"It's fine! Come along, I swear it wouldn't be awkward."

Every time someone says that, nine times out of ten you know it just will be

Awkward.

Having crashed my fair share of parties, i know by now that apart from the ones where there's booze, or where everyone's a stranger unto the next person, the rest will ALWAYS be

Awkward.

It's not that people aren't nice. They're always friendly, but really you wouldn't want to burden them with the responsibility of having to make sure you're having fun- because then they'll end up not having fun. So then, throughout the whole party you'd be nodding along, smiling, telling people you're fine.. but that's about the extent of it. You know you don't really belong there, you don't get half the stories they tell because you weren't there when it happened and you end up having this gut feeling that they know you're feeling a bit

Awkward.

So, my verdict is; 

1. Go to parties and make sure you know at least five people in it.
   
2. Go to parties where there's free booze so everyone's drunk.
   

I've learnt my lesson, next time I'd rather curl up with my favorite book, turn on some music and make myself a sandwich.