I lock the door behind Jade and I as we waltz into the house, being greeted by nothing but silence. Huh... guess my parents really are at work today. We walk with ease up the stairs, with me taking my time and Jade jogging up, and go down a hallway to end up standing in front of my bedroom door. I turn the shiny door knob and push the door open, making it swing with a little to much power and hitting the wall with a 'bang!'. I smile sheepishly at a glaring Jade and lay my dress down carefully on my white and black queen sized bed. Jade lays it down next to mine and looks up at me, smiling evilly.
"What? Zip it open, I wanna see your dress!" I whine with impatience.
"Now, Claire. Thats not the nice way to ask..." She smiles at my glare, clearly enjoying my pain.
"What are you? My Mother? How about, 'Open the bag now or I will.' Better?" I give a fake smile and gesture to the bag before putting my hand on my hip. I jut my hip out and tap my foot on the ground. She rolls her eyes at my childness and begins pulling the zipper down, slowly. It reminds me of the time when Luke got me that dress and was teasing me by pulling extra slow on the zipper to hide the object more.
Wait... Did I just recall a memory of Luke and I? Oh god...
Jade finishes pulling the zipper down and I open my mouth slightly when I see its beauty. Its a white tube dress thats loose on the bottom and has ruffles at the top. Its pulled together in the middle to make it tight around the waist and is strapless. Even having it laying in its bag, I could still match it up and see her wearing the beautiful dress. It will totally complement her light hazel eyes and light brown hair.
No doubt about it.
"Now I see why you have a boyfriend." I laugh and meet her excited eyes.
"Do you like it?" She questions with curiosity. I give her a look as if saying are-you-really-that-stupid?
"Are you kidding?" I question loudly having Jade laugh, "Yes I like it. In fact, I love it." I smile proudly at my statement, "If you aren't keeping it after the party, I know where you could bring it..." I whisper, leaning over a little to ensure she will here it.
"Oh yeah? Where?"
"A little organization named 'Claire Fisher and her Needs'." I smile at her.
"Oh really? And who put this 'organization'" She says, making air quotes as she says the word, "up? I would like to meet them..." She finishes, putting her hand on her hip.
"You already have." I clap my hands together and walk over to a drawer, pulling out two towels and two white robes. I toss one of each at her and walk across the room, out the door, and into the bathroom across the hall. My feet meet the cold tile and a shiver runs up my legs, up my spine, and down my arms. I let my hair fall from its messy bun and drop my stuff onto the hook meant to hang my towels up. I start running the warm water and grab a pair of underwear and a face cloth.
"You're taking a shower?!" Jade yells over the noise of the raining droplets hitting the tub of the shower.
"Yup. You are too, you know." I say, walking out of the room and sit on my bed next to a texting Jade. I look over her shoulder, trying to read her texting buddy but come to see a blurred screen, "Who is that?" I question suspiciously.
"Noah." She answers bluntly.
"Care to elaborate?" I raise a eye-brow and look at her.
"Ashton, you know, the host of this party, is changing the place of the party. Instead of his huge house, he found a abandoned mansion in the woods behind his neighbours house. Apparently some people use it for trick-or-treating things or in our cases, partying. He thinks if he decorates it a bit or if people destroy it a bit or stain the couches, or if people leave garbage on the ground, he wont need to clean it. So now the party is at the abandoned mansion." She states, "Not to mention if he does not clean it or whatever, it could be a form of trespassing, but knowing Ashton, he wouldn't care. He is a selfish football player with a hge attitude anyway. He'll probably bash on the officers enough to get them to leave him alone if he does get caught." Jade finishes. I shake my head, back and forth, and laugh at his stubbornness.
"Damn jock." I laugh and stand up. I walk back over to the shower and shut the door behind me, not caring if I lock it or not. Its not like Jade has an urge to see me naked and theres no one else in the house so whats the point. Along with that, if I slip and fall unconscious, Jade could just come in to my rescue instead of being locked out. Its almost like I have a fear of death by shower.
Interesting, I know.
