Chapter 205: Life of the Party
Nina
The next night, which was the night of the party, finally came. I tried to lay low all week in order to not rock the boat and cause Selena to leave with Enzo. Even though it was difficult to not want to talk to Enzo at every chance I had, I knew that being seen with him would only raise Selena’s suspicions even more. I needed her to think that I was completely oblivious to who they really were.
On the night of the party, Lori, Jessica and I got dressed and ready to go out. We all dressed in our usual party clothes, not wanting to seem out of place, and then headed out to the party.
The party was located in one of the frat houses just off of campus. Although I normally didn’t like frat parties, I knew that the chaos of it all would be a perfect disguise for our plan. When we arrived, we would meet up with Matt, and then Matt, Lori, and Jessica would break off a little while into the party to distract Selena while I looked for Enzo. It seemed like a good plan; I just hoped that it would work.
“You know,” Jessica said as we walked through the cold on our way to the party, “if we pretend that all of this other stuff isn’t happening, it’s almost like old times. Just the three of us enjoying a party together. I miss those days.”
I couldn’t help but feel a little bad at Jessica’s words. The semester had been nothing but one rollercoaster after another, with no breaks in between.
“Once this is all over, I promise we can go back to what it was like before,” I replied with a weak smile – although I still wasn’t sure whether I believed what I was saying or not. “Everything will be fine once we get Enzo back.”
Lori opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again and went silent. I knew that she didn’t believe me; I knew that she was going to say that things would never be ” normal” again, that our entire world had changed over the past few months. But she didn’t say it, and I couldn’t decide if her deciding not to say anything made me feel better or worse.
By then, we reached the party. I could feel my heart racing as we walked up the steps to the house, but as we walked inside, the loud music quickly drowned out my anxieties. I scanned the crowd for Matt, finally spotting him over by the keg. He spotted us as well and waved us over with a grin.
“I vote we should enjoy this party for a bit before we make our move,” Matt said as he filled four red plastic cups with alcohol from the keg. “What do you guys say?”
“I second that,” Jessica replied.
Much to my surprise, Lori, who had never been much of a party person herself, nodded in agreement and snatched up one of the cups. They then looked at me expectantly.
Even though I wanted to get this over with, the thought of having a bit of fun at the party was tempting and as I looked around at all of the other partygoers who were already drunk, dancing to the loud music, playing drinking games and making out in corners, I couldn’t help but want to feel like a college student again that night.
“Cheers to that,” I said, picking up a plastic cup and holding it up with a smile. My friends all grinned in response and clinked their cups with mine before we drank.
As we quickly got drunk off of the somewhat sickening mixture of different types of alcohol scattered around the frat house, I found myself feeling as though I could let go a little bit. I danced with my friends, joined in on some drinking games, and for a moment I felt like a normal college student again.
At least, that was until I finally spotted Selena and Enzo.
They were hanging out in the corner together. They both seemed pretty drunk themselves, and Selena had her hands tangled in Enzo’s hair while they swayed back and forth. Just looking at them made me want to vomit especially when I saw how Selena sloppily kissed Enzo, her hands traveling down his neck and his back. I wanted so badly to go over there and tear her away from him, but I knew I couldn’t. I needed to stay calm and collected if we wanted to pull this off.
“Are we ready?” Matt shouted to us over the music. Lori and Jessica nodded, and with one last look at me, they disappeared into the crowd. I stayed where I was, keeping an eye on Enzo so I wouldn’t lose him, but I could see Lori slip what looked like money to a random girl. Lori then whispered something in the girl’s ear and pointed to her cup. The girl, who seemed too drunk to think clearly, nodded and shoved the money into her bra, then staggered over to Selena and Enzo.
In one swift movement, the girl pretended to stumble; and in doing so, she lurched forward and spilled her drink all over Selena.
Selena whipped around with a disgusted look on her face and shouted something at the girl while gesturing wildly, then grabbed Enzo by the hand and stormed off toward the bathroom. I watched as Lori, Jessica, and Matt followed behind them while keeping a bit of a distance. Then, Matt bumped into Enzó, causing him to break away from Selena. Lori and Jessica followed Selena, who was too drunk to notice that she’d dropped Enzo’s hand.
And now I had my chance.
I kept my eyes firmly locked on Enzo, who was now standing there on his tiptoes looking for Selena in the crowd. Without thinking, I did what was most natural for me: I grabbed his hand and pulled him through the crowd, away from the dance floor and toward the hack door. He was too drunk and confused to react, and soon enough I had him outside and away from everyone else while Matt stood inside the door in case Selena returned.
“Um- What’s going on?” Enzo asked, furrowing his brow once we were alone. “Do you need something?”
“Enzo, look at me,” “I said, just wanting to cut straight to the chase. I stared into his eyes as my heart practically pounded out of my chest, begging him silently to remember me. “Please. Look at me.”
“Sorry…” Enzo shook his head and took a step backwards. “Do I know you?”
I kept persisting, and took a step toward him to close the gap between us. I took his hand in mine and kept looking into his eyes. If I could just get him to look at me long enough for him to recognize me…
But maybe I was being too aggressive. Enzo pulled his hand away from mine and shot me a confused look. “I have a girlfriend,” he said. He sidestepped around me in an attempt to get to the door, but I jumped in the way again and grabbed his wrist, this time harder.
“Enzo!” I said, feeling my eyes begin to well up with tears. “Please. It’s Nina. Please remember me… Selena put a spell on you!”
Enzo froze. At that moment, I thought for sure that I had jogged his memory, even just a little bit. He stared down at me with wide eyes. I felt a smile begin to spread across my lips as I waited for his face to shift. He would remember me in just a few moments I was sure of it.
There was a long silence. The air between us was so thick I could hardly breathe, but I kept staring at him with yearning, and I held firmly onto his wrist.
He opened his mouth to speak. I felt my heart flutter; he was remembering me now.
“Let me go.”
His voice was low and demanding. Involuntarily, I released my grip on his wrist out of pure shock. Without another word, Enzo brushed past me and shoved his way through the door. I could only watch through the screen as Matt tried to corner him again, only for Enzo to suddenly do the unexpected: he threw a punch at Matt.
Matt ducked and dodged the punch successfully, but Enzo took his chance to disappear into the crowd.
I felt a sob bubble up in my throat as I stood there, watching Enzo disappear.
He hadn’t remembered me, and I was devastated. Without thinking, I suddenly turned on my heel and ran down the steps, just wanting to get away from the party so no one would see me cry.
And as I ran down the street, I felt my heart break into a million pieces.
