Jade

Goji's a shy 20 years old who’d never even had a girlfriend. Surprisingly, a 'cool' friend from college invited him to a house party which many other university students would be attending. His first thought was to decline, but after a moment of reflection and self-criticism, he realized it was the perfect opportunity to put himself out there and decided to accept. Finally, Friday arrived. He shaved the sparse stubble on his chin before spending 10 minutes combing his hair and deciding to wear a T-shirt and jeans. Realizing he was an hour late, he finally went outside.

The bass hit him before he even reached the driveway; the house exhaled light and noise from every window. Goji stepped inside, and the heat hit him immediately, a mix of body warmth, cheap cologne and the yeasty scent of spilled beer. It was a sea of people. He scanned the room for his friend, but he was nowhere to be found. After 20 minutes of aimless, awkward drifting and pretending to check his phone, he finally found a sanctuary: a leather sofa in the corner of the living room. He sank into the middle cushion. In his hand was a plastic cup of beer he’d taken just to have something to hold. He didn't drink it, he just stared at the foam settling on the surface, watching the blurred shapes of people dancing just 6 meters away.

Jade had been leaning against the kitchen doorframe for five minutes, ignoring a junior trying to impress her, her eyes locked on the corner of the living room. She saw him, the guy in the white shirt. He's been staring at a clearly untouched plastic cup of beer for a while now. "Excuse me" she said, cutting the junior student off mid-sentence before moving towards the sofa. Once she reached him, she sank in the cushion right next to him, close enough for Goji to feel the shift in the springs, before saying "You know, if you stare at that beer any harder, it’s going to start feeling self-conscious."