Beautifully Broken (6 page)

“Hey Han,” I yelled over the
music she insisted on blaring through the speakers. I slid in and buckled my
seatbelt not knowing where we were going, and not really caring for once.

Hannah reached to turn the
stereo down a bit before talking. “Hey girly, you look HOT!! Every guy at this
party is going to shit their pants when they see you. Love the top.” She smiled
and winked at me knowing I had never dared to wear the top she bought me,
before now. “Where’s Gray on this lovely evening?” She chuckled to herself. “Isn’t
he like attached to your hip?”

I could see her roll her
eyes. “He’s not attached to my hip Hannah. I think he’s hanging out with Vince
tonight. Who knows.” I shrugged and continued to look out the passenger side
window. As much as I didn’t want it to bother me, it did. I usually knew where
Gray was and what he was doing, but he was acting so weird lately.

Hannah’s voice cut through
my thoughts like a knife. “Well, who cares? We are going to have a blast. I
heard about this party from my sister. She says that it’s supposed to be
killer. She’s meeting us there. Its in the dorms next to hers.” Hannah smiled
the biggest smile I had ever seen on her face. I questioned whether a guy had
something to do with it, but knew better than to ask.

Thirty minutes later, we
were pulling up in front of Missy’s dorm at Connecticut University. Hannah and
Missy hadn’t always gotten along like they did now. Missy was four years older
than Hannah and she never let Hannah forget it. They looked nothing alike, and
I always found it rather odd. Missy was about my height and a bit on the pudgy
side. We used to tease her, saying that she gained the freshman fifteen and
never got rid of it. She didn’t like that at all. They had the same green eyes,
but while Han had really dark hair, Missy was platinum blonde.

She used to come home on the
weekends and take us out, until she became too cool for her little sister to be
tagging along. Now that Missy was entering her last year of college, she seemed
a bit nicer. At least until we start attending school with her this semester. I
always thought that Missy was secretly jealous of Hannah and all the attention
she would attract from guys. There was really no other explanation for the way
she treated her.

I checked my lip-gloss and
hair real quick in the side mirror before exiting the car. The night air had
turned crisp, and I suddenly wished I had remembered a jacket. The leaves were
just beginning to start to turn their glorious brown and orange hues, and I
couldn’t help but notice some of the fallen buds along the walkway. Connecticut
was definitely a beautiful sight to behold when fall started coming around.

I walked briskly to catch up
with Hannah and looped my arm through hers as we made our way to the doors.
“Thanks for inviting me Han, I really needed this.” I squeezed her arm to my
side in a half attempt at a hug. “I know you do Bennett. Come on, were going to
have so much fun.”

Missy was walking down the
hall towards the party when we reached the top of the staircase. “Missy!”
Hannah yelled to get her sister’s attention but Missy just kept walking.

“What a bitch! Oh, I can see
this is going to be fun.” Hannah sighed.

We eventually caught up to
Hannah’s sister and she played it off like she never heard Hannah. Yeah right!
We entered into a big four-room dorm. I had never seen one this size before.
Granted I had only ever seen Missy’s room and a few others, but still this
place was huge in comparison. There was a big open common room with a small
kitchen to the left and then four big bedrooms with their own doors in every
corner. It was the perfect party pad that’s for sure.

When we walked in we didn’t
notice a single individual. We had only been to three other parties in Missy’s
dorm, but we usually ran into the same crowd at every one.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure we
will run into someone we know.” Hannah nudged me.

We headed straight for the
drink table. I wasn’t much of a drinker so I decided to stick with soda for now
and be DD. Hannah poured herself a vodka cranberry, and an extra shot of vodka
to get warmed up. “You sure you don’t want a drink?” Hannah yelled over the
music that a DJ was spinning in the back corner. “We can always crash at
Missy’s if we need to.”

I shook my head, “No, I’m
okay for now. I’ll just stick to soda.” I smiled lifting my can at her. She
clanked her shot glass to my aluminum and waved for me to follow her onto the
balcony outside. The air felt at least ten degrees cooler being up on the
seventh floor. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself.

We ended up running into
Leslie, a girl we met at our first party. She was your quintessential college
party girl. She belonged to one of the sororities and was currently dating one
of the most gorgeous guys I had ever seen, and the star quarterback. She was
stunning. She looked exactly like Malibu Barbie with long straight blonde hair,
almond shaped blue eyes and a rack that even I was jealous of.

“Hey girls, how are you
ladies doing? It’s been far too long since we have partied.” Leslie hugged us
both, a little too tight for comfort. I could tell she had been drinking since
way before now.

“Hey Les, we’ve been busy
getting ready for school next week. Where are all the hot guys at?” Hannah
shouted.

“Oh, don’t you worry little
lady, they will start flowing in like water in no time.” She winked.

Hannah and Leslie stood off
to the side talking about who knows what when I felt my back pocket vibrate. I
slid my phone out and saw that I had a new text message from Gray.

HEY SORRY ABOUT
EARLIER.

HOPE YOUR NIGHT IS
GOOD.

VINCE & I ARE
HEADED TO A PARTY,

CATCH YA TOMORROW.

G

At that very minute I was
beyond livid. I pushed past the new bodies that had taken over the back
balcony, to smoke and chitchat. I made my way over to the drink table and
poured a tall shot of vodka in a random shot glass. I threw it back and slammed
the glass back down on the table.

