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[sub]a collab with [@metanoia][/sub]
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[indent]In an ideal world, Nate’s memory of the bash would be foggy and the amount of alcohol he consumed would’ve been at least half what it was, not to mention the accidental groping he did courtesy of his sloppy hands and Jasper’s larger-than-usual-bust. But, of course, none of those things happened. He remembered it all and was so hungover that he didn’t even remember Sunday nor did he remember getting to his dorm. The memories from the Bash, however? Yeah, those were as clear as day.

And how he wished he didn’t remember because every time he had thought back, it had been like he was experiencing his own ‘Nam flashbacks. Pulses of light that pounded through his head like a hammer on an anvil. Water - so much water and more shots than he could count on his hands and feet. All of this came as he tried everything he could to focus on Headmistress Beaumonte’s speech but she was speaking so loudly and her voice resounded in his head like someone had forced him to listen to Friday over and over again.

As she soon congratulated everyone, he heard clapping. It was loud and booming and made him think of thunder. And Nate winced. [color=50c878]“Owww!” [/color]

His head hurt and Nate sunk lower and lower into his seat, hood up and sunglasses hiding the fact he could barely see what was in front of him. With how little attention he was paying the headmistress, he didn’t hear her say what prompted some near him to curse and give the old lady up on the stage a lot of boos, which again…[color=50c878]”Ouch!”[/color] 

Nate blinked slowly, looking to his left and it was then he just noticed who was sitting next to him. He pulled off his shades so he could get a better look and suddenly the light blinded Nate for a few seconds and blinking only made it worse. [color=50c878]“That was a bad idea,”[/color] he muttered. A couple of long moments later, Nate could see again and he saw his friend, Millie Jean! [color=50c878]“Oh hey, Mills!”[/color] He looked at her with a slight smile that masked a [b]lot[/b] of chronic pain. [color=50c878]“When did you get here?”[/color]

Millie Jean looked at Nate curiously. She had immediately spotted him and sat next to him once the assembly had started. It was better than sitting with a stranger, and while she hadn’t said anything to Nate, she had assumed he noticed her. [color=CBADD9]”I’ve been here, Nate. Did you have a hangover or something? Oh, wait...did you go to that bash thing?[/color]

Millie Jean had heard about the Bash, but she decided against going to it in order to study. She had to keep her grades up for her scholarship, not that it matters now since she’s on probation. Like everyone else, she has seen the video, and it is safe to say she’s incensed over it. If she was going to be put on probation, she might have gone. Well,  maybe not since that would mean close quarters and many people she doesn’t know.

[color=50c878]“Yeah, I went to that party..”[/color] Nate looked down with an expression of slight disappointment on his face. [color=50c878]“Best worst thing I’ve done since..well, I think ever.”[/color] He thought about if that was true or not. [i]Maybe[/i] it was a lie, but the best-best worst thing he did was so long ago that he was certain Millie didn’t care. Besides, maybe his misdeeds of the past could wait because as Nate took a quick glance around and still the other students seemed pissed. So, Nate leaned close to Millie (though not too close for obvious reasons). [color=50c878]“By the way, did you happen to catch what the Headmistress said? It seems to have caused quite a piss storm and I was...trying to listen but yeah..”[/color]

Millie Jean scowled at the general direction of the Headmistress, more angry than she has been in a while. [color=CBADD9]“Yeah, we’re all on academic probation ‘cause of fuckin’ [i]Cassian[/i] and some other guy.”[/color]

Millie Jean knew Cassian, being on the swim team together. They weren’t friends, and he intimidated her a bit, but a part of her was upset enough to confront him after the assembly if she sees him.

