“So,” Mom calls through the door and I hear Stef clap excitedly. “Let’s see the outfits, then.”
I sigh from inside my walk-in, throwing Breanna a nervous glance. “I think I look like a prostitute.”
“You think you look bad?” She asks incredulously, turning from side to side while trying to catch a glimpse of the back of her outfit. “If my mom ever saw me in this I would be dead!”
“Girls,” Savannah says as she and Adison emerge from behind my shoe rack. They’re both dressed in their costumes. “Time to show off our clothes!”
“Great,” I mumble sarcastically, pulling down the hem of my dress. I’d chosen some character from Disney, yet turned it totally slutty with the help of Ella. I look around my walk-in. “Where’s Ella?”
“I’m at the back,” She responds. “I’m just putting on my stockings!”
“Well hurry up!” I yell at her jokingly
“I’m coming!” She yells back, glaring at me playfully as she walks into view. I laugh.
Savannah found her costume, exactly as she desired apart from the extra look the open lace down each side of her shirt gives her. She fell in love with it the moment she saw it and brought it straight away. It looks really good on her. Savannah begged Adison to get an outfit similar to hers, and so Adie brought a race girl outfit too. It’s a little different. It’s more colorful and has the traditional black and white checkered squares down the sides of the whole outfit. Ella chose a black and white striped costume with a little black hat on to match it, resembling somewhat of a sexy French police woman. Breanna had done the same as me and ripped off a Disney character.
“Common girls,” Jason knocks on the door. “We want to see!”
The nervous feeling increases when I hear Jason’s voice. I grimace at Savannah, but she only grins.
“You’ll be fine, let’s go!” She grabs my hand and pulls me to the door, the girls following us.
“Wait!” I stop her from opening the door. “Are dad and Jake out there?”
Savannah shrugs, repeating the question louder to my mom.
“They had good sense not to be,” Stefanie answers while laughing.
“Alright then,” Savannah opens the door and I yelp in surprise as I feel Adison’s small hands pushing me out of the closet. I stumble in my high black heels before steadying myself. I turn to glare at her. “What was that for?”
She shrugs, smiling slightly. “You were taking too long.”
I smile at her sarcastically before turning, expecting to see mom, Stefanie and Jason accessing our costumes. Instead I’m met with an extra three sets of eyes.
I pull my hem down again before running my hands through my hair subconsciously. “Hello.”
“I love it!” Mom breaks the silence. “They look really good!”
“That’s hot.” I look over at the guy standing beside Jason and recognize him as Andrew. I throw Breanna a side glance to see she’s blushing furiously under his gaze.
“I’ll just go and be,” She gestures nothing with her hands, talking gibberish. She looks behind her at my closet. “Go and be inside this beautiful closet. Yeah.” She hurries inside it, slamming it closed behind her.
“I’m definitely coming to this party!”
I groan in annoyance, turning back to face the four boys. “Liam you weren’t invited.”
He smirks, crossing his arms. “I know the doorman.”
“The doorman can be fired at any time.” I raise my eyebrows.
“I think we should vote on it.” He challenges. “All in favor of me attending the party raise your right hand.”
I roll my eyes. “It’ll be about four to the rest, our way.”
“I’m not in this,” Mom announces.
“Nor am I. We’ll just be downstairs.” Stef grabs mom’s hand and pulls her out of the room.
Liam shrugs, gesturing for everyone to make their vote. I glare at Jason, Andrew, the unknown boy, Savannah and Ella.
“That’s totally unfair! Savannah forced Ella to raise her hand!” I insist.
“It still counts, babe. I’ll see you there.”
“If you’ll just excuse me,” Andrew pushes past me and makes his way into my closet.
“Hey!” I scoff. “I have personal items in there!”
Breanna’s P.O.V
I take my shoes off before doing the same with the dress. I start my search for Alicia’s big adidas jumper.
“Looking for this?” I turn to see Andrew leaning against the door.
“No,” I glare at him before snatching the jumper from his hands. “But it’ll do.”
His eyes slowly roam my body and I can’t fight the blush.
