The Nth Wheel

Allison tends to travel in packs. Sometimes it's Allison and four other people, other times it's Allison and two other people. She rarely travels alone and only if she's going to a class or coming from a class back to the dorm. She's always talking to someone, unless she's studying and even then sometimes there's another person studying with her. When she's in the room, she's the centre of attention or very, very close to the centre of attention. The world revolves around Allison.
And I sit in the background. I walk behind or ahead, but always apart. The only mutual friend of ours who actually does more than pretend to give a fuck about me is David. David walked me to band today.
I try to be apart of the group, but inevitably people stop paying attention and I stop caring. Other times I purposely avoid being in the group, because after awhile being the nth wheel is tiring and trying. Some days I just give up.
My tastes and tolerances are different from Allison's group for the most part and when they do occasionally overlap I'm overly passionate for general consumption. I don't drink, something that I suspect will be more of hindrance than many think until it's legal.
I've yet to make my own friends, save Sam. It's hard when the main way of making friends is involving oneself in activities that I neither have time for or care to participate in. I'm slow to let down my guard and that fact alone is a hindrance to forming my own outside friendships. At the present I rely almost completely on Allison for my socializing and there are times when that fact is more depressing than not having any friends. Socializing, an activity I've never been fond of, becomes an irksome task that must be done for the sake of appearances. Grin and bear it.
I'm the nth wheel and my only hope is for a future where I'm not.