[color=50c878]“You’re joking, right? Please say that this is a joke.”[/color] Nate couldn’t help but stare at Millie, hoping there was a punchline on its way, but the longer he did that and the equal amount of time that passed, he knew it wasn’t, which honestly made it even worse. [color=50c878]“Aw man! This seriously tanks!”[/color] Nate physically assaulted the armrest of the chair he sat in and soon pouted. [color=50c878]“Wait, you said Cassian Lee was part of this?”[/color] The name rang a bell. He might’ve come across the guy a couple of times or knew people who were close with him but Nate didn’t know him well enough to pick him out of a crowd. [color=50c878]“What does he have to do with us getting academically grounded?”[/color]

[color=CBADD9]“He got into a fight with some guy and a bunch of people recorded it.”[/color] Millie Jean told him, leaning in slightly so he could hear what she was saying without being overly loud, [color=CBADD9]“The head of security saw it and snitched, I guess. I’m freaking out, Nate, how is this going to affect my scholarship?”[/color]

Millie Jean sighed to herself, wiping her sweaty and quivering hands on her jeans. That was it, wasn’t it? Underneath her simmering anger, the type of anger she doesn’t feel often, she’s scared that she will lose her scholarship. Maybe the Headmistress will make an exception for the scholarship kids, since this wasn’t their fault? Millie Jean hopes so, because she can’t afford the scholarship otherwise.

[color=CBADD9]“Let’s just get out of here, Nate.”[/color] Millie Jean says to Nate, standing up as the other students start milling out. [color=CBADD9]“We can get something to eat and you can tell me all about the Bash.”[/color]

Nate saw how concerned she was and stood up, smiling at Millie Jean. [color=50c878]“Yeah, let’s hit the cafeteria. After this, I have my eyes dead-set on some vending machine snacks. There’s a few of them in the courtyard near the cafeteria. We can talk there!”[/color]  Nate threw up his hood. The young male was wearing pajama pants. Not the kind that were embarrassing but the navy blue with white striped kind and his jacket was just an ordinary, Meadow University hoodie. 

As the two exited the Auditorium and walked silently (for the most part) about five minutes west, Nate kept thinking about the Bash and how he pushed himself a little too far and did things he normally wouldn’t ever, but there was something about Jasper Delamar. Or maybe Mona? He couldn’t tell which one liked him more, or which one [i]he[/i] liked more. Both seemed to be pretty into him and maybe that was the strangest thing. He’s never had more than one chick be into him or spend enough time with him to do the things that they did. Definitely peculiar but maybe that’s what he’s been missing from the college experience. The past two years he flew under the radar but, like John Cena, his time was now.

[color=50c878]“Oh finally!”[/color] Nate was brought out of his own thoughts when he saw the vending machines. [color=50c878]“Pick anything you want. I’m buying whatever!”[/color] He told Millie Jean, holding out about a dozen $1 bills in his left hand.

[color=CBADD9]“Ooh, look who’s rollin’ in that dough, though.”[/color] Millie Jean joked, grabbing a crisp bill from his hands and getting a Butterfinger. [color=CBADD9]“Thanks.”[/color]

Millie Jean unwrapped her Butterfinger and stared at Nate, trying to put her finger on what was off about him. She could only assume his spotty inattention has to do with either his hangover or something that happened at the Bash. [color=CBADD9]“Okay, spill, what happened at the Bash? I’m dying to know.”[/color]

[color=50c878]“One moment.”[/color] Nate used the remaining eleven dollars to get his fill of junk food that he knew his body was craving. Several minutes later and a lot of button-pushing, bending over later, he had accumulated three 12oz Dr. Peppers cans, four bags of BBQ Sun Chips, and a ham and cheese sandwich that he knew was full of bad fats but it was one of his favorites. [color=50c878]“Okay! What do you want to know?”[/color] He asked Millie, taking a seat on the floor against one of the vending machines  with a pile of junk food and liquid candy in his lap.

[color=CBADD9]“You keep spacing out,”[/color] Millie Jean points out, taking a seat with him and her single butterfinger, [color=CBADD9]“Just wanted to know why. Did something happen or…?”[/color]

[color=50c878]“A lot of things happened,”[/color] he clarified, cracking open one of his cans of Dr. P and took a hefty sip. [color=50c878]“But specifically, I, uh..”[/color] He stopped himself as he felt his face getting a little warm. [color=50c878]“Well, I mean, I didn’t mean to do it but it was so wet in the lake and I was dunked and I just reached for the first thing my hands could grab onto.”[/color] 

Millie Jean’s jaw dropped and she let out of a squeal of what could be either shock or amusement. In a scandalized whisper, she said, [color=CBADD9]“What did you grab? Please tell me it was some guy’s [i]ahem[/i].”[/color] She let out another chuckle, eyes swimming with mirth.