I strip out of my clothes and step into the tub, under the raining water and feel the tiny droplets pelting on my skin. Water drips off the tips of my hair and water runs down my fingers and down the bidge of my nose, making it drip onto my top lip. I crank up the radio and rock out to the music blaring through my speaker next to me, using my hair-brush as a microphone. I add the shampoo and conditioner to my slick brown hair, trying to avoid getting the soap in my mouth or eyes. I rinse out the soap and run the brush through my hair.
A knock sounds on the door and Jade yells over the noise, "HURRY UP! WE HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO!" I roll my eyes and count the number of songs that played while I was in my perfect utopia state of mind. 5 songs? Oops. I turn the knob and turn the shower off along with reaching for my phone to press pause on MKTO's voice. I reach for my towel and quickly dry off my body and pull my hair up into the towel, knotting it at the top, "Claire! Hurry your ass up!" Jade shouts from my room and I roll my eyes again, "Don't roll your eyes!" She finishes and I stare at the door and look around the room, seeing if she has stepping in.
"How did you know I rolled my eyes?" I shout back at her curiously.
"I do now." She says in victory with me yelling 'bitch'. I tie the rob around myself and step out into the hallway and enter my room. I pick up the dresses and put them on a hook to go inside my closet so they dont wrinkle. Jade stands up and walks into the bathroom and I here the water spraying out from the shower head. She puts on her on music and starts to sing along... Loudly. I here a snap from the cap of the shampoo shutting and my phone buzzes from a text next to where I'm sitting on my bed.
From Luke.
Luke: R u going tonite?
I quickly read over the text and type on my screen to reply back to him.
Me: Should I?
I smirk as I press send and lay my phone back on my bed, wating for the buzz of my phone to go off. Apparently, Ashton found his little party place awhile ago. He was, and I quote, "roaming around in the woods looking for a good place". Only he knows what he wanted to use the place for.
My phone buzzes and I reach for it, taking my time. I unlock my phone and read the text that was sent from Luke.
Luke: Dont play dumb. I know ur going. Ur friend is my friends girlfriend.
Me: Then y did u ask?
Luke: Idk. see u tonite.
I shut my phone off and fall back onto my bed. Please dont let anything bad happen tonight. I just want to have fun and relax and dance. Without getting drunk of course. I dont know about you, but I don't want a massive headache when I wake up due to a minor hangover. If something happens, I want to be ready to drive away, not stumble over my own two feet to my car like most juniors. I don't get the point of getting drunk or high. It doesn't benefit you in any way, shape, or form. Okay, it does make you happy and loosen up but that doesn't get you anywhere in life. It ruins your brain cells and damages your body.
You're welcome for my little lesson, everybody.
I hear the shower turn off, along with the music. Shuffling feet sound in my bathroom and I get the makeup, hair products, and curlers and straighteners ready to be used. I wash off my face once more and lay my new shoes next to my bed. The bathroom door creaks open and feet thump onto the wooden floor of my room. I pick out light colors for the makeup and lay them down on my counter, along with the brush.
"Are you kidding me? First the jeans and now this? If I knew being your best friend was this hard, I would be your friend." Jade shrieks. She massages her temples and looks down, shaking her head back and forth.
"What now? If I knew being your best friend was this hard, I would be your friend." I mimic her tone and use her words against her. She laughs and looks back up at me.
"That makeup and that dress is a disaster. You cant where light pink makeup with a black bodycon dress." She corrects my choice, "You can where gold with the brown though. Even add a little silver." Jade begins digging in my drawer, looking for the right colors, and goes to pull out my dress out of the closet. She hold the colors up to the midnight black dress and smiles with victory as she finds the right combination, "Perfect! See, just what I said. We'll do a smokey eye-"
"Wait, smokey eye? I don't know how to do that!" I respond back to her. She taps her chin and as if a light bulb went off in her head, her eyes brighten up and she smiles, "No... Jade, you're not doing my makeup."
"Sorry. What was that? I can't hear you." Jade smirks, cupping her ear for added effect.
"Jade. You're. Not. Doing. My. Makeup." I say each work slowly to empathize.
