TWO WALLS - the summer i turned pretty (conrad fisher)

eleven

"Can I borrow some of your perfume, Sonny D?" Belly came in behind Taylor, but she didn't sit down.

"Sure." I shrugged. A smile took over my lips as I noticed the flowers on their heads. "Are we wearing our flower crowns?" I finished blending the brown liner and quickly rushed to put on pink lipgloss.

"Of course we are," Taylor said.

Once I finished, I made sure to put the lipgloss in my back pocket and then I stood up to grab my crown from my bedside table and I carefully put it on, too scared I might destroy Susannah's masterpiece.

Taylor sat up from my bed and fixed the flower crown on my head. "We're some hot badass bitches!"

I hummed in agreement, trying to ease my nerves. I haven't gone to a party since I was sixteen. It's been two years.

Even with as many times as I told the girls and Cam that I was fine with carpooling, Taylor still went on about how it would be better if we let the couple drive together and us two in my car. At first, Cam interjected, saying, "maybe Sonny's right, I could be DD since I don't drink."

I responded by saying, "I don't either," which led Taylor to give me a questioning look. "A drink or two but not enough to get buzzed or drunk. Not anymore." There was a short pause, an awkward moment of silence. "Fine," I said, wanting nothing but to end the silence.

Taylor squealed and ran towards my car. It was a dark gray Toyota Corolla that I bought myself, with the slight help of Alva and Eduardo. I was so excited to decorate the inside until I realized how expensive it was to make it look cute. I did it anyway. I still liked the way it looked, so I thought there wasn't a point in changing it and spending a bunch of money on it again.

"This is how I aspire my future car to look like." Taylor complimented as she buckled her seatbelt. "Also, I noticed your NYU sticker outside. When were you going to tell me?"

"It never came up." I shrugged, while pulling out of the driveway. I handed her the aux. "Play something we'll both like."

"This isn't the end of this convo," she said, searching for a good song. Cruel Summer started playing, which only made my nerves calm a little. It was probably my favorite summer song. "Okay, tell me more about NYU!"

"I don't know what to say." I laughed. "You're kinda the first person to ask."

"Really?" Taylor hummed. "Well? C'mon, give me something!"

"I made an early decision and I got a full ride. Not to mention all the other scholarships I applied for." I took a second to gather my thoughts. "I wasn't exactly sure where I wanted to go, so I researched which schools have good law programs, especially for the type of law I want to study. NYU was on the list, so I decided I wanted to go there."

"Did you visit it?"

I nodded. "But even before I got to visit, I knew how cliché it was, I just knew that it was the school I wanted to go to." It was the place that was going to make my dream come true.

"Who gives a shit that it's cliché," Taylor said from beside me. "You went to a competitive ass school, didn't you? I'm still so damn proud of you and your Valedictorian self."

"I would've been Salutatorian if George wouldn't have moved halfway through our junior year," I said, awkwardly trying to downplay my achievements.