[color=50c878]“What?”[/color] He fixated his eyes on  her, staring blankly at Millie for a long moment as lips were pressed against the Dr. Pepper can. After taking a moment to realize what Millie implied, he set the can down, profusely shaking his head.[color=50c878] “Oh no! I didn’t grope some dude’s junk!” He felt he had to state that with as much conviction he could. “I just kind of…[sub]grabbed Jasper Delamar’s tata’s.[/sub]”[/color]

All of the laughter left Millie Jean as she stared at him in shock. [color=CBADD9]“You [i]what[/i]? I know it was an accident, but [i]holy fuck dude[/i]. You gotta send her an apology or something.”[/color] Millie Jean put her hands on his shoulders and shook him back and forth to punctuate her sentence. [color=CBADD9]“Ask her on a date next time, dude.”[/color]

[color=50c878]“I know, I know!”[/color] He took another sip from the can and belched. [color=50c878]“But you have to understand that they kept dunking me into the water and I panicked. Plus, I didn’t know they were her boobs. I literally thought they were her shoulders. But I guess shoulders aren’t that squishy and pillowy,”[/color] he said, thinking about that for a moment. [color=50c878]“But what should I even say? ‘Hey Jasper, sorry for accidentally grabbing your titties. Maybe we can hang later?’”[/color] He laughed but honestly this whole situation petrified him to the point where he hadn’t even thought about the food in his lap.

[color=CBADD9]“Okay, okay, don’t panic.”[/color] Millie Jean put her hands out, as if to calm a wild beast, [color=CBADD9]“Okay, how about you text her and say, ‘I’m sorry about accidentally groping you at the Bash, it was an accident’. That seems innocent enough, right?”[/color]

He nodded and took out his cellphone. He brought up the text app and typed the message exactly how she said it. [color=50c878]“How does that look?”[/color] He glanced at Millie who was hovering him like a flying saucer.

[color=CBADD9]“It looks good, I’m sure Jasper will forgive you, right?”[/color] Millie Jean said encouragingly, [color=CBADD9]“I mean...you apologized. Okay, let’s just send it and put this all behind you, bud.”[/color]

Millie Jean is straddling the line of thinking this is hilarious and being mortified on Nate’s behalf. She only hopes that Jasper is willing to forgive Nate, as she doesn’t think he could handle it if not and might die of embarrassment.  [color=CBADD9]“Maybe add ‘breasts’ somewhere in there. Or ‘honkers’.”[/color] Millie said jokingly, hoping to get at least a little bit of a smile out of Nate.

He knew what she was trying to do. And it worked. Amid the dread he had been feeling, her suggestion got him to laugh and grin ear to ear. [color=50c878]“You’re a real pal. Ya know that, right?”[/color] As Nate spoke, he heard a bunch of phones go off in the courtyard, some of them with interesting text alerts. [color=50c878]“Wow, so many people are--”[/color] Nate blinked for a moment. [color=50c878]“Wait, why did everyone get a text alert as soon as we sent out the message...”[/color] For as slow as Nate was, even he could piece it together. [color=50c878]“Oh no, Millie. You don’t think..”[/color]

[color=CBADD9]“No, [i]no[/i].”[/color] Millie said in growing horror, [color=CBADD9]“Check your message! Check! Who did you send it to?”[/color]

This could not be happening. Millie Jean will feel terrible if her suggestion backfired on Nate. It’s all her fault, isn’t it? She’s the one who told him to apologize. Of course this would happen, they have the worst luck ever!

As if his life depended on it, Nate frantically went through his recent messages. He clicked on it and looked for the recipient. “All contacts,” he said out loud. [color=50c878]“Oh, is that all--[b]WAIT WHAT!?[/b]”[/color] His voice elevated at least three octaves and every amount of feeling of panic he thought he was done experiencing just went into overdrive. [color=50c878]“Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.”[/color]
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