"Oh. I can-"
"No-"
"Thanks! Sit down on that chair by the mirror and I'll get started." She claps her hands together and gets the light gold, dark brown, and silver off the counter and grasps them in her hand. I sit on my bed, not moving a muscle and put my best puppy dog face on, looking up at her, "Oh c'mon. Remember earlier today when you didn't want to go shopping and you found your dream dress? Its the same in this situation. I promise I won't mess up and I'll make you look beautiful!" Jade says, walking over to me and pulling me to my feet. I follow her across my room and sit down onto the chair by my mirror that Jade put there. "Close your eyes..." She says and my eyes flicker shut. I hear a brushing noise and I feel a light touch on top of my eye lid at the corner. She does the same with the other eye and moves back to the other eye, adding some make-up in the middle of my eye lid and over lapping some in the corner of my eye. After three minutes of perfectly blending one eye, she moves to the other.
"Stop fidgeting, I'm gonna mess up and I don't want to hear you whine and bitch about it." Jade laughs. I stop the fidgeting I had no idea I was doing and sit perfectly still.
"What are you, OCD or something? You are blending the same way you did the other eye and not missing a single stroke or the brush in one spot." I mutter.
"I am when it comes to my best friend needing help for a party." Jade replies and goes back to blending. A cap snaps shut and another snaps open. She adds makeup to the corner closest to my nose and blends that in. The other eye follows. The lid snaps shut and another one opens and a light stroke over the brush runs over my eye lid.
"Done! Open up and see my master piece!" Jade claps her hands together and I do as she says. Turns out the makeup used in the corner closest to my nose was a light pink carefully blended into a light gold. The light gold blends into the dark brown at the corner of my eye, coming to a sharp tip next to my eye. A layer of silver lays on top of the colors like stars on a night sky. I gape at my light green eyes that now pop from the beautiful, perfect makeup, "See told you, you'd like it. When are you gonna learn that I'm always right, Claire? I'm Jade the Perfector." Jade names her self laughing and grinning at my stunning eyes in the mirror.
I dig around for my mascara and put a thick layer on my eye lashes. I grab my eye liner and put it under my eye, not seeing a point anymore to put it on my eye lid seeing it was dark enough. I grab some lip balm and smooth it onto my pink lips and smile at my reflection.
I feel like a million bucks right now, its not even funny.
I get out of my chair and Jade takes my spot, doing the same for her eyes only lighter because of her white dress. She adds gold and light pink to her eyes and a little bit of light brown. She adds a layer of silver like she did with me and some mascara and brown eye liner. While she stands up and smiles victoriously at her work, I go and plug in my straightening iron in a outlet, heating it up. I let the towel fall from my hair and I throw it into my hamper next to my door. I take out my dress and lay it back on my bed.
"Straight or Curled?" I ask Jade, raising a brow. She thinks about it for a minute and stands up from the chair and walks over to my bed, sitting down, admiring my dress.
"I'll do curls at the bottom. So I'll just do loose curls." She answers and lets her hair fall from her towel and tosses it in the almost fill hamper, on top of mine. I walk over to the iron and start on my hair, straightening sections at a time. When I finish, I turn the iron off and add a spritz of hair spray to make it hold and plug in the curling iron for Jade. She clicks her phone off and tosses it on to my bed and begins curling the tips of her brown hair, making sure its perfect and flowy to match the style of her dress. Jade takes a clip from the dresser and adds it to the back of her hair to add to the 'girlie' effect. She straightens the top part of her hair once more to make sure it doesn't frizz and curls the bottom again, making sure that didnt loose its curls.
Someones a little OCD.
She sprays her hair and pushes a piece of her hair over her shoulder to make it rest in front. A buzz from my cell phone goes off making us jump and I go to see who its from. From Riley. I unlock my phone and read the text he sent me.
Riley: R u going tonight?
I read his text once more and quickly type back to him, watching Jade unplug the iron making sure she doesn't start a fire. I wouldn't want to see my house burn down to ashes due to Jade's carelessness. No offence but she could be a bit clumsy.
Me: Ya, r u?
Not a second goes by when I see my phone light up again with Riley's name plastered on the message.
Riley: Cant. It's my aunt's birthday and wants me to come celebrate.
