Jamie

Present Day

I cannot believe Will. Seriously, who the fuck does he think he is? Saying all of that shit to me in his car just now. Chasing me out of Social Studies and begging me to take a ride with him. Ugh, I could punch him, I really could. Which is exactly why I removed myself from the situation. Violence is never the answer.

After what he did to me, he owes me a lot more than a half assed apology. He cut me off, completely. Everything was fine between us, and then all of a sudden, he just stopped replying to my texts, stopped taking my calls, blocked me on Instagram, blocked me on Facebook, and avoided me at all costs at school.

It fucking sucked. I felt like I'd done something wrong. But by the time I gave up trying to make contact with him and get an explanation from him, I was so filled with rage towards him that I didn't even care what his reasons were for blowing me off. Okay, we were hardly the couple of the century, but I deserved a real break up. I did not deserve to be treated that way.

When I talked to his friend Craig on the football field that day, I was convinced that Will had just used me for a one night stand. When I talked to the guys and Erin about it, they said the same thing. Patrick offered to beat him up for me, Joel offered to try and talk to him and find out exactly why he was freezing me out all of a sudden, Jay offered to go over to his house and tell his parents how much of a scumbag their son is (Will's parents are no where near as rich as Jays parents, they would not have taken kindly to the news that Jamie Montgomery thought ill of their precious son), and Erin offered to kill him. I told my friends to just forget about it, Will wasn't worth it.

But, when I found out about the bet, I was not happy. And how did I find out? None other than Madison fucking Hudson, the purple eyed demon of North Bridge High, told me about it. I hate her, and she hates me. We're polar opposites, and she's always been a complete bitch towards me, for no reason. I have no time for her whatsoever, so when she approached me and Erin in the cafeteria one day at lunch, and asked me if I'd heard from Will, I pretty much told her to fuck off. I thought she was messing with me, but honestly, I'm not entirely sure. But when she went on to tell me about how Brandon and Craig had made a bet that Will wouldn't be able to sleep with me, and Will had been in on it, I was not happy. I wasn't happy at all.

But my anger was nothing compared to Erin's. She hunted Will down at High School Graduation (I myself chose to completely ignore him that day) and demanded answers from him. He told Erin that it was none of her business, and that was it. I never spoke to him again, never heard from him again, never saw him again.

Until now.

He can shove his half assed apology up his ass, as far as I'm concerned. That fucker does not deserve anymore of my time. He should think himself lucky that I didn't go running my mouth about how bad a kisser he is. I still could, of course, but I'm not that petty. I thought he'd be at Harvard right now, not at NBU. And most certainly not in one of my fucking classes. This sucks, but I'll deal with it. If he tries to sit next to me in Social Studies next week, he is gonna know how it feels to be on the receiving end of my violent side. Okay, so I don't have violent side, but there's a first for everything.

I'm done thinking about Will now. It's Friday night, and I'm going out with the guys and my new girlfriends tonight. Shake it off, Jame. This day can still be salvaged.

I text Aubrey and tell her to come over to my house whenever she wants. The guys will show up unannounced, as always, so I don't need to bother setting any plans with them.

I feed Benji and take him out for a quick walk, then I shower and wash off the shitty day I've had so far. As soon as I'm dry and standing in front of my wardrobe trying to decide what to wear tonight, I'm in a good mood. Fuck Will Archibald. Fuck Social Studies. It's Friday night, I'm young, I have my friends, I have a bottle of Jack Daniels in the drinks cabinet downstairs with my name on it. Let's do this.

I'm staring at two tops (both black) and a dress (also black) trying to decide which to wear. The tops means I can wear a skirt, however I do like the dress. It's a little tight, and a little short, but it does look good on me. And I don't dress up often...

Benji suddenly jumps down from where he's been laying on my bed and excitedly runs out of my room, which tells me that one, two, or maybe even three of my best friend's must have just let themselves in.

"I'm up here!" I call out of my bedroom door, hoping that it's Jay because I'm just wearing my robe. Not that I mind Joel or Patrick seeing me this way, I'm just most comfortable with Jay, that's all.

"Aww, who's a good boy? Benji's a good boy!" Patrick's here.

I walk back over to my wardrobe and continue parousing my options as Patrick walks into my room, closely followed by Benji.

