Free Unfamiliar by Komal Kant, Erica Cope

thrilled to be left alone with Tessa since all he’d done all week was talk about her.
    Hailey was easy to spot. She was the one dressed like a librarian, after all. She was also the one standing awkwardly next to a bar stool and clutching a glass of clear liquid in her hand like it was a grenade.
    “Vodka?” I asked, once I was close enough for her to hear me over the loud music.
    “What?” she asked, raising her voice.
    Okay, so I guess she couldn’t hear me.
    I leaned in close enough that I could make out the few scattered freckles across her nose. “I asked if you were drinking vodka.”
    Hailey narrowed her eyes at me as though I’d asked her if she was a prostitute. “It’s water, actually.”
    Well, at least now I knew that Librarian Girl didn’t have a drinking problem.
    “Why don’t you sit down?” I gestured at the empty stool beside her, racking my brain for something to talk about that wouldn’t offend her.
    Hailey glanced at the stool and scrunched up her nose in disgust. “I’d rather stand.”
    Uh, okay then. Somehow I’d managed to find something else that pissed her off. Stools. I guess I had a talent for getting on the wrong side of Hailey.
    “Uh.” I ran a hand through my hair, wondering why the hell I felt so nervous all of a sudden. I mean, this was prissy Librarian Girl, after all. She had no right trying to make me feel like a douchebag. Still, I owed her an explanation. “What Jonathan said back there came out wrong.”
    “Really?” Hailey eyed me in disbelief. “Because it sounded like you’d been complaining about a stuck up girl you were partnered with in your Music Composition class. Are  you enrolled in more than one? What a coincidence.”
    Oh, crap. Okay, so I couldn’t exactly talk my way out of this one.
    Instead, I decided to level with her. “Let’s be straight about this. You haven’t exactly been easy to get to know.”
    “Excuse me?” Hailey’s mouth dropped open. “I haven’t been easy to get to know? Who’s the one doing those ridiculous head nod things and sitting in the back of the room by himself avoiding eye contact with everyone?”
    Okay, she had me there. I was guilty of being an anti-social jerk. Still, she wasn’t exactly Miss Sunshine.
    “I don’t even get why you’re taking the class anyway. I mean, can you even play anything?”
    “Yes, I can actually,” Hailey said, placing her drink down and folding her arms over her chest in a defensive stance. “I can play the guitar and I’m familiar with piano, and I can sing a little. Not that it's any of your business. I don't even know why I'm telling you this stuff.”
    Surprise shot through me at hearing that Hailey and I actually had something in common when it came to music. Still, a stick-in-the-mud like her probably wasn’t very passionate about it.
    “That’s all great and shit, but I bet you can’t create music that actually makes people feel something. If you’re so scared to try new things, how do you expect to live a full life? You won’t even sit on a freakin’ stool, probably because you’re scared of germs or something stupid like that.”
    When Hailey stiffened and didn’t say anything, I stared at her in amazement. “Wow, you actually are a germaphobe, aren’t you?” Hailey was exactly the kind of girl my parents would want me to date. Well, it was never going to happen.
    Hailey ignored my question. “It‘s still possible to be passionate about something even with limited experiences.”
    “You wouldn’t know passion if it slapped you across the face.”
    “This is turning out to be the worst apology ever,” Hailey said with no trace of humor in her voice.
    “Maybe you just take everything the wrong way.”
    With that, I turned away and headed back into the crowd to find my friends. Sure, I’d come out of that still looking like an asshole, but at least I was able to get away from Hailey and the hate-hate thing we had going on.
    I was here to have fun and