The Girl Who Stutters and The Boy Who Mutters

"Alright hurry up and get your shit out of the trunk, " my sister, Anna, says as she taps her foot impatiently.

I grab my bags from the trunk and we haul our stuff up towards wherever the office is. I really have no idea where we're supposed to be going, at this point I'm just following Anna. When she does finally stop walking though we aren't in any building or anything, we're standing in an enormous line that I'm sure will eventually lead us into a building. A line full of old and new college students, I of course belong to the latter category.

And if you're wondering, no, I am most certainly not looking forward to this new college experience.

I barely survived my high school experience and I honestly don't think college is going to be much better. I was always the weird girl with the stutter, when in fact it isn't a stutter. It's a speech deficiency, I'm not stupid or anything but I stutter when I talk. Point blank. But still I don't need to be known as the weird girl who stutters again.

I'm not like most people, I don't look at college as a new beginning or a place to party and make new friends. It's strictly education. There's no way around that. I don't need to humiliate myself anymore than I did in high school.

I was thinking about bailing on college. Even if I was valedictorian my senior year, my education is certainly not worth being called stutter girl again. The only reason I even agreed to go is wholly because Anna agreed to share a room with me.

"We're going to be here all day if this line doesn't fucking move, " Anna says taking a seat on one of her suitcases.

"M-maybe we should just c-come back l-later, " I suggest sitting on one of mine as well.

But we decide to persevere. We sit in line for hours. Okay maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, it was at least half an hour, but that's still a pretty long time.

By the time we get into the little office everyone is gone except fot the tired looking secretary. I feel bad for her, the first day of college must always be the worst for secretaries.

"Annabelle and Abigail Smith, " Anna says dropping her bags to the floor a little too overdramatically.

The scretary swivels over to the computer. Soon enough two pieces of paper are being printed and she's handing us each a pair of room keys.

"Annabelle you'll be staying in the D dorms near the other side of campus, " the secretary says handing Anna one of the two slips of paper, "you'll be in room 24. Abigail you'll be in Dorm B, room 69."

I'm not even going to attempt to make a dirty comment about that room number.

Wait a second...

"There must b-be s-some mistake, " I begin to say but before I can finish anna snatches my key and the piece of paper, before promptly dragging me out of the office.

"What w-was that?" I hiss at her, "we have to go b-back and tell her t-there was a mistake."

"There was no mistake Abby."

"But we're supposed to be sharing-"

"Abby I lied, " she says running a hand through her perfect hair, "you wouldn't have come had I told you otherwise. You've been bound at my hip since we even started school."

"You l-lied to me?"

"I want to meet new people Abs, " Anna says squeezing her eyes shut, "Christ don't look at me like that Abby. You're acting like I just broke up with you or something."

"I-in a w-way you sort of are-"

"Well look at it this way, " Anna says throwing her arm around my shoulders, "this is a place full of new beginnings. We can be whoever we want here, you could be an athlete, an author, a crazy guitar chick..."

"To e-everyone else I'd still just b-be Stutter girl, " I say staring down at the ground. Anna flinches beside me when she hears the name I'd been given at the beginning of my freshman year in high school.

Anna has always been the one who was most protective of me, especially when it came to my speech deficiency. She got suspened our freshman year for punching Scott Rogers in the nose after he'd promptly followed me around for three class periods fake stuttering.

So I've kind of been relying on Anna for the longest time now, which is probably pretty selfish since she actually has a social life. Anna has always been the popular one. She knows how to talk to people and she's quite the looker. Now me on the other hand, I'm a short pale brunette in dyer need of sun, oh and let's not forget about that stutter.

"If anyone calls you that I will personally castrate them, " Anna says before perking up again. "There is a plus side though! Dorms A and B are co-ed."

"W-what're you s-saying?" I ask narrowing my eyes at my sister. It's pretty clear that she's trying to tell me I might be living with a guy though.

"I'm saying that this is going to be a wonderful opportunity, " Anna says giving me one of her prize winning smiles.

"Anna-"

"Have to go find my dorm, see you later baby sister, " she plants a kiss on my cheek before sprinting off in the other direction. She's only running because she knows I'm too lazy to try and catch her.

I can't live with a guy. They're all sex-crazed monsters. I already stutter, I'd make a complete fool out of myself if I had to live with a guy. I don't even fully understand their species yet, not to mention the fact that I'm still a virgin.

