finding permanence

1: Max

1 month ago:

God how is it already so packed in here. I got slammed so hard in today's game, so I went back to my place after to grab some Advil before the party.

Serena, being the angel she is, asked if I wanted company, but I assured her that I would just be a minute and that she could go without me.

She's been so stressed with the start of the new term and I know she's been looking for a reason to party. Plus, all her sorority sisters were pushing her to go with them and I didn't want to be the type of boyfriend that takes their girlfriend away from her friends.

Now that I'm at the party, I'm making it my mission to find her and collect my congratulations kiss. Usually, she finds me right when I walk out of the lockers, but she said she really had to pee, and I just missed her before her roommate dragged her away to the party.

I find Scott on the couch with girls surrounding him trying to be the lucky one who takes upstairs.

"Hey, have any of you seen Serena?" I ask as I walk up to Scott and his fangirls.

"No but Asher was just telling me how annoying she was being like 5 minutes ago, so he probably has," Scott answers lazily.

I go find Webbs without a second thought. Fucking asshole never has anything nice to say about her.

Spotting him in the kitchen swapping spit with a girl he has propped on the counter, I walk up and pull the back of his shirt back to get his attention.

"What the fuck man," he complains.

"First off, call my girlfriend annoying one more time and I'll target you at practice. Secondly, where did you see her last?"

"She was flirting with a baseball player last time I saw her," he answers sternly.

"Just because you don't like her doesn't mean you can accuse her of something like that," I am so close to punching him.

"Whatever man. From what I saw, I wouldn't be surprised if they went upstairs."

I release his shirt and start to walk towards the bathroom line to see if she's there. Asshole, assuming that Serena would cheat on me. I mean I've been with the girl since freshman year. I'm in love with her and I know she's in love with me. She would never-

My thoughts are cut off by a small bump to my chest.

"Hey asshole," I look down to the floor to see a tiny Latina girl with the biggest eyes I've ever seen looking up at me. "Just because you're tall doesn't mean you can go plowing into people. Fucking watch where you're going," what a potty mouth.

"Sorry," I extend my hand down to help her up, only to have it swatted away.

"Whatever," I don't spare her another glance as she walks away and continue my search for my girlfriend.

10 minutes into searching and I still can't seem to find her. I've tried calling and texting and she hasn't responded to any so now I'm worried.

Shit, I never should've let her come on her own in the first place. I'm an idiot, college boys are not to be trusted. What if she's in some sort of trouble.

I go around asking every person I see if they've seen her. Coming up to about the 20th person, I realize it to be the short angry girl I ran into earlier.