Emerald Eyes

Chapter 21.

                                                                                Daniella’s POV

                I sat on the floor in my room. That was it. I had to go shopping. I had absolutely nothing to wear tonight. Not one thing. Honestly, what was I supposed to do? Go in a short dress? I owned about three or so, but they would show my scars unless I wore leggings. It was too cold for dresses anyway. I wanted to wear what I was comfortable in, skinny jeans and a loose tee shirt. But that wasn’t exactly proper date attire. So I just sat there on the floor, leaning against my bed. Trying to figure out why exactly I had agreed to go on this date.

                Of course, if Alyssa was awake, she’d be practically pushing me out the door go on my date. I hadn’t seen that before. I was too blinded by grief that I didn’t realize that Alyssa would hate me for ostracizing myself for her. Lucas didn’t even know my sister, but he had seen that. So I was going. And I’d start talking to Jackie again. I’d be the person Alyssa would want me to be because I owed her that much.

                Lucas had gotten everything so spot on. It was almost freaky, the way he just knew what was going on. He just looked at me and he knew. And we’d kissed twice now. The second had just been a chaste little peck, but still. It was almost funny, how I had only been kissed once before and then suddenly, we were kissing every day. Not that I expected that trend to continue, but still.

                And Lucas was such a good kisser.

                I halted those thoughts right there and focused on my wardrobe. My cuts from the past week still hurt, so I wanted to wear something comfortable. But it had to be cute, too. I had nothing that fit the bill. So, in the true spirit of making my sister happy, I went to look through her clothes. I felt bad doing it, like I was stealing her stuff while she was away, but I was just borrowing it, and if she had been here, she probably would’ve insisted that I wear it. She would’ve thrown it at me and insisted. She was always offering her clothes for me to borrow when she was… awake. So I went to her closet and chose the thing I thought that she would most want me to wear. It made me feel good to do it, like she was still here.

                “What do you think, Aly? What would you want me to wear? Ooh, good choice.”

                I chose my black skinny jeans for comfort, her silver tank that made me look like a size zero even though I totally wasn’t, with a black cardigan over it – dressier than usual but not too fancy - and her black four-inch stiletto pumps – high but not teetery. Those were her favorite shoes. With these, I’d probably only be a few inches shorter than Lucas, instead of being shoulder height.

                Once I was dressed, I put my hair up in a purposefully messy ponytail and put on slightly more make-up than usual. A little thicker eyeliner here, and touch of lip-gloss there, some mascara, and I was done.

                Lucas had said he’d pick me up at seven, so that meant that I had around five minutes before he came. I spritzed some citrus-y perfume on myself and sat on the couch to wait. After a minute or two, my dad came in.

                “You know I love you. You seem to like this boy, so have fun. Be back by eleven, okay?” I nodded, and my dad hugged me and then left to mourn the loss of his middle daughter. Or something. And then there was a knock on the door and my heart threatened to burst out of my chest.

                I opened the door, and there was Lucas in black skinny jeans, a semi-dressy back v-neck and his signature white Vans.