"Shrinking Under Pressure"
by Sonicfan287
Chapter 7: Party Time
"Since when is Zack Austin a party boy?"
The thought resonated in poor Ashley's head the entire ride. The background sounds of her friend Alisha, the top 40 music blaring on the radio and the passing cars seemed to disintegrate around her as she felt the echoes of the past thunder through her mind. Finally, some reality broke through.
"Ashley... girl" Alicia said, in a concerned tone, "are you okay? You haven't seemed yourself since we left the mall"
"Yeah... yeah I'm fine" Ashley chuckled uneasily, trying to hide her face from her friend by continuing to obsess on the dashboard. After several moments, her demanor grew darker. She was dreading the party more and more, without even knowing if he'd be there. Even if he wasn't, she had already felt the life get sucked out of her just thinking about it. Maybe he had changed. Zack was always a little seclusive, and while Ashley didn't appreciate being ignored and pushed away, she at least expected some of this. This latest development was something she never expected.
"So, I'm thinking we drive around a bit more" Alisha interjected, "y'know, to be fashionably late and then we can..."
"I don't wanna go..." Ashley mumbled.
"What'd you say?" Alicia asked.
"I don't wanna go..." Ashley groaned, much louder this time.
"Tell me this isn't because of Zack..." Alisha sighed.
"It's not because of Zack!!" Ashley cried, becoming noticeably upset. "Please! Just take me back to the dorm, it's on your way anyway... please... you go. Have fun... I just ... I'm not in the mood"
"Not in the ... you're never in the mood" Alicia exclaimed, "I've known you for a while and I get it. You're a quiet girl and that's cool and I've always respected that but this is more than being a little socially awkward... you wanted to go to this party, I know you did"
"I don't know..." Ashley sighed, turning away in disgust, "Maybe, but I really don't... I... I'm not going to have any fun and I'm just gonna drag the mood down. Please just take me back. I've got some homework to work on anyway"
"You've got the whole weekend, Ashley" Alicia replied.
There were several moments of awkward silence before Alicia realized the inevitability of what was going to take place.
Elsewhere, Zack Austin sat in his car, feeling a similiar sense of inevitability.
"I really don't wanna go to this stupid thing..." Zack sighed to himself, thinking so loud he could practically hear the disgust in his voice as he sat in his parked car, watching people shuffle towards the central location of UCONN's Jacoby Hall ; a well known party dorm. He could already predict the scene at the ensuing party.
General darkness, aside from a flashing rave light would be the scene, with drunken students running amuck and other such chaos. Zack was beginning to question more and more why he ever sought out this party in the first place. Was he really becoming like Jack? Chasing a desire with no substance just to stay 'relevant'?
He couldn't help but wonder what Ashley thought of all this and what her reasoning would be for coming... did he really want to risk running into her? He looked down at his phone, tempted to text her. Even if it was just to say something quick, it would be a nice gesture. He didn't hate his ex girlfriend and secretly wouldn't mind meeting up with her at some point, as his counselor had suggested, but now was neither the time or place.
Zack began to type the characters onto his phone, spelling out a short message for Ashley.
Before he could finish, he heard a light tapping on his window pane. Damn, who else knew he was here?
"Hey!" came the female voice, barely audible through the window. Zack opened the door and greeted her, putting his phone back into his pocket without finishing the text message.
"Hey Julie..." Zack said, faking a tone of happiness as he gave her a hug. As he backed away slowly, he remembered some of Jacks words from the gym the other day. 'Damn, she is cute' Zack thought to himself as they slowly began walking together.
"I'm surprised you showed up" Julie smiled, her hair fluttered in the breeze as she walked. Zack could also faintly smell a lightly scented strawberry perfume on her. She was cute anyway but she seemed to have put in a lot of extra effort for the occasion. As a result, Zack felt increasingly embarassed for showing up in a "makeshift" outfit.
"Heh, you know..." Zack said, sputtering for a few seconds before ending his sentence "....you know?"
"I know?" Julie chuckled.
