"See you, Rory," Matt grins at her as he walks down the driveway.
Elena's downstairs, preparing snacks for herself. Rory shuts the front door, walking up the stairs, but her way is quickly blocked by her twin sister, "What's that?" Elena asks, referring to Rory's dress.
Rory shrugs, "A dress for tonight. Nik dropped it off,"
"Nik? As in your boyfriend Nik?" Elena raises an eyebrow as Rory pushes past her to walk up the stairs, "When are you going to let me meet him?"
"Hopefully not any time soon," Rory mutters. Elena looks offended, but Rory is quick to counter, "I just don't want to jinx anything—all my relationships tend to fall apart when I bring family into it. I just..." Rory trails off, hugging the dress to her chest absentmindedly, "I just want to keep him for myself for a little bit. I promise that when I'm ready, you'll be the first to meet him."
"I better," Elena spares her a warning glance.
"You're not going to the party tonight?" Rory asks, noticing her lack of fancy clothing.
Elena shakes her head, "Not with everything going on with Stefan and I,"
"Oh," Rory frowns, "I didn't know you were having trouble with Stefan."
"Yeah. Everything's just a little complicated," Elena's lips upturn into a small, awkward smile. Rory's eyes flash with an unknown emotion at her lame excuse, but she simply smiles falsely, "Do you want me to help you get ready?"
"No," Rory replies, "I'm okay without you."
Elena doesn't even get the chance to register Rory's words before her sister's door slams in her face.
｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ
The dress that Nik gifted her is over the top, flashy, and more expensive than everything she has in her closet. She knows just by the feel of it in her hand—it's gold, sparkling under the light. Eye-catching and radiant. She honestly can't believe that it was just... given to her like that. She has half the mind to return it to him, but Nik insisted that it's one of his sister's throwaways; she has plenty of those in her closet, he had said, she doesn't need to waste anymore space in our house.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
A gold mask is held in Rory's hands, covering half of her face. She turns heads when she enters, which isn't surprising for her—it seems that she missed the memo to keep her dress in classic monochromatic colours. Everyone is draped in black, and she looks to be the only one in gold. She gathers herself the best she can, pretending that the eyes that dig into her back didn't make her skin prickle and her heart race with anxiety.
Her hair is curled, left to hang over her lower back. A golden hairpin secures her front hair to the side, hair-sprayed and tucked neatly between her brunette tendrils. She takes a glass of champagne from a nearby busboy, tilting her head back to sip at the alcohol. A hand is placed over her elbow, and Rory's eyes avert to the smile that's flashed at her, identical to her very own.