I've always had trouble when it comes to guys. Not that I really ever attempted anything with their gender, and when I say that let me make it clear that I'm not saying I have ever attempted anything with my gender. I guess I've been on a couple first dates, if studying counts as a date that is. Most of these "dates" usually consisted of a series of awkward silences and me internally facepalming.

As I begin the walk towards my new dorm I silently curse my sister.

She must have been working on this for months now. This must be why she ran to the mail box everyday for three weeks to check it. The college sends a form telling you about your roommate, I never realized until now that I never actually got mine. She had told me she was checking for some makeup magazine when in reality she was hijacking my roommate information.

I trusted her.

Standing in front of this dorm room I already know I'm fucked.

I press the key into the hole. I breathe in and out before pushing the door open and finding a shirtless guy sitting on a bed.

A hot shirtless guy.

I suppose this is the part of the story when something triggers a chain of events that will undoubtely lead to us falling in love. Well that's not exactly what happened.

Something was definitely triggered though.

This asshole's temper.

He stared at me and once I explained to him I was supposed to be his roommate he got all pissy and basically threw a huge tantrum. He started screaming about how he wasn't supposed to even have a roommate this year and a bunch of other stuff I didn't really understand. Here's a small snipet of some of what I did understand:

"I paid for a single this year!" He shouts before pointing towards me, "you are not supposed to be here. I suggest you walk your little happy ass back down to the office and get a different room because you sure as hell can't stay here."

As you've probably already guessed things went downhill from there. The hot guy- his name is apparently Liam- actually went and got the secretary. They both had a very heated conversation in which went too fast for me to follow, at one point I'm fairly certain one of them started speaking French. I never actually paid attention until I noticed the secretary leave the room and come back with another person. But not just any person, a certain asshole whom I didn't think I'd ever have to see again.

I'm sure you remember me mentioning him a few hundred words ago. I nearly didn't even recognize him at first. Scott Rogers, the guy whom my sister punched in the nose. Also the boy who got kicked out of the school about a month later and got sent to a private school because he got into a fight with one of the teachers. I haven't seen him since high school so you can't blame me for doing a double take.

I'm not going to lie and say that he wasn't cute back in high school, but I'd be lying if I said he was just cute now. Cute is definitely an understatement. He's changed completely, especially appearance wise. He doesn't look like the raging bad boy everyone knew him as in high school, instead he looks like a guy straight out of prep school, but then again it's like at the same time he doesn't. His hair is gelled back and he's wearing a button down shirt with a bow tie. But just by the smirk on his face and his body posture he isn't fooling me. Bad boys like him

Don't willingly change into prep school students.

When Scott walks in with the secretary he doesn't even glance my way. He probably won't even recognize me or much less rememeber me.

"Scott a small problem has been presented to me recently, " the secretary says rubbing her temple slowly.

I watch Scott and Liam do a quick bro hug type thing, so apparently they know each other.

"What's the problem?" Scott asks furrowing his eyebrows at the secretary, "I've been here less than two hours. What have I already managed to screw up?"

"Mr. Harding, " she says referring to Liam, "specifically asked for a single room this year and it appears that there has been a mix up with how many rooms we have available. And because your father is the dean of the school I know he would want you to do this for him so he doesn't have to go through anymore trouble."

"I wanted a single too though, " Scott says shoving his hands into his pockets.

"But Mr. Harding is paying for a single, " the secretary says, "so I'm afraid Ms. Smith is going to have to be your new dormmate."

Scott's eyes immidiately fly over to me and I can see them widen slightly. I don't know if it's because he recognizes me, he doesn't like the idea of living with someone, or both but his face immidiately scrunches up.

"Stutter girl?" He asks narrowing his eyes at me. Of course he would call me that, I guess he never even had the courtesy to know what my real name is. He smirks at me when I don't attempt to do anything and says, "what? That stutter got your tongue?"

"Oh you two know each other, " the secretary says sounding slightly more chipper. Maybe she figures we'll go about this more willingly just because we happen to know each other.

"T-this i-isn't g-going to w-work, " I say stuttering more than I usually do, if that's even possible. "Isn't there s-some other r-room I could stay in?"

"I'm going to need you to work with me, " the secretary says looking at me with very tired eyes, "there aren't any other rooms I know of that I can give you. Until I find out this will only be temporary, so please just bare with me here."

"B-b-but what-"

"What's the matter Stutter girl?" Scott asks raising an eyebrow at me, "scared of me?"

To be brutally honest, yes I'm still completely terrified of Scott. But I'm mostly just scared of having to live with this asshole, especially if he's going to call me Stutter girl everyday.

