Page 13 of Reversal of Fate

9 – It’s a Party and I leave if I want to

Los Angeles, Friday, September 26, 2025, 9:20 p.m.

Julie chided herself for having listened to her housemates. She should have never let them talk her into coming to this party. For starters, Belle, Michaela, Sandy, and Olive had barely spoken two words to her when she and Tonia had arrived. They’d already met up with some guys they knew and disappeared into the crowd. And moments after Tonia and Julie had gotten themselves a drink, Tonia had been dragged away by another friend. For a half hour, Julie just hung around the edges of the main room, sipping on her drink, the overly loud music making conversation virtually impossible.

When the stragglers of her group, Emily and Claire, finally arrived a half hour later, she hoped to hang around them so she wouldn’t look like she didn’t belong. But it didn’t take long for the two of them to be invited to dance. Suddenly, she stood there again like a wallflower. Apparently, just wearing a revealing dress to a party didn’t automatically mean that guys found a girl appealing. Did she have ‘hapless virgin’ written on her forehead? Or a mole on her face nobody had told her about? Or was it absolutely obvious that she didn’t feel comfortable in this borrowed dress?

This was a disaster. Julie took a last gulp of the alcoholic punch, and turned to set the empty cup down somewhere. However, there was no ledge or side table or anything else where she could put the cup down. She couldn’t very well drop it on the floor. She’d been raised better.

Sighing, she walked back into the smaller, adjacent room where the bar, which consisted of a large table with a massive punch bowl, an assortment of various liquor bottles, and a mishmash of plastic cups, stood. There, she found a trash bin and dropped her empty cup in. It was quieter in here, and people were standing around talking.

That’s it for me, she thought, and pivoted to make her exit. Just then, the alcohol kicked in, and she swayed a little. Apparently the punch packed quite a, well… punch.

“Hi.”

She lifted her head and met the speaker’s gaze. She almost choked on her own saliva. This was Todd Stirling who played on the university’s football team. To say he was popular was an understatement.

Had he spoken to her? Most likely not. He didn’t know her. Julie looked over her shoulder to see who he was greeting, but there was nobody behind her. Her face flushed crimson, if the heat suffusing her cheeks was anything to go by, and she turned back to look at him.

“I’m Todd,” he said with a wide smile. “I don’t think we’ve met.”

It took her a moment to find her voice. “I’m Julie.” Was that a frog in her throat?

“Nice to meet you, Julie. Having fun at the party?”

“Uh…” It was probably better not to say that she’d been about to leave. That would make her look lame. “Yeah, totally… it’s great. The music… and yeah, great.” She sounded like a moron. “Fabulous house,” she added quickly to sound a little more intelligent. “Craftsmen, right?”

Now he was the one looking a little perplexed. Clearly, he had no idea about architecture. “Yeah, if you say so.”

Well, she’d done it. She’d made him regret having spoken to her. No wonder she didn’t like to go to parties and talk to guys. It never turned out the way she wanted it to.

“So,” he started, “what’s your major? You’re at UCLA, right?” He winked. “Or did you crash the party? You can tell me. I won’t kick you out.” He laughed.

“Yes, I mean, no, I didn’t crash… the party,” she replied, all flustered. “I study Nanotechnology at UCLA. Or actually I mean I’ll go into that as my specialization once I’ve got all the regular technology classes out of the way. And then I’m hoping to do a Masters at MIT. If I get in that is.”

A look at Todd, and she realized he wasn’t really interested in all that. He’d only asked to be polite. She had to save this before he walked away.

“So, great games last season. I hope you’re playing again this year,” she said quickly.

He grinned. “Yeah, I’ve got to. Football scholarship. So you watched the games, huh? Any player in particular you liked to look at?”

Was he leaning in closer now? Heat rose up her nape.

“The whole team is great. I mean, you guys won a lot of games, even against your archrivals, the Trojans.”

“We’re gonna make mincemeat out of them this season, you wait and see!”

Todd did have a high opinion of himself and the team, but maybe he was nervous too, and just wanted to keep the conversation going. She had to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“I’d love to watch that,” Julie said, though she’d never been too keen on watching football games. In fact, they bored her, but it seemed that all the cool guys were on the team. Or maybe they just appeared cool, because they were rather unapproachable.

Todd suddenly motioned to her hand. “You don’t have a drink.”

“Uhm—”

“I’ll get you one. Punch?” he asked.

“That’d be great.”

“Here, hold my beer while I get the punch.” He pressed the cup of beer into her hand, and turned around.

She watched him, or rather his broad back, as he grabbed a fresh cup and poured punch into it. Well, maybe this party wasn’t so bad after all.