I keep my current clothes on since it can be worn to a party, though Riley begs me to change into one of her tiny dresses. I ignore her and focus on straightening my hair. When it is perfectly straight, I push pins in the side to keep my hair in place and out of my eyes. Carefully wrapping a ribbon around my hair, creating a bow, Riley's protests becomes even louder.
"Let me dress you this one time. It'll be a fun makeover. Please!" She pleas and stares at me with a dramatically desperate pout. She really is a phenomenal actress.
"There's no way I'm letting that happen." I picture myself with gold links in my hair like hers have, heavy eye makeup, and one of her scandalous dresses hanging off my barely existent hips and medium bust. It isn't flattering one bit.
"I won't go over the top, I promise. I just want to see you in something other than cashmere sweaters and your adorable hair ribbon things. Just for one night. Pleeeeeeease." She smiles and it's genuine enough to make me hate myself for considering this.
"Fine," I say, caving in for the second time tonight, and she begins clapping.
"Awesome! We'll have to start your hair over again. You are aware there's other options than just straight, right?" she teases and walks over to my drawer. I blush as she finds nothing but my backup hair straightener. She throws me an amused glance and goes into her dresser and pulls out a curling wand. I do know I can curl my hair, but I just like the neatness straight hair emits. Sue me.
Riley plucks out my hair pins and brushes my hair out, mentioning I should get it trimmed when she gets her hair touched up in a few days. I agree and try to look in the small mirror on my desk, but she quickly flings it on her bed, saying she doesn't want me to see her fine creation until she's done. She curls my hair before spritzing hair products and hairspray, making it hard to breathe for a few minutes. While I'm recovering from the heavy toxins, she pushes open the window, apologizes, and starts to pluck my eyebrows before I can see it coming. I yelp and scold her for the pain, but she promises it won't take long. When the extensive procedure is through with, I glare at her and she just giggles and starts on my makeup. I warn her not to make me look like a circus clown as she blushes my cheeks and paints my lips and coats my eyelashes with black eyeliner.
"Looking good so far. Real good," Riley says, and I blush. "Now to get you changed into clothes. I think I might have a dress that has your name on it. And no, it isn't short and tight. It's sort of conservative. I got it when I tried to stop being a hoe." She winks at me and pulls me out of the chair. I laugh and follow her to the closet and watch her pull out a baby-blue dress heart-shaped neckline. It has a pretty lace design above the silk ribbon around the waistline.
"This is actually really cute."
"Don't sound so shocked." She laughs. "Go on, put it on." She shoos me away and I walk over to my bed.
I change out of my clothes and neatly place them in my hamper. She promptly teases me about me folding my clothes before putting them in, and I whine about it. Laughing, she looks away to touch up her makeup in her handheld mirror. I pull the dress up my body and am surprised when it actually does fit me. The fabric is ultra-soft, and the bottom of the dress stops at my mid-thigh. The thick straps fit snugly and the heartline shows off a peak of cleavage, but it isn't too revealing, though I would feel perfect with a cardigan.
"I have some tights, which one do you want? I have all black, lace, white ones..." She digs through her drawer and pulls out three different pairs. "I think the sheer white ones would go great with the dress."
"Agreed." I nod.
I take the white ones and slide them on while Riley rummages in the closet for shoes. I'm tempted to look in her mirror while she looks, but before I can she walks back over to me, holding up a pair of silver spiky heels that has to be at least six inches.
"No way." I shake my head in disbelief. The last time I wore heels like these my cousin Emily convinced me to wear them at her mom's second-wedding and I wobbled for the entire ceremony and fell down a small hill at the reception. I've sworn off heels ever since.
"I'm sorry, but your ballet flats won't look good with this dress. I have lower heels, but it's either that or you're going barefoot."
"You're the worst." I scowl at her and she laughs. "Show me the lower heels, please."
She digs through the closet one more time and comes back with shorter heels, these pair are a soft shade of blue and match the dress. They're actually really cute and have straps so I don't accidentally fall out of them, and the soles inside feel comfortable against my feet.
"Okay, it's time to see yourself! Come here," she squeals and waves me over to the mirror in her corner she threw her blanket over to prevent me from seeing the finished product. I stand beside her and she yanks off the blanket. I look in the mirror and my mouth drops open.
Who is this girl? The girl looking back at me looks like me, but a classier, more mature version of me. I almost can't believe it. I'm surprised she didn't go crazy with the makeup. My soft-pink blush on my cheeks make my cheekbones look sharper and my full cheeks to look softer. My large cerulean eyes pop against the white eyeshadow dusted across my eyelids, and my lips are a shiny pink. I stare at my hair curled into big waves rolling down my back.
"Wow. You made me look great." I smile and blink, momentarily shocking myself. Yep, I'm real. This is amazing.
