It took surprisingly little persuasion for my mother to let me go over to Andy's house. I think she was so overwhelmed by the idea of me having actual friends in my school, especially girls, that she was willing to let me go to Canada if it meant hanging out with them. Andy told me to bring stuff to sleep in and I relayed the message onto my mother, who told to be careful but to have fun.
As I was leaving, I did hear her say to Billie, "Maybe having friends will change her, make her see things in a different perspective." It took me a moment to hold back from going back in there and insisting it wouldn't, but I did want to go to Andy's party. Starting an argument with my mom about her boyfriend probably isn't the best course of action to take.
Andy had been on the phone to me, telling me to be sure I arrived early so that she could "help me get ready", which I soon found out consisted of dressing me, doing my hair and whipping on several layers of make up - all of it hers and all of it scarily expensive by the sounds of it. I was a little apprehensive seeing as I never dressed or even tried to emulate Andy's style but she was adamant that this would be the plan and that was that.
I followed the directions Andy had given me as carefully as possible, though her accent and slang was exceedingly hard to follow so I managed to draw information out of Joey about where he lived without telling him where I was going, seeing as they were neighbours.
I don't know what I expected - I knew Andy was well off. Everyone knew that. Even so, when I drew up to the gaudy black gates closing off the property, I couldn't help but gawp at the sheer size of her house. It was probably the biggest house I had ever been near. The front garden seemed to stretch out into a field, with a fountain, a koi pond with a bridge planted over it and several artistic looking statutes dotted throughout it. The house itself was like a Victorian mansion made out of elegant red brick, the mahogany front door looking as though it had been freshly polished that day. The windows were all massive and on the second floor, just above the front door, there was a large balcony looking out onto the street.
I pulled up next to a rather clean and sleek Audi car that looked new and I couldn't help but feel like I really didn't belong here or that my presence was an insult to such a grand looking place.
There was an over the top pull door bell and I almost laughed as I pulled on the rope, hearing the sound echoing inside. It took a few moments (seeing as she probably had to walk a mile just to get to the front door in such a big house) for Andy to let me in but when she opened the door, she greeted me as though she hadn't seen me in weeks, giving me a massive bear hug and pulling me inside.
"I thought you weren't going to come!" she told me, hauling the huge door closed behind us as we stepped into the shiny marble floor in her front hallway.
I gave her a confused look. "It's only six," I pointed out and she started to laugh, shaking her head.
"Honey, it takes us hours just to even consider being ready to go out," she told me, pulling me up a staircase that curved along the circular wall in her front hallway.
Emily, Idina and Lisa had already arrived - Emily was sat on the floor in front of a wall that seemed to be made entirely out of mirrors and Lisa was sat in a pool of make up products on the bed, busying herself with texting someone and Idina was stood debating between three different dresses to wear.
Once they had all greeted me, I asked, "I thought it was only going to be a few of us here?"
Andy shut her bedroom door behind her, walking towards one of the mirrors and pulling it open, exposing a large walk in wardrobe behind it. "Oh, it is," she told us. "But the guys always tell other people and other people tell other people and... Well, you know how it is."
Emily glanced up from her position on the ground, "You never know who's going to turn up so we have to look good. We have a reputation to uphold."
I suddenly felt nervous - I had prepared myself for ten people, no more than that. I had never actually been to a high school house party but then again, this wasn't a high school house party. If the guys were all twenty one, that means more likely than not anyone else showing up would be twenty one or even older.
Idina, always the voice of compassion, seemed to notice how anxious I looked and gently touched my arm. "It's fine," she told me, with a small smile. Since meeting her a few days ago, she seemed more comfortable in talking around me. "I was scared too when I first went to a house party but really, drinking helps."
"Drinking?" I hadn't even thought about drinking. I don't drink. I never have.
"You don't drink?" Lisa asked, skeptically and raising an eyebrow.
"I mean... I guess I never tried," I said.
Andy appeared with a small mini wardrobe of outfits draped over her arm and dropped them on the bed, walking towards a bucket of ice and producing a bottle. "Here," she said, handing it to me. "This should start you off then. It's an IPA so it won't taste too strong."
I gingerly took the beer from her after she cracked it open for me and took a sip from it. It tasted fruity - not at all what I thought it would taste like. Andy sat me down and started rooting through her make up and debating what would suit me. It started off with just her, which I could handle but suddenly Lisa was involved, chipping in with "this would go with her eye make up" or "you should maybe put these lashes on, she has big eyes already" and Emily came up behind me and started to play around with my hair and throwing in example of what to do with it. Even Idina started telling me what shoes would go with what dress.
"It's so much fun having someone new to do this to," Andy told me, with a large smile. "Trust me, you'll never want to look different after we're done with you."
It was ten before they were done with me and they had dressed me in one of Andy's tight dresses that showed a lot of cleavage and a lot of leg. They had made me put on a pair of heels that I was never going to last all night in but Andy assured me that come three in the morning, I could put on whatever shoes I wanted but under no circumstances was I allowed to change the dress. She had loosely curled my hair and put it in a half up half down kind of hairstyle and I don't think I had ever worn so much make up before in my life.
I was a little star struck when I looked at myself in the mirror. The girl standing there certainly didn't look like me. Even trying to take a picture of myself, it was hard to accept that it was me staring back at me in the camera and believe me - there were loads of pictures taken.
We were still in Andy's massive bedroom when we heard a voice call out over the music we were playing, "Yo, are you girls coming down here or what?"
