Free Common Ground (The Common Ground Trilogy Book 1) by Barry Chaison

himself. “And I’m not sure we can accommodate all of you.” At that comment, the bouncer had to duck behind the door because he started laughing loudly. The rest of the people in our group were just looking at each other confused, but I wasn’t ready to let him get away with it.
    “Fine,” I snapped. “Either we all go in, or nobody goes in.”
    I grabbed Hope’s arm and interlocked it with mine. We turned on the spot and started walking away. Everyone else just stood at the front of the house, looking between me and Liam, not sure what to do.
    “Zoe, wait!” Annie cried. “Liam, come on! You can get us all in, there’s plenty of space in there.”
    “Wait, wait,” Liam shouted, laughing hysterically. “It was just a joke; we’ve got plenty of space. Come on in, please,” he said to Hope, extending his arm in welcome. Hope just looked at me apprehensively, but my face expanded in a friendly smile and we walked in together. It floored me that there wasn’t an apology for the public embarrassment Liam and his friend just put Hope through. At that moment, it hit me that Liam’s rudeness had no limits.
    The fraternity house was absolutely huge. As soon as we walked in, an enormous room that was about twice the size of our whole condo greeted us. All of the regular lights had been replaced by black lights everywhere. Hundreds of togas flickered purple in the light, which created a mesmerizing sight in the middle of the dance floor. A wide staircase on the right hand side of the foyer led up to over five additional stories of the house. The high, pale walls were completely bare, and also gave a bright purple glow under the black light. Other rooms broke off in all directions from the foyer, but the place was so crowded, it was impossible to explore any of them. We stood frozen in the middle of the foyer, not sure where to go. People were jam packed into the house, making it more crowded than Annie had made it sound. I couldn’t help but be blown away by the crazy ratio of guys to girls. There must have been ten girls to every guy in the house. Starting to feel a little nauseous and claustrophobic, I turned to Annie who was looking around hopefully for a suddenly absent Liam.
    “Where did he go?” I yelled over the blaring music.
    Annie just shrugged her shoulders, grabbed my open arm and led Hope and me through the gauntlet of freakish dancers. Chase and Tyler were already in the middle of the dance floor, grabbing any girl within reach and dancing without the slightest bit of modesty. Sean and Emily were standing in a corner away from everyone else, dancing slower than the rhythm of the music allowed. Steph was jumping up and down by Chase and Tyler, looking completely aloof from the world around her.
    As Annie led us through the crowd, we bumped into an extremely tall guy who had B-A-D painted in fluorescent yellow across his chest.
    “Kitchen!” Annie shouted up at the red haired monster.
    He threw his thumb over his shoulder without saying a word. As we passed him, he gave me a very unnecessary glance up and down, making all the hairs on my arm stand tall.
    As we made our way into the kitchen, the strong smell of alcohol invaded my senses. Thousands of plastic cups and beer bottles lied scattered all over. Three fat kegs of beer were resting on the counter, with one fraternity guy running each. The kitchen wasn’t as crowded as the dance floor, but it appeared to fill up with each passing second. Annie released her kung fu grip on my arm and went straight for one of the kegs. I glanced over at Hope, who looked completely bored and awkward. I wasn’t faring much better as my body felt trapped due to a combination of the extreme heat, the overcrowded house, and that disturbing glance the large guy had given me. The only thing I could think about was getting some fresh air and getting out of the rapidly developing real life nightmare. I noticed a glowing red EXIT sign on the opposite wall from the