Pretend

Chapter 3 - Me, Myself &...

Chapter 3 - Me, Myself &...

"Ready?" Crystal asked as we stood outside of the living room door.

"No and yes," I mumbled back, feeling more nervous as we got closer to entering the room.

"I'm with you, so don't worry about anyone else, ok?".

"Sure," I replied as I tried to force a smile onto my nervous face.

As we entered the living room I felt Crystal give my hand a tiny squeeze, I think that it was her way of reminding me of what she had just said. My eyes instantly scanned the room in search of Kyle and Rachel. I looked in the direction that they had previously been stood by the light green curtains but they were no longer there. I continued to allow my eyes to scan every corner of the room and to my surprise, there was no sign of them.

"I think they're gone," Crystal whispered into my ear as she gently allowed her hand to slip free of mine.

A sudden feeling of relief came over me and for the first time tonight, I started to relax. As Crystal beckoned me to follow her, deeper into the living room, I could still feel the eyes of different people staring at me. It made me slightly uncomfortable but I just avoided making eye contact by looking down at the floor.

"Hey, it's April!" Jess beamed as we approached her and the crowd that she was stood in. She instantly threw her arms around me, which soon became a pattern that was followed by both Erica and Jinnie.

"I'm so glad that you came! We have missed you so much. How are you?" Jess asked as they all stood, staring and waiting for my reply.

It was nice seeing them all but I had to admit that I did feel a little swamped by all of the attention that I was now getting. These girls had been my friends since I started high school and I knew what they really wanted to ask. It would be questions about Kyle and Rachel, me and Kyle, how we broke up and all the other list of things that they had probably discussed a thousands times already. I felt relaxed, knowing that none of them had enough guts to actually approach the situation head on.

"I'm ok thanks," I replied as I tried to avoid looking into Jess' big, blue eyes. She was taller than the rest of us and so it was easier to avoid her gaze. Her ruffled, black dress seemed to make her appear to be larger than she actually was and the fact that she had chosen to wear flat, black ballerina shoes hadn't really helped. Cutting her blonde hair to her shoulders, did however make her face appear thinner that it was, I wasn't sure how, but it just did. She was still very pretty, as always.

"Good, we're just glad to see you out and enjoying yourself again, right girls?" She said, looking at Erica and Jinnie.

"Yup," they both replied, at the same time. I always found it funny how much Erica and Jinnie did in unison. I get that twins have a 'special' connection but it did border on creepy at times. They did however have completely different styles. Jinnie was more of a tomboy and liked baggier, lighter clothes. Erica on the other hand was pretty much like Crystal when it came to clothes, completely girly.

I stayed with Jess, Erica and Jinnie as Crystal continued to mingle with the rest of her guests. I wasn't in the mood to dance and so I took my seat in between Jinnie and Jess. 

I admired Crystal's social skills in situations like these. She just loved being around people. As I watched her, she seemed right at home.

As I slowly took my gaze off of Crystal, I couldn't help but feel as though someone was watching me. I was right, it was a tall, muscular guy. I didn't know him very well but I did recognise him as being one of Aiden's friends. He had on a loose, dark blue top and a pair of black jeans. As he leaned against the wall, talking to a pretty, blonde girl, it became apparent that he was not listening to her at all as his eyes were completely fixated on me.