Outcasts

[14]

My palms were sweaty, my heart was pounding, and my nerves seemed to be more confused than an eagle that was afraid of heights. I looked at myself in the mirror and imagined all the ways that this night could end horribly. In every scenario my body was littered with poison tipped, silver arrows. Was I overreacting? Maybe a little, but I had a good reason. My outfit for the, uh, outing, was pretty simple. Just a Nirvana tank top, black jeans, a blue and black flannel shirt tied around my hips, and black, lace-up boots. You know, tradition concert-wear. My hair was pulled back in a semi-messy, fishtail braid, revealing the silver studs my mother had bought me on Thanksgiving just last year.

"You look fine, stop fidgeting." Bella said, rolling her eyes. Since I had no dating experience, I called up Bella in hopes she would know what I was doing wrong. "You're neck is a little bare, though. You should wear her lace choker." She said, further making herself comfortable on my bed. I pulled out my black, lace choker and gently put it on. As Bella had said, it did make my neck less bare, adding a little "extra extra".

"This is stupid, I should just cancel." I said, reaching for my phone on the nightstand. Immediately, Bella grabbed it, and with impeccable speed, went to the far side of the room. "How did you-" I began, but shook my head resolving that it had to be some master werewolf thing, "Give me my phone." I walked towards her, arm outstretched, but she moved to the other side of the room. "Nope." she teased, shaking the phone. "Bella." I groaned, "I need to cancel." I moved toward her once again, but once again, she moved out of the way. "You're just nervous."

"Bella." I was cut off by the sound of Megan's car.

"Too late." Bella said. Mere moments later I could here Megan walk into the house. "Malia, Megan is here!" Leah called. I groaned, but put on my best smile and went downstairs. Megan's hair was pulled back in a messy bun. An open, green and black plaid shirt hugged her curves. A low cut, black tank top was underneath, and her dark skinny jeans just brought more attention to her figure. Her fingers were stacked with silver and black rings, which perfectly matched her thin-chained, silver heart locket. "Ready to go?" Megan said, offering me a friendly smile.

"Sure." I replied, hoping it wasn't obvious that I didn't want to go. Leah smiled and gave me a hug. "Be back before midnight." She said, "Have fun!"

Megan led me to her car, a shiny black pick-up that was parked on the side of the road. "You'll love this band, they're pretty awesome." She said, as we entered the car.

As soon as we hit the road, I was acutely aware of our close proximity. There was just something about her, something addicting. Her laughter was infectious, and I soon found myself forgetting that she had tried to kill me. Sure, she was dangerous, but so was I.

I was so entrenched in our conversation about random things, I wasn't paying any attention to what was going on. According to Megan, the band she wanted to take me to was an underground, alternative band. Their songs, as she described them, were pretty good and had a nice edge to them, and occasionally they did punk covers of popular songs. As much as she liked them, however, she couldn't remember their name for the life or her.

It was pretty funny watching her try and remember their name. Her nose scrunched up, her eyebrows furrowed, and she looked like she was somewhat constipated from focusing so much. The best part, though, was the fact she was completely unaware of how strange she looked, so she just looked at me dumbfounded when I started laughing.

It was going pretty well, and all the walls I had built up, tore down just as easily.

We were near the edge of the town limits, alone on the road, waiting for the light to turn green. A fog started rolling in, but neither one of us noticed. We probably should have. "I know their name, I swear." She said, still focused on trying to remember their name. I stifled a chuckle. "It's not that big of a deal, Megan." I said. Megan opened her mouth as if to say something, but quickly closed it when the light turned green, reverting her focus on the road.