We Have A Lot In Common: I'm Hot, You're Hot-Let's Date!

Chapter 9: Party

“Oh oh oh Oh-livia!” Maddy sings, locking her arm with mine as we walk down the hallway. “Carly and I decided that we are kidnapping you and going to the mall.”

“You girls are running me dry here!” I swing my purse.

“We can always window shop if worse comes to worse. Besides, we want to here about yesterday.”

Carly catches up to us, swirling her keys around her finger. “Window shop? We should get outfits for Friday’s party.”

“Well now that you’re dragging me to the mall for a reason,” I giggle, “I guess I have no choice but to go.”

“Sweet!” Carly says. “I’m driving.”

Now that the second day of school is officially over, my two closest friends and I can go to the mall. We head out to the parking lot and make it to Carly’s car without any run-in’s with Kale, Chloe, or, surprisingly, even Noah. I toss my book bag in the trunk of her car and rightfully take my place in the passenger seat.

“I got shotgun for the drive home,” Maddy makes a point while climbing into the back seat.

“Sure you do.” I laugh.

We get to the mall before the crowd, so we hit up our favorite stores. I realize that I can’t quite make up my mind on what to wear Friday, so I buy a couple different outfits. I buy three new pairs of jeans, a couple of vintage-style shirts, and a leather belt. With an exhausted wallet and sore feet from running around in heels all day, I suggest we take a break at the food court to get some dinner before we leave. When we all settled down with our food at a table, Carly locks her eyes on me and Maddy sips her soda, both waiting for me to fill them in on yesterday.

“Well,” I smile, “if you must know…”

I pause.

“Tell us!” Maddy cheers.

I gave them all the details leading up to the kiss, including the compliments, the conversation during the drive to my house, and possible plans for this weekend.  “When we got to my house, I got out of the car and I was walking to the door and he stopped me and said ‘I don’t even get a kiss goodbye?’ and voilà—we kissed!”

“Was it like a kiss kiss or like a kiss kiss?” Carly presses, mockingly licking her lips.

“Just a simple kiss,” I say lightly.

“Still, that’s seriously adorable, Liv!” Maddy says, picking at her fries.

* * *

On Friday, the party at Ty’s is all the rage. “What are you going to wear?” “Do you think so-and-so will be there?” “Who’s going to be D.D.?” And all that sort of stuff.  I run over all the answers in my head: a pink crop top tee with low rise skinny jeans; everybody who’s anybody, and Maddy. Perfect. Nothing can go wrong.

From outside, I can see people in the windows dancing, talking, hooking up, and all of those other party-things inside. I can hardly hear the music over everyone’s talking. I can feel the bass moving through my body already as Carly, Maddy, and I approach the front. The party at Ty’s is rockin’.

I lead the way into the house, Carly and Maddy trailing behind me.

“Ayy, Liv!” Ty strolls over to me.

He tries to hug me, but I push him away as he nearly spills booze on me. “Back off, Ty. I just bought this shirt.”

“Snippy snippy, Liv,” he backs up.

I turn my attention away from him and scan the room for Kale. I suspect he’s probably in a crowd of girls, but I don’t see him amongst any of them. Is he coming even later than I am? I check my phone for the time, and it’s nearly quarter to midnight.