Chloe's P.O.V
"Hey Chloe," Hailee said while knocking on my door.
My eyes shot open, disturbed from my lovely dream and looked at the door. "What is it, Hailee?" I asked with a raspy voice and glanced at the clock. "It's 6:15 in the morning, can't this wait?"
"No, it can't," she stated and opened my door and sat on the edge of my bed with her phone in hand. "Chloe Marshall just texted me after she finished working out at the gym–"
I huffed out a breath and turned on my side and pulled the covers over my head. "Why do you have to talk about her? Like I care?" I interrupted.
"Trust me, you'll want to hear this," she continued. "She said she wanted to hang out with me today after classes, and I asked if I could bring you and she said yes! Isn't that exciting?" she squealed.
I glared at Hailee. "No, it's not. Now I feel obligated to go if she thinks that I'll be going," I sighed. "I don't have anything against her–"
"Oh yes you do," Hailee snorted, pushing up her black rimmed glasses. "You don't like her because she's pretty and popular."
I sat up and gawked at Hailee. She thought I didn't like Chloe Marshall because she was pretty and popular? "And you do?" I asked, growing a little frustrated. "Y'know Hailee, not every girl hates on a girl just because she happens to be prettier or more popular. I have my own reasons for disliking her. It wouldn't be right to dislike someone for those reasons."
"And what reasons are those?" she snapped.
"She's incredibly lazy for someone who works out," I stated. "She spends too much time working out when she should be working out the most important muscle part of your body: the brain. She cheated her entire way through school, and I don't doubt that's what she was doing right now."
Hailee shrugged. "I don't mind that she cheats."
I cocked an eyebrow. For valedictorian of our senior class, I would think that she viewed academic honesty and excellence in a higher regard than what she was claiming to now. It was a little disheartening that I seemed to care more. "And let's not forget to mention when Chloe Marshall made fun of someone for not buying the name brand boots, and told them that if they were to wear something they should have the decency to save up their money and buy the real thing themselves. It's ridiculous!"
"Give her a break. That was high school," Hailee rolled her eyes. "She's different now."
"Oh, I'm sure," I said sarcastically. I couldn't be friends with someone who looked down upon those who didn't wear name brand clothes and designer handbags. I couldn't be friends with someone who could care less about their education and just cheat their way through everything. I couldn't stand it.
"But you'll go, won't you?" Hailee pleaded. "I want you to go."
"Fine," I said and fell back against the mattress. "Now could you please get out of my room. I really need an extra hour of sleep if I'm going to do well at all today."
Hailee laughed and nodded as she got up from my bed and walked to my door. "Have sweet dreams…about Kason," she laughed, ran out the door and shut it before I could respond.
My day went by pretty smoothly, and I managed to take my Calculus exam with ease, which comforted me greatly. I had been worried about this exam, but after seeing it I was relieved to see that it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I didn't know what Hailee and Marshall had in store for me today. I didn't know if we were going to go somewhere nice, so I decided to abandon my sweat pants and loose t-shirts and wear leggings and a short-sleeved dress. I spent a little more time on my makeup as usual, making sure my winged eyeliner was precise and my eyeshadow was blended to perfection. I wanted to make sure I at least looked presentable.
Around eight o' clock, Hailee texted me to meet her at our dorm. As soon as I walked inside of my dorm, I saw Marshall and Hailee sitting on the couch gossiping about who-knows-what.
"You actually dressed up," Hailee smiled. I looked over her outfit to see her high waisted jeans and red spaghetti strap tank top. Her makeup was minimal, showing off her cute freckles. Classic Hailee.
"Kinda," I smiled back, looking over at Marshall nervously. Marshall was–of course–dressed nicely with a bright blue shirt with ruffled sleeves, exposing her shoulders and her perfectly toned stomach, and white, capri jeggings. Her hair was straightened, resembling a mozzarella cheese waterfall–which sounded gross when I came think about it, but trust me, it was pretty.
"Where did you get your top?" Marshall asked, her penetrating blue eyes looking over my outfit with a look of skepticism.
"I honestly don't remember," I said and she got up, resulting to Hailee getting up.
"Well let's hit the road," Marshall said and got out her keys.
"Wait, where are we going?" I asked, sure that I had a concerned look plastered on my face.