Andy tutted and rolled her eyes, opening her bedroom door and practically screaming down the hall, "We're coming! We're taking pictures!"
"Aw, for fucks sake Andy, you've been taking pictures for the past hour now, we've all seen your fuckin' snapchat, we're all waiting on yous down here!"
"I said we're coming, Aiden, stop trippin' for fucks sake!" Andy shut the door defiantly and let out a groan of indignation. "I swear to God, he annoys the fuck out of me."
Emily took the mention of Aiden to nudge me lightly and give me a wink, which I could only give a nervous smile back at her. Any opportunity where Andy wasn't looking, Emily told me that I should go for him. I barely knew the guy.
My heart was in my mouth when we went downstairs, Andy glued to my side and telling me to relax. Perhaps it would have been much worse if I didn't already have a few beers in me but still, I couldn't deny how frightened I was of a couple of boys I never met. What if they didn't like me?
She practically shoved me into a large room that was filled with plush black sofas, a large TV and stereo system and a pool table, where two guys were already sitting instead of sitting on the sofa. "Boys," she said, loudly, "This is Grace. She's new to the squad and she's here to stay so play nice." They chorused different greetings to me and Andy went through them individually.
"That's Jason," she said, nodding towards a tall brunette who Lisa made it quite clear belonged to her by striding up to him and finding her way under his arm. He seemed friendly, giving me a wide grin and a wave.
"Over there by the stereo, that's Jordan." Jordan was a tall dark haired muscled animal of a man, with olive coloured skin and bright eyes. Like Jason, he had a nice kind of face and he gave me a nod and a smile.
"That's Tobias." Tobias had wild brown hair that although cut short, still seemed messy. Unlike the other guys, who seemed well dressed up, he had a red hoodie pulled onto him and a pair of jeans with a set of Adidas Superstars. He gave me a mad kind of grin and an enthusiastic wave, chirruping a, "Hey Grace".
"This is Don." Andy mentioned him very flippantly but with a smirk and Don seemed half amused by that. I gathered they must have a thing going on and I had to admit, when I walked into the living room he was the first one to catch my eye. Out of the crew, he was clearly the best looking with raven black hair and hazel eyes that seemed to glow. He didn't seem to even notice me, his attention solely fixed on Andy but he eventually gave me a curt nod to say hello.
Andy looked around and sighed. "After all that shouting, you mean to tell me he's went and disappeared? That cunt is always frontin'..."
"No one is frontin' sis, I just went to the bathroom," a voice echoed out from the doorway behind me and I turned after jumping a bit.
This must have been Aiden. I had no idea what Emily was talking about when she thought I, even looking the way I did, could be capable of bagging someone who looked like him. He had golden hair that was styled back rather well and it looked like he took good care of it. His eyes were a deep chocolate brown, his skin a gorgeous beach tan color. It was hard to see his body under his plain white tee and leather jacket but from under his T-Shirt, I could see some kind of defined abs going on there.
I couldn't speak.
"Oh, Grace, this is my brother Aiden," I could hear Andy say.
Aiden half smiled and half smirked at me. "You're Grace, huh? Andy was tellin' me 'bout ya. It's nice to meet you."
"Yeah, me too. I mean... you too," I blurted, feeling a little under pressure knowing that everyone was staring at us.
"Well, if that doesn't assure us the numbers are made up, I don't know what does," Tobias announced, hopping off the pool table. "When did you say Scott's crew were coming over Aiden?"
Aiden seemed to look me up and down before he bothered to answer Tobias's question and then he said, "Bout ten minutes. They said Matt is coming as well and he's bringing his gang with him. Which probably means Kailum's group is coming as well."
Andy whacked his arm. "Jesus, you didn't tell me all of them are coming! I hope you told them to bring their own drink and stuff because ma is gonna start buggin' if she gets home and see's the drink gone."
"Jesus, chill out scrap, they know what to do," Aiden barked at her, rolling his eyes. He nudged me gently with his elbow. "You'll get fed up with her eventually as well. Every fucker does."
Now that the conversation was a little more divided between us, I felt a bit more comfortable talking to him. "She's not so bad. I like her. She's different," I told him, taking a sip from my drink.
"Different is one way of putting it," Aiden grinned. He had such a great smile, I couldn't help but get giddy and I had to look away, feeling my face heat up.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Andy wink at me and smirk - I supposed that was her giving me her blessing - before turning back to talk to Don about something.
Maybe the night wasn't going to be so bad after all...
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[EDITED MARCH 2017]
Whoa. So I guess I dropped off the radar for a while. Truth be told guys, I'm in the midst of a hefty dissertation about media and the mental illness and I know barely anything about either and I chose this topic. Because I'm logical. Anyway, if you read the first draft, you can see that I added Aiden in a lot sooner and I changed the way he looked a little - I'm fairly sure I chose Alex Pettyfer as his first model. I'll stick up a photo of how he looks now when my wifi decides to just... work.
So, as per usual, if you want to read beyond this point feel free but it is NOT going to make any sense, considering I changed the storyline quite drastically. I recommend starting it as though it's a new story and not going further than chapters titled with the EDITED in them. I'm really tired and I don't think these sentences are making a lot of sense and I'm watching YouTube videos on the side and I'm trying to get this up before my boyfriend realises I'm updating a Green Day fanfic.
That's an explanation I'm not ready to give right now... No shame, but if you knew him, you'd understand,
Enjoy! Thanks. xx