Chapter Text
2016
After graduating from highschool you ended being accepted into University of Pennsylvania with a friend you made in your senior year. You always admired your friend, Catherine, and how easy it was for her to make friends and go out all while attending her classes and keeping up with school work.
You were snapped out of your thoughts when Catherine slammed the door.
“You have to come to Alpha Theta Delta Phi frat party” Catherine said while looking frantically for the right piece of clothing.
“The what?” you said while removing your headphones
“I don't know what the frat is called, they're all the same. All I know is that I have an invite and you're coming with me!” She grabbed a black lace tank top and Adidas all stars.
“I can't. I'm so behind in bio or maybe it’s calc, I don’t know but I can't go.” You put your headphones back on and try to focus, knowing that you actually have no work to do.
“Stop lying. I’ve basically memorized your whiteboard calendar and your weekend is clear!” She says while she playfully smacks your pinterest inspired organizer
“Whatever man, frats are weird and I don't want to be surrounded by drunk white boys.”
Catherine leans against the wall while scrolling through her phone pretending to pay attention to your rant. “Can you hurry up and get ready? My friend is waiting for me.” she says while trying to sound annoyed.
So why don't you go and leave me here so I can scroll on Instagram.”
After a few minutes of silence from your friend. You get up and grab flared jeans and a brown fluffy jacket.
She smiles at you and walks to your side to put her arm onto your shoulders. “Finally, you're going out with me! But why are you wearing a jacket?”
“Catherine its October not everyone can wear a tank top and booty shorts in this weather”
“Whatever. You just don't understand the vibe of this party.” She grabs her digital camera and takes a selfie.
You roll your eyes and get ready for the long night ahead.
You finally get to the frat house and you can already see the chaos of the party before entering. Shirtless guys being obnoxious and other guys being passed out on the lawn. “Why did I come here?” you say under your breath. “Is it normal to stand in this place for 5 minutes, the party can’t be that good.”
“You're going to love it.” she says while drinking something out of a red cup.
“Where did you get that? We’ve been standing here for like an hour”
“I didn’t know you liked this.” She shoves the cup in front of your mouth. “You want some?”
“I’m good..”
After standing in a never ending line you finally make it through the door. An odor of some juul flavors and different alcoholic beverages hit you and the LED lights are flashing into your eyes that are synced to the music blasting from the speakers. You immediately hold onto Catherine’s hand and hope to get out of the parade of sweaty bodies moving against you. You follow Catherine into the kitchen that is less crowded than the other rooms of the house. You look around the room to try to find any familiar faces but the room is too dark and too bright to make out anything.
“Am I high?”
Catherine greets a group of people and you just stand awkwardly beside her. As she begins to catch up with one of the boys in the group she remembered that you were still beside her.
“Oh and this is y/n, she’s my dorm mate.” They stood there and gave you an awkward nod.
One of the girls from the group grabs Catherine’s arm and leads her back into the living room filled with strange odors. Catherine quickly looks back and gives you a thumbs up and you awkwardly do the same.
You look back at the other people from Catherine’s group and you make eye contact with one of the guys. He had friendly and striking eyes that you couldn’t look away from. He gave you a sympathetic smile. A smile that froze you until you saw that he was walking up to you. He lowered down to your ear and whispered something that you couldn’t understand, but it was like your body knew exactly what to do. You followed him to the balcony.
You guys talked about everything and nothing at the same time. You felt like time had stopped every time he would face you and listen attentively to whatever you said. He was more attentive than any guy you talked to because he could somehow notice when you would notice him looking at you and how you would quickly look away and smile.
After that party, you would start to see him even more than usual. Around campus, the nearby coffee shops, and even in your new apartment building. Even after the past 4 years of knowing each other you and Luigi would still do basically everything together, even if you guys weren't talking. For random movie nights or for studying. You knew you had a close friendship with him but it would never cross the line.
This is just what friends do.
Girls and boys can be friends.
It's not weird to have a sleepover with your boy bestfriend.
Then one day it just stopped. He left without saying a word.