Sunday evening I sat in bed excited. I had just taken a shower and now I was loading up my laptop getting ready to start my Castle season three marathon.
I was halfway into episode six when my phone screen lighting up the otherwise dark room forced me to pause the movie.
Huffing I took off my headphones and begrudgingly got out of the covers so I could get my phone.
"Hello", I answered yawning loudly.
"Blake hey", a voice replied on the other end of the line.
My body stilled, "Natasha, what's up".
"Actually I was just checking to see if we're still on for tomorrow?", she asked which surprised me, because after a very awkward conversation last night I never thought that I'd hear from her again.
I honestly thought she lost interest in me when she found out where I'd planned to take her.
"Uh", I said stupidly with my mouth hung open. Luckily she couldn't see me though.
"Hello, you still there?", I almost swooned at her accent, damn she had a sexy body and a sexy voice.
Clearing my throat I brought the phone closer to my ear. "Yeah", I finally answered a bit too eagerly, "If you're not busy that is, yesterday you said you were flying back home".
She sighed on the other end, "Plans changed, my manager wants me to stay two more weeks. Work stuff".
"Okay", I smiled broadly "I'll pick you up at six".
"Looking forward to seeing you", she says before hanging up.
I stand there perplexed for a while squinting my eyes trying to understand what just happened. I end up shaking my head to rid the thoughts though when a knock comes at the door.
A few moments later I'm opening the door and Alana barges in without any sort of greeting whatsoever.
"Do come in", I mutter sarcastically but not loud enough for her to hear.
She snorted tilted her head as she gave me a once over, "Home alone on a Sunday night, nerd".
I gasped as I closed the door, "Who are you calling a nerd".
"You're right. For you to be a nerd you'd have to be smart".
Placing a hand over my chest I feigned hurt, "Come on, you don't gotta go calling me out like that".
She chuckled plopping down on the couch.
"Should I take it that your date didn't go well? Was he a jerk to you?".
"No, he was alright I guess", she said half-heartedly "there was just... something missing that's all".
Sighing dramatically I sat in the chair opposite to her, "You always do that you know".
She barely turned her head to look at me, "Do what?"
"You never give anyone you date a real chance, it's like you're just waiting for them to screw up so you can give yourself an excuse to call it quits".
She gasped eyes widening. This time fully focused on me "That's bull crap", she waved dismissively as if what I had just said was the most ridiculous thing imaginable.
"Oh come on", I teased "if someone was in love with you and standing right in front of you, you wouldn't even notice".
Something flashed her eyes when I said that, an emotion I didn't recognize, "Tell me about it", she muttered looking away.
I only rolled my eyes as I slouched in my chair.
"So where is it", she asked raising a brow, "I know you must've been over here watching Castle".
"Yeah but that's just because I'm nervous about tomorrow night".
"Oh you'll be fine", she said half-heartedly as she started texting on her phone.
And even though I didn't have her full attention, I believed her.
*******
The next morning I had to literally drag myself out of bed. Why? Well someone decided to start knocking nonstop at my door at the crack of dawn.
Groaning and with half opened eyes I slowly made my way out of my room and to the front door to find the culprit responsible for waking me from my sleep when the sun was barely up.
Lazily I reached out to open the door.
"What do you want?", I asked before the door is even half opened.
"Nice to see you too", a sarcastic male voice boomed through the room causing me to groan even louder than before.
"Conner it's not even six o' clock yet", I started complaining.
He chuckled placing his bags on the ground.
"First of all, it's ten o'clock a.m. and you have class in an hour and second of all this is no way to welcome home your best friend".
So I might have exaggerated about the time a bit. If it counts though it still felt like six a.m. to me.
"Best friend", I snorted raising a brow, "and what's all this talk about home. I live here not you".
He tutted at me and began shaking his head as if disappointed with me somehow. "Don't tell me you forgot already".
That's when I remembered the bet we made. We greed that if Conner got me Susan Sullivan's autograph then I'd let him stay in my dorm's extra room free for the next year. It's a bit extreme now when I think about it but Susan Sullivan is my all-time favorite actress and plays the leading female role in Castle so obviously I wasn't thinking about the consequences of living with Conner when I had said all of that, two weeks ago.
Wait why am I freaking out? Surely he didn't get her autograph.
Before I could do or say anything though, sure enough he was pulling out the autograph, a smug look on his face the entire time.
I took it from him and inspected it and surely enough it was real and signed to... me?
I don't know how he did it and frankly I didn't care. I was so happy that I decided to deal with the idea of Conner moving into my dorm another time.
"You're welcome", he said in the most condescending voice he could muster. "Oh and by the way, I had a meeting this morning with that Siara girl you told me about".
"And...?" I ask impatiently.
"We're talking her case" he replied.
I gulped. This meant I'd be seeing a lot more of Siara if we'd be working together.
"I already informed Alana, we start working on it tomorrow".
I gulped harder, "Great", my voice came out a bit shaky. Just great.