"Black, black or black?" He asks, casually kicking his vans off and laying down on my bed. Make yourself at home, dude.

"You're one to talk." I say without looking at him. If he isn't wearing a black t-shirt, I'll eat my black hat.

"Uh, excuse me, I've opted for the innocent look tonight." I turn to look at him and see that he's wearing a white t-shirt. Where's my hat?

"Makes a change." I say, turning back to look into my wardrobe again. "White really suits you, though. You'll definitely get laid tonight."

"Tell me something I don't already know." He says, and I roll my eyes as I take the dress out of the wardrobe and close the doors. Decision made.

I lay the dress down on my bed (Patrick kindly moves his feet over so that I can do this) and begin pulling shoes out of my closet.

"Hang on, do I look better in white than I do in black?" Patrick asks. "I need a female perspective on this, this could change everything."

I laugh as I throw a pair of black stilettos back into the closet. Nope. "What's it gonna change? You get laid all the time anyway, regardless of what you're wearing."

"True, but, I aim to please. If the girls prefer me in white, then I need to make some changes." He's trying to be funny, but I like going along with his ridiculous musings about his sex life.

"Well, I personally prefer black, you know that." I say, as I discard another pair of stilettos I forgot I even owned. "but you suit white because your tattoos show through the material a little."

He doesn't say anything for a minute, and I laugh because I know he'll be checking himself out right now to gauge just how visible his tattoos are through his shirt. I bet he never even noticed this before.

"You're right." He says, sounding absolutely amazed by this revelation. "Meh."

"Meh?" I ask, as I finally fish out the black heels I was looking for. I hate wearing them, but they go with the dress. "It's a good thing, dude."

"I guess." He says. "I prefer black too, though. But whatever."

I stand up with the heels in my hand and place them on the floor below my dress. I stand back and examine my selection. Yeah, it'll do.

"This is what your wearing?" He asks casually.

"Yeah." I say, walking over to my mirror to start doing my makeup.

"Looking for a boyfriend tonight, are we?" He asks playfully.

"Shut up," I say, sitting down in front of the mirror with my makeup bag. "It's my first proper night out as a college student. I wanna look good."

"You always look good." He says casually, pulling his phone out of his pocket and absentmindedly tapping his thumbs across the screen. "You don't need that shit."

He's referring to the makeup. And the clothes designed to accentuate the curves of my body. And the shoes designed to show off my legs. His big brother instincts are kicking in early tonight, I see. The guys don't get this stuff though, sometimes it just feels good to get dolled up.

"Patrick, I'm not interested in guys right now." Why did Noah Adams just spring to mind? God damnit. "I am allowed to act like a girl sometimes, if that's okay with you."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He says, concentrating on whatever he's looking at on his phone.

"When Aubrey gets here, I'm gonna ask her to curl my hair too." I tell him, as I finish applying mascara. Eyeliner next. "My hair looks good when it's curled, right? Or am I better off straightening it?"

"I'm not gay, J2." He says.

"I am well aware of that, P." I pause, because I almost poked myself in the eye with my pencil just then, oops. "Believe it or not, I actually wanted the opinion of a red blooded straight dude."

"Your hairs usually up in that bird's nest bun thing you do, just leave it down or something." Is the response I get. Great, he didn't answer my question at all.

"I intend to leave it down, but how? Curly or straight?" I press him for an actual answer as I move on to lipstick.

"I don't know, black?" He's not even listening to me.

I put the lipstick down, because I'm done, stand up dramatically and stomp over to him.

"Okay, hypothetical scenario." I shove his legs over to make room so that I can sit down next to him on the bed. He puts his phone down, I have his attention at last. "There are two girls hitting on you in a bar, both equally attractive, similar looks. One has long brown straight hair, the other has long brown curly hair. Which one would you go for?"

"Okay, so they're both brunettes." He strokes his chin like this is a huge decision. "One has curly hair, and one has straight hair... This isn't a hypothetical situation, I'm sure this happened a few weekends ago actually."

I laugh and shake my head. I think he's kidding, but he could also be totally serious. He's unbelievable.

"Okay, so which one did you go home with!?"

"The one with the huge tits, I wasn't paying much attention to her hairstyle." He grins at me and I roll my eyes and stand up again.

