Anchor Grind (H.S. / A.U.)

Chapter 21

Alanis POV

As I stand in the mirror re-adjusting the wig for a third time I hear Poppy groaning in the bathroom that is connected to her room. She's been doing that every three minutes on the dot practically since she found out that Niall was going to be late coming over. As she told him on the phone earlier, "get your ass here right now or else I won't get good pics of us before we get to the boardwalk".

Liam was already ready and in the living room stretched out on the couch watching some sort of scary movie based on the amount of screams I would hear from the speakers every few minutes.

Personally, I was more nervous than anything else. I knew the plan was to all dress up, take some pictures at Poppy's house, then head down to the Boardwalk for an evening of fun before the party-party at the boys house. I don't know what worried me, but it seemed like the idea of alcohol, junk food, getting scared, rides, all being put together that spelled a recipe for me upchucking all over myself at some point tonight. I get scared easily and I just am already mentally preparing for the thrills and screams that are probably going to totally happen. I didn't warn any of the others that I might actually piss myself the moment anyone scares me, let alone if we see some creepy ass things for costumes.

Luckily I have never been the type to be scared of clowns, but I know a lot of people are. I remember this one time about five or six years ago when a woman was just having breakfast with her son when a clown came to her house and rang the doorbell before SHOOTING her in the face with a gun and killing her. Now, granted, this was all some true crime case from Florida (a wild place already) and it was because her scummy husband was cheating on her with someone he worked with, but still. Clowns get a bad rep in my opinion. Mimes on the other hand, those things are weird. Why do we need some black and white mysterious muted individual who cannot talk and has to sign me everything about getting stuck in an invisible box, a gust of wind, and always been pulled by some sort of a rope. Sounds suspicious to me.

I hear another moaning groan from the bathroom and this time I hear Poppy let out a "oh my god" under her breath. She was sitting on the bathroom counter doing her dramatic make up for her Pretty Woman costume while I still fixated on my costume in the mirror. I felt really pretty.

I liked the way the white dress clung to me in the right spots. It made my boobs look bigger I think, but my stomach and waist looked extremely tiny and flat. The way it frilled out a little around my feet made me look dainty, which is not normally how I would describe myself. I really leaned heavily into the girly vibes tonight. The wings made me look extremely beautiful and the wig was surprisingly cute despite being a natural color (something I have not had in years). I added a pale pink tone of lip color and some shiny gloss, thanks to Poppy but it did not seem like enough quite yet. "Hey Popppppppps." I draw out her nickname while heading into the bathroom.

The bathroom looked like a twister had hit it by the amount of clothes scattered on the floor, make up and hair products on the sink, the toilet had a towel on the closed lid, and there was not an ounce of space not littered with some sort of halloween packaging that Poppy and Liam had opened up. "Sup babes? Oh god you look hot as fuck. I love you in a dress. And in white. Wow, the wings. This is such perfection! Give me a spin!!!!"

Poppy was looking at me through the mirror while perched on the counter in a black bra and matching underwear with an eyeliner pencil between her fingers.

I couldn't help the giddy smile at Poppy's compliments while I spun around holding my dress with my hands so it fanned out extra around me during my twirls. "I love it so much. You look just like the commercials for Juliet. Like I cannot wait for the movie, you are iconically her." Poppy was proud sounding, despite the fact she only saw the trailer and pictures for the film about three hours ago when I showed it to her.