"You'll see," Marshall smirked and walked out our dorm.
Hailee looked at me excitedly and squealed giddily. "You'll like it, Chloe. It'll be fun."
Something in my gut told me that it wouldn't be fun, and I had no intention of finding out what it was, but I couldn't help but go along with it. If Hailee said it would be fun, it would be fun. Right?
We got into Marshall's car, which was a sleek, black Porsche–no surprise about that one there. Even though I didn't like Marshall, it was nice of her to even drive us to wherever we were going. She didn't have to take me–a stranger–in her luxury car. If I owned such a car, I probably wouldn't be so generous.
Marshall blasted music through her expensive speakers as I sat in the back of the car, feeling my eardrums pound. Normally, I would've minded but the music she was playing was pretty good, so I couldn't complain. Instead I hummed along while Marshall and Hailee started singing–quite horribly I might add–in the car.
It didn't take very long until we approached our destination, and I felt the uncomfortable sensation that I wanted to pee. I looked to see that it was a club, and my heart was beating a million beats per second just thinking about going inside.
"Ta da!" Hailee laughed along with Marshall as she turned to look back at me. "This is where we're going tonight."
"Hailee, it's a school night. This isn't right," I said, my voice going quiet from fright.
"What is better than going to a club tonight? It's not like you had homework to do."
"We have a chemistry test tomorrow, isn't that important?"
"Oh don't be so uptight," Marshall interjected.
I was shocked by her words. Me? Uptight? Perhaps, but I didn't want to focus on that at the moment. I had a chemistry test tomorrow that I needed to study extra for. "I just thought we were going somewhere chill," I continued quietly, my eyes bulging at the brightly lit sign of the brick building I was frightened to go in.
"We're going somewhere fun," Hailee grinned from ear to ear. "Like the club. It's fun."
"Have you been here before?" I asked nervously, bouncing my leg up and down.
"No, but Chloe has," she said and looked to Chloe, who looked at me like I was a whining baby.
"Don't we have to be nineteen in order to get in?"
Marshall rolled her eyes. "They don't check here, now let's go," she said and opened up her car door.
I slowly got out of the vehicle, my legs turning to Jell-O. What if they check my driver's license to see how old I was?
Marshall walked past the bouncer and smiled flirtatiously at him and opened the door. "Come on," she called out to Hailee and me, motioning with her hands.
I knew my gut was telling me this was a bad idea.
Hailee and I followed Marshall inside the building, not surprised to see that it resembled a pub with a dance floor nearby. Brightly lit lights were scattered across the walls inside, and there were shelves full of different alcohols behind the bar. There were plenty of people inside the club, some of them I even recognized from campus. Not many were dancing, probably because they weren't drunk enough yet, which I was thankful for.
I could see most of the guys' eyes shift over to Hailee and Marshall as they walked to the bar with me awkwardly behind. I didn't mind that they didn't look at me. I was actually glad. Anyone who hung out here was a guarantee that I didn't want staring at me. Not that social drinking was bad. My dad liked to drink a beer on certain occasions but especially during Bama football games.
All three of us sat on the bar stools at the bar, Hailee sitting between us.
"I'll take a Cosmopolitan," Marshall flipped her hair and crossed her leg over the other as she stared at the bartender, who was pretty attractive with several tattoos on both of his arms.
The bartender gave her a brilliant smile and nodded, and continued to smile when he saw Hailee.
"I'll take the same thing as her," Hailee smiled, her elbows placed on the bar with her head resting on her thin hands.
The bartender nodded and then looked in my direction, his brilliant smile immediately fading. It felt a little insulting, but I quickly got over it. "I'll take a Dr. Pepper," I said.
As the bartender went to make our drinks, Hailee turned to me. "Chloe, you're supposed to order alcohol, not Dr. Pepper," she scolded me. "Don't be so uptight."
Famous words stolen from none other than Marshall. "I'm not," I said, a little frustrated. "I just don't want to drink."
Hailee rolled her eyes and chatted to Marshall until the bartender came back with all three drinks in hand. He handed out our drinks and then leaned against the bar, extremely interested in Marshall and asking her questions in a low voice.
Marshall played with her mozzarella hair while giving small smiles.
