the dollhouse | h.s.

thirty four

"I'm... I'm working on it, okay?"

"Oka-"

Ara is cut off by Fran who barges into the conversation with a full wine glass, "Hi, girls!"

"Hey, Fran." Ara and I say at the same time with a plain expression.

"What's going on?" Fran says, pulling her sapphire blue dress up to cover her cleavage.

"Nothing much" Ara says and I nod.

"Are you guys best friends? You look like best friends! Aw, that's cute. Dolly and Lara." Fran says, fake smiling.

"We're pretty good friends" I say.

"I think I heard someone call my name. I'll come back to chat later, babes. Bye Dolly and Lara!" Fran gets up from her chair.

"Bye Fern!" I say, waving and suddenly stopping Fran in her tracks.

"Fern? It's Fran" Fran gives Ara and I a mean look and puts her hand on her hip.

"It's Holly and Ara" I fake smile and Fran walks away.

Ara and I talk about everything that's happened in The Dollhouse so far. Both our stories are pretty different. Ara felt happily and in some way privileged after Louis got her... She apparently had been going through some really rough times, and ran away from home. She said Louis was the closest thing she had to a forbidden rescue into a twisted kind of safety.

"Oh my god," Ara says, "look at Juliet; she's already drunk"

I take a glance at Juliet, who has two wine glasses in her hand and her other hand is in the air randomly swinging while she loudly talks to Dakota, who seems to not care as she ignores Juliet and stares at her finely painted blue nails.

"Come on, girls, we're heading out to the rose garden for dinner now" Macy tells Ara and I.

Macy, Ara and I walk outside to the rose garden. And as soon as my eyes witness the beautiful layout of everything in the rose garden, my jaw drops with excitement and surprise of such beauty. There are hedges filled with red roses lined and finishing where the huge crystal water fountain is at the end of the garden, where behind that are extremely tall trees blocking the outside world from this extravagant venue. The dark night sky twinkles with stars and the full moon glows upon us all. In the middle of the rose garden is set a long table filled with fancy cloches, dishes of gourmet food, fresh fruit, and cocktails.

I take a seat next to Janet and Harry, as Ara and Macy go to sit next to Mina who looks to be having a little argument with Juliet next to her.

Niall, from the end of the table, stands up and taps his wine glass with his fork, indicating he wishes to say something. Everyone quiets down.

"Hello, everyone. I'd like to thank you all for being here, eat as much as you can and drink as much as you can," Niall chuckles, "let's all have fun tonight"

After Niall's little toast, everyone claps and soon returns back to conversation.

"Yesterday was fun" Harry says to me, his sparkling green eyes starring into my blue ones.

"It was" I giggle.

"Hello, Janet" Harry greets Janet.

"Hi!" Janet smiles, quickly fixing her pixie cut brown hair.

Harry, Janet and I have a chat and eat the delicious food the waiters and chefs have prepared for us. The food is amazing and it's even better to eat it with Harry and Janet at my sides. I haven't talked to Janet in a while, and I've missed her sweet, warming personality. She's such a lovely person to know.