Go for a drink with John

I have to take it. This is the new me, up to trying new things and meeting new people. It's just a couple of drinks, not enough to get me pissed. If it gets bad, then I can always just leave.

I left a text to Megan letting her know that I won't be back for a bit, and joined the others. There were about 10 of us that walked up to the pub nearby. 5 of them were existing members, including Katie, Tom the president of the society, whose voice I recognised from the freshers fair, and a couple of others. The rest of us including John were new to the club.

John stayed by my side as we walked up but a couple of the freshers made conversation with us. Did they think we already knew each other, do they think we are dating?

Luckily, it wasn't a long walk to the pub. Once we got there, everyone scrambled to the bar. Everyone but me.

What do I drink? I don't like wine or beer. Will I get laughed at if I order cider?

A familiar voice shook me back to reality.

"What are you drinking tonight?" asked John.

Shit

"Oh, uhm, I'm not sure yet. What are you drinking?" I responded, pretending to look at what the bar was serving.

"I'm just going to get a vodka and coke"

Spirits!? I thought this was a quiet night out!

"Sure, I'll probably have the same" I replied smiling, trying to hide my anxiety.

John turned back around and ordered 2 drinks.

Hang on a second, was that for me? I didn't mean for him to buy me a drink. What if it isn't for me, and he just wants a couple of drinks? How do I know? Maybe he wants to be payed ba...

John turned around and handed me one of the glasses. It looked like coke and ice but you could smell the vodka from a metre away.

"How much was that?" I asked as we walked to the table with the others.

"Don't worry about it, my treat." he replied. A huge smile appeared on my face.

This is the first drink a boy has ever bought me. Holy shit! John is so sweet, maybe he's the one. Or maybe he's just trying to sleep with me during freshers and leave. I've heard boys do that before, have little competitions with their friends on how many girls they can fuck. Would John do that to me? He seems so sweet and innocent. But what do I know about boys though.

We all sat down and chilled for a bit. All of the more experienced fencers spoke like old friends, never letting the table go silent. I found out that a couple of them were John's friends, and a couple of others were part of the committee.

The freshers mostly sat in awkward silence, John joined in partially with the older ones but would turn around and make idle chat with me about my course.

"So, how's Physics? Do they work you hard?"

"Yeah, we get a lot of problem sheets, practice exam questions. That sort of thing. How about Computer Science? Is that like, just programming?"

He gave me a look which implied a lot of people asked that question.

"Yeah, a lot of what they teach us is like how to approach a problem, programming is just part of it. I guess it's like Maths is to Physics. It's pretty hard to do the latter without the former."

"Oh right. We have a programming module this year. I'm so screwed for it."

"It's not that hard. You'll pick it up after a while"

Some people were going up to the bar, but almost everyone had finished there drink. Everyone except me. I had nursed about half of it down and I really couldn't say I was enjoying it. But the company was nice.

At this point, Tom the president came over.

"Right you freshers. Down your drinks, I'm buying you all shots for coming to the pub with us.

Oh God.

John must of seen my face.

"It's fine, you don't have to do it." he wispered in my ear.

But is it really optional? I don't want to be known as that girl who's no fun. Or even worse...