#i hope this wasn't disappointing i always feel like my writing is trash dnknfjnf

[rainesclan]

[Part One]: Think About Me

A/N: So here it is! The multi-part Nathan fic no one asked for! Special thanks to @l8r-sk8rz for being a bad influence and encouraging me to write a Nathan fic and to @nathan-starling and @choices-opinions for always being ready for some Nathan content! *Also there should be a ‘read more’. If it isn’t working for some reason let me know and I’ll try to fix it!

Note: This is an A/U in which MC meets Nathan during her freshman year

Description: The excitement of starting her freshman year at Hartfeld has worn off for Cariedee after a tumultuous first week of financial scares and being worked to exhaustion by Professor Vasquez. In order to take her mind off of her troubles for a night, Kaitlyn invites her to a party hosted by  Alpha Theta Mu.

Rating:  PG-13 (underage drinking, some strong language)

Words: 2,236

A short lock of curled blonde hair fell into Cariedee’s face as her fingers flew almost furiously against her keyboard. She paused just long enough to tuck it back behind her ear, and her eyes followed the words as the scrolled along with the rapid motion of her fingers. While she worked without even taking a moment to gather her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed the door to her bedroom creak open until she could smell the familiar scent of Kaitlyn’s perfume lingering behind her.

“Just give me ten minutes,” she requested in a barely audible mumble. “I’m almost finished with this page.”

Her eyes were separated from her work when the screen of her laptop abruptly disappeared. She pulled her hands away for the keyboard just in time for the screen to close down on it, and she looked down to see the little light behind the apple symbol flicker out.

“Kaitlyn!”

“Come on, Car, no stressing tonight!” Kaitlyn insisted. She placed her hands firmly on her hips when her suitemate turned around in her desk chair to look at her. “You promised you’d take a night off.”

Cariedee opened her mouth to refute the statement, but had to stop herself when she realized there was nothing she could say. She had promised Kaitlyn that she’d take a night off from stressing about Professor Vasquez’s deadlines and how long she would be able to survive his outrageous demands before having to quit and losing her scholarship. If Vasquez was going to push her to her breaking point, and she was no longer going to be able to stay at Hartfeld, she figured she might as well make the most out of it while she still could.

And if that meant letting loose for at least one night and enjoying a night out with her friends, that was what she was going to do.

“Vasquez is gonna kill me if I don’t finish this by Monday morning,” She reminded Kaitlyn as she stood up and made her way over to where she had a few of her favorite outfits hanging in her closet.

“A small price to pay for the full college experience,” Kaitlyn retorted with a nonchalant shrug. “And you know what just screams full college experience?”

“Not having to worry about losing your only available scholarship for not living up to someone’s ridiculously high standards?”

Kaitlyn’s smile faltered and twisted into a sympathetic frown.

“I was gonna say ‘having fun at a frat party with all of your suitemates,’ but I guess yours is pretty valid too.” 

With a defeated sigh, Cariedee pulled a plain black crop top off of one of her hangers and held it up to her chest to measure if it was still going to fit after a week’s worth of going out to dinner for pizza to avoid dining hall food. While she knew she was being a somewhat of a downer on a night that was supposed to be fun, she almost couldn’t help it. She wished she could go back to being carefree and living the college dream like she was during her first day on campus, but ever since her mom called to break the news about her father losing his job, all of that felt impossible.

“Hey,” Kaitlyn’s tone was more gentle than it had been all night when she reached out to touch her friend’s arm. “You know I’m just trying to cheer you up, right? I know this hasn’t exactly been the first week of college you were hoping for.”

When they locked eyes, Cariedee couldn’t help but smile. For all of the hardships that college had been presenting her with so far, she was grateful that at least one thing had gone right. She had gotten matched with the best suitemates she could have hoped for, and even when she wasn’t expressing it as well as she would have liked, she was grateful for all of them.

“You’re doing great,” she assured her, and patted Kaitlyn affectionately on the arm. “Now let me get dressed and we’ll go.”

“I’m gonna go get some drinks! I’ll be right back!” Zack leaned close to Cariedee as he shouted over the thundering bass of the music that was playing so loudly it was shaking the walls of the Alpha Theta Mu clubhouse.

Instead of giving a verbal answer that she knew would go unheard through all of the noise, she simply nodded and watched him begin to make his way through the crowd. While she appreciated the sentiment of her friends wanting to bring her to this party to take her mind off of things, she wasn’t sure standing shoulder to shoulder with what felt like practically every student at Hartfeld was as effective as a stress reliever as they were hoping it would be. Maybe it would have benefitted her to have gone to a few small house parties during her high school years to prepare her for frat parties like this one, but she knew there was no use in pondering that now.

She could practically feel the heat radiating off of everyone’s bodies as she wove her way through groups of rowdy drunk students with no destination in mind. The closer she found herself getting to the source of the music, the more disorienting it became, and she hadn’t noticed someone step out in front of her with a solo cup in each hand until it was too late.

Her hand darted out to steady the full solo cup in the stranger’s hand, but she realized she hadn’t been quick enough when the red punch that seemingly everyone at the party had been drinking splashed up above the rim and coated his hand in the pungent liquid.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” she apologized quickly. Her hand instinctively reached out to help, although she wasn’t entirely sure what she could do. “It’s just so packed in here and-”

A warm chuckle drew her eyes up to really look at the stranger standing in front of her’s for the first time. She felt the blood rush up to her cheeks subconsciously when the tall blonde flashed a charming smile in response, and his calm demeanor was a stark contrast to her franticness when he spoke.

“It’s not a problem. Really,” he assured her. “Nothing a few napkins can’t fix.”

“Here. Let me get some for you and we’ll call it even,” she insisted, but stopped herself before she could turn away from him. “Would you happen to know where they are?”

