Slipping Through My Fingers

Chapter Seven

Chapter 7

Rosalie's POV -

"Rose if you move, your skin will get burnt!" Chloe chastised sternly.

I was too scared to nod my head or move my lips so I just stayed silent; quietly acknowledging what Chloe just said.

She was straightening my long wavy hair for me because it was Saturday night which meant party night. I was even more excited than when I first found out I was going because all of us for the rest of the week have gotten along exceptionally well. Especially Nate and I.

Of course, Nate went back to his egoistic ways but there was not one insult that came my way. He just kept smirking a lot and winking. It was weirdly flattering and even more so when I remembered about his phone code.

"I'm almost finished anyway, just one more section left. God, you have such thick hair. But it's so neat and soft and you're so lucky!" Chloe laughed.

I smiled and politely thanked her - but was then scolded at for moving. I could never win with these twins.

Twenty minutes later and Chloe scared me by shouting 'Voila!' at the top of her lungs. They had already done their hair and make-up and had gotten Chris to drop me off at their house so they can 'fix me up' and get dressed. It had taken them longer than they expected to get my hair done so they were panicking when opening the makeup bag.

"One request before you start?" I asked timidly.

Chloe nodded and I sighed heavily.

"Please not a lot of makeup. Just very moderate to make it all look natural and blended in." I pleaded.

I have never in my entire life put makeup on but as a girl, when I see a girl, it's easy to see whether she's dumped her face in the lot or if she was decent enough to put a moderate amount. And I never really had respect for those kinds that dumped their face in it.

"Of course not. You don't even need the makeup; we're just doing it for fun." They laughed.

I sighed in relief and let them work.

When they took five minutes to finish, I knew that they listened to me. They applied eyeliner with a little flick, mascara, a little blush and cherry lip gloss. I was thankful that it looked so natural. They handed me my dress, shoes and jewellery and pushed me into their ensuite to get dressed.

I took a decent ten minutes to have the dress, shoes and jewellery on and stepped out. The girls smiled at me in awe when the saw me. It was really funny to watch.

"You are going to have a million guys follow you around, you know that, right?" They asked.

I just laughed at them and rolled my eyes.

"Wait!" Chloe yelled suddenly.

"You're hair. It's all wrong. It shouldn't be down, it covers your breasts." She murmured.

I thought she was kidding until she turned me around to the mirror, grabbed a brush and tied my hair back in a sleek, sophisticated high ponytail.

"Now you don't just look beautiful but you look sexy too!" Cam chirped excitedly.

And I had to agree - having my hair up and straightened looked much better than having it simply straightened and down.

"So what do we do now?" I asked after I saw that we were all dress to leave.

"We go party." They simultaneously smirked and winked.

***

When we arrived, there were already a heap of people inside and outside. Asher, who was convinced by Chloe to come along, was sitting on the stairs looking like he was in physical pain for being at the party.

Suddenly, all those how-to-walk-in-heels lessons Chloe and Cam taught me had flown out the window. I was so nervous! They walked ahead of me, not looking back however I stayed put, too scared that I'd trip if I took a step forward.

"Boo!" A rather gruffy sound made me jump and almost fall to the floor if it wasn't for those same strong arms to catch me.

"Nate! What are you doing? You scared me!" I screamed.

Nate, however, was doubled over in laughter. If I knew how to walk in these heels, I would stalk away but I really had nowhere to go.

"Well firstly," He finally spoke after laughing, "I came here to tell you that you look gorgeous tonight - better than any girl I've ever seen in my life. And secondly, well, I knew that if I scared you that you'd jump and almost fall over and I was prepared to use any excuse to be able to grab you by the waist again." He smirked.

I felt the heat rise to my face - Oh God, did he really used to insult me or was I just imagining the whole thing? Seeing him like this, with this kind of goofy personality made that jerk image I had in my mind quite blurry. Was he really such a jerk or had I confused him with someone else? The past week he had been nothing but nice to me, joking around and making me laugh in the span of a week more than I had ever laughed in my entire life.

"Well, you didn't need to scare me." I finally mumbled after racking through my brain for something to say.

He smirked and rolled his eyes.

"Rose, seriously, if I had asked you to hold you by the waist again in the exact same way that I did in the dressing room, would your answer have been 'oh sure, Nate!'" He mimicked my voice.

I rolled my eyes at his attempt to sound like a girl and smiled in defeat.

"Okay fine, I wouldn't have said yes but I'm bound to fall down tonight so you would have had the opportunity some other time. Scaring me shouldn't have been an option. It also affects my heart you know." I told him in what seemed like a serious tone to me.

