Chapter Four

~Sayd~

"Black or red?"

" I want to say red but the black one is edgy, " Mera said, "So black."

" I should feel lucky my parents aren't going to be at this party, " I said scanning the black dress.

Mera and I were getting ready to go to a party that was hosted within the Varsity. I was not a party person in general nor did I like going to them, but I only agreed to go to this one because it was for charity and Mera wouldn't stop talking about it.  I wore a little black dress that was above my knees and paired it with ankle boots.

"Are you done yet?" Mera asked. She, on the other hand, wore an army green tight-fitting dress that showed most of her skin along with block heels.

"Yeah, I'm done, " I said while fixing my earrings.

"Goodness, look at you, Sayd gone savage."

"Would you stop?  " I rolled my eyes.

" Have you seen yourself in the mirror? You're stunning. "

"Let's go, Mera."

We got our phones, and IDs and double-checked that the door to our room was locked before leaving our apartment.

"I forgot to ask, who's taking us to the place?" Mera asked.

"I talked Timothy into driving us, at first he said no until I told him you were coming along, " I said raising my eyebrows with a smirk.

Mera's face turned red and she faced the ground. "Timmy is your brother, how many times do I have to tell you that it would be weird if something was going on with us?"

" Don't you guys already have some weird thing going on?"I teased her.

" For crying out loud, Sayd. "

"If it changes anything at all, Tim is not my brother brother brother." I made air quotes.

" He's been with your mom and dad longer than you have. So he belongs to your parents more than you do making him your brother, "

"You have a point there, " I admitted.

Our room was on the second floor so it took us some time to get to the parking lot especially since we were chatting the whole way. Timothy was already waiting for us in the parking lot.  My mom and my dad adopted him before I was born. Initially, it was very hard for my mother to conceive, after trying so many times, she and my dad decided to resort to adoption because they wanted a family of their own. Their first child was Timothy and along the way, she miraculously and unexpectedly got pregnant and had me.

Explaining to people that we were related was the hard part because of our different nationalities and skin colours. Other than that, Timothy had always been cooler than me and a lot more cocky too. When we were in high school I always felt letting people know that he was my brother defamed him a bit considering even our appearance didn't match, he was tall, had the perfect set of white teeth, and his hair was always done perfectly even his skin looked like a baby's buttock. Inevitably, he was the popular kid.

I, on the other hand, had a very average height, and my hair was okay but wasn't spectacular.  I was far from being a Victoria's Secret model, my hips were wider than most and I appreciated that my waist was tiny. I knew my skin could do better if I had a proper skin care routine but most of the time I was flawless, except for a few breakouts here and there like every girl during those days. Mera always went on and on about how I have a sexy figure and I should use it more, but I didn't even know what that meant.

"Took you long enough, " he said leaning against his car.

"Like you have somewhere else to go, " I said walking around him and opening the rear door of his car.

"Mera," he said and cleared his throat, clearly breath taken by how Mera looked but trying his best to hide it.

"Hai Tim, " Mera said blushing. Mera went in for a handshake and Timothy for a hug. They had to be the two most confident people I knew but when they were in the same room together, they'd turn to jelly. 

" Ummh, " Mera blushed even more before she decided to go in for a hug.

" You guys can hug and kiss all you want later, " I said from the back seat. "Let's go."

Mera let Timothy go before her and he opened the door for her. It didn't take a genius to notice that Mera had a massive crush on Timothy and I didn't converse much with Timothy but I could tell he was into her too.

"So are you going to hang around at the party?" Mera asked Timothy as we headed to the party.

"Are you?" he asked her back.

"Yeah, I'll stick around"

"Then I will too."

" Oh, " she said blushing.

Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the place. It was what you'd expect a typical college to be like, a few people taking shots, loud music playing and people were making out everywhere. I immediately began to scold myself for coming.

" Now this is my kind of place, " Mera said excitedly. " Come on, " she dragged me by my hand.

"Where are we going? " I asked her.

She didn't respond but continued to drag me through the crowd.

