The Oblivious Crush

A Hallowe'en party was just what the twenty-one year old Elise needed after a tough week with the midterms. Then again, that's what everyone needed; to get drunk and forget the sleepless nights of endless studying, bottomless coffee pots and the occasional hair-pulling from the frustration of not being able to remember what they have just read.

The blonde with the mermaid style hair carefully chose her costume prior to arriving at one of the most important social events of the year. This year, she chose to be an angel. The tiny wings on her back were made out of real feathers to show that she actually put real work into it, the white corset pushed up her modest bust, and the silk mini flared skirt with a small slit gave a peek at her slim thighs, but her white knee high boots that didn't have a heel covered the rest of her legs. Her naturally large, angelic green eyes stood out from her all white outfit.

Her friend Doralee, chose to go as Jessica Rabbit and even dyed her long, wavy layered hair. Her voluptuous figure was hugged by the long, sparkling red dress with the slit on her thigh, along with the long, purple satin gloves. She wore her red high heels on her already higher-than-average 5 foot 7 height, so that she wouldn't have to worry too much about dragging her dress along or someone accidentally stepping on it during this already bumping party.

Elise opened the door of the frat house to feel the sonic boom of the heat and the loud dance music. All the students from the University of Washington, from freshman to graduate students, were intermingling while drinking, dancing, chatting and making out. Contrary to the stereotypical wild and lively frat house party, the elegant buffet table with the substantial selection of drinks were displayed on the large dining table. They even had two servers to make sure the food was always replenished and the abandoned plastic cups were thrown away instead of piling up on the floor like they normally would in other frat parties.

"Hey ladies!" a familiar voice that was ladened with mischief called out. Elise and Doralee turned their heads to see it was Clarence, the gracious host of one of the biggest Halloween parties this year. He was dressed as a cowboy, but only with a leather fringe vest pants and the typical cowboy hat with matching boots. He walked towards the young women and opened both of his arms to bring them for a hug.

"Thanks for inviting us," Elise said as she gave the young man with the dark hair a smile.

"And you even have proper drinks and food!" Doralee exclaimed, as she was very impressed, "Now I can drink proper cocktails instead of sipping on just rum and coke all night."

"Help yourself to whatever you want," said Clarence, "My uncle is funding this party as an early graduation gift for me."

"Yeah, like really early," another feminine voice piped up. They turned their heads to see it was Tyra, Clarence's longtime friend. She was dressed as Cheer Bear from Carebears, but with just a pink tank top with a rainbow, pink shorts and pink teddy bear ears on her headband. She even dyed her long, straight light blonde hair to match her outfit. After she smiled at the ladies for a friendly greeting, she looked towards Clarence and said, "I hope you won't jinx it by dropping out or failing this year."

"And why would I do that?" Clarence said as he chuckled, "I aced my midterms, like I always do. It won't make sense to drop out since this is my senior year. Oh Tyra, you wound me with your lack of faith."

"Please," Tyra said as she rolled her eyes at the 'you wound me' quote, "Don't even try to sound like Xandre. It doesn't suit you." She grabbed onto his hand and said, "Anyway, let's go dancing before my buzz wears out." She turned to the girls and said, "The guys are in the chapter room, if you're looking for them."

"Fine, fine," Clarence agreed. Tyra and Clarence waved Elise and Doralee goodbye, while Tyra was pulling Clarence away to the living room. The pair of ladies headed the opposite way to walk into the chapter room where even more people were standing around and talking, drinking and making out.

"Over here!" A six-foot-one male with medium length wavy hair and a boyishly handsome face waved enthusiastically. His semi-athletic body was wearing green shorts with fake green and brown leaves that were super glued on, and nothing else. He didn't even wear shoes. The young man was accompanied by two others; one who was five-foot-eight with bright brown eyes and sleek, medium length black hair with the sternest look on his face. His ottermode physique wore black running shorts, wraps around his hands and wrists and a fake champion belt to dress as a MMA fighter.

The other young man who was six-foot-two was the one that always stood out to Elise immediately. He had piercing blue eyes with blond hair that was slicked back with hair gel. His incredibly handsome face with the chiseled jawline and straight nose always made the young blonde wonder how anyone could look so naturally perfect. For his costume, he chose to dress his toned athletic body as a Greek God with a gold leaf crown, loose white shorts and a simple white cloth draped across his chest like a sash.