Riley giggles. "You sound so surprised. I just enhanced your cuteness. Your eyes alone are to die for."
"Um, thank you." I blush and she chuckles.
"We should get going now," she says and I nod and grab my purse, secretly tucking a pair of ballet flats as I follow her out of the room.
* * *
We take one bus and arrive about half an hour later at the massive school.
I barely get any chance to admire fairy lights hanging in massive Oakwood trees and a charming stone gazebo because Riley pulls me straight to the dormitories. NYU was on my list of colleges I applied for and was waitlisted which may sound disappointing, but the school is extremely hard to even be considered for anything. If I hadn't been accepted by Juilliard, bombing my audition, I'd probably be going to school here.
Riley leads me through the beautiful campus to the dormitory halls; they are cherry-red buildings with vines growing out of the bricks. We see more and more young people dressed in party clothes heading in the same direction as us. The only group of people I notice that aren't wearing flashy dresses or designer sweatshirts are dressed in school hoodies and seem to be heading to study groups. That should be me; I'm not this girl who goes to parties on school nights, but this won't be a regular thing.
We take a few turns and end up walking down a road, massive houses on either side of the street. It's quiet for a few minutes and we talk about an audition Riley has for some shoe company. I express how proud I am of her and she sheepishly smiles and goes on and on about every detail possible.
I hear slightly muffled music as we walk up a winding path. We turn a corner and I instantly spot the house the party's being thrown in. Glowing pink and blue lights color the wide windows in the front of the white colonial house. There are people drinking out of red plastic cups, most dancing to the music booming from the house. Red plastic cups litter the sidewalk and lawn, and there's a ratty beige couch on the grass with people sitting on it, howling with laughter as they drink out of beer cans. I nervously glance at Riley, who stares up at the house like it's the castle at Disneyworld. If this is her Disneyworld, then this is my nightmare.
"Come on, it's a full house tonight," Riley says and grabs my hand, pulling me up the path to the front door. "I hope there's still cake," she mutters under her breath before shoving the unlocked red door open, revealing a packed and loud party. The door must have been working extra hard to keep most of the noise inside.
I cough into my fist as my lungs are invaded with thick cigarette smoke and the putrid smell of sweaty bodies filling the house from room to room. I'm tempted to turn around and find my way back to the school, but Riley pulls me in the direction of the kitchen. I bump into a few people and apologize, but they're too high or drunk to care. Managing to avoid being groped on my drunk, horny college boys, I find myself in the large kitchen. Riley grabs two plastic cups and fills them halfway with brown liquor and plucks up a lime from a bowl of them. I watch with wide eyes as she licks the back of her hand.
"What are you doing?" I ask her, and she laughs.
"Tequila shot. How else are we gonna get in the party room." She picks up a salt shaker and throws some on the spot she licked her hand. "And you're doing it with me."
"No, I definitely am not." I shake my hands and take a step back. She's insane.
"Come on, Lily. Live a little."
"I won't if I die from alcohol poisoning," I defend.
"You only get that if you drink too much." She laughs as if it isn't a serious epidemic, especially for young people in college. When I don't give in for the third time today, she sighs and downs the brown liquor. Her face scrunches up until she licks the back of her hand and sucks on the lime. "Woo! That was fun." She coughs and laughs at my stunned reaction. I have a frat guy as my roommate...
After unsuccessfully trying to convince me to drink a beer to 'loosen up a bit,' she leads me to the packed living room. On our way there, quite a few boys stare at me, making me uneasy. I almost sink into myself when we pass a group of boys who holler inappropriate phrases at me. I've come to the conclusion that cardigans don't stop pervs and guys in general are disgusting.
I breathe a sigh of relief when we stop in front of a plaid couch and see Finn among a few people sitting on it. He's on the right arm of the couch, talking to a girl on one of the cushions. I turn away to perch on the left arm of the couch to wait for him to finish talking with her, but he notices me and calls out my name. I walk over to him and smile at his shocked expression before he pulls me into a bear hug.
"Lily! I didn't expect to find you here," he slightly shouts over the music.
"You can thank Riley, she convinced me to come," I say.
"I actually will thank her. It's nice to see you at a party. I hope you've been enjoying yourself. The band is going on pretty soon, as soon as –" He stops talking and his eyes travel down my dress, but his gaze isn't objectifying, just curiosity and shock. "Whoa, Lily, you look freaking amazing!" He declares, and I blush. "Do you want a drink?"
"No thank you, I already escaped Riley tonight." I laugh, and he joins in.
"At least let me get you a soda to drink. What do you want?" He gets up from his seat.
"You don't need to get me anything," I say and he insists, so with a sigh I ask for a Coke. He smiles, compliments me one last time, and rubs my shoulder before walking out of the room. As I wait for him to return, I look around, unsure of what to do. Riley is talking to a guy in the corner and waves at me when she catches my gaze.