But it was not serious for Nate because he couldn't seem to stop laughing. Was I some comedian or something?

"Rose, I already know that the way I catch you makes your heart race. Either way, your heart would have been affected." He winked.

And there we go, three, two, one, my jaw is wide open. I kept feeling dumbfounded every time Nate would say something so swiftly it seemed like he really wasn't paying attention to anything he was saying.

"Um," I cleared my throat after we had been standing outside in silence. "We should go inside." I murmured.

He nodded and started walking towards the house while I stood frozen with the same revelation playing in my mind. How was I to walk in a pair of shoes that were making me twelve centre metres taller than I actually am?

I stood frozen in my path, my legs wouldn't make any move and I was terrified of falling. I guess I could enjoy the party without actually going inside. So, I stayed in my spot, twenty meters away from the house and heard the laughter of partying teens from the outside. Should I try to walk? But what if I fall down?

"Need any help?" An amused guy asked.

I squinted my eyes to see clearly in the dark. He was one of Chris's friends that I had been introduced to in class once. He was unbelievably handsome and was quite charming if I recalled correctly.

"Um, I thought enjoying the party from this angle would be quite different." I made a quick excuse up on the spot.

But from how his eyes shone in amusement, I could tell he didn't actually believe me.

"Alright, I'll let you enjoy the party then." He smirked and walked away.

Shit - he may have been my only chance to actually make my way inside the house. I watched as his silhouette crossed the driveway and immediately regretted letting him go.

"Wait! Lucas come back." I prayed I got his name right or else that would have been an embarrassment.

Slowly, the silhouette of Lucas was in vision and he walked towards me with a confident smirk.

"Did the party from this angle get boring?" He mimicked.

I ignored his remark and laughed.

"Please help me." I begged.

He nodded and stretched out his arm to grab on.

I let go of the car and let my balance rely on the strong arm of Lucas Baily. I was quite impressed that he was able to use his whole right arm to balance my entire body. He must attend some gym.

We walked slowly towards the door, Lucas' arm snaked around my torso for support when suddenly, there was no support and I found that I was walking in the death trap all by myself and I was still standing up.

I looked at Lucas with a shocked expression and he just barked out a loud laugh.

"I let go of you thirty seconds ago. You know how to walk in those after all." He smirked.

I felt proud of myself, I actually did it. I managed to walk without falling down. Now I could actually enjoy the party like I was supposed to.

I walked into the huge house and my, oh my, what a scene it was. There were partying, hormonal teens dancing everywhere, standing on benches, making out and laughing everywhere. It was a scene from the most cliché teenage movie.

My eyes reluctantly scanned the house and watched as every teenager was committing sins left, right and centre. Now I wasn't the most religious girl out there but I knew a sin when I saw one. I hesitantly took a step at a time, scared that any adolescent may knock me at any time. Lucas was still standing next to me and smiling encouragingly every time I took a step. His presence was very reassuring.

"You officially know how to walk in those things." He congratulated me.

I laughed and nodded, continuing on my path to success. Well not really, but come on, this was a very successful moment for me.

I was about to reply to him before the twins had sprung on me in surprise.

"Rose! Enjoying the party?!" They screamed.

Were they drunk? Or were they naturally super crazy when they went to parties? I couldn't detect any smell of alcohol on them specifically however the whole house had a slight smell of alcohol.

"Yeah, it's really fun." I smiled politely.

Even though I had just walked in the house, I wasn't going to spoil the mood for the girls so I just pretended I was having a super time.

"Look at everyone, Rose." Cam whispered in my ear.

I frowned in confusion but nevertheless I let my eyes wonder around the house and felt the same shade of my name rise up to my cheeks. Everyone was staring. And I mean everyone. From boys to girls, from people I knew and who I didn't, they just were all gaping at me. I smiled awkwardly, having no idea what to say. Everyone had gone silent with the loud music blaring in the background.

"Hey." It was the only thing that came to mind.

Everyone started laughing at me and I tried to look like I wasn't embarrassed but it was quite hard when my heart was pumping like a stereo. The girls had both taken my arms and flung me forward but I was caught in the middle when a force kept me steady. I turned around in confusion and saw Lucas smirking at me.

"You're saving me a dance, right?" He had his eyebrows raised as if daring me to say no.

His tone implied that he didn't just want a dance and quite frankly, I was scared. But what if it was all innocent and he only just wanted to dance? It was rude of me to say no but I really didn't want to say yes. I had no idea what I was going to say.

The girls stood frozen in their paths waiting for me to answer.

"Um, sure." I chirped with a sceptical answer.