Me: I'll miss you.
Riley: I'll miss you too and I'll miss seeing you look even more beautiful than you already are.
I smile at his text and read it once more before I turn my phone off and lay it down on the bed. I grab my dress and walk over into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me. I slip on the black, slick dress and walk over to the mirror, looking my reflection up and down. Never in a million years, would I think I would wear this dress to a party. But I never thought I would be going to a populars party and look where I'm going now. I turn around in my dress, making my hair fly out like a birds wing and land smoothly on my shoulder. I push it back and smooth down my dress and step out of the bathroom, into my room. I see Jade already in her white beautiful dress, waiting for me to come back into the room. I roll my eyes at her quick-ness and grab my black suede wedge heels. I look over at her and see her sitting on my bed still.
"You coming or what?" And with that, she stands and grabs her shoes.
***
We aren't even on his street yet and we already here the blasting music from deep in the woods. It gets louder and louder as we zoom past other peoples dark houses, probably attending his party as well. When we see all the cars parked outside of his house, we stop the car by the curb and kill the engine and music. Pink, blue, and yellow lights move across the night sky and we lock the car as soon as we get out. We start walking through his yard and make our way towards the woods, following a group of already drunk populars.
"Okay, here are the rules. One, do not, and I repeat, DO NOT, accept a drink from anybody. Not even a friend. You get your own drink and watch as carefully as you could as its being made. If someone offers to buy you something, say no. You dont know a lot about drinks and some alcohols could easily pass as sprite if you aren't careful. Number two, Stick by my side or Noah's or even Luke's. Don't go to the bathroom by yourself and if you don't know where it is, ask one of us, not someone else. Almost everyone is gonna be drunk and you don't want your image being stolen. Lastly, please dont get drunk-"
"Are you kidding?! Did you not hear my rant earlier today?" I shout in her ear, flailing my arms around.
"Yes, I know. But I also know you aren't good under pressure. Dont even take a sip, even the tiniest sip could fuzz and blur up your brain because you aren't use to the stuff. You could even be hooked after that one sip and bye bye virg-"
"Okay! Okay, I get it. No accepting, stick close, and reject the pressure or urge. Got it." I nod repeatedly. Jade laughs and we walk up to the wooden house that looks like it belongs in a haunted house story. Its huge and definitely looks like it was abandoned, seeing the broken windows and some pieces of woods either falling off or rotting away. From the out side, I hear the song "Grind on Me" playing and I look over at Jade with fear in my eyes.
"Relax, it's just a song... See, its over." We walk up the front steps as the song "Im a Slave for You" by Britney Spears begins to blast through the speakers. I stay on the door step without moving a muscle.
"Its just a few hours, Claire. C'mon it will be fine." Jade pats my shoulder.
"A lot could happen in a few hours..." I mutter, "Something is gonna happen."
"Oh c'mon, you're just second guessing yourself. C'mon it will be fun." She pulls on my arm and we turn the knob.
We push the door open and walk into the house as everyone turns to look at Jade and I. Everyone instantly stops what they are doing and they all stare. The boys stop making out with the girls or stop eating their necks and the girls give us death glares, seeing we have their dates attention. Wolf whistles sound as we make our way through the crowd and Noah comes into sight.
"Alright everyone, go back to your disgusting 'girlfriends' and stop staring at mine." He yells at all of the boys, "Go on, go back to your grinding and dinner" Noah finishes, gesturing to the girls the guys or making out with. Everyone goes back to dancing just like that after Noah's little speech.
"You like the dress?" Jade asks, swaying her hips back and forth making the dress swing. Noah's eyes bright up with love and he kisses her on her lips.
"Roses are red, Violets are blue, the dress is beautiful but not any more beautiful than you." He whispers, with his forehead on hers and he gives her one last kiss. I shield my eyes playfully and laugh when they turn back to me.
"That must've taken you all day to come up with." Jade giggles at her knight in shining armour.
"Rien pour vous, l'amour" Noah replies in French, saying, 'Anything for you, love'. Jade gives a sweet smile and I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and am greeted by a big smile and bright blue eyes. Luke pulls me into a hug before I could react and I carefully hug him back.