"Listen, " the secretary says, "I know I'm just a cranky old office lady today but I don't need either of you trying to fight with me about this right now."

"You aren't cranky or old Margaret, " Scott says furrowing his eyebrows at her, "I mean sometimes you are cranky but you aren't anywhere near old."

"He's a sweet boy, " Margaret says smiling over at me, "trust me. I used to help put on his diapers, I've known him a long time. If he causes you any trouble you can come straight to me."

Margaret throws a warning glare at Scott before opening the door and walking out.

I knew this would be a horrible idea, this whole going off to college thing. I told Anna something horrible would happen within the first five minutes of me getting here.

"Well we might as well hurry along, " Scott says gesturing towards the door, "if we're going to share a room we need to establish which drawers you want to put your shit in and which side of the bed you want as yours."

Turns out Scott only has one bed in his room.

Guess he'll just have to sleep on the floor.

I haven't spoken a word to Scott since we left room 69. Liam's face is probably still red from when I slapped him after he hit my ass while I was walking out the room.

Anyhow, I've made the decision to not speak around Scott. I couldn't take being called Stutter girl again, it would ruin me.

Maybe if worse comes to worse I'll just ruin him first.

Our dorm room is actually exceptionally larger than I thought it would be. In the midst of my not talking, Scott managed to talk up a storm, and I learned quite a few things. One being that his dad actually owns the college. He says we're going to have to wait a while before they actually get our room problem situated.

"What's your problem?" Scott asks as I set my stuff down on the table near the door, "why won't you talk? Did you go from stuttering to completely mute?"

Okay so obviously he hasn't given up on making fun of my stutter and obviously he hasn't matured in the least since the last time I saw him.

"Well I guess I get to pick which side of the bed I want first, " he says ripping off his bow tie.

"Y-you'll b-be sleeping on t-the floor, " I say as I begin to unload my belongings.

"Ah she speaks!" He shouts before smirking over at me, "well maybe it would be more accurate if I said, she stutters."

"I see p-private school hasn't a-affected you much, " I say ignoring him as he begins to unbutton his shirt. As it turns out he doesn't have a t-shirt or anything on underneath his button down, so the first thing I see when he takes off his shirt is absolute beauty. But it appears that with beauty also comes scars. Several scars.

"I don't crack easily under pressure, " he says before noticing that I'm now staring at his abs, "don't be shy. If you want some you can have it."

Haha, yeah no. I can't put up with this.

When I was still in school with Scott he was known to be the biggest flirt. Not with me of course, to him I was always just the girl who stuttered, not the girl he'd try to sleep with. I was thankful for that because I didn't have to deal with him anymore than I already had to.

As far as I know Scott never actually slept around. Sure he'd make out with some girl in the corner and then immediately drop them the next day but as far as I know he wasn't the type of person to sleep with just anyone.

"Give it a rest asshole, " I say surprising myself by how confident I sound before walking out of the room and heading towards the other side of campus. I can't believe I actually got through an entire sentence without stuttering in front of him.

I know Anna will be pissy about me popping up on her doorstep already, but really this is all her fault. If I'm going to get teased all through out college too then I might as well just go back home.

Okay I'm looking for room 24.

28...

26...

Ah, here we go, room 24.

I knock several times before waiting, finally a short redhead wearing a beanie opens the door.

"Greetings, " she says as she smiles up at me, "what brings you to my den of iniquity on this fine day?"

Before I can answer someone screams my name from behind her.

"What're you doing here?" Anna asks dragging me inside her room by my arm. "I saw you like two hours ago. You should be bonding with your room mate. What's your room mates name anyhow?"

"It's S-scott, " I say quietly.

"Oh so it's a guy, " she says perking up and leaning against the wall. "Is he hot? Scott is a very common name amongst hot guys."

"I-it's Scott Rogers, " I say a bit louder this time, "t-the one who c-called me Stutter girl."

"The one I punched in the nose?"

"You punched someone?" The girl who answered the door walks over and stands next to me, "and you know Scott?"

"I w-wish I didn't, " I say.

"Yes I did punch someone, " Anna says, "and Abby this is my room mate Rebecca. Rebecca this is my baby sister Abby."

"Call me Becca, " Becca says glaring at Anna, "I hate it when people call me Rebecca."

"Wait so your room mate is Scott?" Anna asks finally letting it sink in.

"Yes and he's as m-much of an asshole a-as h-he was back in h-high school, " I explain, "I w-want to go h-home."

