As I fixed my hair in the mirror for the tenth time I looked myself over once again. “This stupid party is going to kill me.” I thought as I ran my grandmother’s brush through my hair for the eleventh time. I glanced back to my bed where my grandmother had laid me out some clothes for tonight. The long dark, blue jeans and maroon sweater went well with my long, auburn, wavy hair.
“Paige, Laurie is picking you up in a half an hour be ready!” My Grandfather called down the hall.
Laurie has been my friend since we were toddlers, and she is the only friend I have been able to keep for more than one month. She is the only reason why I am even going to this party in the first place. According to Laurie I have “no social life” and need to “put myself out there” so here I am.
I finally finished getting dressed and doing my hair so I looked once more at the clock. Laurie should be here in around 10 minutes, but knowing her it will probably be more like 20. “Well I have 20 minutes to kill,” I deduced as I sauntered across the room, and plopped myself on the plaid sheets of my bed.
As I burrowed myself into my comforter different scenarios started to pop into my head on how tonight could go. It could be a great time, and maybe I could even forget about the stress of submitting college applications and getting grades up.  Or maybe the party would be so boring that we all die of boredom.
As the doorbell rang I crawled out of my cover burrow, and made last minute tweaks to my hair while my Grandmother answered the door.
“Oh, hello Laurie, one second- Paige, Laurie’s here!”
When I had decided I was presentable enough, I went down the stairs, caring enough for my hair but still not enthusiastic for the approaching night. Laurie was standing in our entryway talking to my Grandma about the upcoming party of the year.
“Oh wow Paige you look actually decent for once in your life!” exclaimed Laurie as I stepped into her view.
“Aw shucks buttercup how sweet of you,” I snapped back at my long time best friend. We have always had this kind of relationship with each other.
“Stop daydreaming you big moron, it’s time to go,” she said snapping me out of my trance.
“Do we really have to go to this stupid party?” I whined to Laurie as we prepared to depart.
“That is the forty second time you have asked that question, and the answer still hasn’t changed from yes, we are going whether you want to or not,” Laurie replied.
“Dang it,” I replied as we started jogging to the car outside in the cold winter weather. We drove across town occasionally bursting out in our favorite songs. Once we finally reached our destination we got out of the car and jogged inside (all the while I was being very careful about my wonderful hair arrangement). I was beginning to look forward to my first actual party.  Then we opened the door.
Once the door was opened a world of idiots was revealed to me. There were people drinking beer and then proceeding to smash the cans on their foreheads, and people sledding down the stairs, basically it was a stereotypical high school party (allusion) .
“I’m going to grab a drink. Do you want anything?” Laurie shouted over the music to me.
“No I’m good. Hey you have a good time, I’m going to find a dark corner to spend the next hour and a half,” I replied.
“Oh come on at least try and socialize for once please,” Laurie responded.
“Like you didn’t already know this was going to happen,” I shouted back. Laurie walked away rolling her eyes at me. I decided the hunt for a quiet dark corner was going to be very laborious and time consuming, so I decided to take some food on the road with me.
As I walked over to where I had spotted some snacks I counted four different kinds of beer, three different couples kissing, and one person throwing up in a poor houseplant. “What a night,” I thought to myself as I walked past all the morons.
After forty-five minutes of searching for a hole to hide in, I finally found a somewhat unoccupied spot to wait out the next thirty minutes. As the search continued for a place to sit I saw someone who looked like they wanted to be there just as much as me. (Which by the way wasn’t very much.)
“Hey you’re Paige right?” asked the mystery girl.
“That’s me,” I started “But may I ask who you are?”
“Oh yeah sorry, I’m Eli.”
“I guess we have the same idea about this party, huh?” I questioned.
“Guess so,” she replied. That was all we said to each other; yet I feel like I made a breakthrough in the realm of actually being social. So we sat there in silence for thirty minutes the only source of light being our phones lighting up our faces.
“Paige where are you we’re leaving!” I heard Laurie yell.
“Coming!” I screamed back, eager to leave.
“Where was my little abandoned puppy hiding?” She asked as I came back into her view.
“Oh wow that’s a new nickname. Oh yeah, and just throwing this out here, but are you drunk?” I asked as I watched her smiling at a horde of guys on the other side of the room.
Laurie giggled as one of them winked at her and replied “ Oh relax, and maybe try to make yourself look attractive because some of the guys are walking towards us.” And just like that I turned around to see who she was talking about, But I couldn’t see them over the man’s chest in my face. I know being short has its challenges, but come on.
“Hey Laurie you find your geek?” Mr. Muscle asked.
“Yeah she did, now let's get out of here,” I replied. As we walked out to the car I began getting more and more nervous about getting in the car with these people. I mean there is a good probability they are all drunk, and I kind of want to go on living tonight, thanks.
“I don’t know Laurie, maybe I can call my Grandma and she can give me a ride home,” I reasoned.
“ Don’t be a wimp Paige it’s ten minutes of your life, what’s going to happen?” Laurie replied as we got into the back seat of the run down Aveo together. And of course being the extremely lucky and also extremely short person of the group I was forced to sit in the middle seat between Laurie and yet another random dude.
Three minutes into the car ride I heard the familiar sound of a can opening and looked to the passenger’s seat to find that he had opened a beer, and to make this all the more fun, was handing it to the driver.
“Laurie isn’t drinking and driving, oh you know, against the law?” I whispered.
“What’s that the sourpuss wants a drink?” Laurie shouted. Instantly the car flooded with a chorus of “oohs” as they handed me the half empty can.
“I’m not over twenty-one this is illegal.” I declared.
“Paige you’re such a drag,” Laurie pointed out.
“Yeah in fact, I don’t know if my car can keep going with all that weight back there!” I heard Blake add.
“Oh no look my car is stopping, looks like we have to get rid of  some empty weight boys.” He added with a smirk. And just like that I was thrown into the snow, and they were driving away.
“Oh my goodness, I am going to be left here in the cold, alone.” I thought repeatedly to myself. “Everyone abandons me. My mom and dad, everyone I’ve ever tried to befriend, and now my best friend,” I concluded as my body temperature sank. I felt like I was falling, and I started to hyperventilate. “I’m being abandoned again,” was the only clear thought in my head.
I didn’t even notice the headlights approaching in the distance. Or when the car pulled over next to me. I only noticed when warm arms were guiding me into the back seat of a truck, and even then I didn’t notice who was leading me.  It was Eli, and she had come to my rescue in a rusty blue pickup truck.
Once inside the truck she grabbed me by the shoulders.
“Focus on controlling your breathing Paige. Come on in and out, don’t let your panic win!” She chanted. As I tried to follow her instructions I looked around frantically trying to figure out some sense of where I was. I noticed another girl with short baby blue hair sitting in the passenger seat.
Once my breathing was in control I thanked Eli profusely and asked for a ride home. I also found out that the other person in the car was Eli’s girlfriend, who was the one to force Eli to go to the party in the first place.
As we pulled in my driveway I thanked them again and then ran inside to where I knew I could find comfort. I opened the door to my room and plopped on my bed once more. “What a night.” I thought to myself as I slowly drifted off to sleep.