Surprise Surprise

It's been a week since Jonah moved to LA and I've already gone through the 5 stages of loss and grief. It was Saturday morning and I was finally on the last stage: Acceptance. I needed to come to terms with Jonah being gone and move on.

Of course it was hard to do so when we were still keeping in touch with each other through texts and occasional phone calls. But Kadie knew I had to break out of the funk I was in.

Darlington, the PR company Kadie worked for, was hosting a “Battle of The Sexes” Party. Every year all of the New York based sororities and fraternities would get together for a night of mingling, laughs, and embarrassing games.

It was mainly kids in their under-graduate years, but Kadie still wanted me to come. She thought it would be a good way for me to get my mind off of things.

“You have to come Lynn, it's going to be so much fun!” Kadie pleaded

“I don't know. I haven't done the whole Sorority scene since college...”

“Trust me, it's not going to be anything crazy like the Real World-Road Rules challenge. I mean it's hosted by Darlington. That alone should tell you it's going to be classy and tasteful” Kadie grabbed my hand and led me into my room. She pulled back the ruffled curtain covering my closet and starting pulling out dresses “Plus, Sarah and Henry will be there. You can mope around with those two if the party turns out to be lame!”

It was a good thing I hadn't gone to Cozumel with the gang. Monday morning when I walked into class Sarah and Henry were sitting on opposite sides of the room. They've been inseparable since birth, but the trip to Mexico some how nailed a wedge between them.

Jebrone and Henry had been dealing with some relationship issues a few days prior to leaving. Apparently an ex of Jebrone's was in town and Henry found the two of them hanging out behind his back. You can imagine, Henry being the drama queen he is, how that went down.

They fought the entire time they were in Cozumel. Jebrone even left the hotel for one of the nights causing Henry to go ballistic. Being cousin's with Henry, and best friends with Jebrone, Sarah was caught in the middle of everything. She ran from Henry to Jebrone and Jebrone to Henry trying to help resolve their issues. By the end of the trip she couldn't handle it anymore. She did what I imagine I would do in that situation, she blew the hell up.

Sarah was finally able to get both boys into the room on the last night and she let a rip. She yelled and yelled and yelled. To the point that she didn't have a voice for half the week. She let them know how infuriated she was that they ruined her vacation.

Once Sarah had finally recovered her voice and Henry finally apologized for ruining her trip, the two cousins made nice and decided to come to the party tonight.

Kadie handed me a black dress from my closet and walked over to my vanity to pull out some jewelry. “Here, you're wearing this”

I took it from her hands and walked into the bathroom to change. When I walked back out Kadie had already placed a clutch and a pair of heels on my bed.

“Now hurry up and get ready like a good girl!” Kadie smiled and lightly tapped my back before she walked out of my room.

Sarah and Henry came to pick us up and the four of us made our way to the party. 

The event was being held at a hotel on the Upper West Side. When we walked inside there were signs pointing us to the banquet hall. Kadie had to find Eva and make sure everything was running smoothly. Sarah, Henry, and I found table to sit at that was just outside the commotion. The banquet hall was split in half with fraternity/sorority games on one side and a few tables on the other. There was an open bar in the back but it looked like all the under aged teens were trying to score a drink.

“This is so damn lame” Henry pouted. It was obvious he was dragged into coming like I was.

“Oh, shut up Henry. There's plenty of cute guys here” Sarah abruptly stopped talking as all three of us made eye contact with Jebrone in the distance

“What the hell is he doing here? Doesn't he know this is a Darlington event? He should know I was going to be here, how dare he!” Henry angrily stood up and Sarah tugged on his suit jacket to pull him right back down.

“Henry, you're not going to get anywhere with that anger. You know my mum always hires artists from Jebrone's label.”

“Ugh, what ever!” Henry stood up and walked away from our table and into a crowd. Sarah went chasing after him.

I was left alone at the table so I went over to say hi to Jebrone. He looked like he was just as miserable as Henry.

“Hey, heard about Cozumel. How have you been holding up?” I leaned in to hug him.

“You know how Henry is, so over dramatic. I'm sure we'll get over it soon enough.”

As Jebrone and I were talking Kadie came out from a back hallway and joined us. We all started catching up with each other until Sarah came, without Henry.

“I can't find him. He's getting on my last damn nerve!” Sarah grabbed her forehead

“We'll help you find him, don't worry” Kadie took both Sarah's hand and mine and we went looking for Henry.

As we went through the crowd of college kids Sarah ran into an old friend.

“Oh my god! Andy, is that you?!” The boy looked at Sarah for a minute before his eyes widened when he realized who she was. They gave each other a bear hug before she introduced him to Kadie and I

“This is Andy, he was one of my first mates I made in New York!” Andy held out his hand and we both introduced ourselves. He was there supporting his old fraternity.

He resembled a young Leonardo Dicaprio from The Wolf on Wallstreet. He looked very rich, prim, and proper. I wasn't surprised when he mentioned that he works as a financing consultant. But I was surprised by how down to earth and friendly he was, unlike most people who worked in that industry.

Andy and I were so into our conversation that I hadn't even noticed Kadie and Sarah were gone. I quickly excused myself and went looking for them.

I figured maybe Kadie went back to check on work related stuff so I went to the back hallway where she was earlier. There were a few doors and I had no idea which one would take me there. So I tried opening all of them until I found one that was unlocked.

It was a small supplies closet. At first I didn't see anything, but then I heard someone whispering. I opened the light and saw Henry. The guy he was with had his head turned away from me.

“Henry this is really not what you want to be doing right now!”

Henry looked over at me and back at his new friend. They started making out when the guy turned around to close the door. When I saw his face I gasped and almost fell backwards.

“JAIME?!?” I shouted

He looked like he had just seen a ghost. His skin grew so pale it almost looked transparent. I could see his heart pounding out of his chest.

Jaime came charging at me “Lynn if you fucking DARE tell anyone, let alone your parents, what you saw here I swear to god!”

I stood quietly pinned up against the wall as Jaime stood a foot away from me shouting. Henry ran out of the closet to pull him back. I couldn't help but laugh. I was relieved that nothing was actually wrong with me. That Jaime didn't like me, not because of my physical appearance, but because he was gay.

“How the hell do you two know each other?” Henry was confused

“His parents met my parents at the convention this past weekend. Jaime here forgot to mention he plays for the other team and our parents made us go out to dinner together”

“Ugh, I don't have time for this child's play” Henry walked out of the hallway back into the banquet hall.

Jaime dropped his face in his hands completely defeated “I'm sure you're going to tell my parents”

Seeing Jaime so upset about something so serious made me feel bad. I grabbed his shoulders to comfort him “You saved my life that night, remember? I owe you one."