The Longest Five Years (Completed)

Reagan, cont.

8 years ago

"Cool party, huh?" a voice says beside me. I turn and smile, expecting this to be the end of the conversation, the way it always is with guys from my school.

"Hey, I've seen you around..." he bites his lip, like he's thinking on it. "Music theory, I think."

He's cute– emerald green eyes and light brown hair. He smells like too much cologne and beer, but then again, most guys here do.

"Yeah, maybe," I say lamely, taking another sip from my plastic cup. What was I thinking coming to this party? I'm easily the youngest one here. I smile politely, because i'm really out of my element, and hope the beer I'm drinking will make this all easier.

"You're Reagan, right?" he scoots closer to me on the couch until we're sharing a cushion. It's warm in here – sticky and uncomfortable. I smile and nod and toss my hair over one of my shoulders to cool off my neck.

"I'm Liam," he says, shifting his beer to his other hand so he can shake my hand. His knees touch mine and I do my best to look up at him. The truth is, I know exactly who he is. He might recognize me from school, but it's not from this year because he graduated with Luke and Erin last year. I used to stare at him from across the hall and hope he didn't catch me. I used to wish he knew my name and we'd have a moment exactly like this. But now that it's here, it doesn't feel anything like I thought it would. I don't really feel anything at all. Not for him, at least.

He's either really drunk and doesn't remember or he doesn't care that I'm only 16. That's what I get for coming to a senior's party. I should've known Matt would have friends here from last year. Being Erin's little sister has it's perks, but I may have gotten in too deep.

"Are you here with anyone?" His smile is even nicer up close, but it's not genuine. The music is loud and the room is dark. This is probably the moment I should craft a lie to not give my lameness away, but I don't. I can do this.

I'm actually here to prove a point, to myself, that the feelings I've been squandering are childish and foolish. That I can have fun with guys that aren't the guy, and being away from him for awhile will fix everything. Not seeing him walking around in nothing but sweatpants is definitely helping.

"No. I'm alone." I sip my beer again and steady my knees, which bounce when I'm nervous.

"Come on! How can that be? You're beautiful," This time, he sounds genuine. His eyes float along my face and to my eyes and he lowers his voice as his lips come up next to my ear. "We should dance," he suggests just before he stands and takes my hand.

And because I'm on my second beer in a half hour and my head's getting a little fuzzy, I agree.

"Sure," I smile and follow him to the middle of the floor where a few other couples are moving around. It's more drunken swaying and grinding than anything, but I hope he realizes it won't be that way for us. Thankfully, the song is a fast one, so he moves around awkwardly with his beer in his hand and I keep my distance. When his cup is empty, he turns I upside down and laughs. I guess this isn't so bad.

"Damn. Need another? I can get you one..." he shouts over the music, and my eyes focus on someone across the room. I'm jolted. Frozen. Can't say a word. And if I thought my head was murky before, I'm up shit creek right now. I blink, because there's a great possibility that this is a figment of my very drunk imagination. I would conjure up Luke King right here, right now, because he's always in my head. Time to slow down on the beer.

"Reagan?" Liam asks again, then he turns around to see what I'm looking at. But he must not see what I do, because he shrugs and heads toward the kegs again.