"You want to go home just because of Scott?" Becca asks sitting on the edge of one of the two beds in the room, "I know he can be an ass but that seems like a bit much."

"How do you know Scott?" Anna asks turning her attention over to Becca.

"My sister used to be best friends with his older brother, " Becca says, "naturally him and I became friends. Just give it some time, I'm sure you'll get used to him. I did."

"I can set him straight for you again if you want me to, " Anna says smirking, "but I'm not letting you go back home."

Of course she isn't. I didn't think she would but it was sure worth a try. I'm obviously not going to have Anna try to set Scott straight or anything like that. He'd only tease me for confiding in my sister to do something about him. But maybe now I can convince Anna to let me stay with her and Becca.

"Why is she just staring off like that?" I hear Becca ask as she waves her hand in front of my face.

"She's thinking, " Anna says looking over at me and furrowing her eyebrows, "and I already know what she's thinking and it's a no."

"C'mon, " I whine, "just let me stay f-for a little. I h-hate him."

"Staying here is a sign of weakness, " Anna says pointedly, "if you want him to leave you alone we're going to have to fight fire against fire."

"I've always wondered why people said that, " Becca says with a kind of far off look, "if you want to win it would be smarter to fight fire with water wouldn't it?"

"Either way, " I say, "how d-do you propose I d-do that?"

"The annual freshie party is tonight, " Becca says pointing at me, "it's party that happens every year to kick off the semester. We could totally make you look all hot and irresistible."

"Not happening, " I immediately say.

"Actually it's not a bad idea, " Anna says standing up and walking over towards me, "it might actually work."

"But it's not a-actually going to happen, " I say.

But of course it did happen because that's how things worked with Anna and me. Anna makes a decision, I am forced to follow along with it. Half the things I've done with her were not done willingly. Like stealing that bag of chips from the gas station when we were eleven, or taking a sip of dad's tequila after he'd left to go to bathroom. If there was one thing I learned that day it was that guys do indeed pee exceptionally fast.

Anyhow several hours later here I am sitting in a chair listening to my sister and her room mate debate about which eyeliner looks sexier on me.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"It's amazing, " Becca says holding me by the shoulders at arms width, "you look amazing."

A while back Anna and Becca decided it might be easier if only one of them helped with my appearance. This was only because they were already having their fifth fight and still hadn't gotten anywhere. So they decided to just let Becca handle me seeing as she is majoring in style or cosmetology or something, I wasn't actually paying attention when she told me.

"Am I a-allowed to look at m-myself now?" I ask slightly frustrated that I've been staring at their bathroom wall for the last several hours.

"Promise me you'll love it, " Becca says. "

"I h-haven't even seen I-"

"You'll love it, " she says before quickly spinning me around towards the mirror.

You've got to be kidding me.

Becca had me put on an all-too-short blue sequin dress she says she completely designed herself. It does sort of complement my grayish green eyes but it barely reaches my mid-thigh. I mean I understand the point this is to get Scott all bonery and stuff but still.

I have absolutely no idea what they did to my face though. I look...pretty. Becca didn't go heavy on the makeup like I thought she would. From what I can tell she actually went pretty light. She straightened the ends of my hair and had me put on contacts so I wouldn't have to wear glasses. I actually hate contacts though, that always make me feel like my eyes are burning.

"What'd you think?" Becca asks chewing on her bottom lip as if nervous to hear my opinion.

"I like it.." I say mostly to appease her, "it's just t-the dress is t-too-"

"Too short, " she says rolling her eyes, "yeah you said that half an hour ago when I had you put it on. Just trust me, you'll basically have guys eating out of your hand, and if you're lucky they'll be eating out of somewhere else too-"

Okay, ew.

"Now, " she says, "let's go show your sister before she blows a gasket." So Becca dragged me out of the bathroom to show my sister.

"Holy fuck, " Anna says when she sees me being dragged from the bathroom, "Becca when did you have time to switch my sister out with a model?"

I think I should take that as a compliment but with Anna you never actually know.

"Well now that you're done, " Becca says, "I've got an hour to kill before the party actually starts. I'll be outside reading if you need me."

"Shouldn't you g-get ready for t-the party too though?" I ask raising an eyebrow at her.

"I'm going as is, " she says gesturing to what she's wearing. She has on a pair of black skinny jeans, a black veil brides shirt, her beanie, and a pair of black chucks. "I never worry about what I'm wearing when I go to these things."