Lucas just smirked at me and I threw him one more awkward smile before I was dragged away by the girls. They had taken me to the middle of what would have seemed like the lounge room, minus the couches. There was a huge disco ball at the top of the ceiling and there were speakers everywhere with music blasting. This was not my scene at all but it seemed like fun. I should at least give it a go, right?

The girls had sprawled me into the middle of the dance floor and started dancing while I stood uncomfortably in the middle, not knowing what to do. I've never, in my entire life danced in front of people. How stupid was I? How could I actually agree to come to a party when I didn't know how to dance or act comfortable in a room full of immature adolescents?

"Come on, just move around." Chloe grumbled with a small smile playing at her lips.

Move around? As in walk back and forth? I continued standing in the middle of the floor, trying not to burst out laughing at the situation.

"Rose, just dance!" Cam yelled at me in amusement.

Other people were looking at me now, humour clear in their eyes. Great, now I was the social definition of a loser. I couldn't even dance at a party!

"I'll be back." Cam whispered to Chloe.

Chloe just nodded with a smirk and winked at me as if she had some genius plan up her sleeve. I actually felt quite scared.

Finally, to get me moving around, Chloe had taken both my hands, entwined our fingers and she started doing these really weird dance moves. I copied her in amusement and we both laughed loudly. And we had a few stares come my way too because after Chloe's laugh had died out the only sound left was a hysterical weird noise coming from me which was the sound of my laugh.

I saw Cam emerge back onto the dance floor however someone was behind her. I was scared for a second that she had brought some stranger until I saw that Chris was holding her hand and walking towards me with a smirk. Behind Chris was Asher who had a lustful gaze set on Chloe. And behind Asher was Nate.

And he was staring right at me with a huge smirk.

My eyes opened widely and I knew what was going on. Cam had her boyfriend to dance with and so did Chloe. Which left me with... Nate.

Each girl went to her own partner and they started dancing together however their laughs were drowned out with sound of my heart racing. Nate was coming closer to me; his walk was slow yet enticingly charming.

I smiled when he reached to me, his eyes raking my body up and down. I suddenly remembered that my dress was not all that long and that my legs were completely exposed. I wanted to grab something and hide my bare legs because the way Nate was staring at them made me seem extremely self-conscious.

Before I knew what was happening, he swiftly reached out, clasped my risk and pulled me towards him in a fast motion that made me slam into his body however he had one hand resting on my lower back, keeping me from hurting myself once I collided with him. I giggled at our closeness, knowing that the heat was probably reaching to my cheeks.

"Where'd you disappear to?" He asked in my ear as he rocked me from side to side.

"I had trouble walking." I muttered in embarrassment.

I heard him chuckle and in the space of a heartbeat, he had pushed me back and turned me around so that our bodies were touching while our hands were entwined together in crisscross as we kept swaying.

"Well you look stunning if it isn't obvious." He smiled at me; not a bad boy smirk but a genuine smile that made him look all the more attractive.

Usually, I would thank him but his compliments and sincereness this time just made me breathless and if he wasn't currently holding me up, I would have fallen to the floor.

I couldn't remove the goofy smile on my face or the knotty and twisty state my stomach was in.

"So, enjoying the party?" Nate asked after he had turned me back around to face him.

I still couldn't talk; I was too enthralled by his beautiful features and kind personality. I opened my mouth to speak however no sound came out and even though I was clearly mortified by this, Nate found it comical.

"You dazzled by me, beautiful?" He smirked.

Oh, he's back to his egoistic ways.

I laughed but didn't know what to say. Was I dazzled by him? Of course I was because there was no other conclusion that I could come to. I wasn't just dazzled by this beautiful guy but I found that I had developed small feelings for him without realising it until just a few moments ago.

"Oh so you're dazzled by me." He laughed. "Don't worry, dazzled doesn't seem to describe how hypnotised I am right now about you." He winked at me.

I hadn't realised that I had been swinging my hips to the music and actually dancing comfortably until I stopped. I didn't know why or how it happened but Nate's words just had some sort of effect on me that made my hip-swinging stop to a halt and let go of his hands.

I had to take a deep breath, wanting to allow his words to sink in however it was just way too crowded. My heart was hammering louder and faster than ever before and the feeling in the deep pit of my stomach was indescribable.

Nate frowned at me in confusion and tilted his head a little.

"Everything alright, Rose?" He asked me.

When had he suddenly changed his attitude towards me? It was one moment it seemed like he'd never, ever in my entire life even accept me as an acquaintance and I had the lowest opinion of him however in a matter of a night, he had transformed his attitude and personality towards me, making me feel something for him. When did his attitude exactly change?

