The air smelled clean and faintly sweet, like cracked gain and cold metal. It was a comforting scent to most of the students in the gritty room that were taking a much needed break from their studies, but not for him. Not for Koda Bennett. For him it was stale and sour, reminding him of the worst of his childhood, the nights when his dad would come home smelling like other women and death.

It was dark. So dark that Koda could only really see just a few feet around him. His grip on his beer can was so tight that the plastic groaned under his palm. He didn’t want to be there. He’d rather be in his apartment in his bed, in his truck smoking a cigarette, or hell, even at his job at the car repair shop. Literally anywhere else in the entire world than there.

“Dude,” Jake said next to him, a random girl that Koda had never met attached to his arm. “You look like you’re about to piss your pants. It’s just a party, chill out.” He had to speak up over the booming music playing overhead, something electronic and modern that made Koda question the current state of the music industry.

Chill out. Yeah, right. Jake was the one who originally dragged him to this place. It happened casually the other day when he was pestering Koda that he had never been to a college frat party before. It was true, Koda didn’t go to some giant state school, he went to community college. “You gotta get the full college experience, man!” Jake had said, pointing a cigarette towards his friend.

So, he agreed, because maybe he was missing out on the full college experience or whatever.

But now as he stood there, he knew he hadn’t been missing out on much.

“Hey!” Jake had continued when he didn’t get a verbal response to his words from Koda, just an annoyed grunt. He elbowed him, nodding towards the drink corner of the party. “Look who decided to show up.”

Koda’s head snapped over towards where Jake gestured to, a retort already forming on his lips.

And that’s when he first saw her.

She was standing off to the side, right where the drinks were. She was clutching a red solo cup to her chest like a weapon, knuckles white. Even from the low light and distance between them, Koda could see her eyes darting around the space frantically, like she was looking for an escape. She didn’t want to be there either.

“Oh, her?” The unfamiliar girl next to Jake laughed, a cold cackle. “That’s {{user}}. She’s a mouse. Been trying to join a friend group on campus since the first semester of freshman year. Nobody likes her.”

But, Koda wasn’t listening, not really. His eyes were fixed on {{user}}, his breath hitching as she slowly took her jacket and tied it around her waist. It was hot in there.

Because under her outer layer, was a band t-shirt. And not just any band, Koda’s all-time favorite, obscure metal group that no one had ever heard of whenever he tried to talk about them. Not even Jake was familiar with them, not that he’s ever really cared about Koda’s interests.

Koda took an instinctive step forward, drawn to {{user}} like a moth drawn to a flame.