With You

08. Ji-Woo

Rowan never said I couldn't invite Flora, so I took it at my liberty to ask her to tag along. With her cookies sitting in a heap at the bottom of my bag, I felt sorry for her. Besides, she was good company.

We sat on the sofa of a crowded frat house, sipping on red cups filled with questionable alcohol. Whatever it was, it was working, and I could feel my skin buzzing and my head spinning.

Flora sat at the very edge of the couch, her eyes darting around the room and fingers clutching the cup tightly. She seemed very squirrel-like. I laughed, tossing an arm around her and she seemed to stiffen even more.

"Calm down," I shouted over the music. "You never been to a party before?"

She shook her head, and I lifted a brow, not actually expecting that answer.

It was your typical college party – flashing lights, drunk people dancing to pounding music, a keg stand somewhere behind us. Swallowing the last bit of my drink, I slammed my empty cup onto the table. The floor was sticky under our shoes, and I felt it resist when I moved to stand.

Flora gawked at me, as if leaving the safety of the couch was unthinkable, and I offered her my hand.

"You wanna dance?"

She shook her head. Jay-Z was playing, and a grin split across my face. I started shaking my shoulders. Shimmying towards her.

"Come on, Flora. Let's dance!"

She clasped an embarrassed hand over her mouth, and I increased the velocity of the shoulder shaking. She was laughing now.

"What are you doing?" she shouted, a grin splitting across her face.

I smiled wider, shaking my ass at her. "What do you mean? Obviously, I'm dancing!"

"Oh, my God!" she squealed. She flew to her feet, her hands grasping my shoulders. "You need to learn how to dance!"

"Is that an offer to teach?" I replied, raising a brow.

She rolled her eyes, moving away, but before she could sit back down, I grabbed her hands, tugging her a little closer and shaking my shoulders again. She giggled, shaking her head, but beginning to dance too. She bopped timidly, her knees bouncing and head swaying as we swung our hands together. Around us, the room seemed to be jumping, music blasting in my ears.

"You talked a lot of shit for someone who can barely dance herself!" I yelled over the music.

Flora laughed, tossing her head back. "I make it look good, though!"

I raised a sceptical brow and she laughed again, and the room whirled around, and the music was loud, and pounding, and vibrating through my lungs.

The crowd closed in on us, and suddenly there were girls against my back, on my sides, and sweat sticking to my forehead. Even Flora was smiling now, stumbling forward and giddy with laughter and alcohol.

I took her hand, spinning her in a small twirl. Her drink splashed on the floor and she giggled, slinging an arm around my neck as she yelled, "You seem a lot happier than you were this morning!"

I shrugged. "I guess Rowan knows the remedy for a broken heart?"

Her brow furrowed and I took it as a cue to explain.

"Didn't make the starting line-up, remember?" I shouted. I didn't need to expand on that – Flora knew everything there was to know about Pyrus' soccer team, and she probably already memorised the starting line-up by heart. "Rowan found me destroying the field and was weirdly understanding about it all."