Page 2 of A Constant Surprise

Emily was loud and outgoing and super fun to be around. Kind of the opposite of me.

We were the Yin to each other’s Yang. I wasn’t sure that I would find that with another roommate. Hell, I wasn’t sure that I would find that with another human being.

No. I was better off alone. I was too fucked up to bring anyone else into my world anyway.

Anxiety began to creep in on me as I realized my only option I really had left was to live in my car. It wouldn’t be my finest moment, but I was sure I could make it work until something better opened up.

After all, leaving school wasn’t an option, and going back to Kansas to live? Over my dead body.

My phone started to vibrate on the bed next to me. I saw an extremely handsome face pop up on the screen.

Tyler Wendell.

Tyler Wendell was also a senior that I had been tutoring in math for the past month. We met in a Statistics class, and although I thought he might be kind of a rich-entitled asshole, I couldn’t pass up the money.

Turns out though, he wasn’t much of an asshole at all. In fact, he was actually nice to me. In the back of my mind, I wondered if it would be one of those cheesy 90’s movies where the cool, hot guy is nice to the loser girl so everyone can make fun of her. Because Tyler Wendell was far too rich and attractive to be interacting with someone like me.

I’m talking take-your-breath-away kind of attractive. He was the epitome of “tall, dark, and handsome”. So, it baffled me as to why he would want to spend even one millisecond with me aside from me trying to teach him how to crunch numbers.

I grabbed the phone and answered with a slightly irritated, “Hello?”

“Hey Sam, what are you up to?” His voice was deep and smooth like butter. Just the sound of it gave me goosebumps.

“Not much. Just having a bad day.” I have no idea why I told him that. I was positive he didn’t care. “What’s up with you?”

“Well, a buddy of mine is having a birthday party here at my house tonight, and I thought I would see if you wanted to stop by. Sounds like you had a crappy day…there will be booze.” He let out a small laugh.

Tyler had invited me to a couple parties before though I was unsure why. My demeanor certainly didn’t scream that I was a party girl. But I guess the sentiment was nice.

“I don’t know…”

He interrupted, “Oh come on. You know if you stay home, you’ll just end up wallowing in self-pity all night. Come over, and you can wallow here. I’ll be sure to make you feel horrible about yourself.”

I could hear him smiling through the phone.

“Let me think about it. Send me the details.”

I hung up the phone before he could say anything else knowing how persuasive he could be. A few seconds later, my phone pinged with his address along with the time for when I should be there.

My mind flashed back to memories of how stress and alcohol didn’t mix well for me. I tended to make some pretty stupid, reckless decisions and get myself into trouble.

I got up to stretch and caught sight of myself in the mirror. I barely recognized the girl staring back. I used to be vibrant. I used to be a force of nature. Hell, I used to be fun!

But that night four years ago, everything changed. I retreated into myself and never came back out.

I had let that one night define me as a person and let it strip away all the best parts of me. Maybe if I hadn’t lost myself, I wouldn’t be such a hollow shell. Maybe I would have branched out. Maybe I wouldn’t be in the mess that I was currently in.

Well, no more. I was done hiding. I was going to throw on something cute and go to that damn party. I was going to try to get out of my shell. I was going to try to forget my fucked-up situation and have some fun…if only for one night.

I was going to go and drop all inhibitions. Damn the consequences.

There was that nagging voice in my head that told me this was a bad idea. It told me that once again, I would make decisions I would regret in the morning.

But I didn’t care. I silenced that voice and grabbed my phone and typed Tyler three little words.

I’ll be there.

Chapter 2 – Tyler

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