I looked around and sipped my Dr. Pepper. More people piled in through the doors, and I noticed more as the minutes went by that the girls were starting to get tipsy and the guys were starting to get buzzed. My leg bounced up and down repeatedly, my nerves starting to take over. I couldn't handle this many people, especially when they're drinking. People become unpredictable and I wanted nothing to do with it.
Marshall and Hailee continued to order drinks until they were buzzed, and then pulled me off my seat against my will and took me to the dance floor. The dance floor started to get crowded as people started dancing, some bodies moving to the rhythm to the music while others didn't even know what a rhythm was.
I stood awkwardly between Marshall and Hailee while they started to dance. Marshall had more rhythm than Hailee as Hailee jingled her wrists upward, causing me to laugh. She looked hilarious.
"Dance, Chloe, dance," Hailee said as she continued to jingle her wrists, adding a shimmy.
I laughed at her. "I can't dance," I said. It wasn't that I couldn't dance, it was just that I wasn't very good at it. I also just didn't want to embarrass myself in front of these people, even if they were strangers.
"I'll be right back," Marshall said and made her way through the group of people.
"Come on, Chloe," Hailee said through her teeth, faking a smile. She leaned in and whispered harshly, "There are other people around so dance so you don't look as awkward."
"Fine," I sighed and began to awkwardly sway to the music.
Marshall came back with two drinks in hand, handing one over to Hailee. I could already see that it was yet another Cosmopolitan. Didn't they already have enough to drink? At this rate they'll be drunk.
Marshall continued to get drinks for Hailee and herself until I could clearly see that they were drunk. Hailee had the bone structure of a robin, fragile and thin. She began stumbling to the sound of the music while I became overwhelmed with the amount of bodies near me.
"Hailee, I need to leave," I mustered out as I swayed, the music pounding in my ears.
She looked at me sideways and moved her finger from side to side and laughed. "No way, José. I'm having fun."
"Please, Hailee. I need to go," I begged, my voice dropping down to a whisper. I desperately wanted to get out of here.
I looked around helplessly for an exit. I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to be near these drunk people, I wanted to go back to my dorm and cry. Sometimes I wondered why my body reacted like this in these situations. Normal people wouldn't want to cry in the middle of a crowd, but I wanted to.
I suddenly felt a hand grope my butt, and my eyes widened, and my body stiffened. I was done, so, so done. I could feel heat rise to my cheeks, and the tears began to well. Everything became blurry for a second until I felt the first, fat tear rolling down my cheek. I needed to get out of here.
I bit my lip, suppressing the tears as I looked again for an exit. Thankfully, I found an exit and went through the crowd of grinding bodies and found myself near the bathrooms.
Perfect.
I went inside and as soon as I knew it was a safe place my body began to shake, and I began to cry uncontrollably. The worst of it all was that I had no escape. Hailee refused to leave, and from the looks of it she and Marshall were in no condition to leave. I would have to be the driver. Except that I couldn't drive since I was shaking so badly.
I took my phone out of my pocket and scrolled down through my contacts. My parents were hours away in Willowbrook sound asleep, and even if my brothers were up, they weren't old enough to come get me. I was completely and utterly alone.
I stared at one contact in particular. Luke Armstrong. I wondered for a moment if he could somehow rescue me away from this situation, but it probably wouldn't work. I scrolled down and saw Kason's number, and decided it would be better if I contacted him first. He seemed the more likely of the two to respond faster.
Me: Hey Kason, are you up?
I waited several minutes but there was no response.
"Fine," I mumbled and scrolled back up to Luke's name. I took in a deep breath and sniffed. I might as well give it a try.
Me: Hey, are you up?
Not even a minute goes by until I got his response.
Luke: Yeah, what's up?
Me: Actually, can you do me a big favor?
Luke: Sure, what is it?
I winced, scared of what he might say afterwards.
Me: I kinda need you to drive down to this club I'm at and pick me up. I would get Hailee to take me back, but she and Marshall are currently wasted so I have no way out of here. You don't have to. I was just wondering.
I waited for what seemed like forever for his reply.
Luke: I'll come get you. What club is it?
I sighed of relief. I couldn't believe Luke said yes. The shaking ceased as I texted him what club it was and where it was located. I was going to get out of here, and that was the important thing, all thanks to Luke.