“Don’t, Andrew.”
“What?” He asks innocently, meeting my eyes again.
“Don’t look at my body.” I tell him, throwing the jumper over my head and burying my arms in the sleeves.
“I can’t help it,” He shrugs while moving closer to me. “It’s a nice body to look at.”
“Please stop,” My hands clutch at my head. “I have a throbbing headache and I’m really not in the mood.”
“Not in the mood for what?” He doesn’t back away, but doesn’t close the small distance between us either.
“For your games.”
“I play games?” He asks, amusement clear in his voice.
“Yes,” I whisper.
“Don’t you like games?” He steps closer again and I close my eyes.
I shake my head. “Not your game, no.”
“Why not?” He asks playfully, yet I can tell he’s curious. I open my eyes to see him standing in front of me.
“I don’t understand how to play it.” I take in his face and I find my stare lingering on his lips. I look away from him altogether, hoping that he doesn’t let my staring go to his head.
He takes both of my hands in his. “The rule of my game is to pretty much,” He pauses for a second and I can feel him staring at me. ”Follow your instincts.”
I look back up him as he leans down. My gaze travels to his lips again.
Why does he do this to me? He makes me think he’s going to kiss me but always at the last moment he pulls away.
As his lips inch closer still his words echo in my head. ‘Follow your instincts’ I free my hands from his grasp and on their own accord they snake around his neck. His words repeating in my mind, I push my lips to his, taking control of the situation.
Adison’s P.O.V
I stare at him, my face blank. These past few weeks have been the longest we’ve gone without seeing each other, and they’ve been hard for me. Now it’s even harder seeing him and still not being able to be with him.
“Girls this is Kyle,” Jason introduces lazily while falling onto Alicia’s bed. “He doesn’t go to our school; he’s already doing college classes.”
Of course he is. With a dad like his I’m not surprised at all. Or maybe I’m not surprised because I already knew.
“I’m Alicia,” Alicia introduces herself, smiling at him. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too.” He smiles back, turning to Savannah.
“My name’s Savannah.” Sav grins.
He shakes her hand. “Pleasure.”
Ella waves at him. “It’s Ella.”
He throws her a head nod. “Hey Ella.”
He looks at me expectantly, waiting for my name. I force myself to smile. “Adison.”
“Didi,” He breathes out, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pulling me to his chest.
“Kyle,” I whisper in his ear as Liam eyes us curiously. I can’t bring myself to look at our other friends. “You can’t…”
He stops breathing for a second before regaining his act. He pulls away, throwing me a friendly smile. “Nice to meet you.”
I nod, stepping away from him and closer to Alicia. I see from the corner of my eye the funny look she gives me. I choose to ignore it.
“So is Kyle coming to the party?”
Alicia doesn’t usually hand out random invitations, and that’s enough of a hint to tell me that she knows something is going down.
Liam scoffs. “So he gets an invitation, but I don’t?” He shakes his head in mock disappointment, falling on the bed beside Jason. “You don’t even know him.”
“Get off my bed!” Alicia snaps, picking her bean bag up off the floor and throwing it on him. She quickly jumps on the bean bag so he can’t move. “Or suffer the consequences of my bean bag buddy.”
My eyes trail over to Kyle and I find him watching me. I feel the heat rush to my cheeks and I look away from him. Instead Savannah’s observing face enters my vision.
We all know how much Savannah likes Liam, it’s just a shame Liam doesn’t. And we all know it hurts Sav that we hate on him, especially when Alicia does it, since they’re like sisters, but we do it for her own good. He’ll hurt her, even she knows that.
My attention is turned back to the scene on the bed when I hear Alicia squeal.
“Liam!” Jason snaps, jumping up. “Let her down!”
Liam grins sheepishly, not pulling Alicia up from her upside down position. Slowly, her head inches closer to the floor. “But this is so fun!”
“You’re lucky I have shorts on!” Alicia yells at him.
“Just let her go, man.” Jason throws Liam a dirty look and Liam sighs. He finally lets her down.
“Sook.”