*******
Forty minutes later I was on campus just getting out of my white and black Camaro V8 convertible. Halfway out of the parking lot my two friends Wayne and Adrian walked up to me one of them on either side.
"Hey guys, how's it going?" I asked.
Adrian casually threw his hands over my shoulders, "Dude we should be the ones asking you that. Tonight's the big night after all".
"Yeah", Wayne agreed, "there'd better be ladies there though. Lots of ladies".
I couldn't help but to laugh. Wayne and I were in the same business class. He was already twenty had small brown eyes, only one inch taller than me with short black hair and a much bigger frame than me.
Adrian and I were the same height, six feet. But he was the smallest of us three with brown eyes and long brown hair. We have all been friends since freshman year.
We walked into the huge University making our way down the halls engaged in a heated discussion about the new Thor movie when Adrian suddenly stopped walking causing Wayne and I to follow suit.
"Dude why'd you stop?" Wayne grumbled.
Adrian however didn't reply and as soon as we followed his gaze we saw where he was looking.
Before I could even process what was happening let alone open mouth to talk, Wayne was way ahead of me.
"Is that... Zadia".
"That's definitely Zadia", Adrian confirmed. Both their eyes snapped back to my face gauging my reactions and even without another word I knew they were worried about me.
"Guys I'm fine", I said confidently, "trust me".
But I wasn't fine. I wasn't ready to see her again.
So while Adrian left for his class Wayne and I went into the lecture hall. The same one Zadia went into. Luckily she hadn't seen me yet, but the question still remained, why was she here again after all this time?
Class went on forever but as soon as professor Shane concluded her lecture I grabbed my shit and headed straight for the door.
I was almost safely out into the halls and away from another awkward confrontation with yet another girl from my past when I heard professor Shane calling my name.
Begrudgingly I went back inside as she stood waiting for me.
"Mr. Bennett I wanted to talk to you about your course work-".
"Oh shit", I groaned cutting her off. This can't be good.
She chuckled, not paying attention to my language, "Don't worry it's not one of those talks. It's quite the contrary actually. I don't know if you are aware that you're one of the top students in my class".
Her words were not what I expected and logically, it left me choking on air, "You're messing with me aren't you".
"No Mr. Bennett I'm not messing with you", she sighed, "I don't know if you know this but every year the school selects the top five business students to visit one of America's top companies so they can have an idea of what running an actual business is like firsthand".
I was still confused, "So why are you telling me this?".
She shook her head probably starting to get frustrated with me, "You're among the five".
My eyebrows furrowed further, "Are you sure?".
She nodded, "Like I said before, you're one of the top students in the class".
It took me all evening before that thought even began to sink in.
Luckily I also didn't have to deal with seeing Zadia again.
******
At six I was picking Natasha up at her pent house. She wore an elegant green dress that had me drooling for almost three straight minutes.
When I had told her about the exhibition at the gala tonight she had immediately told me she couldn't make it and gave her explanation. I figured that she just wasn't interested but then she called again yesterday to make me know she could make it after all.
Tonight was a very important night for me. I was glad that all my friends were going to be a part of it. I couldn't say the same about my family though. My mother never supported me.
We arrived at seven pm just when the exhibition was about to start. People were already filling up the place.
"Blake these pieces are amazing", a voice said from somewhere behind us. To be more specific, Wayne's voice.
"Thanks buddy", I smiled broadly as he pulled me into a quick bro hug.
"Who's your lovely date", he smirked looking at Natasha who was busy admiring one of the painted pieces hung up.
"This is Natasha", I introduced.
Most of the next few minutes consisted of me answering questions about my art pieces and introducing my friends to Natasha.
So far Adrian and Wayne were here. I also saw Conner and Rachael, but no Alana.
I figured she must've been running late and so I waited for her to show up. My best friend.
Tonight was important to me, more than anything else. I've been looking forward to this night for months. Even against my mother's persuasion to not go through with this I still did it. But mostly with Alana's help and it felt weird not having her here on my big night.
After an hour when Alana still didn't show up I excused myself from everyone so I could call her. Something had to be wrong if she wasn't here. She wouldn't just leave me stranded, not when she was the one who had convinced me to stand up to my mother and do what I wanted.
She picked up on the third ring. "Hey Blake, what's up?" She sounded happy or more like... drunk?
"Alana where are you?" I questioned.
She giggled, "I took your advice, I went out with Brad again, I'm giving him a real chance like you said".
She was on a date?
"Look, Blake I can't talk right now I'll tell you all about it tomorrow". Then she hangs up.
"Bye", I say even though she's already hung up.
I guess she wasn't coming then.
A part of me felt upset and angry that she choose to go out on a date than be here with me. But mostly I was just disappointed and I knew I'd never really enjoy myself tonight if she wasn't here with me.
But if I thought that was bad I was surely mistaken. Because when I looked up from my phone I saw my parents. My mom in particular didn't look so happy as she sent me a scowl from across the room.
That wasn't the worst part though. The worst part was that they brought Her with them.