"But a-aren't you majoring in-"

"I might be majoring in it but that doesn't mean I actually care about it, " Becca says picking up a pair of what looks to be reading glasses and a book off the desk in between the two beds. "I'm doing what my mom wants me to do. Now if you'll excuse me..."

Becca leaves to go read her book, Anna contemplates whether she should go with her blue eyeliner or her black one, and I try to figure out ways to somehow make this dress longer.

"You look like shit, " Anna says to Becca when she finally makes her way back into the room nearly 45 minutes later.

And Anna is kind of right, Becca does look like shit. Her mascara is bleeding and she has huge bags under her eyes.

"I feel like shit, " she says throwing her book over onto her bed. "I got to the after part in Looking For Alaska."

"I know h-how you f-feel, " I say giving her a sympathetic look. I remember getting to the after part of that book. It was about a year ago and I was at the doctor's office, I remember my mother freaking out because I started crying, she thought I was in pain.

My parents have always thought there was something wrong with me besides my speech deficiency. They were always afraid I might just pass out or start screaming out of nowhere. They figured I wasn't normal because I didn't have as much of a social life as Anna did or because I preferred to stay inside and read as opposed to having a night out on the town.

"Great, " Anna says walking towards Becca, "now we're going to be late fixing you up."

"I'm not as messed up physically as I am mentally, " Becca says walking towards the bathroom, "and I've been in this predicament before. Give me five minutes."

And five minutes is what it took.

Finally we were off, and by finally I mean after Anna finished throwing a fit about how late she thought we were going to be. We all began walking off back towards the other side of campus.

"I have a question, " Becca says to me after a couple minutes of just walking, "at first I thought you were just nervous, but I noticed you stuttering a lot-"

"It's a speech deficiency, " Anna immediately snaps at Becca.

Becca doesn't bother asking any other questions as we continue walking and I would have done the same. Anna can sound really harsh at times, especially when someone starts asking questions about my stutter.

Anna hasn't appeared to have taken an immediate liking to Becca like she usually does with everyone else which is actually quite strange seeing as Anna knows how to get along with most everyone. But Becca is different, she's more like me than Anna. She'd rather read as opposed to worrying about what she's wearing to the next big party. She seems like the type of person who would fly solo though, she'd probably be perfectly happy if she didn't have a room mate.

Finally, after some time we can hear faint sounds of music as we draw near the party. My feet are already killing me due to this pair of high heels I was forced upon wearing. I'm not used to wearing any of these types of things and to be brutally honest I king of hate it. I mean even though I am short I could still do without the extra inches, in fact it would be preferable to not have the few extra inches.

Typically at most high school or college parties you'll find that there are the occasional drunks milling around outside of the actual party and I'd be lying if I said it were any different at this one. But I'd also be lying if I said they were all drunk. Although most people were holding a red solo cup, a lot of them are just talking and laughing, a couple have strayed away and are making out in various different areas of the party.

"Before we go in, " Becca says stopping us, "you should know that these parties usually bore me so I'm usually gone in about half an hour. Don't be surprised if I disappear, I'll either be in a corner reading a book or on my way back to the dorm."

"You didn't even bring a book, " Anna says furrowing her eyebrows.

"Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there, " Becca says patting the satchel type thing she's been carrying around with her.

"I n-need one of those, " I say already wondering why I hadn't thought to buy something like that when Anna had dragged me to all those parties back in high school.

"No you don't, " Anna says pointedly, "no one should be caught dead carrying a satchel around at a party."

That's pretty much a giveaway that Anna wholeheartedly disapproves of Becca.

As we walk towards the party several people stop talking to turn and say hi to Becca and there are even a few cat calls. It kind of surprises me though because Becca doesn't seem like much of a people person. I mean here people actually know her, she seems popular. But it doesn't make sense for everyone to know her if this is only her first year.

"How does e-everyone know-"

"It's my second year, " she says dramatically flipping her hair behind her, "you don't always have to be a bitch for everyone to know you. I can show you the ropes if you want me to. Plus it helps that I'm friends with Scott and Falon."

"Who's Falon?" I ask.

"Scott's older brother."

"Is he hot?" Anna asks stepping in between Becca and I.

"Depends on what hot looks like for you, " Becca says shrugging.

To Anna that means no.

When we finally make it into the party things definitely aren't as subtle as they were outside. There are a couple guys holding someone upside down as they chug beer through a beer keg and now that we're inside the music is nearly deafening.

"The strippers are here!" A guy yells raising his cup towards Anna, Becca, and I.

