Two

Kate
I followed Alice over, and I could tell she was nervous from how quickly she was walking. I was glad to have her next to me though. That was the real reason I went with her to college, pure protection. Once I came out, I felt like my skin was peeled back, and I was exposed. Alice made me comfortable, gave me a shield. I was trying to be more outgoing, though, but I knew we would still be tight like always. Honestly, she was almost entertaining enough to not need other people, but my therapist told me to remember to branch out. So I was trying.
“Hey Blanche.” Alice said loudly, over the noise. She was wearing some sort of ridiculous outfit that I could tell Alice was admiring.
“Hey! Hey guys! Oh, come here, meet everyone!” she promptly introduced me to a number of people I knew I wouldn’t remember. First, they all kind of looked the same to me, shaggy hair and cigarettes, and second, I was horrible with names.
“So you’re the dope freshman.” This girl said in a deadpan.
“You know it.” I threw up my gang sign.
“Kate I told you not to do that in public. I apologize for my thug friend here; she doesn’t know how to act in polite company.” Alice explained. Everyone laughed appreciatively.
“Oh my god, where did you find them?” the same girl asked.
“They just fell into our laps, pretty much. I told you I found the best ones.” Blanche looked smug. She put an arm around me and steered us inside.
“See, it’s important to meet your friends early in freshman year, upperclassmen who can introduce you to the right people and so forth. Otherwise you get stuck with all confused freshman. I didn’t meet Marcus until halfway through the year, and I spent the first half stuck at a capella concerts with my lame roomie. Then I met Marcus and all these people and started having actual fun. You guys are starting off right.” I felt pride surge in my chest. Al and I had spent three years of high school alone til we met our cool artsy friends, so I knew what she meant. We wouldn’t have to wait this time, we had already found them.
“Hey!” Ellen ran over and grabbed my arm. She was so fucking cute. I was still hung up on straight girls, because I had no real lesbian experience. My only girlfriend from high school was this preppy girl named Taylor who hid our relationship then dumped me for a boy. She got scared about being gay, I guess. Whatever, it still stung. But Ellen, she was something. Big pouty lips and bigger wide eyes. She was smaller than me, and thinner, which is how I liked my girls.
“I’m so glad you came. What can I get you?”
“Uh, what are you drinking?”
“Red Stripe, it’s so good.” She pulled me over and handed me one. Alice was talking to Marcus, who was a few inches shorter than her, and I could tell from how she was slumping that he thought he was cute. She was trying to be shorter. Her red hair looked pretty cool, I had to admit. She looked like Claire Danes from My So Called Life. It was easy for Al to look great though. She was tall and model thin, which was only not intimidating because of how she held herself. If she were elegant it’d be a different story, but she wore her lankiness awkwardly, making her look more endearing, less hate-able. I turned back to Ellen, attempting to make non-weird conversation.
“So who are all these people?”
“Well, that group is Marcus’ art friends, and the ones by the records are my friends from the radio station. I have a radio show. It’s on at twelve to two Thursday night, but still.” She looked proud of herself.
“What do you play?”
“Live sets. That’s my thing. I have live recordings of band sets, or campus bands come in and do one.”
“Oh that’s cool. I have a David Bowie live album if you want to borrow it.” I was glad I had something to offer her.
“Yeah definitely. I love Bowie.” She excused herself to go talk to some friends, so I sat back and surveyed the scene. I gulped some beer down, glad to be drinking so I could look busy. I was oddly comfortable just observing parties until I was drunk enough to talk to random people. In high school I was known to be the one pulling stupid shit all night, pranks and the like, starting impromptu water balloon fights and smashing bottles. Everyone called me Hurricane Kate after one such incident. I thought that would be a good super-villain name, incidentally. I got the reckless feeling in my stomach after one beer where I knew I needed another to keep it going. I chugged a can I got from some guy, and started to feel like my old self. Alice kept going on about College Us, but I wanted to go back to who I was in high school: celebrated prankster and Alice’s partner in crime. I was comfortable with that. But I decided to talk to Marcus, since Alice had left him alone. He seemed nice enough, and I could plant some seeds about Al.
“Sup, dude?” I greeted him.
“You are so strange, Kate.” He half-smiled at me, his eyes warm.
“That’s what they tell me. 'They' being my parents.” I was drunk now, and I could feel my words coming out heavy and awkward. He laughed though, so I continued.
"Everyone spends so much time telling me how weird I am, but I don’t believe them." He nodded, still smiling. I wondered why he was looking at me like that.
"That's a good thing, Kate. I think you're pretty rad."
"Me too. Alice and I are awesome." There we go, I thought to myself, plant the seed of Alice.
"Yeah, she seems cool. You're just…fun, I think."
"Yeah we are. I want to smoke. Want to smoke?" I was talking fast, I could tell. He was looking at me like I looked at pot roast: hungry. I didn’t want to overstep our new friendship-type thing and tell him I was gay, in case he just looked at everyone like that.
"Nah I just had a cigarette." he shrugged.
"I mean pot, buddy." I pulled out a dime bag. I knew I was kind of wasting our stash, smoking him up, since we didn’t have a dealer yet, but I betted we would soon enough.
"Oh word, yeah." I looked around for Alice, and didn’t see her. Oh well, I thought. I followed Marcus outside to roll a joint.