“Asshole.” She sticks her finger up at him before walking over to Savannah and grabbing her hand. “Stop looking at her like you’re going to fucking jump her!”
Savannah blushes as Liam smirks. He shrugs. “She’s hot.”
“Okay,” Ella speaks up, stepping forward. She’d been particularly quiet. “I think it’s time for the boys to evacuate Alicia’s room. Come on, out.”
Liam rolls his eyes before making his way towards the door. Before leaving he slaps Savannah’s ass and pokes his tongue out at Alicia. She glares at him.
“Bye,” I mutter to them all before turning away and busying myself with Alicia’s laptop. I move the connected mouse about, not really having a purpose to using it.
“By, Adison.” His voice is so close that I can’t help but gasp. I spin around to see him standing right behind me.
“Uh, bye.” I look at my feet, wanting so much to touch him yet not being able to. “Nice meeting you.”
“Yeah. Bye.” Despite saying goodbye, I notice his feet don’t move an inch.
Alicia’s P.O.V
“Hey can I talk to you for a second?” I look up at Jason and away from Adie and Kyle. I nod my head.
“Sure.” I drop Savannah’s hand after sending her a small smile and follow him out. He stops just outside of my bedroom and leans against the wall. I do the same and take up a position against the opposite wall. “What’s up?”
He stares at me for a moment before crossing his arms. “Your Universal audition is coming up soon, yes?”
I nod again.
“Well is it possible I can come?” He wonders unsurely, looking down the hall for a second before looking back at me. “You know, show my support or whatever.”
“Of course,” I tell him, smiling slightly. “I’d actually love it if you come. I mean, this is our dream. We’re supposed to be doing this together.”
He smiles sadly, kicking off the wall. “It was your dream first.”
“No,” I shake my head, leaning off the wall also. “It was our dream.”
I watch in curiosity as he reaches out and grabs my hand, pulling me against him. His arms slowly wrap around my shoulders, and I lean into him as my own arms wrap around his waist. I breathe in his smell, not hiding it either. I can’t deny loving the feeling of having my best friend’s arms around me again after so long.
“We promised we’d do it together,” I remind him, still not letting him go. “Maybe they’ll listen to you sing, too.”
He chuckles quietly in my ear and a shiver runs through me. “They’ll be too preoccupied with you; you’ll blow their minds away.”
He lets go of me and I frown, wanting him to put his arms back around me. He doesn’t. Reluctantly, I decide I better let him go.
“I know you want to hold me,” He grins at me. “You just love me that much.”
“You’re my bestfriend,” I roll my eyes. “I have to love you that much.”
The grin falls from his face, in its’ place a curious face. “Still?”
I look away from him and down the hall, wondering how I’m supposed to reply to that. I look back at him, a frown forming on my face. “Of course you’re still my bestfriend.”
A sick feeling washes over me when his face becomes disgusted. I bite my lip, staring straight at him as he stares straight back. Despite the disgust, there’s a small smile on his lips. “You’re still my bestfriend too, Aly.” He wraps his arms around me again. “I love you too.”
As my head rests on his shoulder I can’t help feeling so right, yet completely wrong. I feel like being in his arms is where I’m supposed to be. But what I don’t understand is the feeling that’s still lying low in my stomach, the feeling of disappointment.
Breanna’s P.O.V
He pulls away and despite being annoyed, I’m also glad I’m able to breathe again. Any longer and I would’ve passed out.
“What was that?” He asks, his voice husky. His lips trail down my jaw and down below my ear.
I lean my head to the left, giving him better access. “Following my instincts.”
“Mm,” He mumbles against my skin, his hands moving down the small of my back. “And what are your instincts telling your now?”
“To stop you,” A low moan escapes my lips, interrupting me. “To stop you so I can kiss you again.”
He pulls back to look at me and as his eyes search my face I feel myself blush.
“Then what are you waiting for?” He asks, a small grin forming on his lips.
My hands pull on his hair, bringing his head down closer to mine. I smile at him before leaning up and pushing my lips to his, causing a small groan to rise in the back of his throat.