This was the first college party I had attended, and from the looks of it, this would be my last. I always felt out of place and awkward at these things. Margo took my purse and nodded toward her bedroom. “I’ll put this in there. Go get a drink!” She was way too enthusiastic about me drinking. I hated to burst her bubble, but I wasn’t drinking beer. I had never been desperate enough to drink beer. One taste was all I had ever needed to know I wasn’t touching that stuff again.

I watched Margo walk away with my purse, wishing I’d made up an excuse to leave. But I was here now and I’d try and make her happy by staying as long as I could mentally take it. Shifting my gaze back to the full apartment, I did a quick scan of the crowd again. More guys had facial hair now and the girls were more naked, but their actions were exactly the same as high school parties had been.

The dollar movie theatre was playing Rocky Horror Picture Show this week. Why hadn’t I gone there? This was going to be annoying. I was going to be forced to talk to people, that I didn’t know, in a social setting. I wasn’t good at that. I was already annoyed and no one had even bothered me yet.

I started to turn away from the scene to go find a drink that didn’t contain alcohol when my path was abruptly blocked by a guy. My senses first acknowledged that he smelled amazing. I was staring at his chest, which meant he was taller than me by several inches. Lifting my gaze, I took in his wide shoulders. Might as well get this over with, I sighed with the thought, then moved my gaze on up to meet his eyes- steel blue and intense. They were striking and made one just want to stand there and stare at them. No words needed to be said.

Forcing myself to look away from his eyes, my gaze dropped to his mouth, and I realized then, he was smirking at me as if we had a secret. Since I’d never met him, I knew we had no secret between us; yet, his smirk stayed intact. I waited for him to say something. I always let the guy speak first. Get it over with. Then they’d move on. This one was either giving me time to be impressed with his appearance, or he was struggling not to laugh at my obvious reaction to him.

“Excuse me,” I finally said, after an awkward moment of silence.