Faith in his Faults

Chapter Two

Haley picked me up to go to the party at exactly 7 o'clock as promised. She was dressed in a long, black, maxi skirt with a white crop top to match. Hey hair was in long brown curls down her back, and she had the perfect smoky eye look to her makeup. Haley was very confident with herself and had no problem exposing her stomach whenever she felt like it. You couldn't catch me dead wearing that outfit.

Haley couldn't stop talking the entire car ride to the party. It was clear that she was excited and was probably trying to avoid giving me the chance to change my mind and ask her to turn the car around.

"This party is going to be so much fun! I am so happy you came out tonight, I really think it will help you so much Faith, you'll see," she exclaimed. Haley glanced over at me before continuing, "you don't have a curfew tonight right?" she asked.

"Haley, do you not remember the conditions I made before agreeing to this idea? We are only staying for a couple of hours." I looked at Haley with as hard of an expression as I could, emphasizing how serious I was about these conditions.

"I know, I know," she said. "I'm just thinking in advance. You never know, you could have the time of your life and want to stay longer! I am just making sure that I don't have to have you home by a certain time if that is the case"

"I honestly doubt that will happen," I said. Haley just shrugged, bouncing in her seat to the music playing through her stereo system.

It was only a fifteen minutes car ride to Jacob Harold's house, but it felt like a lifetime. I tried so hard to focus on keeping my anxiety at bay and not to let myself get too overwhelmed. I couldn't help but let my mind wander to the idea that I was about to be in a house full of the people who stare at me all day long. That I was about to be surrounded by the same people that whispered as I walked down the hallways at school, as though I couldn't see that they were talking about me right in front of my face. My mom might have died, but that didn't make me blind or deaf.

I knew tonight was going to be a struggle, but I also knew that I needed to suck it up for Haley. She had been so supportive through everything the past three months and I couldn't take that for granted. No matter how much I was dreading this night, it made me happy to see Haley so excited.

When we got to the party, I couldn't believe how many people were crowding the front lawn. It was clear that this party did not only consist of the kids in our junior class, or even the kids that consisted of our entire high school. Given that Austin was a small town, our high school population was small, and this party was not.

As we walked up to the party, all I could smell was the awful scent of alcohol. Some people were already clearly drunk, even though the party had barley started. Henry, one of our high school's football stars, if that's what you want to call him, came stumbling over the Haley immediately.

"Haley! You came!" He yelled, spilling the beer in his hand has he stumbled into Haley's shoulder.

"Yeah," Haley said, a look of pure disgust crossed her face. "I think the party is already over for you bud." Haley pushed Henry's arm off of her shoulder, pushing past him and grabbing my hand to pull me along with her.

Jacob's house was big, a lot bigger than my family's home. It was at least three stories and had big white pillars across the entire front of it. As Haley and I walked into the foyer, a big chandelier hung our heads. There was a massive staircase that ran up the right wall, leading up to the second floor. It was the perfect house to fit as many teenagers that had shown up to this party. The place was packed with people, smelled like smoke and alcohol, with music blasting at full volume.