"To where the liquor is, " she finally said when we stood in front of a table with punch bowls. I noticed the bowls had names of a variety of alcoholic beverages labelled on them; Hennessy, tequila, vodka, whiskey the list went on. I wasn't a liquor person so I didn't share her excitement.

"A little won't hurt, "she said as she filled up a little plastic cup with a red liquid using a metal spoon and handed it to me. "Have a little fun." She encouraged me.

I gulped it down and it wasn't so bad except for the unexpected bitter taste at the end. Mera took a few more drinks, she was so hyped up that she dragged me to the dance floor. We had this policy of not coming with dates to a party and letting them find us and so since that had not happened yet we danced with each other. Mera always carried positive energy which made it easy for me to loosen up.

We danced for a few minutes until Mera decided she needed a refill. She walked toward the table and I could see Timothy walking up to her from a distance. He whispered something in her ear while slowly sliding his arm around her waist. Whatever he said got Mera interested. She smiled at him, put her drink down and walked back to me.

"Sayd," She said nervously. "  I need to go somewhere just for a few minutes then I'll be back....." she scratched her head, " I hate leaving you all alone, I know this isn't your scene — maybe I can find someone —."

" Just go, " I cut her off, " I can take care of myself, I promise. "

Mera was right this wasn't my scene. I mean I had been to a couple of parties before but I was surrounded by my friends which made it less awkward for me.

I walked to one of the chairs to sit down, I had already started to feel awkward and my shoes were killing me.  Before I sat I noticed a guy staring at me in the middle of the crowd from the staircase. I decided to ignore him at first and got my phone from my purse. I had five text messages from Danté asking where I was. My eyes searched for him in the crowd and my eyes again met the guy on the staircase. He didn't flinch even when I started to stare at him too.

When it all got too uncomfortable I stood up and decided to leave the party. As I was walking in the middle of the crowd I felt a hand grab my arm.

"Leaving so soon? " a male voice spoke close to my ear. " I was enjoying our staring contest."

"It was getting kind of creepy, " I tried to free myself from his grip.

"Relax, I don't bite," he moved closer and spoke in my ear because the music was loud. "I was just looking for a friend who felt as awkward as me being here. "

I couldn't help but smile. "Was I that obvious?" I spoke in his ear too.

"Totally. What's your name?"

"Sayd! " I heard another male voice call my name loudly. The guy I was with and I both turned around Dante furiously walking towards us. " What do you think you're doing?" he said ripping my wrist from the other guy's hand roughly causing people watching to gasp and the music stopped.

" You little whore. "

He held my arm tightly and dragged me behind him.  He then faced the other guy and I noticed his hands curl into fists.

"Dude," the other guy said, " I'm saying this for your own good, stand down while you still can."

" Oh yeah? " Dante said and shoved him.

"I'm warning you," he said taking a step back. " There will be blood but it won't be mine."

Danté was clearly not going to back down. I got closer to him and held his arm in an attempt to pull him away. The last thing I wanted was a scene.

" Danté, let's just go, "I tried to negotiate with him.

" Shut up," he pushed me harshly and I hit the floor hard. There were a few gasps from the crowd and a few people came to help me up and ask if I was okay.

Another guy suddenly came out of nowhere and grabbed Danté by his throat making the drunk crowd start to cheer.  I noticed he wasn't letting Danté go and he was gasping for air while tagging at his arm and his face started to turn pink.

"Stop please, " I held his arm.

I grabbed his arm as I pleaded with him. After a few more pleas he let him go and Danté fell to the ground.

"What do you think you're doing?" Dante asked harshly,

Shut up, you idiot.

Provoked again he picked up Danté again and began to clobber him over and over.

"Nooo...., " I tried to protest but he was already punching Dante square in the face. The cheering crowd began to cheer again because of this. He continued to hit him and despite Danté's efforts, he was still very much overpowered. Other people tried to separate the two but it was no use.

As the crowd continued to cheer another guy emerged from the front door.

" Cops! "

People began to run towards every exit they could find. It didn't do me much of a favour that I was wearing high heels. All I remembered was that in my attempt to run, I tripped over something and hit the floor hard.