Laugh Until You Cry

22 New Year

“Stella, we have to go,” Andrew says, knocking on the bathroom door.

“Yeah, yeah,” I mumble, swinging all of my hair over my left shoulder and opening the door barricading Andrew from me. “I’m ready now, we can go.”

He takes a step away from the door so that I can get out and then he lets his eyes roam over my outfit- a black and gold sequin dress with three quarter sleeves and black stilettos with gold chains hanging from the backs of the shoes. I take this moment to do the same to him, to appreciate his fancy outfit too. He’s wearing a suit with a light blue button up shirt but no tie.

“You look gorgeous,” He tells me with a sideways smile.

My dark red lips part in a nervous smile and I blush a little bit. It’s been a while since he’s made me blush but tonight, he does it again. I can tell that tonight is going to change everything for us- I can just tell. Which is why I spent so much time in the bathroom fixing my makeup so that it’s perfect and making sure that my nails were painted black to match my dress. I’m considering this our second first date since our first date didn’t go as planned, Andrew is getting his second chance. We are both getting our second chance tonight and this time, we’re going to make it right.

“Thanks,” I finally breathe, following him down the hallway and then down the stairs. “You look nice too, Andrew.”

“Well, I have to at least try to keep up with you,” He jokes. “Now, we have to go now before my parents get back from their dinner party because my mom won’t let us leave without taking an hour’s worth of pictures.”

“Okay,” I giggle. “Let’s go then. Speaking of leaving… where is it that we’re going?”

Andrew chuckles as he opens the front door for me and I walk out into the darkness outside since it’s already pretty late but since it’s New Year’s Eve, we’re going to be out until at least midnight, I assume, so it makes sense that we waited until late to leave. “You know that I’m not going to tell you that.”

“I know, but I might as well try anyway,” I sigh with a small laugh. “It has to be really nice considering we’re all dressed up though.”

He nods in agreement while opening the passenger side door for me. “Yeah, it’s pretty fancy. That’s all I’m giving you though.”

“Okay, well that’s good enough for now, I guess,” I sigh, getting into the car and watching as he walks around the car and into the driver seat. “I’m not sure how you can beat dinner and a movie though.”

He chuckles and starts the car, backing out of the driveway. “This one isn’t nearly as cheesy, but I think I may have outdid myself this time. I don’t know, I guess that we’ll see.”

We drive for a while but because I don’t know my way around this city, I can’t decipher where we’re going based on the direction that we’re going like I usually can when we’re in LA. I just watch the buildings go by and listen to the radio, neither one of us speaking.

“So things will be interesting when we get back to school on Monday,” Andrew finally breaks the silence.

I groan, realizing that today is Friday and we’re going back to California on Sunday, so our break is pretty much over now and there’s a big mess waiting for us back at school. “It’s going to suck. I mean, I love the dancing but the academics and the drama is just so gross. And then we’re going to have a lot of explaining to do when we tell people that we’re back together.”

We’re at a red light and Andrew whips his head in my direction so fast that I worry that he may have snapped his own neck or something. I don’t even know if that’s possible, but it was a really fast reflex. “We’re going to be back together?”