Piano Girl ❊ {Paul Lahote}

Chapter Eleven - Prelude in G Minor (Op.23 No.5) - Rachmaninoff

❊Violet❊

"You are going to that party, Vi."

It was lunchtime and the cafeteria was packed, as the early January rain had driven everyone indoors. Ora was still trying to drag me to the party.

"Come on Ora. You know I work Friday and Sunday." I sighed.

"Yeah," She grinned, "But not Saturday!" I groaned and my head hit the table. "Come on, Vi! It'll be fun!"

I rolled my head to the side and glared at Ora and Quil, who were sitting across from me with similar expressions on their faces. Quil wiggled his eyebrows up and down. I faced the table again with an exasperated sigh.

Jacob, who was sitting next to me, nudged my arm gently. "She's right. It'll be good for you to relax and let loose a little." I sat back in my chair, glancing briefly towards my sister Ellie, who sat on my right, picking at her food, before bringing up my last argument.

"What about the project? There's still a lot to do and it's due pretty soon..."

Ora threw up her hands in frustration. "You actually have a partner now! It's gonna go, like, 10 times faster. You'll probably be done by next week, if I know you."

I sighed. She was right. Besides, what harm would a little party do? Maybe it would finally get the image of Paul Lahote's stupid kiss out of my brain. It had been plaguing me all week.

"Alright. Fine. I'll go."

Ora squealed in victory and high-fived her cousin, both of them acting like they had won the lottery. Jacob laughed at them while I shook my head, but even I couldn't hold back a smile.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw my sister pause her prodding of her salad, before shaking her head and continuing. I sighed as I dug into my own food.

This will be fun.

❊❊❊

After telling the others on Thursday that I would go to the party, the rest of that day and Friday passed in a blur. Not of excitement, but rather of anxiety.

It wasn't that I hadn't been to parties before. I had been to my fair share, mostly with Ora. It wasn't that I didn't find them fun, or that I didn't enjoy a bit of drinking. I had had my fair share of drinks, too. It was just a feeling I had, like something weird was gonna go down at this party.

I mean, who was I kidding. Ora had invited the two Forks boys, so right off the bat it was guaranteed to be a weird night. There was just a weird feeling in the air that I didn't like. It sent shivers down my spine.

Then again, I thought, as I plonked out the notes to another Rachmaninoff piece at The Purple Piano bar, you've been saying the same thing for the past several weeks. It was probably just the same weird feeling that started with all the gang crap.

I tried to shake off the thoughts that had been following me for what seemed like forever, and instead made to plunge myself headfirst into the song. The notes flowed from my fingers and slowly I felt myself relax into a state of peace that I had not felt since Jared Cameron didn't show up to school that first day.

But of course that piece couldn't last forever.

❊❊❊

"What about this?"

Ora held up a maroon, fairly low cut tank top in one hand and an old, fairly form fitting leather jacket that she had pulled out of my closet. "They'll look killer on you."

I sighed, but smiled at her. "Yeah, alright." I responded. "But I'm not wearing heels. It's still muddy as hell out there."

She shrugged. "Fair enough, nice shoes are expensive. Now get changed so we can go!" Flouncing out of my room, she shut the door behind her.