Shawn is a tightly wound, Type A law student in college. For the most part, he has his life figured out and planned to the minute. Then comes Caroline, a charming Type B and his unlikely equal.
Everyone's favorite procrastinator is back.
The day was here, and Shawn wasted the entire morning in denial of the events that were about to transpire. It wasn’t like him to waste time doing anything. Then again, he'd never made plans to crash a frat party before. To any other student, these would have been basic plans for a Friday evening.
He was sitting in his car when it hit him what he was about to do. This was going to be the first party he ever attended that didn’t involve networking or college hunting. Caroline called him around midday to check in and make sure he was still ready to follow through.
“Yeah of course,” he’d told her while still laying in bed. A Coelho novel was opened face down on his stomach.
Caroline groaned so loudly that the sound made a slight buzz in his ear. "Shawn, don't get antsy on me now. Not after you've gotten me invested in this love story."
"I'm not antsy," he'd lied.
Now, sitting in front of that very house, he wonders too much about how this is going to affect the rest of his semester. Hundreds of variations crossed through his mind in those two hours alone. Many are completely blown out of proportion, but no one is there to tell him that.
He surveys the front door. People have been arriving for the last thirty minutes. He then wonders if Caroline abandoned him to do this on his own. For a second, he got upset with her. He even reached for the ignition to turn his key and drive back to the dorms. Then, she knocked on his passenger window.
She gave him a Cheshire grin before pulling the door open and taking a seat next to him. Clearly, the excitement had already gotten to her.
"What took you so long" is his first question. "The party started two hours ago."
"Shawn, we don't want to be the first ones there," she says while reapplying a deep shade of red to her lips in the visor mirror. "We're not desperate to go."
"Somebody has to be first."
"Not when you're crashing— you've really never done this before, have you?"
Shawn shakes his head. Not in response. Just utter disappointment of himself. "What am I doing here? I don't even like parties. I just want to talk to Kate."
Caroline tilts her head at him. "Sometimes, we have to leave our comfort zones when we really love someone."
There was that word again. Love. His mind still wasn't completely made up on what that meant to him.
"And the first step is looking the part."
Shawn looks down at his clothes. "This is the nicest suit I own."
"And it's great," Caroline affirms. "You know, for college night. Or a career fair. Or church."
Shawn glances down at his clothes again. "I'm not following."
Caroline smiles at him. "You can be so dumb for someone so intelligent and accomplished."
"Take me for example. How do I look?"
Caroline sits back a little so Shawn can see the outfit she spent so much time putting together. Truth be told, he noticed as soon as she sat down in his car. It was hard not to. A flowy, pastel romper with heels to match. The outstanding part that remained was her makeup, which was so much darker than the clothing. She looked like the embodiment of a thunderstorm looming over a field of wildflowers.
"You look‐‐" Shawn delayed. What did she look like? The word just wasn't coming to him. "Great," he'd settled for at that moment.
"Exactly," Caroline purrs. "You can be great too for the low low price of losing that tie and blazer. And maybe undoing those top buttons."
"What is with you and my top buttons?"
She ignores his question and loosens his tie for him. Her nimble fingers work quickly to pull it over his head and undo the first two buttons. Then the third.
“No,” Shawn says, promptly redoing the third one again. “Two is more than enough.”
“Whatever. Let’s get out so I can see you standing.”
She hops out and jogs over to the driver side. Shawn steps out into the street with her. Caroline backs up to view her handiwork. Her nose scrunches up. Shawn rolls his eyes.
“Can you just relax? Like really try.”
“I-I am relaxing. This is me relaxed.”
“Not with all this tension I’m seeing here.” Caroline reaches up and pushes down on his broad shoulders. To his confusion, Shawn actually does relax under her touch. He didn’t even realize how tense he was. The adjustments continue one after another. She tosses his blazer back into the car and rolls his sleeves up to the forearms. A curl or two is pulled down on his forehead. All the while, Shawn watches Caroline get so swept up in dressing him down. She’s so focused that she doesn’t notice him smiling softly at her. Neither does he.