Since Doralee spotted her boyfriend Silas first when he called out, she immediately clasped her hand over Elise's as she led the way to the group of three boys.

"Wow, look at you!" Silas gushed at his girlfriend as he wrapped his arm around her waist, "This costume really suits you. Although I wish you could have gone as Eve, then we would have matched."

"And wear what as a costume? Nothing?" Doralee jokingly scowled, but then she smirked and continued with, "But you look great in your Adam costume." She gently brushed her hand over the fake leaves on his shorts.

"You all look great," Elise said as she glanced at all three of the guys.

"I love the detailing on your wings, Elise," Xandre commented with his deep, melodic voice as he took a sip of his drink, "The work is quite exquisite. I must commend you for your efforts."

"Oh!" Elise blushed and managed to stutter out, "Thank you, Xandre." She gazed at him adoringly, where he just returned a polite smile, as he was completely oblivious to the affection she felt for him.

However, everyone else in that circle knew exactly how Elise felt about Xandre. For all those years the group have been friends, everyone knew Elise's big crush on the blond man. Then again, who could blame her, as he was the textbook dreamboat; his parents passed away when he was young, but left an enormous trust fund to his name so he was deemed 'rich', he had a nice car, he had very little competition in regards to the aesthetics department, he was ambitious and very intelligent. Not only that, he was humble, kind and chivalrous. He had a crowd of fangirls from the university that fawned over him, but he ignored them all. The only girls he socialized with were the ones he deemed as his friends, and it was a small tight group of them too.

As for Doralee, she didn't pay attention to Elise and Xandre at the moment. She side-eyed Asher, the dark-haired MMA fighter, to observe him instead. The brooding young man sighed as he took a sip of his alcoholic beverage, and watched longingly at his own crush, Elise, who was clearly swooning over Xandre. Doralee secretly was shipping Elise and Asher together, as she believed they would be a better match than Elise and Xandre. Then again, Asher never revealed his feelings about Elise to anyone, and Doralee only figured it out by carefully watching him for the last three years.

"Wow Asher," Doralee spoke up with a slightly louder tone so that everyone else in the group would hear, "You must have worked out a lot to get to the shape you are now. How did you do it?"

Asher raised an eyebrow at Doralee. He shrugged and said, "I've just been working out like I always do. I haven't done anything special lately."

Elise did turn back to glance at Asher to see what Doralee was talking about. This was one of the few times she saw Asher without a shirt, so she also commented, "You've always been in the best physical condition, but I would probably faint from hunger or exhaustion if I did the routines you did. I wish I had your discipline, just to get into shape."

Asher said to Elise with his usual straight and stern face, "You're perfect the way you are anyway."

"Aw..." Doralee said as she fluttered her eyelashes, "That's such a sweet thing to say."

Of course, Elise was also oblivious to Asher's affections, as much as Xandre was oblivious to hers. She just smiled and said, "Thank you."

Then she dug into her small purse to reveal several Hallowe'en stickers. She handed them out to the group and said, "Stick these onto your cups, so you guys know which ones will be yours when you go to refill them."

"I appreciate you being so organized and looking out for us," Xandre said as he took a sticker from Elise. The blonde blushed again and smiled.

When it was Asher's turn to get a sticker, Elise's hand brushed against his for a brief moment. After he felt her soft velvety skin, his own skin had a rush of warm blood flowing through right from his fingertip and through the rest of his body.

"I'll get you two a drink," Asher volunteered with his stoic facial expression, as he wanted to use the opportunity to keep himself together after that touch. There was a slight hue of pink on his cheeks, which was only noticed by Doralee.

"I can get the drinks," said Doralee, as she didn't want Asher to get away, "I want to make my own cocktail, so you guys can stay here."

"I... really don't mind getting the drinks," said Asher, as he tried to compose himself, unbeknownst to everyone else except for Doralee of his internalized struggle.

"I'll be quick," said Doralee, as she grabbed two stickers from Elise and then disappeared into the crowd.

"Hey Asher, what happened to that café that was coming in your neighbourhood? Is it open yet?" Elise asked.

"Yeah, it just opened last week," said Asher, "The coffee's good, but the sandwiches are even better. They even have homemade cupcakes and buns, if you're into those." That was Asher's attempt to underhandedly invite Elise to go with him someday.

