Chapter Five Broken Engagements

Peyton goes out to a local Frat party and finally meets her handsome stranger.

Chapter Five

 

Walking into the Frat house, Peyton could barely get through the crowd.  The house was packed with wall-to-wall students.  Looking over at Erin, she tried to get a read on her and how she was feeling about this place.  She was feeling uneasy herself.  Talking was out of the question with the music pumping so loudly.  The students all seemed to be having a great time, but to Peyton, most of them seemed out of control. A feeling she did not envy.   Surveying the room she saw different pockets of students, some were playing drinking games, several girls were provocatively dancing on the pool table and others were just standing around watching the other’s in action.  That seemed like the safest option to Peyton. 

 Erin however had something else in mind as she pulled Peyton behind as she made her way through the crowd.  Peyton’s eyes fell upon a familiar face.  Across the room, was the bully with the piercing eyes.  Looking at him now, he actually looked pretty normal.  He did not appear menacing at all, she thought watching him smiling and chatting with a girl she recognized from English class.  He looked very handsome casual in his jeans and button down shirt, not that this was a judge of character she thought to herself.

“Oh geez” she muttered to herself, as he caught her staring at him. 

Something about the way he had locked eyes on hers made her blush and feel uncomfortable.  She remembered how his eyes were the most beautiful blue grey that she had ever seen and she found herself unable to look away.  She didn’t understand why her body was defying her and seemed to have a will of its own.  Desperate to break contact as the way he was looking at her left her breathless, every nerve in her body seemed on fire. Never had she felt like.   She felt she physically couldn’t take much more as her heart was beating wildly out of control.  He was so handsome, no matter how much he had annoyed her earlier. 

Looking back across at her, he was enjoying himself.  He smiled at her and could see her cheeks burning.  He was used to having women stare at him and he knew the effect he had on them, but this one was different.  Something about her affected him in a way no other woman had.

Suddenly the trance was broken as Jason her study partner from journalism class bumped into her.  He was carrying two overly full cups of beer.  Reaching one out to Peyton, he was knocked into her again by the crowd around them, causing the foamy liquid to spill down the front of her shirt. 

“Oh man, sorry Peyton” Jason shouted in her ear, attempting to apologize.  He was pressed up against her and she felt uncomfortable at his closeness. 

Attempting to step back from Jason was almost impossible, students were everywhere.  Peyton stole a look across the room, looking for her mystery man but found that she was unable to move in any direction.

“That’s ok” she shouted back as she accepted the beer he handed her.

Peyton went through her first beer quickly as Jason continued to corner her.  She was feeling quite claustrophobic. 

Seeing that she had finished her beer, Jason quickly left to get another round. 

“Be right back, I’ll get us a few more brews!” he shouted again in her ear.

Peyton nodded, just happy to be free of his closeness and decided to find a better place to stand.  She searched the room for both Erin and her gorgeous admirer, but found neither. 

Jason returned and handed her another beer right away.  Halfway through this beer, she heard Erin calling her name.

“Peyton! Peyton!” Erin shouted.

Erin was in line receiving even more beers as she gestured for Peyton to come over to her.  Happy for the opportunity to escape Jason’s company, she excused herself and headed over to the keg line.    Peyton met Erin halfway and reached for one of the beers. 

“Thanks for the rescue!” she said in Erin’s ear.

“No problem! You looked a little uncomfortable with that guy!” Erin shouted back.

As Peyton finished this beer she could feel herself starting to loosen up and she wasn’t feeling so out of place anymore.  She began to actively seek out that annoying but oh so beautiful man. 

The effects of the alcohol were hitting her quickly.  Erin was really starting to let loose and enjoying herself.  This was not something either one of them ever seemed to do.  After their fourth beer, Erin climbed up onto the pool table to join the other girls as they danced in front of the gathering crowd of frat boys.   Peyton was still pre-occupied with her mystery man and where he had gone to that she had not noticed what her friend was doing.  Her dancing was becoming more and more provocative.

Peyton turned to say something to Erin and was shocked to see her friend was no longer beside her.  She saw Erin and the commotion she was causing.

Peyton knew she needed to reach her quickly as the Frat guys were surrounding the table and encouraging all of the dancing girls to remove their clothes.  Shocking as the request was, some of the girls were actually starting to undress.  Peyton started pushing her way toward the table.

“Erin!” she shouted as loudly as she could while waving her arms in an attempt to get her friend’s attention.

No use the music was up much too loud for Erin to hear her and Erin was starting to unbutton her shirt. 

As she got closer to the pool table, she noticed the guy she had been looking for standing across the room.  He appeared to be in a conversation with a very drunk girl, but his eyes locked onto Peyton’s again. 

Distracted by Erin, Peyton was easily able to put him out of her thoughts.  The room was so loud and the temperature seemed to be rising with all the packed bodies in the room.  It felt as if the heat had been turned up and between the smell of spilt beer and sweat from the students, Peyton found herself starting to get nauseated. 

