Forever 21

1 | Dying to Live

"Happy Birthday! I knew I couldn't get you to dress up as anything too extreme, but I didn’t think you’d protest to being a hot vampire.”

"Well," I sighed in defeat, "I guess I should change. We have a party to get to."

"Damn straight," she nodded, plopping down onto our couch.

I paused at the base of the stairs and looked back at her expectantly. "Aren't you going to dress up?"

In lieu of an actual response, her hand showcased her curvy frame and the simple black dress that encased it.

"I meant in a costume."

She waved a hand in front of her body again as if to say, "Can't you see I'm already in one?"

I shook my head and jogged up the stairs into the bathroom to change and put on at least a little makeup. If I was going to do the whole "breaking out of my shell" thing, I was going big or going home. 

When I walked out of the bathroom and down the stairs about a half hour later, I was pretty dang proud of myself. I was wearing both of my presents along with the contacts I'd bought a while back but had never worn because glasses were easier to put on. My hair was actually flat-ironed and not in a ponytail for a change. Deep down, I knew Ivy would be upset that I'd opted for black flats instead of hooker heels, but I didn’t want to break an ankle. As it was, I’d twisted it the last time I tried wearing them to my Great Aunt Tillie’s 60th wedding anniversary.

The moment I stepped off of the last stair, she whistled at me. "Hot damn, I should've forced you out of your self-induced solitude ages ago."

She was grinning from ear to ear as she practically dragged me out the door and to her car. The car ride was filled with her chatter about everything and anything under the sun.

“So what are you supposed to be?” I asked her during the short drive to the party.

“Your fairy godmother, of course!” She quipped.

“Then where are your wings?” I countered.

“Faeries don’t have wings.” She lifted a shoulder nonchalantly as if she were an expert in such matters. No more than a few seconds passed before she returned to talking a hundred miles an hour and I smiled, happy to call her my friend.

“…And you’re going to have so much fun tonight!” She finished when we finally pulled up to the mansion-like house in the middle of nowhere.

Technically, it was hardly the middle of nowhere, but it exuded that feeling because it was surrounded by trees that spanned as far as the eye could see and appeared to stretch forever upward toward the star filled sky. I loved living in Parks, Arizona because it was one of the few places where nature dominated urbanity. There were no streetlights, no streetlamps and if you went far enough you’d discover a world where the idea of paved roads was novel.

It was barely a blip on the map, but it possessed practically everything a college student needed – except for a college. Instead it offered peace, quiet and fairly easy access to humanity. Humanity, however, preferred Flagstaff as it was the more urban version of Parks. Only twenty minutes away, it had everything Parks lacked, including the huge university I attended.

“…And this is Cam. Cam. Cam! Say hi to James!” Ivy elbowed me in the ribs and I instantly beamed the guy in front of me my best smile. I had long ago learned to grin and bear her good natured abuse.

“Nice to meet you James,” I said scrambling to bring my head out of the clouds where it was perpetually located.

Dressed as the guy from Scream, James’ mask sat on top of his head so we could speak face to face.