He says it nicely and smiles at me, and I smile back.

"Hi." I answer by quickly shaking his hand. I thought that, like me, he had spent a lot of time outside in the sun over the last few months because his skin was a nice summer color.

"Do you need a drink?" When he asks, I just shrug.

"Sure." When I turned around to tell Abby that I would be right back, the three of them were gone. That was strange. Chase seemed nice and easy to talk to, which was a nice change. He made me think of Mark because he was easy to talk to and made me feel at ease.

"They gave up on us." He shakes his head and sighs. "I'll get you something this way." He points to the fridge and says, "Come with me." When he opens it, I see Kent and Piper talking on the other side of the room.

He says, "I don't fuck like Piper," which is a lie.

"What do you feel like doing?" When he asks, I sigh and shrug it off.

"Beer is good." When you tell him, his eyebrows go up.

"She has good taste." He says something and hands me a can of Coors Light. I laugh. "I can see what you mean."

"Taste" is not a word I would use to describe a Coors Light, but everyone has their own ideas. I laugh and pull off the tab, and he laughs and taps his just-opened can against mine.

"Is that right, Julia?" I say yes when he asks. "Tell me something about you."

This was an easy question for me to answer because I'm a talkative person by nature, and this kind of question gave me the chance to tell him anything that came to mind. It helped me because I'm a nervous person.

"I'm going into my fourth year of early modern studies. Right now, my favorite professor and I are working on my honors thesis."

"Which is it?" I'm a student of the classics, and I take a lot of classes that overlap."

"Dr. Binkley," When I tell him, he smiles.

"Oh, she's great. Last year, we talked about my paper a lot over Zoom, and she gave me a lot of time to finish it. I smile back and he smiles.

"Yes, she's a nice person. I'm looking forward to hearing what she has to say and talking with her." I have to admit that I ran my hand through my hair. I didn't want to tell him that I liked that she was a strong woman who trusted her research. Even though there were a lot of helpful men in the history department, I felt more at ease with her. "You're in Classics, right? "So what?"

"It's fine, I don't need an honors thesis, but I like it. He gives a shrug.

"That's good, because I took a Classics class in my first year to meet one of the humanities requirements." When I tell him, he smiles.

"Who is it?"

"The one about 101 myths." When I tell him, he smiles.

"Oh crap, yeah, that one was great." He agrees, and the curls on top of his head move a little. "I also picked that one."

"Did we go to the same school?" I ask with my eyebrows raised.

"11:30 to 12:30 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday?" I say yes when he asks. "Damn, I missed you."

"There were like 200 of them, I won't hold it against you." I look down at my feet and laugh. But when I look at the shoe he chose, I stop and think. "Hey, those shoes are cool."

"Thanks, those are the ones that everyone has." He stops talking, and then it seems like he realizes that we have the same ones. "Give Julianna respect." He laughs, and I grin. "So, do you think we could study together on campus sometime?" I say yes when he asks.

"Yeah, let me get my phone." I smile and feel happy. Julianna, you're friend number two. Plus, we worked in the same department, which was lucky and meant we could study together and share ideas.

When I look back into the room, I see Kent pushing Piper against the wall of the living room and sticking his tongue in her mouth. It hurts my stomach to watch. Ew.