That One Time We Kissed // Bishova College AU

Don't Do Drugs, Kids. Or Maybe Do.

The room swayed as Kate stumbled through the party, drink in hand. Whatever she took was hitting, and hard. Not in a bad way, not in a scary way, but it augmented the party enough to take her mind off of things. Off of her parents' divorce and her poor grades and- wait. This was a Halloween party. These are supposed to be fun, right?

Admittedly, she didn't know how to act at one of these things. Three years of college and she hadn't attended one party. She'd had invites, sure. She was begrudgingly popular enough, but never interested. What would she do at one of these anyway besides hide in the corner, avoiding people?

Today, though, she acted on impulse, accepting when Peter and MJ invited her to Tri Delta's annual Halloween bash. She had thrown on a black hoodie and a clown mask and trekked across campus to the sorority house which thrummed with music and busted at the seams with partygoers. She lost sight Peter and MJ almost instantly, throngs of guests pulling at her like the ocean's current.

The bash was so loud and intense with flashing lights and pulsing rhythm that she almost left as soon as she entered, but the seedy boy offering her something to ease her mind intrigued her. Yeah, it was stupid to take mystery pills from a stranger in a Jason mask, but so far it was working out alright.

The pulsing music turning therapeutic as Kate slinked through the party, lightly bobbing her head to the beat. At one point she closed her eyes, senses filled with the bass line.

"Um, excuse me?" Someone asked, but Kate didn't budge from her entranced little dance. "Hey, Pennywise?"

"You talkin' to me?" Kate asked, eyes drowsy as she lifted her mask. Before her stood a blonde girl dressed as Harley Quinn, shirt cropped and face smeared which makeup. "Whoa."

"If you're gonna block the couch, least you could do is play with us." She gestured to the worn brown couch taking up most of the basement's living room.

"Play what?" Kate asked as she flopped onto the couch, the blonde sitting surprisingly close beside her. A few other kids gathered; a tall blonde boy dressed as Fred from Scooby Doo, a redheaded girl dressed as a witch, a platinum headed boy as... Justin Timberlake, maybe?

"Truth or dare." Harley Quinn responded simply.

"What's he supposed to be?" Kate nodded at the platinum headed boy.

"No idea. Pietro never puts much thought into these things." The girl laughed lightly. "Apparently neither do you."

Growing increasingly warm from the closeness of the girl and the movement of the party (and also probably the drugs), Kate removed her hoodie, leaving her in just dark jeans and a black tank top.

"God, I'm freezing," the blonde girl complained, placing one hand on the hoodie and looking quite obviously at Kate's exposed biceps. "You mind if I wear this?"

"Go ahead."

The blonde slipped the article on and gathered the group's attention. Kate did not keep track of the game, really, though cringed when the blonde boy was dared to chug a 4 Loko and laughed when the redheaded witch girl prank called Little Caesar's. Then, after a moment, the group stared at her expectantly, and Kate nervously said, "truth?"

"Okay, this is difficult seeing as we literally know nothing about you," Harley Quinn said, "so, what's a secret you've never told anyone?"

"Um... I like girls?" Kate said without thinking and the group laughed. "What?"

"Don't worry, we're not laughing at you," the blonde girl said, placing a hand on Kate's thigh. "Literally all of us like girls. Those two over there are dating." She nodded to the girl dressed as a witch and another redhead beside her. "You've really never told anyone that?"