It worked, somewhat. "I would love to try it. If they are able to bake red velvet cupcakes properly, it would be hard for me to not go there everyday," said Elise. She lived near campus, but Asher lived with his older brother in downtown Seattle. Asher quietly expressed disappointment that he'll probably not see her there, likely until after the semester was over.

A minute later, another familiar feminine face with bright grey eyes and sooty layered shoulder-length black hair emerged. She was wearing a tight leather corset dress that pushed up her ample bosom and flared out her firm behind, and a witch's hat to top off her look.

"Hi Beatrice," Elise said as she smiled. She was surprised that Beatrice even showed up at the party, and seemingly out of nowhere. And in a costume too.

"Hello Elisabeth," Beatrice greeted Elise with her signature monotone voice and without as much as a smile. Then she turned to the rest of the group with the same level of enthusiasm to say, "Hello Silas. Hello Asher. Hello Alexandre." She turned back to Elise and glanced at her costume up and down. "You look very attractive, Elisabeth," she said.

Elise blushed and said a quiet 'thank you', while Asher smirked behind his cup. He never got tired of Beatrice's blunt comments and her roll call of literally everyone in the group, no matter how big or small, when she would greet them. The group got used to the way Beatrice would socialize; her lips hardly ever curled up to a grin, even when people were obviously making jokes or sharing humorous stories. She mostly spoke about her passion (if she were speaking at all), which was her studies and research as a graduate student. Her dream was to become a professor in a prominent university.

"Great costume Beatrice," Silas said, "I don't think you've ever come to one of these parties before, but it's nice to finally see you in one."

"Yes, I agree," said Xandre, "I wonder what pulled you in to join us today."

"It is my first time coming to a Halloween party, and I am more interested in the Dungeons and Dragons game upstairs. I was invited by Albert to watch the campaign," Beatrice explained plainly. Although she did not sound excited at all, the rest of the group knew that was one of her favourite hobbies; watching people play video or board games. Next to studying and researching.

"Yeah, I got invited to play with Albert too," said Silas, "But I said no this time. I'm going to be the DM in the next game, if you want to watch that one."

"Yes, I would like to watch that one," said Beatrice, "I must go and get drinks and snacks for everyone at the game. Goodbye." She turned around and beelined right through the crowd to get to the dining room, while her hips swayed with the flared black skirt. Everyone, including Elise, couldn't help but stare at her narrowed lower back that accentuated Beatrice's apple bottoms.

Once Silas realized Beatrice was gone for good, he said with a smirk, "She's a bit odd, but you gotta love her."

"Silas!" Elise scolded him, "You know it's not her fault for the way she is. Can you please be a little more PC?"

Xandre chuckled as he agreed with both Silas and Elise, although he didn't want to openly admit it. "She even got dressed for the occasion. I've never seen her wearing anything else besides her usual red blouses and black dress pants," he said.

"Yeah, me neither. Who knew she had... you know... lady parts," Silas said.

Elise furrowed her eyebrows and sighed, while Asher couldn't help but smirk at Silas's comment. Xandre just shook his head as he chuckled and took a swig of his drink.

"Who has lady parts?" Doralee asked as she approached the group with two cups in her hands. She handed one to Elise.

"Beatrice apparently," Asher replied, "She came by in her witch costume."

"Ohhhhh," Doralee groaned, "I would have loved to see that! Where is she now?"

"She went to watch the D&D game upstairs," Silas replied. As he wrapped his arm around Doralee's shoulders, he said, "And my God, she was just hot in that costume. Though of course, not as hot as you."

Silas's girlfriend was not the jealous type. In fact, she was attracted to girls herself and her and her boyfriend would have conversations about who is the hottest or sexiest in the parties. "Okay, now I am super curious," said Doralee. She drank her entire drink and then continued with, "But I want to dance before going to look for her. Let's go to the living room."

Asher wasn't keen on dancing, but since all his friends were going, he joined them. He finished his drink in two gulps before refilling it again in the kitchen to be less apprehensive about letting loose.

Clarence made sure the mix up of songs blasting through the speakers were a great variety - all from top 40 to the 1970s, but they were mostly dance songs. He also added a sprinkle of love songs, and even programmed the disco lights to slow down on cue.