"Okay, get out so I can change." I say sternly, pointing at the open door.

He hops off of my bed and heads over to the door as I pick up my dress. Before leaving, he turns back around to face me again.

"If you're wearing that dress, no ones gonna be looking at your hair, Jame." He winks at me then leaves my room.

Well, that is encouraging. Because, despite what I just said to Patrick, I wouldn't mind taking someone home with me tonight. After that annoying encounter with Will today, I really wanna have sex with someone. Because the truth is, I haven't slept with anyone else since I was with Will. And I really need to change that. Like, now. Tonight. He's probably fucked every girl he's laid eyes on since he was with me. Well, now it's my turn.

After I get dressed, I head downstairs and have a drink with Patrick. I shove some music on over the speakers and one by one, the rest of my friends arrive. Before long, me, Patrick, Jay, Joel, Aubrey, Kim and Nikki are all talking and laughing in my house. I'm having fun. I feel good. But, I really wanna go out.

We start at the Grill, which I have a feeling is gonna become usual practice for our nights out. The guys and I know a lot of the locals from playing there, so we always find people to talk to besides each other. And tonight, I notice I am getting much more male attention than I usually do, which I'm shamelessly enjoying. It's the dress, and the heels. But this is what I want tonight. I'm already scoping out all the guys, deciding who I'd most like to make a move on. But that's not gonna happen here, I'll wait until later.

We're standing at the top level bar sipping our drinks, Jay, Joel and Patrick are talking to some guys they have classes with, so naturally, the conversation between myself and the girls turns to boys.

"I really hope I see Zach tonight." Kim says, looking around the Grill hopefully. "There's just something about that boy, I'm like a moth to a flame."

Aubrey laughs. "I hope we see him too, chances are John wouldn't be too far if Zach was around. They're roommates, John was telling me."

"They are!?" Kim asks, totally interested in this. But my mind is wondering off towards Noah Adams... Chances are he wouldn't be too far behind John and Zach either.

"Hey, you're the girl from the The Middle, right?" I look around to see some blonde dude wearing a leather jacket and black skinny jeans smiling at me. I'm 98% sure he's wearing eyeliner too, which I am not into. But his smile looks friendly, and I guess he's just into our music. 

"Yeah, I go by 'Jamie' too, sometimes." I answer him, and he laughs. 

"Your music is awesome." he says, and I smile. Of course, I agree. "Can I buy you a drink?"

I look round at Aubrey, Nikki and Kim, who are all grinning at me. Um, I'm not particularly interested in this guy, he seems okay though. One drink won't hurt. 

"Sure. Jack and coke." I tell him.

"Be right back." he gives me a big smile before walking over to the bar. I don't exactly know what this guys intentions are, I'll find out soon enough though.

"He's pretty cute." Kim says, eyeing him from behind. "Your type?"

"Not exactly." I laugh, she's just assuming this is the type of guy I would usually go for. "I mean, I am into the whole dark, grunge type of look, but not him."

"Oh?" Aubrey sounds surprised by this. 

"Nah, I mean, it depends on the guy too, you know?" I explain "If you guys knew the last boy I hooked up with, you'd be pretty surprised." 

"Do tell." Nikki says excitedly. 

"Well, he was pretty much the complete opposite of that guy." I say, nodding towards the dark stranger who's currently paying for my drink. "Preppy, popular, football player. No piercings, no tattoos, well groomed, letter man jackets."

"You've gotta be shitting me?!" Kim sounds horrified, and I laugh again. 

"Nope, he was nice. We got along really well. Until we didn't." I shrug my shoulders, tonight is not about Will. 

And right on time, my dark stranger returns with my drink. I stand up and thank him for the drink, turning away from the girls so that they won't eavesdrop on our conversation. 

"So you're a Freshman at NBU, right?" He asks me, and I nod. "I'm a third year. My name's Glen. Have you guys recorded any music?"

Glen? I don't like the name, but still, he bought me a drink and he seems nice enough. I owe him some chat about music or something at the very least. 

"Not yet, but we're going to soon. We wanna get our songs out there on Spotify and YouTube, you know?" I tell him, and he looks excited.

"That's great! I hate that I can only hear you guys when you play here, putting your songs out on digital platforms would be an awesome move. All my friends like your stuff too. Sensitivity is a fucking banger." 

