”She vouched for you. That means your part of the gang, and everyone seems to think your nice too.” There was a pause, she looked at me expectantly but I didn’t say anything, instead I reverted back to staring – drinking in her features like a alcoholic deprived of their preference of poison – while she gazed intently at the gorgeous scenery.

After a few minutes of silence she turned to me, capturing my blue orbs with her soulful brown ones, and asked if I was planning on staying on the balcony for much longer and if I was ready to go back inside she would join me after she made a quick phone call. Grinning stupidly at her I stepped inside of the double glass doors to wait for her. The one-sided conversation she was having and that I happened to overhear sounded hostile and the pleading in the Latina’s voice made me feel angry at whoever was quite obviously taking her for granted. We’d met for less than 10 minutes and I already felt something I’d never felt for another person before. It was scary to say the least and I had to shrug the thoughts off as soon as possible. This girl was Teddy’s friend, there could be no more disastrous sexual encounters with straight friends in my lifetime. The drama they brought was too much to handle.

”Hey, it’s me. I’m just checking in.”

”No I know, you know I wish I was with you, but you and Addie do-”

”Please don’t snap I’m just -”

”Yeah, I mean I was going to stay but I guess-”

”OK. No. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

”Yeah. You too. By-”

Callie looked at her phone, and I watched as she shook her head, cleared her throat, wiped away a stray tear, straightened her shoulders then turned to me with a guarded but soft appearance. ”Ready to go back in?” she asked, trying to hide the emotion evident in her voice.

”I am. Are you? I don’t mind waiting for another minute. The party isn’t going anywhere.” I replied knowingly, if all I could give this beautiful soul was the solace of comfort in this moment, that’s what she would get. It was strange even then, I knew I would do anything for her, and I had only known her name for 15 minutes.