Accidentally Yours

THE PARTY

Chapter 3: The Party

Monday arrived faster than I expected, bringing with it my first real day of classes.

I woke before Ellie and Samantha, sunlight filtering softly through the curtains and painting pale streaks across the ceiling. For a few moments, I simply lay there, caught between sleep and wakefulness, trying to understand why my bed felt so unfamiliar. Then it came back to me all at once—Northfield, the dorm room, the alley behind the main hall, and the uncomfortable realization that I was hundreds of miles away from the life I had always known.

After showering and getting dressed, I attempted to reason with the nervous flutter in my stomach and failed spectacularly. What if I got lost? What if I couldn't keep up? What if everyone else had already figured out how to belong here while I was still trying to find my footing?

By the time I stepped back into the room, Samantha was sitting up in bed, scrolling through her phone.

“You're up early,” she said, looking over at me.

“Couldn't sleep.”

“First-day nerves?”

“A little.”

She smiled sympathetically. “Trust me, by next week you'll be begging your alarm clock for mercy.”

Our attention shifted toward the sleeping mountain of blankets across the room, where only the top of Ellie's head remained visible.

Samantha folded her arms. “Your turn.”

“My turn?”

“You volunteered.”

“I definitely didn't.”

“You did.”

Trying not to laugh, I crossed the room and shook Ellie's shoulder. She didn't react. I tried again with the same result and turned back to Samantha.

“Is she always like this?”

“Worse.”

Without hesitation, Samantha grabbed a pillow and smacked Ellie lightly in the face.

“Class starts in forty minutes.”

Ellie's eyes flew open immediately.

“I'm awake!” she protested, sitting upright and glaring at both of us. “You two are bullies.”

“We're saving your education,” Samantha replied without missing a beat.

Ellie crossed her arms. “I was having the best dream.”

“Oh, really?” I asked. “What was it about?”

“I graduated.”

The room went quiet for exactly one second before Samantha and I burst out laughing.

“You still have four years left,” I reminded her.

Ellie groaned and collapsed back onto her pillow. “Why would you say something so cruel?”

After getting dressed, the three of us joined the steady stream of students crossing campus, the morning air cool and carrying the scent of coffee and freshly cut grass. I held my schedule a little tighter than necessary, still trying to convince myself that I wasn't completely overwhelmed.

“I think it's this way,” Samantha said, pointing toward a large building in the distance. “Freshman lectures are usually there.”

The lecture hall was enormous, with rows of seats stretching farther than I had expected and already filling with students.

“There are so many people,” I murmured.

Ellie grinned. “And this isn't even all the freshmen.”

“You're kidding.”

“I wish.”

We found seats near the middle just as a woman in a navy suit walked into the room, and the conversations around us faded almost instantly.

“Good morning, everyone. My name is Miss Kelli, and I'll be your General English lecturer this semester.” Her gaze swept across the hall. “My goal isn't simply to help you pass your exams. I also want to improve your communication skills, both inside and outside the classroom.”

For the next hour, she talked us through the syllabus, attendance requirements, and grading system. None of it was particularly difficult, but I still found myself writing down almost everything she said.

Old habits, apparently, were hard to break.

By the time the lecture ended, my wrist was aching. Ellie leaned over to look at my notebook and immediately burst out laughing.

“You wrote all of that? Ana, she was introducing herself, not handing out exam answers.”

Samantha peered over my shoulder and shook her head. “Don't worry. When exams come around, you're definitely going to be the one saving us.”

I snapped my notebook shut with a smile. “I'll remember that.”

As we walked out of the building, it occurred to me that this was the first moment since arriving at Northfield that university had actually started to feel real—ordinary, slightly overwhelming, and somehow exciting at the same time.

We were halfway back to the dorm when a brightly colored poster taped to a noticeboard caught my attention.

FRESHMEN WELCOME PARTY — EVERYONE INVITED

Location: The Private Section

Time: 9:00 PM

“A party?” I asked, slowing to a stop.

Ellie let out a squeal loud enough to make several students glance in our direction.

“We are absolutely going.”

“I'm in,” Samantha said immediately.

The two of them turned toward me at the same time.

“What about you, Ana?”

I hesitated. A crowded room filled with strangers, loud music, and dancing wasn't exactly my idea of a perfect evening.

Before I could answer, Ellie clapped her hands together.

“Perfect. It's settled.”

“I didn't even say yes.”

“You were thinking about it.”

“I was thinking.”

“Exactly.”

I sighed, already realizing that arguing with Ellie was a complete waste of energy.

“You're impossible.”

She linked her arms through ours and began steering us toward the dorm building.

“Nope. And one day you'll thank me for it.”

“Highly unlikely.”

By evening, our room looked as though a tornado had passed through it. Clothes covered nearly every available surface while Ellie stood in front of the mirror, holding up two different tops.

“Blue or black?”

“Black,” Samantha answered without looking up from her phone.

“You always say black.”

“Because black always works.”

Ellie turned toward me. “Ana?”

I glanced between the two options. “Black.”

She gasped dramatically and clutched a hand to her chest.

“Betrayed. By both of you.”

We spent the next few minutes laughing as Ellie reluctantly accepted defeat, and by the time we left the dorm, the campus had already transformed under the glow of streetlights.

The walk to the party was filled with groups of students talking loudly and laughing ahead of us, while my stomach twisted with something that wasn't quite excitement. I'd been to exactly one party in my life, and I had spent most of it hiding behind my father.

Maybe tonight would be different.

Or maybe I would regret agreeing to this the moment we walked through the doors.

“There it is!” Ellie announced excitedly, and I stopped in my tracks.

The building in front of us was enormous. Music spilled into the street, strings of lights hung overhead, and a steady line of students disappeared through the entrance.

This was definitely not the sad gymnasium party I had imagined.

“It's called the Private Section,” Ellie explained when I asked. “Alex's family owns it, and he lets students use it for events sometimes.”

Of course it belonged to him.

The moment we stepped inside, Ellie and Samantha disappeared toward the drinks table, leaving me standing awkwardly against a wall while I tried to take everything in. Music thundered through the room, colored lights flashed overhead, and couples were already tangled together in corners as though the phrase “freshman welcome party” was little more than a technicality.

Then I saw him.

Alex was leaning against one of the high tables, a rotating crowd of people around him. He barely reacted when someone laughed too loudly at something he'd said, like the sound hadn't quite reached him.

I stared a second too long.

His head lifted. Our eyes met across the room.

Crap.

He handed his drink to someone nearby and pushed away from the table without any visible urgency, yet the room noticed him moving before I did. Conversations quieted. People shifted aside. A path opened in front of him that no one seemed to have decided to make.

He stopped a few feet away, gray eyes sweeping over my face. A trace of amusement followed a beat later.

"You freshmen work fast."

I frowned. "Excuse me?"

"Two days on campus." He said it almost thoughtfully. "And you're already watching me from across the room."

Heat crawled up my neck. "I wasn't watching you."

"Sure."

He didn't argue the point.

"You wouldn't be the first."

I lifted my chin, forced a smile colder than I intended.

"Trust me. If I wanted your attention, I'd have it. And I definitely don't remember asking for yours."

Something shifted in his expression. Then, unexpectedly, he smiled.

"Keep telling yourself that, freshman."

Someone called his name from across the room. His attention moved on before I could answer.

I turned back to the wall, my face still burning, and didn't look to see whether he'd already forgotten the conversation or not.