Chase's POV
"I never understood why the lights had to be blue, or red." I said to Kayla as we made an entry.
It'd been a chaotic hell of a day. The scare of losing my dad was far more than I thought it would be.
"That's herd mentality, isn't it?" She asked.
"Yeah." One thing that endeared me more to Kayla was how sometimes, she took the words straight out of my mouth.
"I think it's just so everyone can do their thing comfortably." She replied to me.
"I used to like the sound of 'their thing'." I said, smiling.
I wore a dark bomber jacket, gray tee underneath, black jeans, and some clean suede boots. Threw on some shades to top it off. Casual but sharp.
"There's a lot of the big girls here today. I hear her dad is Mayor." Kayla said, pointing to a girl in the far left.
"That's interesting." I replied even though she might not have heard my voice over the blaring music.
"Just loosen up." She smiled, and slipped her hand into mine.
I took it, cause it was comfortable anyway and it repelled many of the looks that were beginning to swing my way.
"Who's he?" I heard a girl ask another as we passed them.
A lot of them were coupled up, and I understood what the guys had been saying in the lab earlier.
"I thought they were supposed to be here." I asked, looking around.
"The guys are upstairs." Kayla said. "Thought we could spend some time here before heading there." She explained.
"I don't think so." I replied. "Is it louder up there than down here?"
"It's a lot quieter there." She replied.
"I think that's where I'd rather be." I said.
She took my hand, and we took a fleet of stairs in the house to the next storey.
It was in stark contrast with the loud, drunken orgy in the name of a party that was going on downstairs.
"Hi Guys." Kayla smiled, and greeted everyone.
I watched Chris closely, because I had a sneaky feeling about him.
Frank was on the corner, grumpy and sassy looking as he was earlier.
"You're quite an eye candy." Harvey said.
"Thanks man." I took his hand with my left cause Kayla was holding on a little too tight to my right.
"How was the rest of your day?" He asked.
"Been preparing for this." I lied.
"Parties like these don't need that much." Harbert chipped in. "The girls are always ready to mingle." He smiled. I could tell he was an incorrigible playboy, what I'd been before Emma.
I smiled and said nothing more. Maybe it was because I was done with that life.
"You look good, man." He shook my hand, and once again, I offered him my left cause Kayla was on my right side.
"How about y'all get the fuck away from my view." Chris' voice broke into our courteous laughter. ""I'm just trying to see ten feet past me man, I can't see further without these." He held his glasses up.
The setting of the upstairs was quite different from the down which seemed like it was for dancers.
The upstairs was more of a lounge. It had multiple recliners and the chairs were evenly spaced.
It was also grouped and sectioned such that various groups of people could lounge at the same time.
Ours was double two sweaters, and double three seaters.
"You sure could have been less rude about that." I replied to him.
"I don't even have anything with you, big man." He replied without looking at me.
"Your statement was in plural, you sure have something to say to me." Kayla held on to me tightly, but didn't do anything to interfere with what we had going on.
"You don't want to pick a beef with me." He threatened.
"And what if I do?" I stood up to him.
"Come on big man." Harvey said, stepping in our middle. "It's really not gotten up to this." He added.
"If he's gonna be rude to strangers, he better not let it be to me." I yelled, looking straight at Chris, who'd cowered and taken advantage of Harvey who was towering over him, but was just about my height.
"No fights on campus, it's school rules." Frank chipped. "That's unless the fight is over me." He added, picking his nails.
"Put the fries in the bag, man." Harbert replied to him.
"You can't tell me it wasn't a nice try." He murmured.
"Let's all take five." Harvey said.
Kayla and I sat directly opposite Chris and Frank. They occupied the two seats as they were both without dates.
Not until after the fiasco did Harbert and Harvey introduce the girls on their sides.
We all shook hands, and everywhere was quiet for a minute.
"No one really has a problem with her bringing him here?" Chris asked, out of the blue.
He already looked so mad, so swollen. If he was any madder, he'd probably turn red and boil over.
"What you and Kayla had is over man." Frank replied, putting a hand on his thighs.
"Take your fucking hands off me man." He said to Frank. "This is not the closure I deserve."
I expected to be mad at Chris, but really, it was for show.
The more he said, the more alike we both seemed.
I still yearned, begged whichever God was up in the sky, for Em and I to cross paths.
"Kayla and I aren't a thing man, we just got talking." I said to him, taking my hand out of Kayla's. "I know how you feel, and I didn't mean to disrespect you. I wouldn't have made an entry like that if I knew y'all had something going. I'm sorry it ended that way, but I assure you I'm not a threat." I said.
I looked at everyone's faces and they all seemed to be pleased, Chris inclusive.
"You're a good man." He smiled for the first time. "Welcome to Harvard." Chris gave me his hand and I took it, "And welcome to the geeks. We do not have a name for now, but we're a science cult." He explained.
"You'd have a name if y'all weren't so strong headed." Harvey said snidely and everyone immediately shut him down.
The air became lighter, and more friendly, for everyone else. But Kayla beside me was boiling, and I could see her change in countenance.
"Wow." She said in my ear.
"I should be saying that." I whispered to her.