I immediately blush, I knew I looked like a slut.

"Hey Kevin!" Becca shouts back, "shut the hell up."

"Becca!" I watch as Scott swaggers over holding a cup in his hand smiling, "you came to the party this year. And you brought company."

I look over at my sister to see her a little wide eyed as she drinks Scott in. I mean, I know he's a good looking guy and everything but I'm sure she's seen better. Plus she knows what he's done to me and she also knows he's a straight up asshole who isn't worth anyone's time.

"I don't think I've seen you 'round these parts before, " Scott says wrapping an arm around my waist. He takes my wrist and sets my hand on his abdomen, "but I'd sure like to see you around these parts, " he says before slowly sliding my hand dangerously close to his 'manhood.'

That was an absolute horrible pickup line.

"I'm s-sure there are other s-sluts around here w-who would much rather do t-that to you asshole, " I say retrieving my hand back from his hold and taking a step back.

"Stutter girl?" Scott asks, his eyes widening and his smirk visibly vanishing, "I mean, I uh..."

Before I can hear what Scott is going to say I'm being dragged back outside by my fantastic older sister.

"Who was that?" She asks with both her hands on her hips.

"That was Scott, " I say.

"Scott was hot."

"T-that rhymed, " I mutter under my breath.

"I'm being serious about this Abby, " Anna says combing through her hair with her fingers, "you could have at least told me he was hot! Oh my gosh...you're living with that...jesus fuck..."

As I figured would happen Scott's looks have completely blinded her to the fact that he's still nothing but an asshole. She must have also forgotten that he was the main reason that I had no social life back in high school.

"I never s-saw any reason to s-say anything, " I say.

"I saw a lot of reason."

"D-did you literally not j-just hear him c-call me Stutter girl again?"

I watch as Anna considers this a moment and she quickly goes from obsessing over Scott's hotness to rushing back inside with me trailing behind her. Scott and Becca are standing where we last left them and surprisingly Scott still has a look of shock on his face, I watch in wonder as Anna walks over and slaps him.

"Hey jackass, her name is Abby not stutter girl, " she says before quickly disappearing into the crowd of people dancing.

"Abby, " Scott says staring off slightly dazed.

"That is indeed her name, " Becca says, "now if you'll excuse us."

Becca grabs my arm and drags my over to the keg of beer that doesn't have anyone dangling above it anymore. Becca grabs a cup for her and myself even though I'm not going to drink any of it. I don't drink alcohol. I tried and immediately hated it.

"You know you scared the hell out of Scott, " Becca says as we take a seat on one of the chairs. "I don't think he ever thought his little Stutter girl could ever look like this."

"I'm n-not his, " I say slightly repulsed at the thought.

"Keep telling yourself that."

"W-whatever.." I say looking down at my cup.

"Well I wish you good luck in your endeavors, " Becca says before digging through her satchel and waving her book in my face, "if you don't mind I'm going to go get drunk off of John Green now. If you need me within the next half an hour I'll be in a nearby corner."

Becca stands up to leave me before I have the chance to protest. Anna has done this to me before countless times, that's one of the reasons I never wanted to go to parties with her. And now here I am again in the same predicament. Anna is most likely off flirting with some guy, my sort of new friend has ditched me for Pudge and I'm here all alone praying that I don't look as lonely as I feel.

"Hey beautiful, " a very tall blonde guy says walking up towards me. I fully understand that he's talking to me when he says it but I'm so shocked that it takes me a moment to compose myself. I stand up and awkwardly sway on my feet before regaining my composure.

"Hey mystery s-stranger I'm m-meeting at a party." Okay that was definitely cringe worthy. But to my surprise he just looks amused.

"Oakland, " he says holding out his hand for me to shake.

"W-what about it?" I ask shaking his hand.

"That's my name, " he says chuckling at my stupidity. Glad he's getting a kick out of this. "A lot of people just call me Oakey."

"Oh, " I say before realizing that he's still holding my hand even though we aren't shaking anymore. "My n-name is Abby."

"The commonest of names, " he says nodding.

"Hey! It's not t-that common."

"I just met you and you're already lying to me, " he says shaking his head. I can't believe I'm standing in front of this really cute guy whom, mind you, is still holding my hand. It definitely surprises me that he's still here though, he could be hanging out with anyone as opposed to lil' ol awkward me.

"I'm n-not lying."

"Sweetheart!" I hear him before I see him, and he slips his hand around my waist pulling me to him and in the process making me let go of Oakland's hand just to turn and look at him.