Once my distorted face went
back to normal, I filled up another and shot that one back too. I could feel
the warm liquid coating my insides and I knew it was only a matter of time
before I would be feeling the effects. I was in the midst of pouring myself
another shot when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Thinking it was Hannah; I
quickly turned with a second shot in my hand ready for her. I must have turned
too quickly because one of the liquid filled glasses was now all over some
guy’s shirt.

“Oh shit. I am so sorry.” I
reached back to the table for some napkins and absentmindedly started wiping
off his shirt myself. I slowly looked up from beneath my lashes and my voice
literally caught in my throat. It was
him
!

“It’s you.” I finally
stuttered.

“It’s you.” He smiled, and I
melted. His teeth were perfectly straight and bright white. His lush lips pulled
up over them in the most perfect smile I had ever seen.

I couldn’t help but smile
back. “It is me. I’m Bennett by the way. I don’t think we ever had a proper
introduction.”

“Hi Bennett. I’m Raylon.
Welcome to my place.” He held his arms out as if I was supposed to be
impressed.

I laughed, a real laugh for
the first time in weeks. “This is a nice place you have here,” I winked.

He laughed a loud boisterous
laugh that made me smile from ear to ear. My faded memory of the first time we
had met didn’t do him justice. He was in incredible shape. His black shirt
hugged every curve and ounce of muscle that made up his upper body. His T-shirt
was paired with ripped jeans and a pair of flip-flops. He was the epitome of
sex, and he was standing here talking to lil ol’ me.

“Are you okay?” I heard
Hannah come up beside me a minute later. “Oh my gosh have you been drinking?”
Her eyebrows were pulled together, a smile tugging at her lips.

“Yes Hannah, I
am
drinking.” I couldn’t help but smile. Hannah was always trying to get me to
drink. I never wanted to, until now.

“Well, thank the fucking
Lord. It’s about damn time you stopped being so good all the damn time.” She
wrapped her arm around my shoulders while handing me a cup of some concoction
she had made. I could already tell she was beyond drunk, but I was quickly
starting to catch up.

I threw back the drink and
reached for another before I realized that Raylon was still standing in front
of us. “Oh sorry. Han this is Raylon, Raylon this is my best friend Hannah.
He’s the guy that
ran
into me in the hall the last day of school.” I
arched my eyebrows at her.

“Oh...well Raylon, seems you
left quite the impression on our lil Bennett here.” She smiled over at me,
“Well, it was nice to meet you Raylon. I’ll come catch up with you in a bit,
Bennett.” She turned and gave thumbs up behind his back so he couldn’t see her.

“Sorry about my friend.” I
said.

“Nothing to be sorry about.
She seems like fun.” He smiled while taking a sip from his red solo cup.

“She is. So, what year are
you?” I knew I sounded stupid but it was the only thing that came to mind.

“Senior. I’ll actually be
graduating in January, a couple months before all these losers.” He chuckled as
he waved his arms towards everyone in the room.

I couldn’t help but laugh
with him. His laugh was contagious. “I see. Well then, maybe I will see ya
around for the next couple months. I mean before you leave us losers.” I
feigned being hurt but then chuckled when he leaned in to apologize.

We eventually made it onto
the couch and we talked about anything and everything. He was the only child of
a divorced couple. He had lived with is mom, and his dad never came around. He
just turned twenty-three at the end of summer. He had played football since he
was six and he made it to Connecticut University on a full ride scholarship for
it. He and his mom are very close. He talks to her almost every day and he has
only ever had one serious relationship, in high school.

I started to tell him the Cliffs
Notes version of my life, leaving out all the bad when I heard an all to
familiar voice announcing his presence. I slowly stood up and rounded the
corner, when he came into view. He stood with both arms up drink in one hand
like he was some kind of God at this party. I took notice of Vince standing a
little bit behind him, and then I noticed the small redhead directly underneath
Gray’s arm. His arm came down gently around her shoulder and I watched as he
kissed her on the top of her head.

“Someone you know?” He had
just witnessed me staring, shit!

“I thought I did but that’s
not him.” I turned and grabbed his hand so he would follow me back to the table
where the drinks sat. I downed three more shots of vodka and then made myself a
cocktail, consisting of vodka and a tiny splash of cranberry juice. I was
feeling better already.

“You might want to slow down
a bit there, kiddo.” He said smugly.

“I think I know what I can
handle. Oh, and don’t call me kiddo.” I spat back and turned to find Hannah.
She was still on the back patio, only now with a tanned muscular arm wrapped
around her waist as she stood still talking to Leslie.

“Oh Hannah, how you?” I
could hear my words starting to slur. I inched closer to her spilling drops of
the contents of my cup along the way. “I see you found a man, hmm?” Nothing was
making sense and I could feel my body getting heavy and my lips were becoming
numb.

“Oh my God Bennett, how much
have you had to drink?” She grabbed the red cup from my hands, throwing it in
the tall black garbage can in the corner. “Let’s get you a water.” She started
pulling me inside when I stopped her.

“No! No! I can’t go inside.”
I turned crossing my arms over my chest.

“What do you mean?” As soon
as the question came out of her mouth, I saw her gaze lock on his. “Oh shit
Bennett. What is he doing here, and with
her
?” I could hear the disgust in her voice.