He chuckled again before responding.

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t considering I am one of the hosts,” her mouth opened to respond, but she didn’t have the opportunity before he gestured towards a hallway where the crowd seemed to thin out a bit. “This way.”

Sticking close to the only person who had become even vaguely familiar to her, Cariedee made her way through the crowd with him, the music fading just slightly the further away they got from the speakers. Once the volume around them was low enough that they no longer had to yell in order to be heard, he glanced back to make sure that she hadn’t gotten lost in the shuffle and flashed another smile when they made brief eye contact.

“I’m Nathan, by the way.”

"Cariedee.”

“Well it’s a pleasure to meet you, Cariedee,” her soft laugh caused him to cast another glance over his shoulder and share his own. “Although I suppose it’d be more so if I wasn’t covered in jungle juice.”

“Yeah...again...sorry about that.”

The crowd had practically disappeared by the time they reached the end of the hall that branched out into a more open kitchen area, and Cariedee subconsciously drew in a deeper breath once she no longer felt boxed in. Someone clapped Nathan on the shoulder and said a quick hello before he pulled a paper towel off of the roll and turned his attention back to her.

“If you’d like to make it up to me you could let me get you a drink and come take a walk with me outside,” he suggested. “I could use a break from all of this.”

“That sounds great, actually,” she told him, and he grabbed two unopened cans of beer from a cooler next to the kitchen before leading her to the back door.

The air was still sticky with the late summer humidity that hadn’t quite gone away yet once they stepped outside of the clubhouse, and the loud music and combination of voices faded into quiet muffles as they got further from the source. Cariedee checked her phone to make sure that none of her friends were looking for her, tucking it away in her pocket when she saw no new messages. One of the lessons that her parents had reiterated to her over and over was to not get separated from her friends at a party. She knew as long as no one was actively looking for her, she wasn’t being completely irresponsible...even if she had implied to Zack that she’d wait for him to come back with drinks.

The muffled music slowly became replaced by the buzzing of insects, and the two near-strangers walked in a silence that was more comfortable than either of them had previously expected. Cariedee sighed subconsciously when a gentle breeze cooled her overheated skin and cracked the can of beer in her hand open to take a sip.

“I have to apologize for the cheap beer,” Nathan’s voice drew her attention back to him, and he offered her a small half smile. “I would have offered you something a little more refined...but we know better than to bring out the best stuff at parties like this.”

“Why? You don’t think rowdy college students can appreciate the finer things in life?” She teased.

“At a Welcome Week party? Hardly,” his eyes nearly twinkled when he laughed. “I’m fairly sure everyone’s goal here is to drink as much as possible in as little time as possible. Not exactly the setting for the smoothest whiskeys money can buy.”

“Yeah. I guess you’re right. Maybe next time.”

The statement seemed to catch his attention, and he cocked an eyebrow with a smile in response.

“Are you considering rushing?” 

“No. Definitely not,” she said, before backtracking just a bit. “I mean...don’t take it personally. It’s not Alpha Theta Mu. I just kind of have enough to worry about right now without the added stress of everything that comes with rush week.”

Nathan nodded politely. 

“Well if you change your mind I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing you around more often.”

As much as she tried, Cariedee couldn’t contain her sheepish smile, and she glanced away from him in hopes that he couldn’t see the pink tint in her cheeks in the darkness of the night. If nothing else...he was certainly charming.

“So do you flirt with every person who spills a drink on you?” She asked.

“Only the ones I’m intrigued by,” he smiled again when she looked back at him. Before she could think of a response, he chuckled almost awkwardly and continued. “In all honesty, I’m usually not this forward. That jungle juice must have been stronger than Beau let on to.”

She let out a short laugh and rolled her eyes playfully. While she may not have known him well – or at all for that matter – she prided herself on having a good read on people. Charm and flirtation seemed to come so naturally from him that she had a difficult time believing it wasn’t his default way of communication.

“Sure,” she laughed. “Blame the jungle juice.”

The sound of the back door of the clubhouse opening with a loud creak abruptly cut off their conversation, and the light from the kitchen made the person who left the house out to be simply a shadow. As whoever it was approached, his features became more defined, and the unfamiliar student smiled broadly at her and Nathan once he was close.

“Speaking of Beau,” Nathan started, only to be cut off before he could finish.

“Nate-Dog!” The way that Beau’s words slurred let her know that he had consumed entirely too much alcohol that night. He stumbled forward a bit before catching himself on Nathan’s shoulder. “Someone set up a pong table. We’ve gotta go rekindle our beer pong champion days.”

By the way he was dressed and the way he presented himself, Cariedee hadn’t really imagined Nathan being the “beer pong champion” type, and she had a feeling it wasn’t his proudest accomplishment either by the way he chuckled awkwardly and smoothed his already well-kept hair away from his eyes.

“I guess that’s my cue,” he told her with a sheepish smile.

“Go reclaim your throne,” she teased with a gentle laugh. “It was nice meeting you, Nathan.”

“The pleasure was all mine, Cariedee.”

Beau grabbed his arm to lead him back towards the clubhouse, but before they could get too far, Nathan stopped in their path and turned back to look at where Cariedee still stood out in the blue glow of the night. 

“Cariedee,” he called back to her, and she looked back up from where her gaze had shifted down to the grass. “I know you’re not interested in rushing Alpha Theta Mu this year...but I hope you’ll consider what I said before. About not wanting this to be the last that we see of one another.”

After taking a moment to think, she opened her mouth to respond. By the time she sorted through her thoughts and found the words that she wanted to say, however, Nathan and Beau were both gone...back into the clubhouse and into the massive crowd where she was sure she wouldn’t be able to find them again for the rest of the night.