Over the next week Troy and I spent every minute we could together. My friends were amazing too, they would cover for me after school saying we needed to study for finals, shopping, or whatever else they could think of. My father got suspicious of me always being gone so one day when Lily was picking me up he questioned us, to which Lily responded she was having horrible cramps and blood was coming out of everywhere so she needed my support and ice cream to make it better. My dad had already tuned us out when he heard cramps but it stopped him from questioning us anymore.
On Friday Troy left after we had lunch together to help his parents prepare for the conference and The Opening, I missed him as soon as he left. As I walked in the door after school I was surprised to see Renee sitting in the kitchen talking to my mom, they immediately stopped talking when they saw me.
"Hey, what's up?" I questioned looking between the two of them.
"You're coming out on the town with me tonight! There's a party and we are going to go." Renee said excitedly and I inwardly groaned. Parties were not my scene.
"What's this about a party?" My dad walked into the kitchen kissing my mom on the cheek before opening the fridge rummaging around for a snack.
"It's an end of the year party one of the kids at school is throwing. He's a human so it won't be as cool as one of ours, but I hear they aren't totally lame." I looked at Renee confused, she didn't like going to human parties. Not that she had anything against humans, but she didn't like going to them because they weren't anything like a werewolf party.
"I'm not sure how I feel about you two going alone to a human party." I silently thanked my dad for being a stick in the mud.
"Please Uncle Alf? It's not just us, Lily, Eddie, Scarlet, and Ellie are coming too! Eddie will be able to protect us if anything was to go wrong. It's our last chance to have some fun before Annie goes off to find her mate." Renee was now giving my dad big puppy dog eyes and I smiled to myself knowing that was not going to work on my Dad.
He sighed and looked at my mom having a silent conversation with her. "Fine. You guys may go, Eddie is a fine warrior and is capable of protecting you all if needed. But, I want you home by midnight and not a minute later." He pointed to both me and Renee. I felt my jaw drop a little, my dad never gave in like this. I looked at my mom wondering what she had said to him to make him change his mind, but she just gave me a small smile.
Renee squealed then threw her arms around my dad to hug him. "Thank you Uncle Alf! I promise she will be home by midnight! And we will call if there are any problems!" She turned to me and grabbed my hand. "Come on! Let's go get ready!" I let her drag my upstairs to my room. I shut the door behind us and locked it just so no one would burst in on us.
"What's going on?" I asked her backside since she was waist deep in my closest looking thru my clothes.
"Can't a girl want to spend a Friday night with her best friend at a party?" She said over her shoulder before throwing a handful of clothes at me. "Try that on."
I knew better than to argue with her when she was in clothes mode so I started changing out of my clothes and putting on what she had thrown me. "Normally I would say no, but this is a human party. You don't like going to human parties. You've also never made me go to parties with you before."
She came out of my closet with more clothes in her arms, "I've also not had the potential of losing you either." I softened as she said that.
"Hey, you aren't going to lose me. You're stuck with me no matter what." I meant that with my whole heart. Even if I ended up having to go rogue I would find ways that Renee and I could stay in contact and see each other. It would be dangerous of course but I knew we would both make it happen.
"I know, but I still want to go to this party with you. You need to have a night of fun too, with everything that's been going on you haven't had a chance to relax." She was right, I hadn't had a chance to just let loose and have some fun. Although my idea of fun and relaxing was sitting at home with a book, I would put on a brave face and go party with her. I finished putting on the clothes she had thrown at me and looked in the mirror. I was surprised to see that the ensemble was relatively calm compared to what Renee usually picked out. I had on skinny jeans, ballerina flats, and a green flowy top. I wasn't complaining but I was also confused, if we were going to a party Renee would have picked out a more flamboyant outfit for me.
"This may surprise you but I'm not going to even argue over the outfit." I looked at her and smiled.
"Good. Now, let's do you hair and makeup." She pushed me down in front of my mirror before attacked my hair and face. Thirty minutes later I had loose curls in my hair and just a light layer of makeup. I was impressed that she had kept it all so simple but I wasn't going to question it.
