That night Angel picked Katie up and took her to the party was. When Katie walked into the room, the first thing she noticed was the dimness of the lights, which cast only a gold shine and was smothered in smoke. The light kept the place just above dark. She looked around the room and saw people in small circles talking and listening to the music. Angel introduced her to many, and as she did she told Katie who their fathers were and sometimes but only on a rare occasion a mother. Most of the people at the party were somebody’s important child. The long list of senators’ and CEO’s children amazed her. Most of the them students at Yale.
They made their way to a couch, and Angel continued to point people out, and tell her why they were important.
A new song started playing over the mp3 player. Some of the young men formed a circle and started singing the words. Two of them shouted out, “Keith!” She saw a young man with dark brown hair that fell just over his forehead and was parted to the side. He held up a beer as he walked up to the crowd, shouting out a line from the song. For some reason, Katie watched the ends of his untucked blue dress shirt flop with his movements. He was attractive she thought.
“Who’s that?” she asked Angel.
Angel looked at the crowd. “That’s Keith Wilkerson, future senator of
Katie chuckled.
“His father is the most powerful lawyer in
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, he and his friend Brandon.” Angel pointed to another boy in the group with cropped short brown hair. “Once got a whole pledge class drunk and talked them into stripping in front of the house.”
Katie raised her eyebrows. “He’s going to have some youthful indiscretions to explain away.”
Katie looked at the young man, watching his full lips move to the words. She blinked when he looked at her and smiled. Her heart jumped a little when he walked over to them, taking sips from his beer. He was so handsome and well built with big board shoulders. However, Katie remembered her mother’s words: a pretty face doesn’t always mean a pretty soul. He stopped in front of them and held out his hand as he gave Angel the most captivating smile Katie had ever seen. “Come Angel.”
Angel’s eyes immediately lit up and her face brightened. She placed her hand in his and let him lead her back to the dance floor. Keith placed one hand on her hip, and stood as close to her as he could, holding the beer behind her shoulder and moving her hips in time with his as he continued to shout out the words.
Katie was confused. Angel looked up at Keith as if he was her groom. She shook her head. Apparently, Angel didn’t think she needed to stay away from him. She wanted to leave.
When the song ended, Keith turned back to the guys. Angel walked up to his side and placed her hand on his back, but he didn’t even acknowledge her as he talked to the group of men. He even stepped from her so her hand would drop. Katie wondered what kind of game he was playing.
A couple minutes later, he looked at her again and gave her a sensuous smile. She felt her stomach fall and her pulse quicken as he made a bee-line towards her. “Please, Lord give me strength,” she mumbled as Angel fled the room, wiping her cheeks. He had hurt her bad in the past, Katie realized. Suddenly she felt determined to ignore him.
She began to stand up, but she sat firmly down when she heard someone plop down beside her. She took a deep breath and turned to face Keith. He put his arm on the top of the couch, touching her shoulders. She watched as he took a sip of his beer; small beads of sweat dripped from his forehead, and collected on his brow.
“I’m Keith.” He held out his hand, still holding the beer, but with his three fingers stretched out.
She stared at him.
His lips curved up into a smirk. “What’s your name, babe?”
“I was having a better time alone.”
Keith laughed while looking up at the ceiling.
“What does your father do?” He gently touched a strand of her hair with his free hand and curled it around his finger.
Katie’s cheeks grew hot at the attention, and felt herself wanting to just sit there and bask in his mesmerizing dark blue eyes. She had never been so close to one as handsome as him. She studied his lips and wondered what it would be like to have them press firmly into hers.
“My father is a teacher, and my mother is a nurse,” she mumbled out. He’ll sleep with you and leave you, she reminded herself.
“So you got here on intelligence?”
“Yeah.”
She flinched a little when she felt Keith placed his hand on her shoulder and pulled her towards him, leaning into to her. She fought the feeling of smallness and the dire need to let those arms embrace her. He was so close to her that she could smell the beer on his breath.