"You look beautiful." He whispers in my ear, pulling away.
"Thanks but I feel like one of those sluts..." I say smiling, pushing my hair back behind my shoulder. Luke smiles and laughs with a hint of something I don't recognize. The laugh is over before I could further think about it and I smooth down my dress, "You don't look so bad your self." I smile at him, taking in his appearance. He seemed to touch up his hair a bit and is wearing a t-shirt and jeans. Luke reddens in his neck a bit and a light pink comes to his cheeks. Did... Luke Rivers just... blush? Oh. My. God. I choose to ignore it and cover up the fact that I saw and it works.
"For the record, you dont look like a slut. You look like a princess, Princess..." He smirks, using my old nickname. Now its my turn to blush and he gives a light laugh. Jade and Noah come back by our side and we continue to chit-chat about everyones outfits. After awhile, Luke leads me away from the crowd into a more quiet section. I tense up at the fact and Luke sees the suspicion on my face.
"Relax, okay, I'm not going to try anything." Luke reassures me, giving me a light smile.
"How's that drawing coming along?" I ask, earning a frightened look from Luke, "What? I don't know what it is..." I say and his face relaxes.
"Its... fine," He swallows the lump in his throat, "Its perfect." He nods his head, "Anyway, I just wanted to talk to you."
"About?"
"About everything. I wanted to say sorry-"
"Its okay!" I cut him off, "No apology needed.
"No its not. I cause you a lot of problems and I hate seeing you upset and ignoring me. I like talking to you and I shouldn't try and get involved with you and Riley. I know he only means good but-"
"But what?" I ask, sitting down on the couch next to him.
"Nevermind." He sighs, running a hand through his hair, "I just want to see you smiling and laughing. I want to apologize for all the trouble and problems I caused and I want to apologize for making you run off that day, crying. Im sorry, Claire, and that's coming from my heart." He pauses, "My cold, cold heart." He smiles at me, earning a few laughs out of me, "See, that's the kind of laugh and smile I need to keep my happy." He smiles at me. He stands up and holds out his hand for me to grab and he pulls me up. He leads me to the dance floor and we start jumping around to the beat of "She Looks So Perfect" by 5 Seconds of Summer
"Friends?" I ask while laughing.
"Definitely." Luke replies with a huge smile plastered on his face. He picks me up, bridal style, and spins around in circles, making me wrap my arms around his neck, shrieking. He throws his head back and lets out a laugh, still twirling us around and around in circles. We sing along to the song, having total fun and he sets me down, only to wrap his arms around my waist again and pick me up off the ground, "You looked so perfect standing there." He sings in my ear, changing a few words. I let out a laugh and he spins us faster, making me shriek again in surprise.
The song ends and we walk to get some pizza. We walk past Lily and she runs up to Luke, pulling him into a hug and I see her slowly start to grind her hips against his. Luke pushes her off him and she stumbles back a step, caught off guard.
Ooo, it's getting interesting.
"What the hell?!" Lily screams, stomping her foot.
"I don't like girls who throw themselves at me." Luke snarls, throwing his arm over my shoulder, smirking.
"And yet you like her." Lily says with pure venom in her voice.
"You're a slut." Luke says bluntly.
"And she's not?! Do you see what she's wearing?!" Lily screams, again.
"Atleast she looks pretty in it." Luke says back to her, making me choke on laughter, "and her dress is not as near as short as yours so you shouldn't be talking, Lilian." Luke smirks, using her full name. Lily stomps her foot yet again ang turns around, stomping away, looking for a new victim. Luke rolls his eyes and turns to me, smiling.
"Is it hot in here, or is it just me?" I say curiously.
"It is isn't it..." He responds, thinking. I then hear footsteps bolt up the stairs, running.
"EVERYONE OUT OF THE HOUSE!" Someone screams and the chaos begins.
__________________________________________
Did you guys like the chapter? How about the little scene with Luke and Claire dancing. How about Lily, did you feel bad for her? And sorry for the cliff hanger, I just thought it went along with the story. I promise I will update by next week. See ya!