"You alright?" she mouths and I nod, giving her a thumbs up.
I'm relieved for my already aching feet when two of the people on the couch get up and walk away. I take a seat and pull out my current read from my purse. I tend to carry a book or two with me wherever we go; it's nice to be prepared for moments such as this. I read a few pages, thinking Finn got caught up talking with a friend or two, which I'm more than okay with because it's more time for me to read, when I hear a playful voice say:
"Of course you would read at a party." The voice is husky and sends a chill down my spine and is, without a doubt, Blue Montgomery.
I look up from my book to find Blue smiling down at me. Over his dark leather jacket, he's wearing a white shirt that contrasts against his dark jeans and his favorite beat-up Converses. He pushes his long fingers into his messy hair that's incredibly hot. His entire outfit and demeanor are beyond attractive, I think I'm drooling.
"Hey," I say, and he chuckles.
"You are the last person I expected to be here," he says as he sits in the empty cushion beside me. I don't miss the way his eyes are travelling up and down my body. They linger on my legs and chest. "You look hot. I like the dress." I blush and tuck my curled hair behind my ears. I'll never get used to his foul mouth or how it makes my heart go wild.
"Thank you," I say quietly. "Riley practically dragged me here."
"I'm glad she did." His eyes finally meet mine. The darkness behind them makes me shudder and his crooked smile to grow. I let myself get swept up in his eyes and remember how they watched me come undone under his hands that are cupped around his chin, his thumb toying with his lip ring, until I force myself to snap out of it. I came to this party with the intention of talking to him, I can't get caught up in freakishly attractive he looks. But then I notice his knuckles are red and bruised, and kind of bleeding.
"Oh my God, what happened?" I gasp.
His pushes his fingers in his hair, leaning away from me. "Nothing."
"Liar." I take his wrist and pull his hand out of his hair. He sighs but doesn't try to take his hand back. The skin surrounding his knuckles are peeling and I nearly jump out of my skin when I notice the shadow of a bruise under his right eye.
"Who did you get in a fight with, and why?" I ask but he brushes me off. "Tell me, Blue."
"It was no one, I'm fine." He pulls his hand away and looks away. If he thinks I'm just going to ignore this, he must have his head when he was fighting whoever it was.
I cup his cheek and force him to look at me. The haunting darkness in his eyes steals my breath away. It's the same look he gave me early this morning.
"Does this have to do with last night?" I ask and a frown overtakes his face. Swallowing the anxiety in my throat, I ask him in a small voice, "Did I, um, do something wrong and I pissed you off? Is that why you took me to my room? Because after the... after you said it wasn't, um..." I'm too embarrassed to continue.
"No, no – of course not." he says quickly. "You did nothing wrong, it was all me."
"I don't understand, help me understand," I say but he doesn't immediately say anything. "Blue, you have to tell me what's going on. Why did you move me this morning, and why and who did you get in a fight with? Tell me what happened."
He sighs and tugs on his lip-ring. It physically hurts me to look at his busted and bloody knuckles. The bruise under his eye seems to be darkening with each second, he doesn't talk to me.
"I don't want to talk about it." His tone is harsh.
What the hell?
"Blue –" I begin.
"Sorry, babe, I got us drinks," Evie's voice cuts me off. I look up at her and bite my tongue. She's wearing tight jeans and a red blouse with a dangerously low-cut, showing a lot more cleavage than I am. I reach for Blue's hand to pull him away from the loud party to talk, but I don't get the chance because Evie lowers herself onto his lap and hands him a red cup. "Oh." She looks over at me and smirks. "You're here." And she sips from her cup and stares me down.
I look away from her cocky gaze and look over at Blue. He takes a sip from his cup but doesn't say anything about the desperate girl on his lap. Something heavy twists in my chest and tears sting my eyes. This can't be real. I'm guessing this is why he avoided me all day, because he's back with her. Or maybe they've been together this entire time and he's been playing me. I can't believe this is happening. It's hard to breathe and I keep waiting for him to push her off his lap and reassure me we are still whatever the hell we are, but he doesn't make a move. Jealousy and pain and confusion devours me. Hot tears bottle up in my eyes and it stings.
To avoid crying in front of this vindictive girl and silent heartbreaker, I look into the crowd of gyrating bodies. I spot a tall head of dark hair and a charming grin coming toward us. Finn.
"Sorry I took so long, I got held up in conversation with a few friends. They won a football game and – oh, hey, Evie! Blue, finally you're freaking here. Dude, we're going on in, like, five minutes. Lily? Where are you going?" Finn reaches for me as I stand up and walk away from the couch.
"I need to – gotta get some fresh air," I say quietly and, ignoring his concerned shouts and Blue's eyes watching me, I walk out of the room.