"You look smokin'! You ready to go?"
"Aren't you going to change and get ready?" I questioned. She was still in the same outfit she had worn to school, which I think looked just fine but I know my best friend. She wouldn't be caught dead at a party in the same outfit she had worn to school and without a fresh face and hair do.
"Psh, those humans won't be able to handle me the way it is." She tossed her hair over shoulder and grabbed my arm. "Come on, we don't want to be late."
My mom was waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs, her eyes lit up when she saw me. "Oh Annie, you look so beautiful."
"Thanks mom." I smiled back at her.
"You're first party, I can't believe how time has flown. You will remember this day for the rest of your life." Mom wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "Okay, now run along. Have fun you two!"
"Bye Aunt Lu!" Rene said to my mom as she dragged me out of the house before I could question my mom's behavior. I'll admit I hadn't been to too many parties but this was definitely not my first one, my mom knew that. She was acting weird tonight.
I buckled my seat belt as Renee started her car. Her parents had surprised her on her sixteenth birthday with a vintage yellow beetle and she loved it more than anything. As she pulled out of the driveway I noticed she headed straight for town.
"Don't we need to pick up the girls?" I turned to look at Renee who was focusing on finding something good on the radio.
"Oh, no they've got rides." She switched to the local country station and cranked it up making it hard for me to ask any more questions without yelling. Maybe they were all riding together, Eddie did have an SUV that would fit everyone. I didn't understand why we wouldn't all ride together but Renee was now singing along to the music loudly so I just shrugged my shoulders and sang with her. Who know how many times we would get to spend time together like this, I was going to enjoy it.
I was distracted by singing along with Renee that I hadn't noticed we had drove thru town and were now pulling into the harbor. I looked over at Renee confused, "Why are we here?"
"To party remember?" She unbuckled her seat belt and opened her door. "Come on, let's go!"
I watched her with a puzzled look as she walked down one of the plank walkways towards the boats. The harbor was a busy place, cruise ships, cargo ships, and fishing boats were the main vessels that were in and out of there. Then there were the personal boats and yachts that the harbor stored for people which is the section that Renee had disappeared in to. I unbuckled my seat belt and stepped out of the car, following the path Renee had taken down the walkway. Once I made it to the end I either had to go left or right, I looked both ways hoping to catch a glimpse of Renee.
"Renee?" I whispered loudly, she would be able to hear me with her wolf hearing if she was paying attention.
"Down here!" I hear her shout from somewhere to the left of me. As I got to the end of the dock I saw a huge yacht lit up with what looks like thousands of little white lights. The yacht was huge, it looked like a small house, and I wondered what kid from school had access to this thing. I also wondered if the owner of the yacht knew some teenager was throwing a party on it. I had been so busy staring at the massive vessel that I failed to notice that there wasn't any music coming from it. Odd, I'm not an expert on parties but I'm pretty sure they consist of music. I slowly walked up the makeshift steps that led to the main level on the yacht and looked around, it looked completely deserted.
"You look absolutely stunning." I whirled around towards the voice and my breath caught in my throat. Standing before me was the most beautiful man I had ever seen.
"Little fish I think you're drooling a little bit." Troy made his way over to me and lifted my chin back to its closed position, I'm sure there was a little drool slipping out. I would always think my mate was the most stunning male on the planet but tonight, tonight he had me stunned into silence. His pressed khakis and light blue dress shirt molded to him perfectly, the color of his shirt bringing out the blue in his eyes. I knew I was being obvious but I just couldn't stop staring.
"Well I think you've got it handled from here. Make sure she's home by midnight." I broke out of my staring to see Renee walking off the boat.
"Wait, where are you going? I thought we were going to a party?" I called after her.
"You are going to a party, I'm going home and making a huge bowl of ice cream to treat myself for doing a job well done." She smiled at me and disappeared as she went down the stairs.
"I'm confused." I turned to look back at Troy who was looking back at me smiling.
He offered me his arm, "We, my darling, are about to have our first official date."