The guys surrounding the table were beginning to chant and whistle as the girls continued to undress.  Erin was either ignoring Peyton or she simply couldn’t hear Peyton’s desperate pleas for her to get off the table.

  Catching a glimpse of the man across the room, he was still intently watching her.  However, it seemed he now had a mischievous grin on his face. 

“Was he laughing at her?” she asked herself.

  Feeling infuriated, she mentally decided to block him out of her mind, and concentrate on getting Erin down and out of there. 

Finally she was successful, and Erin agreed to come down off the table.  She was however, unsuccessful in shaking the feeling of gorgeous he was, and how alluring his eyes were.  Looking one last time around the room, to put these feelings to rest, she was disappointed when she was unable to find him. 

As she was trying to convince Erin it was time to leave, Jason passed handing them both another cup of foamy warm beer.  She wasn’t interested in drinking anymore, she’d had her fill.   Feeling stressed from this whole experience, she just wanted to leave.  

Sensing Peyton’s frustration, Erin struck up a deal with her to finish this last beer and then she would leave.  Reluctantly she agreed knowing they would be home soon. 

Erin drank the beer down quickly, with the excuse that she needed to run to the bathroom.  She agreed to meet Peyton in a few minutes so they could leave together.  Peyton found herself waiting for what seemed like an eternity.  Eventually, Erin returned with a guy hanging his arm around her.  Peyton recognized the guy from the many conversations that Erin and she had had.  This was the guy Erin had a crush on since she had started at the university.  Erin was glowing and she winked to Peyton and said she would meet up with her later, if that was ok.

Peyton felt worried on one hand, hoping Erin would be okay, but also somewhat relieved that she could now go home.  She needed to get out of this frat house, and as she took a step toward the exit; she could feel the room starting to spin.   She needed to get to some fresh air and quickly. 

Looking around for the quickest way out of the room, she noticed the backdoor swinging open with students coming in and out.  Decidedly this would be the quicker way and she headed toward the doorway, avoiding the massive crowd bottlenecked by the front door.  The room was spinning more quickly the closer she got to the exit and the floor began to feel uneven as she continued to make her way out. 

The burst of cold fresh air hit her quickly as she made her way outside.  Gulping in the air, her thoughts switched to Erin briefly as she worried if she had made a wise decision allowing her to go home with that boy.  Drinking like this and letting loose was not something either one of them ever had experience with. 

She continued to move outside, the air felt good, but she still felt dizzy and unsteady.  Leaning up against the clapboard house; the world seemed to spin a little less. She continued to take deep breaths and attempted to gather her thoughts.  Jason surprisingly appeared in front of her, interrupting her thoughts.  She let out a gasp as he took her off guard moving in uncomfortably close.  He was making her feel trapped again. He was so close that she could feel him pressed up against her and the smell of alcohol on his breath was not helping her nausea.  She felt pinned and could not find the strength to push him away.

“Hey baby, how you are?” he asked.

The heat from his breath on her face intensified with the alcohol was too much. She attempted to side step him but the movement made the spinning start again and she stumbled back against the house for support.  Sensing her vulnerability, Jason took this as an invitation and continued to press himself up against her.   This caused Peyton to feel panicked and she struggled to push him off of her, but could not muster up the strength to budge him.  He was a pretty big guy, who played football for the University, and seemed like a boulder to her as she tried to push him again. 

“Jason stop it!” she yelled.  She couldn’t understand why he would think it was okay to invade her space like this.  He placed his hand on her hip and pinned her more up against the wall.  He tilted his head toward hers in what she felt was going to be a kiss. 

“Stop it!” she said again as she pushed him with all her might.  This time he went reeling away from her. 

It was then that she realized it wasn’t her push that had stopped him.  It was the guy from across the room.  He was now speaking harshly to Jason whom was now knocked to the ground. 

           “Feeling any better?” He asked her as he turned his back on Jason. 

As she took a step closer to the stairs where he was standing she started to teeter.  Swaying, she felt his strong hand around her waist steadying her and saving her from stumbling down the old wooden staircase.

  “Oh” she said startled as he placed her back out of harm’s way. 

“This doesn’t seem like a very nice place for you to be hanging out.” He said.

 Peyton hadn’t even noticed the amount of drunken guys standing around, smoking and some even using the backyard as a bathroom.  They all were so drunk they didn’t seem to care.  Looking up at her mystery man, she placed her hand directly on his chest to steady all of her shaking and dizziness.  With this quick movement she felt the world starting to spin again.  As she was starting to spiral into blackness her eyes met his and those beautiful blue eyes looked back at her, she managed to slur, “Wow, you are hot” before she passed out in his arms.

 As he caught her, he muttered back to her, “You’re not so bad yourself.”

Reviews

[Stephanie M]

I was drawn into the story. However, I will have to catch up on the first four chapters.

[Ashira Macy]

And the bully becomes the night in shining armor. I had hoped Jason would be a sweet best guy friend type after being rejected, but alcohol plus raging hormones plus frat boy mentality equals rapeyness. Not cool Jason, not cool.