“Alright. How do you feel...now,” she stands back to survey him one more time.
Shawn turned around to look at himself in the car window at first confused, then easing into a new confidence. He liked it. He looked like the lead in every romantic film he’d ever seen.
“Let’s just go inside,” he finally says, biting back a grin.
Caroline beams with pride. “You like it?”
“It’ll do.” He does the gentleman thing and extends an arm to her. “Shall we?”
Caroline purses her lips together. He’s such a dweeb, she thinks to herself. And yet, she goes along with the gesture, embracing all of it.
They approach like the paradox that they are, heads held high. It’s so dark now that the only light is coming from the street lamp on the corner and the LED lights glaring through the windows. Shawn observes his surroundings, trying to convince himself that he can feel his way through this and be comfortable here. At least hopefully sooner rather than later.
The "bouncer," who is actually just Jordan Zimmerman from the football team, sizes them up at the door. He seems to recognize Caroline as an expected guest. Shawn didn't quite measure up.
"My plus one," Caroline quickly irons out and shuffles them both inside.
It’s possibly the strangest home Shawn’s ever been in. An old 1970s interior design as if someone borrowed the place from their estranged grandmother and then put sports decals in every corner of the rooms. From the front door to the back are college students drinking and talking loud. A portion of the living room has been transformed into a gaming space. Outside, what used to be a patio is now a dance floor. At the edge is the pool below, framing the whole scene with a glowing aqua backdrop.
“Let’s get drinks.” Caroline tugs him to the right. Shawn barely has time for an objection before she’s pulled him into the kitchen.
The countertop is covered wall to wall in a spread of haphazardly opened snack foods and drinks. A punch bowl rests in the center of the island. It may have been just a soda at some point, but judging by the smell, there’s definitely a strong brown liquor in it now.
A mischievous smile spreads across her face as she ladles two cups. “This should lubricate those inhibitions for you in no time.”
“Please don’t use the word ‘lubricate’ in reference to me ever again.”
Without missing a beat, she’s already taken his hand and occupied it with a cup. There’s only a few ounces at the bottom.
Caroline swirls her own cup before sipping carefully. “Trust me, that’s all you need.
Shawn, not knowing any better, tips the cup onto his lips like it’s water. Immediately there’s a sweet burning sensation mixed with what he later recognizes as coke soda. It’s too late to back out by the time it gets to his throat, and it feels like swallowing liquid sugar. The initial shock brings forth a cough, which then leads him to the sink. A couple of students walk by cheering him on. They know what a person’s first drink looks like. Caroline pats him on the back and offers words of encouragement.
“Jesus, not so fast. You were meant to nurse that for the rest of the night.”
“I feel good, but not great. But also warm. Am I having a reaction?”
“Everyone has a reaction, babe. It’s alcohol.”
He shakes his head. “It tastes like a heart attack.”
“Yeah, one of these losers tried to make a big ass bowl of rum and coke but clearly measured it wrong. It's definitely the cheap stuff.”
Shawn stumbles past her to leave the kitchen. “Okay let’s just do what we came here to do.”
Caroline lingers by the punch, wondering if she can fix the monstrosity someone else made. She peers into the fridge for a moment to see if there’s any more soda but finds nothing except beer and takeout. It’s only when she slams it shut that she realizes Shawn is missing.
“Shawn,” she calls out. No answer. Caroline maneuvers through the crowded house, trying not to look panicked. Tipsy college students bump into her as she crosses the living room, transferring some of their boozy smell to her clothes. “Shawn,” she calls out a little louder.
It takes her walking all the way to the backyard, where it seems all the couples have congregated by the pool. Shawn stood still as a statue in the door frame, holding his solo cup close to his chest. He seems different. Caroline approaches him slowly, gently touching his elbow.
“Hey,” she breathes, worrying the rum may be working too well. “You, uh, doing okay?”