"You know..." Zack shrugged, "It's something to do"
"It is something to do" Julie nodded, smiling politely as she walked a bit ahead of him. Zack did his best to walk alongside her but as the crowd around them gathered, it became harder and harder to do so.
"So, you coming with anyone? Jason?" Zack asked.
"Fuck no" she laughed, "but he'll probaby be here... speaking of which, where's Jack? I figured if anyone was going to convince you to get out here, it'd be him"
"Psh, I don't need Jack to convince me of anything" Zack chuckled, "I wanted to come out anyway, y'know... I'm sure he's here somewhere though"
"Probably inside already" Julie replied. "Well, hey I'll see you inside, right?"
"Um, yeah, definitely" Zack said, trying to keep his conflicting emotions in check.
"Ok cool, see you Zack" Julie said, drifting off into the crowd to meet up with a friend of hers.
Zack decided to just suck it up and go to the party at that point. How bad could it be?
Back at UCONN, a very glum Ashley sat up in her bed. With Alicia and Caroline both gone for the party, she could finally be alone, but is that what she really wanted? As she contemplated this, she was also making another questionable decision. She was typing a text message to Zack. She wanted to at least leave the doors open for communication, even if she wasn't particular interested in hearing about his new partying lifestyle.
In retrospect, she thought aloud, I shouldn't be surprised. He used to be good friends with Jack who could be a bit rowdy and maybe college had drawn them closer together again. As she shifted her focus from her phone to the crumpled up piece of paper in her purse, she let out a great sigh and closed her phone, letting it remain in her purse after tossing it inside. She zipped up the bag, casting darkness on both the phone and the scrap of paper, a doodle of the one and only Polyman.
"We Can't Stop....We Won't Stop...."
"Oh please stop..." Zack groaned to himself as the Miley Cyrus music persisted.
To make matters worse, it wasn't just Miley Cyrus. It was the super extended Skrillex cut.
Then again, nobody was really paying attention. The relatively large dorm room seemed to be just managed enough for it to not be chaotic while still maintaining that sense of irresponsiblity that most people expected from college parties. You had a few people trying to dance, while spilling their drinks. You had others who were just mingling. Then in the spare bedrooms, you had something of a purely sexual nature occuring, while in another room, you could distinctly smell the marijuana trailing out of the room.
As Zack scanned the room over, sitting in a couch next to a couple of others who didn't speak much, he caught a shocking sight. Coming out of a room, from which he could hear giggling girls inside was Eddy. The same Eddy from science class who had mocked him before. Zack found himself suddenly empowered to speak to him.
"Hey... Hey dork-ass" Zack chuckled, approaching his science rival.
"Zack Austin... the fuck are you doing here?" Eddy said, sounding both curious and angry to see the one who nearly fought with him. "You don't know anyone here"
"Oh and you do?" Zack laughed, "C'mon dude, these chicks are all out of your league, or are you just coming to get some pointers?"
As a few attractive women left the room behind Eddy, some still putting their clothes back on, Eddy let out a cocky chuckle, as Zack stared on in disbelief. Either Eddy was on some strong Viagra or there was something in the drinks. Maybe he had bumped his head on the way to the party and was actually in an alternate universe.
"You were saying?" Eddy smiled.
"Look, I came here to have a good time, like everyone else" Zack sighed, "Let's just... drop it, okay?"
"You're the one who started it" Eddy mocked, "and if anything, you're not on the guest list"
"There is no guest list" Zack replied, "it's a college party... and besides, if there was, you wouldn't be on it either"
"You wanna bet?" Eddy laughed, "I just had the time of my life with that girl over there..."
Eddy pointed to a girl with black hair, laughing out loud with a few of her female friends. The girl was absolutely gorgeous, her only flaw being the apparent stoned look in her eyes.
"Really?" Zack asked skeptically.
"Yep, her name's Caroline" Eddy said, "and since you're not so good at math, I'll spell it out for you, she's a perfect 10 and pretty soon, she's going to be all mine... if I want her to be, that is... to be honest, she's a bit vapid but damn... she's something else"
"Yeah okay..." Zack said, "You landed a chick like that? Maybe there is such a thing as the impossibility theorum"
"If you don't believe me, go talk to her yourself..." Eddy shrugged.