Out of the five of them in the group, Asher was the best dancer, as he was classically trained from a young age. However, he was the type to not want to call attention to himself, but since he was a great dancer with smooth moves and was always on rhythm, that always attracted unwanted touch or asking of 'oh my God, can I dance with you?' from other ladies and some guys.

Xandre didn't enjoy dancing either, and he usually avoided it like the plague. As soon as he saw Clarence, he went away with him to have a chat for a few moments and to load up on drinks to build up the courage to dance. Since the Greek God wasn't present in the living room for a long while, Elise would bump up to Asher, Silas and Doralee instead. She had rhythm, but her confidence dropped when she had no inkling of what to do with her arms or hips.

"Hey, can you show me some moves?" Elise realized her skills were not up to par with Doralee's, who was the next best dancer after Asher.

"Sure!" Doralee said. She winked and asked, "Who are you going to show them off to?"

"I just don't want to look like I'm lost and don't know what I'm doing," Elise said as she laughed.

Doralee didn't hesitate and grabbed Elise's hands as they danced together. Then suddenly, Tyra appeared in front of Asher and without a word, began to dance just an inch away from him. Silas couldn't help but crack a smile when Asher had a scowl on his face for a split second, but he obliged and danced with the girl with the pink costume.

"Wow Asher, you got the moves," Tyra said, which is what almost anybody said to Asher when they would be dancing together.

"Thanks," Asher said simply and without smiling.

Not too long after, a slow song began to play on the speakers. Tyra wrapped Asher's lean and strong arms around her waist, and then she placed her hands on his shoulders to sway to the music together.

When Asher took a quick peek to see what Elise was doing, he saw that Xandre approached the blonde angel. The man in the MMA costume sighed in disappointment, as he knew Xandre just asked Elise to dance with him. Elise's eyes sparkled in delight as she nodded and the Greek God took her hand like a gentleman.

"Hey Asher," said Tyra, "My grades slipped a bit after the midterms. Can you help me out for the rest of the semester to get back on track?"

Asher turned his head back around to look into Tyra's light blue eyes. "Fine, but don't expect me to do all the assignments for you," he replied. He knew Tyra's reputation of trying to get others to do her assignments. He even knew why Tyra chose to do computer science like himself; it was something she could do with the least amount of activity possible, and it was a career where she could do while sitting on her behind for most of the day at home rather than in an office.

"I won't," Tyra said. Then she said with a lower tone, "Unless you want me to pay you back with something else..." she winked as she closed her body closer to Asher, where her large, ample breasts touched just over his washboard abs.

Asher gently pulled back from the very pretty and petite girl so that there was once again at least a foot of space between them, but he didn't let go of his hands on her trim waist. "I'm not into you in that way, so don't even bother trying," he said.

Tyra made a confused face for a moment, and then sighed in defeat. "Well... but I really do need your help. You're one of the best in our program," she said.

"I said I'll help," said Asher, "But I don't want any of your nonsense or you trying to weasel yourself out of doing the assignments."

"Okay, okay! I get it. Yeesh," Tyra said as she rolled her eyes, "I promise to behave."

About ten feet away, there was Elise and Xandre, who were dancing together while Elise had her hands on Xandre's broad shoulders. Xandre had his hands gently cupped over Elise's slim waist, and they stood about half a foot apart. She was focusing on her movements to make sure she wouldn't accidentally step on his feet, squeeze his shoulders too hard or start humming along with the blaring music.

"Are you having a good time?" Elise asked her head-taller dancing partner.

"Yes I am," Xandre said, as he tried his best to stand without wobbling about, "Although it is clear that I drank in excess. Clarence would just not stop refilling my cup with his concoction of who knows what. He was telling me that his 'mission' was to see how 'the great Alexandre would behave when he is inebriated'." Xandre even imitated Clarence's tone that was full of confidence and mischief.

Elise was shocked at the first split second as Xandre was always courteous and proper, and mocking someone would likely be one of the last things he would ever do. In the next moment, she couldn't help herself and burst into laughter. "That was actually quite spot on," she said in between her fits of giggles. When she was able to compose herself again, then she admitted, "Yeah it looks like you're letting loose a bit. You're actually on the dance floor, which is quite unusual of you."