"Stop fussing," Hannah laughed.

"I feel ridiculous," I sighed.

"Shut up, and let me finish your makeup," Hannah laughed as she put more lipstick on me.

After she stepped back, deciding she was done, I was finally able to see myself in the mirror. Hannah had curled my hair and put more makeup on me than I had ever worn.

"You look hot," Hannah cheered.

"Yeah, whatever," I smirked as the doorbell rang, "I'll go get it."

I ran down the stairs and opened the front door. Chris, Chandler, and Jake were standing there.

"You look hot, why do you look hot? Where are you going?" Chandler questioned.

"Is that an insult or a compliment?" I asked with a laugh, "why are you ringing the doorbell? You have keys."

"He lost them," Jake laughed.

I stepped aside to let them all in before I went to go back up to Hannah's room.

"Not so fast," Chandler laughed, "what's the deal with the makeup?"

"Hannah did it," I answered simply.

"For what?" Chandler asked.

"Bite me," I laughed.

"Just whatever you're doing, be careful. I know how hard you work for school and I don't want it to get messed up for you."

"Too late. I lost my chances at a scholarship, so I'm stuck here," I called back to Chandler as I went back up to Hannah's room.

"How did you lose your chances at a scholarship?" Chandler asked.

"I got my hand crushed before the championship," I called back to him before I shut Hannah's door.

I ignored whatever else Chandler was saying as I sat on the desk chair in Hannah's room. I waited around, scrolling through Instagram while Hannah got herself ready. After she finished her makeup, Hannah tossed a black dress at me. I looked over the unfortunately small amount of material.

"Where did you even get this?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it," Hannah laughed, "just put it on."

I changed into the tight strapless black dress, and desperately tried to pull it down further to cover more of my legs.

"Yeah hottie," Hannah squealed, "I get to dress you from now on."

"The hell you do," I scoffed, "ready to go?"

Hannah and I both put our shoes on and snuck down the stairs. We made it out to my car without being seen and were able to leave the dark driveway unnoticed. I followed Hannah's directions towards the college campus. I wanted to do this with her, but I also really didn't want to do this.

I parked my car in a parking lot that Hannah directed me to and gave her my keys to put in her purse. I followed behind Hannah up to the frat house.

"This is going to be so much fun," Hannah geeked as we walked towards the fraternity house.

"Don't forget about our deal," I laughed, "neither of us leave without the other."

"I won't. Let's go find Tom."

We walked through the house that was overflowing with people. The music was so loud I couldn't hear my own thoughts and all I could smell was beer. I followed behind Hannah as she searched for Tom. If Hannah didn't come up with this idea, I'd never be here. I'm uncomfortable with what I'm wearing, I'm uncomfortable being surrounded by this many people in a place I've never been, and I hate the smell of alcohol. I am a t-shirt and vans kind of girl, not a tight dress and heels kind of girl.

I was doing my best to try to have some fun, but I was just so uncomfortable. Hannah pulled me into the middle of the room to dance with her, and it was a way to get me out of my head a little. We danced for a while, until Hannah got pulled away by Tom. They were getting a little close and I didn't want to crash her party, but now I was actually alone. I found myself standing against the wall, in a place where I could still see Hannah and Tom on the couch but also be out of the way.

"Hey, I like your dress," a girl smiled at me.

"Thanks," I smiled back.

"I'm Maggie, you must be new around here," she laughed.

"Is it that obvious? I'm Myra."

"Nice to meet you. You go to ECU?" she asked as she handed me a plastic cup full of dark red liquid.

"No, I'm here with one of my friends," I answered as I lifted the cup to my lips and took a small sip, "what is this?"

"My personal favorite cocktail," Maggie laughed, "I'm kidding. It's fruit punch, I don't drink but you blend in more when it looks like you do."

Maggie and I talked for a while. She was pretty cool and talking to her made me feel a lot more comfortable here. After Maggie left, I checked my phone and was shocked by how many hours we'd already spent at this party. I looked around the room and couldn't find Hannah. I checked every room of the house and still couldn't find her. If I can't find her, then I can't leave since she has my keys.

"Hey, can I get you a drink?" a random guy asked me, giving me a sick feeling in my stomach.

"No thank you," I answered simply before I walked away.

I pulled out my phone and quickly sent a text to Hannah.

Me: Where are you?

Me: You better not have left. If you did, just let me know that you got home safely, and I can yell at you later.

Frustrated, I left the house and started walking. I have no idea where I'm going, I've never been on this campus before, but I needed to get away from this party. I kept walking, staying on sidewalks through the campus that were illuminated by streetlights. I was freaked out, feeling like there had to be someone following me. This is how all the horror movies start: dumb girl walking around alone at night. Who was I going to call to come get me? I'm probably going to have to swallow all of my dignity and call Chandler, but what other choice do I have?

"Myra!" a familiar voice yelled.

I turned to look at where the call had come from and found Jimmy and Chris standing in an adjacent parking lot with someone I didn't know. Well shit, this isn't going to go well.

"Myra, what the hell are you doing?" Jimmy questioned as he ran over to me.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned back.

"I could ask you the same thing. Are you out of your mind? Let's go, I'll take you home," Jimmy ordered as he grabbed onto my wrist and walked back over to where Chris was still standing, "get in the car and stay there."