I laugh at his word choice, but I really appreciate him telling me this. "It's the first song we ever wrote, we love it." 

"Sensitivity?" I turn to see Joel standing beside us, smiling at us both. 

"Yeah, this is Glen, he's a fan." I tell Joel, noticing that Glen looks a little uncomfortable now. 

"I know, we've met before." Joel smiles at him. "Right, Glen?"

"Uh, yeah. I'll see you guys around, yeah?" And with that, he's gone.

"What was that about?" I ask Joel, confused, and he laughs.

"He asked Jay for your number one time last semester." Joel tells me, shaking his head and laughing. "Of the three of us, he just had to ask Jay."  

I laugh too. Jay would never hand my number out to random guys. Joel wouldn't either, but he would be nicer about it than Jay would. Patrick on the other hand, would probably give them my cell number, home address and social security number. Just kidding, I think. 

"He seems okay, though. I don't know why he left so quickly." Joel says, looking around for Glen.

"It's fine, I'm not interested in him anyway." I tell Joel, just as Jay and Patrick come over.

"Not interested in who?" Patrick asks.

"That guy Glen." Joel tells him.

"Good, he's creepy." Jay says. "Are we going to Club T?"

"Yes!" I hear Aubrey exclaim as she, Kim and Nikki stand up to join our conversation. "I wanna dance!"

"Ugh, dancing." Jay winces and I laugh. I don't like dancing either, he knows he won't be alone. 

"Okay, but if we're heading over there now, we need to do a few rounds of shots first." Nikki says, "I am far too sober to go to a club."

"Agreed!" Kim exclaims before running over to the bar. We all laugh and follow her. A few shots sounds like a good idea right about now, we're all too sober.

And after those few (five each) shots, we head to Club T. By the time we arrive, it's already pretty busy, and I have a moment of worry when I notice there are two bouncers stationed outside the entrance. "Don't worry about it, it's just for show." Jay assures me. And he's right, they don't card us, we get in no problem. I wonder why the owners of these bars and clubs don't worry about the police shutting them down, but to be honest, there's barely ever any trouble. As long as the students behave themselves, everything is cool.

"Ohmigod, I love this song! Let's go dance!" Kim exclaims when we get in. I don't know the song that's playing, it sounds like Rihanna though, so I guess it is pretty popular.

Kim grabs Joel by the hand and pulls him over to the dancefloor. He's pretty drunk, so he's up for it. Nikki and Aubrey walk off to the dancefloor hand in hand, and I look between Jay and Patrick with a smile before asking if they wanna go to the bar.

"Three beers please." Jay says to the bartender.

"Beer?" Patrick asks with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know about you guys, but I think I've had enough liquor for one night. Those shots were like fucking fire." Jay says.

"Cancel one beer, I'll take a Jack and coke." Patrick says to the bartender.

"Make that two." I say with a smile.

"Really? Is no one else on my level right now?!" Jay asks and we both laugh at him.

"I'm not exactly sober, but I'm good." Patrick says, paying the bartender and taking our drinks from across the bar.

"Yeah, I feel a bit tipsy, fine though." I say with a smile.

"Whatever, don't come crying to me when you're both vomiting into your toilets tomorrow morning." Jay says, sipping his beer.

"I won't." Patrick says with a smile, before looking around at the sea of people in the club. Ah, a perfect opportunity for Jay and I to play the How long until Patrick gets hit on game.

"4 and a half minutes." I say to Jay.

"I don't know, as long as he's off the dancefloor it could take a lot longer." Jay says.

"Hey, are you guys in that band, The Middle?" An innocent looking girl with no hair dye, no visible piercing or tattoos has approached us, and she's looking right at Jay. She's pretty, and, she's a redhead. Just like Erin.

"Yeah, we are." I tell her with a smile.

"I love your music, you guys were so good at the Grill last night." She says, pretty much exclusively to Jay. She's batting her eyelashes at him and smiling sweetly. And he probably has no idea what's going on, as usual.

"Jay, the nice girl is talking to you." Patrick nudges him and laughs. Patrick knows exactly what's going on, of course.

"Uh, sorry, yeah. Last night was cool. That was the first song we ever wrote, actually." Jay says to her. He sounds a little nervous.

Although Jay is