Pulling Your Heartstrings✔

Chapter fifteen

Imade squealed. "We look amazing." To be specific, she looked amazing, considering she bought her outfit from a high end boutique, and I got mine from a thrift shop.

I smiled briefly, then answered.  "You finally picked out a sleeveless dress. You never wear that, and you look really gorgeous right now."

Imade stared at herself in the mirror. Looking intensely at the floor length gold colored gown she had put up. It had sparkles all over, and with the pearl necklace Imade paired it with, it made her look like a real life princess. "I always had fat hands, so I preferred to cover it up with sleeves."

I already knew about her past insecurities, but that wasn't why she wore sleeves. She only wore them to cover her scars on her arm, whenever she cut herself. I wanted her to tell me the truth. To open up completely, but I couldn't push it. At least, she presently wasn't cutting, even if it was all for the wrong reasons. "You're gorgeous. You should always know that."

"I was fat and pudgy. There's nothing gorgeous about that."

"If I didn't think that you were an amazing gorgeous soul, back then, then I wouldn't be your friend in the first place."

"Maybe. But, at least I lost all the weight, back when I did." My eyes narrowed.

Her look of displeasure dragged over her face. "Only because you were depressed. Not because you loved who you were, either fat or thin."

"That's just bullshit and you know it. No one actually loves themselves. You would take one look at yourself and want to change something in it, because we're all imperfect."

I looked at her for a while. Was that really how she saw herself? Unlovable? "Imperfection is what makes us human. Being imperfect has nothing to do with loving yourself. I'm imperfect and I love who I am. That's not a bad combination."

"Do you really love yourself? Because from what I remembered, from one of our drunken sleepovers, you admitted how you hated how controlling you've become, when it came to things you were passionate about. Obviously, you were talking about your relationships, so that doesn't sound like self-love to me."

"At least I admit I have faults, instead of bottling things up and making terrible decisions."

Imade's eyes glazed, with unshed tears. "You have no right to say that."

"When will I ever have that right? When you have another mistake again? You never talk about it. I always give you your space, and let you avoid the topic for the past years. It needs to stop. Everyone pretends like it never happened, but it did. I'm not judging you. I'm the last person to judge you, because I've done some fucked up shit too, and I understand. But you got to let me in. We're more than best friends. We're more than sisters. We need to talk about things like this, or we'd end up driving each other apart."

Her mouth parted slightly, but no words came out. The door hurled open, and Mrs. Johnson poked her head in. "You two look stunning. The party's already starting. We wouldn't want to keep our guests waiting now, would we?"

Imade's voice turned cold. "I need to help Mrs. Simbiat with some stuff. Excuse me."

She pushed herself out and Mrs. Johnson gave a perplexed look. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing."

"That's not nothing. You two hardly ever argue."

I muttered. "That's the problem right there".

Mrs. Johnson cocked her head to the side, then sighed. "You two should just sort it out, but I can't bear to see both of you on bad terms."

"We're not on bad terms. We're just figuring things out."

Mrs Johnson folded her arms. "That's never going to end well. Imade doesn't do things like that. It scares her."

"Fear's just in the mind."

"And that's why the mind is the most powerful weapon in a person. Break the mind, and you break the person. Remember that."

......

Looking around for Imade, I caught a whiff of a familiar scent I had grown fond of. "Tife. Thank God I saw you."

Tife's lips curled up. He was dressed in a tuxedo, that seemed to give him an unusual appeal, the more I looked at him. "Thank goodness indeed, because you look stunning, by the way."

I swatted his arm. "I don't have time for your fake flattery. Have you seen Imade?"

"I saw her heading up to her room, she looked really ups—"

"Thanks for the info, bye." Why didn't I go to the room in the first place? I only thought it was the most obvious place she'd run to, so that had to be the most unlikely place she would be. Damn, was I wrong. Sometimes logic is just overstretched.

I met Victor softly banging on the door. "Open up, Imade. You can hide there forever". His face softened, when he saw me. "Hi. Do you know what happened? She's —"

"We had an argument and I went too far. I need to fix this on my own. Can you give us a moment?" My words were sharp. I didn't feel the need to be polite to him.

Victor's eyes widened for a split second and finally nodded, then went downstairs. I knocked. "Imade. It's me. Please let's talk. I know I pushed your limit and I apologize. I suck at boundaries and I should have respected yours."

The door clicked open, and Imade left it ajar for me to go in. I quietly entered, and Imade looked at me for a couple of awkward seconds, then said. "I think it's time to have that decade long talk that you needed to hear."