He quickly raised and lowered his eyebrows. “Can I show you mine?”
Katie immediately felt repulsed. “Your breath stinks.”
He reached his hand with the beer to her cheek and gently stroked it; she felt the cold bottle touch her burning skin. He leaned in more to her face, and she tried to scoot back a little as he said, “get closer and you won’t smell a thing.”
Her eyes opened wide as he leaned in to kiss her, but she smacked him on the cheek and pushed herself from his arms. She walked straight out the front door and looked for Angel, but she was nowhere around. She almost made it to the street when he caught up to her.
“Hey, where you going?” he said taking her arm.
She tugged her arm from him. “My dorm.”
“You’re going to walk?”
“Yeah.”
“Pretty things like you shouldn’t walk alone at night.”
“I don’t care.” She crossed the street with him by her side.
She stopped and faced him when she got to the other side. “Keith, if you think I’m going to sleep with you; give up.”
Keith bent his head to the side and dug his hands deep into his pocket. “I just want to walk you home.”
She shook her head as she took off towards her dorm room with him following her every step. He tried to talk to her, but she didn’t respond to anything he said. It was a gray, warm night. She kept her eyes fixed on the ground and her arms wrapped tightly around her chest. She couldn’t figure out why he didn’t take the hint and leave her alone. Was he desperate or something?
When she got to her dorm, she unlocked the front door. “Bye Keith.”
“No thanks?”
She walked through the door.
***
Through the window, Keith watched her walk up the stairs. She wasn’t worth it, he thought. He walked back with his hands dug into his pockets. Her eyes seemed so beautiful and innocent when he sat next to her. He could still smell her perfume. What a scent - fresh oranges that evoked images of the sun. Perhaps, I will try one more time, he thought. He didn’t go back to the party, but got in his car and went home - not even caring he left
When he got to his apartment, he went to his bathroom, grabbed a black bag and sat on his bed. He grabbed a needle and a small bottle out of the bag, and raised it to his eyes as he filled the needle halfway. He tied a rubber rope around his arms, and closed his eyes as he inserted the needle into a vein of his arm. When he felt himself calm down a bit, he lay down on the bed. “Sleep,” he told himself. His thoughts trailed to Katie. Why did he care that she blew him off?
***
Katie went straight to her room, and sat on her bed. She picked up her cell phone and dialed Angel’s number.
“Hello,” Angel said.
“I left the party,” Katie said, “That jerk came up to me and started hitting on me, so I left to get away from him.”
She heard Angel laugh even though she could hear a trace of sadness in her voice.
“Did he hurt you once?” Katie asked.
“No, why do you say that?”
Katie looked up at the ceiling as she lay down on her bed. She didn’t believe Angel. Whatever he did to her, was bad. “You just seemed hurt when he walked away from you.”
“I don’t care about Keith, but it’s wise to stay away from him. He has a habit of sleeping with girls and acting like he doesn’t know them the next day.”
“Why do girls keep sleeping with him?”
“Because he’s handsome, rich, and he has this way of always convincing girls, that they are the most precious woman in the world.”
“That’s funny. All I got was my breath doesn’t stink if you get close.’ I guess he didn’t think I was much of a challenge.”
Angel laughed. “I wouldn’t worry about Keith. He never works hard to get a girl in bed.”
“Good, I was a little anxious because he insisted on walking me home even though I ignored him.”
“He did!” Angel said as her voice rose.
“Yeah.” Angel’s words startled her. Obviously, Keith didn’t walk girls home, but why did he walk her home?
“Huh, I wonder why he did that.” Angel paused for a moment. “Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow, Katie.”
“Sure.”
Katie hung up the phone, kicked her shoes off and dismissed Keith from her mind. She grabbed a picture of her next-door neighbor, a boy she’d had a crush on her whole life. She placed it against her chest and thought of him. Jeff wasn’t as handsome as Keith, but she knew his heart was pure.
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