Little Black Dress [ENGLISH]

PROLOGUE

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Spending the wee hours of the morning at a hospital in a waiting room? Having the feeling like my crush would never talk to me again?  Having people look at me with disgust and distaste? Having over a million fans hate me because of what I supposedly did? 

That was not how I wanted to spend my weekend. 

But here we were — my younger brother JJ, my best friend Arianne (whose scheming brain got us into this very mess), my crush Marco (who wasn't speaking to me) and me, clad in a lacy white dress that had seen better days — (im)patiently waiting for the moment where we could finally see the country's biggest superstar in her hospital room, whom I had supposedly pushed in front of a car. 

Glancing over at Marco with my head bent down in shame, I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. He was irrevocably mad at me, and with good reason to be. 

I watched as he ran his fingers through his dark hair, a mixed look of irritation and frustration on his usually smiling face. My heart beat fiercely as I remembered the first time we met — he had run his fingers through his hair just the same. His eyes had been glittering with optimism then, but the same could not be said for the moment being.

His brown eyes were no longer sparkling, but tinted with a scarlet overlay of anger, and I knew that the distance between us was needed at the moment.

Suddenly, a loud noise erupted from the seat next to me. 

"BREAKING NEWS: THE COUNTRY'S SWEETHEART, JEANELLE DE LA CRUZ HAS BEEN SPOTTED CONFRONTING HER LOOK-ALIKE AND IMPERSONATOR, WHO HAS BEEN THE CAUSE OF HER NEWFOUND COVERAGE, ROSALIE MENDOZA. The two girls were reported to be arguing at the corner of a street when suddenly — " 

" — Kuya, that's enough," I said, exhausted, "Stop watching that. Your eyes are going to start hurting if you keep using your phone without sleep." 

Instead of turning his phone off, my sixteen-year-old brother promptly plugged his headphones, but was interrupted by Arianne, who ripped them out of his earbuds and snatched his cellphone away from him.

"OW! Arianne, what's your problem?"

With her auburn hair glinting almost red in the light, her cheeks pink as she was ballistic, she almost seemed to be on fire. To top it off, she was wearing a cherry-colored, ruffled off-the-shoulder dress to match her lipstick. 

Even though she was in a bad mood, Arianne Andrada was still gorgeous. She always maintained a wild-child elegance and that was something I had always been jealous of. 

"Your sister is having the worst time of her life right now, and you're rubbing it into her face! Try to show some respect at least, JJ!"

The words spilled out of my mouth before I could even take them back. 

"Well, you know what, Arianne? We probably wouldn't be here — I wouldn't be in this situation right now if it wasn't your stupid idea for me to go to that stupid party in that stupid dress in the first place."

Shooting out of her seat like a cannon, she looked at me with such fervor that I thought I was going to shrink and explode under her glare. 

"EXCUSE ME? I was defending you — and you decide to blame this whole damn thing on ME?"  She scoffed, her gaze still trained on me. 

I sat there with my legs and my arms crossed, staring back in silence because I knew I had done her wrong. I tried to swallow the lump in my throat, but found I could not. The guilt was starting to bury me alive.

"Okay, so I DID come up with a 'stupid' plan, but I was only thinking of you. And I'm so sorry that you got wrapped up in this whole mess, but I STOOD BY YOU THE ENTIRE TIME! I WAS ALWAYS THERE FOR YOU, and now you're just pointing the finger at me? Your best friend, who is always there for you?"

As she kept raising her voice, tears began to prick my eyes and a few tears ran down my face. I brushed them off, forgetting I was wiping off my makeup in the process. 

"It's not completely my fault anyway, Rosalie, and YOU KNOW IT! I may have given you the idea, but you're the one who agreed to it. You're the one who agreed to my plans. So don't blame this all on me. You're at fault too. And you know it! So stop acting like some saint because you're not! You're really not!"

Arianne chucked JJ's headphones and cellphone back into his lap, and then slung her brown handbag over her shoulder.

Marco, sitting four chairs away from me, was still silent, as if he lived in a little bubble where I, Arianne, and JJ did not exist. 

All of a sudden, a nurse came by, a clipboard in her hand.

"Um, Marco Reyes, Arianne Andrada, Rosalie and Joshua Mendoza? You are free to see the patient now." 

Arianne glanced at the nurse with a softer look than she had given me the past few minutes before turning back to me.

"You know what? I can't be here right now. I need to leave...I need coffee. I need to go get coffee."

And with that, she stomped away in her heels effortlessly and flawlessly like she always did. 

I stood up, watching Arianne go, before Marco strode past me, brushing his shoulder against mine roughly but still not acknowledging my existence. 

"C'mon, Ate, let's go," JJ said, and he followed Marco to the hospital room.

I took a deep breath, holding it as I walked into the room after them.

"Well, well, well, look who it is — Miss Copycat." 

Sitting on the bed was the only person that hated me more than her millions of fans and followers —

— Jeanelle de la Cruz.

"I hope you burned that little black dress of yours."

I exhaled a shaky breath and prepared for the worst.

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A/N: HELLO READERS! i hope you liked the prologue of "Little Black Dress"! maraming maraming drama sa aking istorya na to haha lol. please keep reading and wag mag forget to vote!!! maraming salamat!!! dedicated to ilurvbooks bc she is one of my favorite authors sa wattpad!! she is so lucky to have had her book published and turned into a movie!! 

love always, 

— Mai ♥