I realised it was just one week ago that Nate had showed up abruptly at my apartment and had helped me out. No it wasn't then his attitude had changed... or was it? I could tell by the way his eyes scanned my apartment that he felt distasteful. He acted like a snobby asshole. But by the end of the night, he wasn't so bad. And the next time I had seen him his attitude was hot and cold. But all of a sudden, he was this different person and the guy that the twins and Chris had bragged about started to shine through. And now I liked him. And he was staring at me, waiting for an explanation.

"I just need some fresh air." I couldn't look him in the eyes and I ran ahead, trying to steer away from his penetrating, burning gaze.

Everyone had cleared the way from me and I found the door to the exit quickly. I ran outside, and weirdly the one thing on my mind was how amazed that I was struggling to walk in the death traps however now I could actually run in it.

Once I was standing far away from the house, I felt like breathing wasn't a mission anymore.

I heard someone call my name in the distance but I ignored it. The sound was coming closer and closer and I recognised a familiar male voice that I honestly didn't want to actually hear.

"Is everything okay, Rosalie?" Lucas asked in a breathless state.

I held back the urge to roll my eyes. Even the way he asked me if I was okay sounded like he wanted to ask me something suggestive.

"Everything's fine. Go back inside." I told him curtly.

I knew it was impolite to speak that way to him however I didn't want to lead him on and let him get any ideas about what he said earlier.

"We'll go back inside together. What if something happens to you while you're alone?" He asked me.

"I'm fine!" I snapped.

I shut my eyes tightly, disappointed in myself. Why was I being so mean? Maybe he naturally had a creepy tone and he was honestly checking up on me.

I forced a smile and took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to snap at you like that." I apologised heartedly.

He smiled awkwardly in return and nodded.

"It's fine. Come on, let's get back inside." He smiled.

Didn't he just hear me say that I was fine? But I didn't want to be rude...

"Yeah, let's go." I murmured.

We walked back through the doors in silence and the party was still underway, nothing had changed. I spotted the twins and their guys in the kitchen so after smiling thankfully at Lucas; I ditched him and walked straight to the gang who was in the kitchen. Nate was missing though. Where was Nate?

"He disappeared once you ran out." Chris told me.

Shit - did I just ask that out loud?

"Yeah you did." They all chuckled at me when my eyes had gone wide again.

"Why did you run out, by the way?" Cam asked; a hint of annoyance present in her flawless features.

And she had a right to be annoyed with me. Nate was her close friend and she obviously didn't want to see him angry or hurt.

"It was way too crowded on the dance floor." I answered; almost robotically because I didn't want to tell the truth which basically was that I was way too overwhelmed by Nate's compliments.

Oh God, no, please let me understand this properly. I ran out because of Nate's compliments. I repeated that sentence over and over again in my mind and realised just how stupid I was. What the hell was wrong with me? I ran out because Nate was complimenting me?

"I'm stupid." I hadn't realised that I blurted it out.

"Yeah," Chris smirked. "You are."

I needed to apologise to him and let him know about the feelings I had for him. It wasn't fair on him if I just allowed him to be clueless this entire time. I sighed heavily and pulled myself up to sit on the kitchen bench.

We all elapsed in a comfortable silence when the fast paced song changed into a really slow and romantic song.

Both couples smiled at each other and without even having to communicate, they walked towards the dance floor in one motion and started dancing to the song.

They were both so lucky to have someone care for them like that, I always wished that I may have something like that but then I would think about Jace, Liam and Mike and I would realise that family is all I've ever needed. But that didn't shake away the urge of wanting some to care for me the way Chris and Asher cared for Camilla and Chloe.

I jumped off the kitchen bench, deciding I would try and hunt down Nate and confess my feelings, getting everything over and done with. Everyone was in the middle of the house now while I stammered around the house looking for Nate.

It didn't take long for me to find him either; actually, in a matter of seconds he was found. But all thoughts of confessing and apologizing flew from my mind when my eye caught his silhouette. I walked closer to make sure that what I was seeing was true, that my eyes weren't deceiving me.

Nope, I was right. Nate was with another girl who probably didn't understand the meaning of decency. And their actions really exemplified how they had no idea how gross PDA was.

And... and how sickening it was for me to watch Nate kiss this girl, while groping her like she was some CPR doll.

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Authors Note:

So, if anyone hasn't realized yet, my inspiration for Nate in this chapter has been Damon Salvatore (:

That's Liam and Mike in the pic. Are they adorable or what!?

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Vote, comment and fan.

Farewell xx