Firelight

Chap Six

"the party"

Getting ready for a party always felt like prepping for a pageant.

The makeup was always extravagant, the clothes skimpy or flashy, in hopes for everyone to look at you for a fleeting second and then move on to the next eye candy passing by. A waste of effort to be honest, but it is fun, I guess. Well, for girls like Alicia that is.

Tonight was the night of Teala's party, and Alicia asked on whose house we were going to get ready in, and we decided not to contact with Yvette or we'd be spending mutinous hours trying to peel her off of her current boy toy, her cousin's ex. Pathetic.

Alicia decided she wanted to get ready at my house, so she got here four hours early, a backpack full of cosmetics and her party outfit, which was just a bright purple disco dress that reached up until her knees and glimmered everytime the light bounced off it, and a pair of black ribbon-laced kitten heels.

Skip to another three hours and we're both properly prepped and ready to go for the party.

I put on minimum face makeup, mainly focusing on my eyes, a dark blend of gold, blue and black, lash extension mascara, liquid eyeliner, a bit of highlight, red lipstick and well-trimmed eyebrows and my face is ready to go. I decided to wear a simple black ribbon sleeve dress that bounced freely at the skirt and my favorite YSL black heels, my hair was also layered and cascaded down my shoulders like chocolate waterfalls. The dark colors really brought out the lightness of my complexion which luckily made it look like I had natural lighting clinging to my skin instead of pale.

Alicia, on the other hand, looked stunning, her hair was curled to small ringlets and bounced on her shoulders naturally, her makeup fierce and gold, her cheekbones looked tall and her contour made all the angles of her face stand out, her lips were also painted a matte pink, so they looked full and luscious. Her dress also clung in all the right places, it's times like these that I wonder why people don't just get fascinated by her instead of me. She has runway looks compared to me.

But I'm not insecure if that's what others imply, I'm just simply baffled by how people think I'm more attractive than my best friend, she looks like a goddess, while I look like a small-country princess.

"Well? We better get going A! Or we'll miss all the early party shots"

She said happily, clapping her hands impatiently at me, I rolled my eyes and grabbed a white jacket from my cabinet, Alicia scrunched her nose up, "Calvin Klein? Why not go with Versace? It has better skin coverage, Calvin Klein is more or less underwear either way despite the appearance of other clothing"

"All my Versace is out of season, and I am not wearing a last year's Vogue article to a party" I said, slipping on the thin fabric across my arms.

"That's ridiculous" she replied, "No, that's fashion" I shot back, grabbing my small purse from my vanity and exited my bedroom. Alicia followed suit, and Humphrey, our family butler opened the front door where our ride, the boys, was waiting outside of my large double gates.

"Have fun, Miss Harte"

I looked back and gave Humphrey a small smile before walking towards Brandon's large Audi, the boys whistled when we got in the car, "As gay people would phrase, slay sisters!" AJ called out from the passenger seat. We all stared at him for a moment before bursting out into fits of laughter, AJ grew a shade of red and glared at all of us.

When we arrived at the party, it was already at full blast, the drunk rich kids loitering the yard and the red cups littered all over were still missing though, so it meant it was still too early. Madonna was on full volume once we got near the front door, and the crowd was noisy enough to signify that there were already a lot of people.

I've got to hand it to Teala though, her family's mansion was huge, pristine, and had several pools. I also know it had three minibars and a huge cinema house in the basement, it could house around a hundred guests easily. Once we got inside, the front lobby looked jam packed and the stench of booze and party drugs filled the hazy air. There were people on the second floor who were grinding on each other or jumping wildly, obviously drunk, even if the party hadn't even reached its peak yet.

"Look guys! It's the Glam Crew!"

Some random guy shouted from across the other side of the room, which effectively made everyone turn to the direction of the entrance, at us, and the way all of their eyes simultaneously snapped at our direction made me a bit unnerved, so much attention suddenly drawn on you. I should be used to it by this point, but I'm not the kind of person who craves attention every second, so no, I don't like being the center of attention.

With me in the front, I squared my shoulders, tipped my chin and strode towards the nearest minibar, Alicia and the boys followed suit, everyone parted like the Red Sea as we made way, and it was impressive, I felt powerful but this kind of power felt really scary to hold on to.

When we got to the minibar, Brandon, Alicia, Othello and AJ immediately gave their order of drinks, I decided on grapefruit wine, I wasn't in the mood to get "white girl drunk", so I'd settle on something light. The boys left to find Harry, the school's quarterback and Teala's boyfriend, to play some billiard.

Alicia and I made our way to the pool where only a few people were crowded and sat on the cool pavement, not caring that it rumpled the skirt of our dresses. After a few minutes of comfortable silence with only the beat of the music inside of the mansion, Alicia turned her head towards me, a lopsided grin on her face. She was drunk.

Her face looked more angelic when she was in a haze, her pupils dilated and she seemed to give off this kind of warm glow, and with her makeup, she looked even more dazzling, I'm not lesbian I swear. She just really looks gorgeous right now.

"Hey Ava, I remembered that girl in the bathroom from last Thursday, do you want to know how I knew about you and-" I immediately covered her mouth with my hand and gave her a pointed look, although I doubt she'd get it since she was already on the verge of falling face forward on the pool. I rolled my eyes and set down my drink, I took off my heels and hauled her up, she was surprisingly heavy for a girl who took dieting very seriously.

I heaved her on a nearby lounge chair and she laughed as she started to draw on air, she was always a lightweight when it came to alcohol. I shook my head and went back to where we previously sat to retrieve my shoes and my glass, when someone suddenly sat down on the other side of the pool.

I don't usually notice other people that easily, but this one had a glance so pointed, I couldn't not look.

I kind of regret when I did though.

"Oh, look! It's the devil himself!"