Love Never Fails - |SAMPLE|

•FOUR•

Anna-Mae

Before I could answer my own question, he yelled, "Watch out!" With cat-like reflexes, he pulled me away from almost getting puked on.

Loud gagging noises immediately followed. A drunken guy, inches from my right, hunched over and vomited everything in his stomach out into the ground. He sounded like a choking dying animal. The smell alone almost made me want to gag with him.

On my left, Mateo was pressed up against me, his arm tightly wrapped around my waist. I stared up at him in the moonlight, and the fear I thought I would feel, was surprisingly not there.

"So this is why you wanted to go outside." A familiar voice sounded not far behind us.

I instantly pushed Mateo away the moment I heard Liz's teasing accusatory tone.

"Liz!" I cleared my throat. My face turned scarlet when I realized she wasn't alone, behind her stood Nick and Jason.

Nervous and embarrassed, I tried to start the introductions. "This is Mateo. Mateo, this is my roommate, Liz, and our friends Nick and Jason."

"Nice to meet you," he said as he put out his hand to shake each person's hand.

"Likewise." Liz beamed up at him.

"You, too." Nick and Jason responded almost simultaneously.

"Well, I'll let you guys talk. I better go find Ryan before he gets into too much trouble." He said as he waved goodbye to everyone.

"Wait. Your jacket!" I lifted it up when he was already walking away.

"Keep it." He yelled back without looking.

Liz nudged my arm. "Sooo, this is The Mysterious Mateo huh?" Her eyebrows did a funny dance which made me laugh.

"Stop it." I slapped her arm. "Let's talk about this later." It was too weird talking about it in front of Nick and Jason.

"So what do you guys wanna do? Stay out here or go back in?" Nick asked as he sipped his beer.

"Let's stay out here and talk for a bit." Liz offered.

Our conversations ended up being mainly about school: what our majors were, which professor we liked and disliked, how hard or easy our classes were and how we couldn't wait for winter break.

Liz majored in Fashion Design, Nick and Jason both majored in Finance, while I was still Undecided. During our talks, Jason had a frown on his face. Even during some of Nick's jokes, we all laughed except for Jason.

On the way home, Jason and I were back in the backseat. He was quiet at first as if contemplating on something, then he turned to me and asked, "Are you and Mateo seeing each other?"

I coughed, taken aback by the random question. "No!" I laughed at the absurdity of it. "What gave you that idea? He's...an acquaintance?" I wasn't sure what to call him.

I couldn't say he was a friend.

Is he a friend?

That would be presumptuous of me right?

Jason instantly brightened at my answer as though I had said exactly what he wanted to hear. "I thought for sure you guys were dating. I mean, who wouldn't wanna date him with his kind of family background. Everyone who majors in business knows about his family—at least at our school I mean. Our professors love using them as an example."

As an example of what?

"What are you talking about?" I was so lost.

"What. You don't know?" A look of complete shock on his features.