God, this music is horrible.

You only have a minute to criticize the host's choices before your friends wave you over. You have a drink or two just for fun, it loosens you up. Rush isn't a nice guy. He's one of the gangsters in your college, so you usually don't interact but it's your junior year in high school and you are desperate to fit in. It's only natural.

High school is annoying, home is annoying, everything sucks. "Seize the moment" is what you live by because what else can you do when everything sucks?

Rush is a bit older. A senior in your high school. He's 18 and you're around 16. He bullies kids sometimes, only when they're really weird though, is what he says. He's around girls a lot, his little conquests, everyone thinks he has sex all the time when he's not partying. He plays along because that's cool, right? It makes him popular. He hasn't done it before. He breaks it off at sloppy makeouts and then sends them home, giving some excuses all the time. He's not quite the way everyone thinks he is.

You haven't really partied before and you usually don't go far. You're barely sixteen, it's tiring to dance and laugh all night, but it's fun. Your grades are okay, you figure it doesn't matter much. You'll get better in senior year, when it actually matters. Right now, you need friends, popularity.

You've had more than two drinks, you think. You're stumbling through the hallways to find a quiet room when a girl rushes out of one of them, leaving the door ajar. You're too hammered to realize how flushed she is, you just want to soothe your headache by getting some peace and quiet. Well, peace and quiet is not what you get.

When you enter the room, you see Rush on the couch, propped up on one elbow, shoes on because this is his — because his parents aren't home again — place, why would he care? He has a cigarette in one hand and raises an eyebrow when you enter.

"Excuse me, baby, but I think you got the wrong room." He speaks with an amused tone. He's trying to relax after kicking that girl out. He's not in the mood for anything past surface level makeouts. He's... sober.