I didn't say a word and listened to Jimmy. I was relieved to be in the car where I know I wouldn't be slaughtered by an axe murder, but of course it had to be Jimmy. I couldn't stop a few tears from falling from my eyes in frustration. I watched as Jimmy calmed himself down and finished filming whatever video they were working on. I saw Jimmy get into a yellow Camaro with the guy I didn't know before they drove off. Chris opened my door and handed me a black hoodie.

"You must be freezing, are you okay? We haven't really seen you in a while," Chris asked.

"Thank you, I'm okay. Who's that guy that Jimmy drove off with?" I asked.

"That's CJ. Jimmy is pretty heated about seeing you here, wanna tell me why you were walking around alone?"

"I came with a friend, but they have my keys and they left me and I've never been on this campus before so I was lost. I was looking for a directory board or some kind of location marker so I could call a ride and be able to tell them where I was," I explained, "why does Jimmy even care?"

"You mean you came with Hannah which is why you looked like that at the house earlier. It's a good thing we were here, so you didn't have to wait around for a ride. Should we take you home or to Chandler's when Jimmy gets back?" Chris ignored my question.

"Home," I sighed.

The Camaro pulled back up into the parking lot and stopped in a close by spot. I left the door open, despite the cold November air, to listen to them finish filming. I didn't realize how cold North Carolina was starting to get at night until now. After they finished filming, Jimmy said goodbye to his brother before coming over to his car with Chris.

Jimmy was silent, and I couldn't tell if he was angry or just annoyed by my presence.

"What were you doing on that campus?" Jimmy asked as he drove.

"Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters, Myra. What were you doing?" Jimmy asked again, raising his voice a little.

"Why do you care? You barely know me, Jimmy," I rose my voice back, "besides, I'm nothing but a joke to you anyway!"

"Because! Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for you to be out walking alone like that! What if someone tried to take advantage of you! Or if someone had taken you!" Jimmy argued.

"Why does it matter to you! I don't mean anything to you!"

Jimmy stared at me as he stopped at the red light. I could feel my blood beginning to boil. He wasn't speaking or reacting; we are supposed to be fighting. He is not my dad or my brother or anyone who-

Jimmy pressed his lips to mine and wrapped his hand around the back of my neck to hold me closer to him. All at once, I went from being angry and flustered to... confused. I don't know why he's kissing me or why I don't want him to stop.

There was a chorus of honks coming from the cars behind us, which caused Jimmy to pull away from me. He immediately turned back to the road and drove through the green light. I watched the road in front of us as he drove. He stopped in front of the warehouse. There was no talking, but Chris got out of the backseat and walked inside. Before he got out of the car, he squeezed my shoulder gently. We sat there for a minute in silence before Jimmy once again started driving. I didn't like the silence, but I didn't know what to say either. I looked out my window instead of watching the road. I wanted to be happy, the man kissed me, but I couldn't feel like I could be happy about it. It felt like maybe I was still a joke to him, and it was just another way to mess with me.

"You're not a joke to me Myra, you never were," Jimmy sighed, "Myra, I'm sorry."

"Then why did you say it?" I asked.

"I panicked. If you remember the rest of that short conversation, I said a lot of stuff and then I panicked. I didn't mean it," Jimmy explained, "and I didn't even realize what I had said until after I said it, and I didn't want to keep putting my foot in my mouth in an attempt to make it better."

"It hurt," I said simply, still looking out my window.

"I didn't mean to hurt you. I just panicked, I thought what I said would chase you away and that was the last thing I wanted. And then tonight I saw you walking, and I got angry. I was angry thinking of all of the things that could have happened to you had we not been there to bring you home. I was angry that there was a possibility that you could have been with someone else," Jimmy rambled.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"I just don't want you to be with someone else," Jimmy parked his car outside of my house, "and I don't know how to have this conversation because I don't know what this conversation is or how it's supposed to go. But if you make such a dumb choice like you did tonight again, I am going to lose my mind. You can't do things like that. Myra, you're smart, you are the smartest person I think I have ever met. Please just make smart choices."

"I still don't understand why you care so much."

"Myra, you're killing me," Jimmy laughed, "I want to get to know you even more than I've already gotten to. I want to spend time with you. I want you to want to spend time with me. I want you to be able to confide in me if and when you need to."

As it all finally clicked in my head, I watched the lights flick on in the kitchen and knew that could only be my mom.

"Jimmy, we will talk later tonight, I promise. I'm going to be in big trouble if I don't go inside right now, thank you for the ride," I spoke quickly before I got out of the car and ran up to the front door.

"Myra, wait," Jimmy called after me, "I like you!"

"I'll call you in a little bit, I promise," I called back to him as I opened the front door of my house.

I closed the front door behind me and saw my mom stumbling through the kitchen. I watched her open her bedroom door, and stumble around her room. Without being seen, I ran up the stairs to my room. I shut and locked the door behind me, keeping all possible threats out. I went over to my window and looked down at the driveway where Jimmy was still sitting. I unlocked my phone and sent him a text.

Me: I'm sorry to run off like that.

Jimmy: Did you hear what I said before you went inside?

Me: No, what did you say?

I don't know what's going to happen or what this could mean, but I am going to do my best to let myself take a chance.