"You know what? I will" Zack said, leaving the awkward confrontation.
Elsewhere on campus, Ashley found herself at the food court, a good distance away from the rowdy party that Sandra was having. Thinking about it more, Ashley realized there were several such parties going on and some of them weren't even on UCONN campus, since Eastern was so close by. The odds of Zack actually being at the party she was thinking of going to were pretty slim. She was almost tempted to text Alicia again before she was approaching by another distraction.
"Hey"
"Oh... oh hey" Ashley said, turning around to notice Jake sitting down next to her.
"Is this seat taken?" Jake asked curiously, only half sitting down.
"Huh? Yeah. I mean no" Ashley chuckled, "Sorry, I'm a bit... out of it tonight"
"I hear ya..." Jake said, having a seat. "You have any plans for the weekend?"
"Me...? No, not really... I mean, maybe" Ashley said, stuttering again. She honestly didn't mean to but everything had been happening so quickly between being going to the party, then not going, and seeing Zack and now seeing Jake. Ashley had honestly looked forward to the academic side of school as a way to distract her mind and maybe actually learn something but not even 2 weeks into the semester she was being tempted by these other distractions.
"Yeah?" Jake asked, "Well, I mean hypothetically... what do you like to do for fun?"
"Hypothetically?" Ashley asked with a smile, "You're a science guy, aren't you? You want me to give you a hypothesis?"
"Hypothesis?" Jake asked, smiling. "Sure, what's your hypothesis?"
"Well, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you're trying to ask me out on a date" Ashley replied, even surprising herself at the amount of confidence she had shown.
"Hmm, now who's the science major?" Jake replied, causing them both to laugh.
"I'm surprised you're not out yourself" Ashley quiped, "it's a Friday night... party night..."
"Eh, I never really got into partying, yknow?" Jake shrugged.
"Yeah... yeah I know what you mean" Ashley said, involuntarily blushing.
Zack sheepishly approached the attractive Caroline with a bit more hesitance than he thought he'd have at first. Zack wasn't exactly a ladies man but on certain occasions, he could be confident. In particular, he thought the fact that the 3 girls he was about to speak with were somewhat intoxicated would improve his chances, but he grew ever more anxious as he approached them, leaving no doubt that he intended to talk to them.
Caroline momentarily diverted her attention from her two female friends to look at Zack.
"Hey" Zack said, trying to keep his words short, so as not to embarass himself.
"Hey... you... do I know you?" Caroline said, raising an eyebrow but still smiling. Even though she didn't seem disinterested, Zack instanty felt the nerves sink in as her other 2 friends also drilled into him with their eyes.
"Um... me? No... no, probaby not... but uh... yeah, this is some party, huh?" Zack asked.
The girls tried to hold back their laughter but Zack was super focused on their facial expressions, noticing even the slightest of smiles cracking.
"Y'know what? Never mind" Zack sighed, switching to his darker tone of voice now that he was no longer interested in impressing the bimboes, or showing up Eddy for that matter. In a blatant attempt to seem cool, he left by saying "Hope you bitches have a good time tonight"
"Did he just call us bitches?" one of the girls gasped.
"What a fucking tool..." another girl added.
Caroline just stood and smiled, watching Zack slink away.
"He's kinda cute though..." she shrugged.
As Zack walked away, Caroline watched him intently as he was caught up in a conversation with Eddy. Whatever was said provoked Zack to shove him lightly before heading back to his seat on the couch.
"Hmm... hey Eddy" Caroline asked,approaching Eddy from behind.
"Yeah..." he replied.
"Do you know that guy?" she asked.
"Oh him?" he scoffed, "yeah, that's Zack Austin... he's a total douche"
Caroline nodded.
"Yeah... yeah..." she said, not paying much attention to Eddy as her gaze focused solely on Zack in the corner.
'Zack Austin, huh?' she thought to herself. Caroline always fancied a good challenge.
Giantess World
