Vanessa Part II: Having Fun isn’t Hard…
The music pounded in time to her heartbeat, overwhelming the nervous burn of her stomach. Vanessa entered the quad some thirty minutes after the End-of-Semester mixer started, just as the sun was sinking below the horizon. Yellow faded to orange, to red and pink, finally nothing. A scent of cheap cologne as a young man passed by, stirring her curiosity.
Where was the boy with the gray sweatpants?
As she had dressed for the night, not so easy in the cramped dorm room she shared, she had wondered if Kirk would actually be there. He had invited her—well, mentioned it to her— so he should be there. Of course, she herself had chosen to be fashionably late. No one showed up on time. It was an unspoken rule that only dorks and overeager outsiders came to anything when it started. The cool, the confident, they drifted in as the whim struck. So, as she showered, she took her time, gently scrubbing herself, letting the loofa wash away the traces of her little…indulgence in the library.