He breaks his focus to give attention to her for mere seconds before zeroing back in on a couple across the pool sitting cozily in the patio furniture. Caroline follows his gaze to an extremely pretty girl talking to a really hot guy. He’s making her laugh, and she’s leaning into him. Kate she concludes to herself. She doesn’t dare say it aloud.
To make matters worse, Kate actually does make eye contact, long enough to appear only slightly uncomfortable before she goes back to her conversation. Shawn does a quick roundabout back inside. Caroline stays on his heels, hooking a finger onto his belt loop. “Shawn slow down,” she shouts over the noise.
He opens the first door he sees to find two drunk girls chatting by the bathroom mirror. “You look fine,” he snaps. “Get out.”
They shuffle out, unaffected by his tone, and he slams the door, but not before Caroline can join him. She’s not quick to turn around and face him just yet. Shawn sits on the toilet lid. Everything in his demeanor is muted and emotionless. He seems lost. Caroline takes a seat on the edge of the tub. He struggles to meet her insistent gaze.
“We can leave if you want.”
It was the last thing he expected her to say to him at that moment. The expected thing would have been a pep talk made specifically for him and right off the top of her head. So, the disappointment began to set in because he knew how much effort she put into making sure he was ready to do this party. She put so much into it and was willing to pull out because of him. He couldn’t allow it.
Any other day when he was sober, Shawn might have taken her up on the offer and retreated to the nearest Waffle House for subpar coffee and a hushed conversation in the corner booth. But he doesn’t really want to do what he normally did when everything went wrong.
Shawn pushes his hair out face and looks at himself in the mirror. Then, he shakes it back to a mess. He loosens one of the buttons on his shirt. “What would you do? If you were me?”
“You mean if I saw the person I liked curled up to some rando? I’d probably dance until I can’t breathe.”
Shawn gnaws on his bottom lip until it's bright pink. "Let's do it, then."
Caroline’s initial reaction is confusion, but it passes and is replaced by a wry smile. “Are you sure,” she asks, coyly just to give him one last chance to bail.
He’d never danced in public before, not even when asked by Kate at one of her parents’ many socialite parties. He was a textbook wallflower, after all. Being in the center of a courtroom was very different from a chaotic college party.
Shawn swallows the lump in his throat. “I— ahem— I'm positive.”
“Are we throwing the book out?” She glows with excitement.
“Sure, why not? The whole thing is already upside down.”
Caroline does a little dance in place. “Okay, okay, this is awesome. Time for my plan B.”
Without a second to spare, Caroline takes Shawn by the hand back out to the dance floor. There’s just enough space for them to dance together in the center of the living room. Sweatier, intoxicated versions of their peers soon surround them and dance to someone's hard rock playlist. Shawn finds himself actually smiling after a minute or two of choking up. Between Caroline physically encouraging him to move around and the obvious fact that anyone was too tipsy to care about him embarrassing himself, it was getting easier to let go with each song. The feelings of suffocation fade into some form of bliss.
Maybe it was because she was dancing the craziest or because she was one of the few people of color there, but Caroline burned the brightest out of everyone in the room. Shawn brings her into a spin, pulls her in, and pushes her back out— the only impressively intimate dance move he knows how to do without making a fool of himself.
Over his shoulder, just out of view, Caroline can just make out Kate's silhouette free from her previous company and staring right at them. A smile has curled up beneath her button nose. It's hard to tell through all the madness if it's amusement or adoration she's feeling, but now was the chance to get Shawn talking to her. She pulls him close to whisper in his ear.
"Don't look now, but the reason we came here is currently watching us."
Shawn's first instinct is to turn, of course, but Caroline stops him by spinning him twice and dancing to the edge of the dance floor.
"Can you be more obvious?" she hisses.
"Okay, don't panic. She just needs to see you alone, right? So I'll go get drinks -"
They both look at Kate, who has all but materialized before them.
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