Free The Green Ticket by Samantha March

flown through. He nudged the guy standing next to him, a shorter, friendly looking guy with glasses. Bespeckled man flashed us a grin and beckoned us over. I clutched my clutch even tighter, digging my fingernails into the black satin fabric. Why the hell was I so nervous over a guy?
    “You made it!” glasses-man said as we finally reached the keg. “Did you find the house okay? Henry, get the ladies some cups. No charge tonight, these are our guests!”
    Henry. It was Henry that I was so smitten for. Our fingers brushed together as he handed me my cup, and I swallowed back a nervous hiccup. He was the most delicious man I had ever seen.
    “Peter! You don’t have to do that. How sweet are you?” Lila was saying, giving Peter’s arm a friendly pat. “We made it just fine, no troubles at all. It was mostly because of Hannah here,” Lila shoved Hannah to the front of the group, who looked like a cat heading for a full bathtub. “She got us here with no worries. Hannah Lovington, meet Peter Gambill, our fabulous host for the night.”
    Hannah and Peter shook hands while the rest of us girls looked on amused, knowing that Lila was in matchmaker overload. Hannah looked painfully shy and embarrassed, while Peter was more laid back. “And this is the rest of our group: Carmen, Emma, and my roommate, Alex,” Lila continued on with the introductions, and we all said hello.
    “These are my roommates: Henry, Kyle, and Max. We’re really glad you all could make it tonight. Does anyone know anyone?” Peter asked the group, and we all shook our heads. “How is it possible that we haven’t run into each other before on campus? It’s not that big of a school.”
    “True, very weird. But at least you’re here tonight. Let me fill your cups up,” Henry volunteered, taking my cup first. I let him fill it to the brim and pass it back to me, trying not to stare at his piercing blue eyes and the way his black hair flopped over his forehead in the most adorable way. It was then that I realized what his costume was, and finally found my voice.
    “I, um, I like your costume.” Lame Alex, so lame. I giggled a bit. “It’s very unique.” I tried again.
    He smiled at me, showing a row of perfectly straight teeth that had to have been touched by braces as a kid. No one should have that great of teeth without some work. “Thanks. I actually hadn’t planned on being here tonight. Me and Max,” he indicted to his blonde friend, “were going to go back home for the weekend. So this was made in a pinch.” Henry was dressed as a deer, with an orange ping pong ball that was probably swiped from the beer pong game attached to his nose, and a few skinny twigs perched atop his head as antlers. The camo he was wearing didn’t showcase his body, but I could tell from his lanky yet lean build that I wouldn’t mind a few layers being stripped off.
    “Henry won in rock, paper, scissors so he got to be the reindeer,” Max grumbled. “And I got stuck with this.” He spread his arms out to show off his rabbit costume, which looked hilarious and a tad feminine. He wore a gray shirt and matching gray athletic shorts, with a bunny tail fastened to his tailbone, Playboy pink bunny ears, and someone had used a pink marker to color the tip of his nose. Even under the ridiculous fuzzy pink bunny ears, it was easy to tell Max was a hottie. Tall, blonde, blue eyes, with a surfer-look going for him. Peter and Kyle weren’t bad either, and were both dressed as hunters in full camo and water guns. But it didn’t matter how good looking they were. My eyes were still finding their way back to Henry between sips of cold beer.
    Carmen and Max struck up a conversation about apple pie shots, Hannah was still struggling to get words out around Peter, Lila was trying to help their floundering conversation along, Emma was chatting with the last roommate Kyle, and I was staring into my cup, wishing I could be funny and witty and charming and sexy and