Chapter 2
"No."
"Nope."
"Nada."
"For Christ's sake, you have to pick out something. I mean, you can't go dressed like that." Riley gestures to my current outfit, which consists jeans and gray t-shirt along with white converse.
"Hey, you said that my outfit was cute." I don't want make-up caked on my face and then wear a slutty dress to some party I don't even want to go to. I have some dignity left in me.
"I know. It is, but not for a party. Come on. At least try on this one." She hands me a royal-blue dress, that isn't to short and isn't definitely too slutty.
I put on the dress and I look at myself in the mirror. Not bad, I think to myself. I give a little spin. I think I actually like this one.
"Now, a little make-up." Riley applies a little make-up on my face, knowing I will kill her if she cakes it on. "There." She hands me a mirror and I look to see a totally different person. I have never worn make-up before. My mom bought me some, but I never had the time, nor did I want to actually practice putting on make-up. It just takes up too much of my time and the idea of me having a spikey brush near my eye freaks the hell out of me. Plus the right guy for me shouldn't like me when I'm only wearing make-up. Riley hands me a simple heart-shaped necklace. I place it around my neck and take another look in the mirror.
"Wow. I...I look..." I can't even put what I look like into words.
"Hot. You look hot. I picked that dress because I knew it would show your good figure." Riley just shrugs and starts putting on her own make-up.
Even though I feel arrogant about it, I can't help but stare at myself through the mirror. Riley turns to smile at me. "If you're done gawking at yourself, we have a party to attend to." Riley grabs her keys and walks out her bedroom door. I'm obviously not ready for this.
Shit.
In the car, I close my eyes, bracing and preparing myself for a night of horror.
I hear the music before we arrive. I open my eyes to a giant house with cars stacked up the street. Riley finds a vacant spot and parks.
She steps out of the car and waits outside my door, tapping her heel.
"Are you going to get out of the car or do I have to make a big scene and grab you by your ankles and pull you out?" She says with a fake smile on her face.
I open the door and get out. I can already feel my heart beat against my chest, thumping and echoing in my ears. While shaking my head, we start up towards the house.
The music is deafening.
I don't think I have ever been in a louder room in my entire life.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
There are so many people crammed into one room. I'm stumbling to just keep walking. Riley goes off somewhere, maybe to grab a beer. She better not bring me one. I get shoved into a different hallway. I have never been to this house before, so, of course I'm lost. I don't see anyone that I know either. Damn it, Riley.
I move over to a corner, where no one else is, to catch my breath. There must be a smoke machine or something because the room is cloudy and everything is hard to see. And it doesn't help that there are strobe lights blazing everywhere.
I turn my head to look for Riley, but I don't see her. Instead, I see a guy, clearly wasted, stumbling over to me.
"Hey, babe. Want to dance?" The drunken guy asks, scratch that, screams over the music.
"No, thank you! I'm good," I scream back. "I'm only here for my friend."
"Well, I don't see her, so you're going to dance with me." He grabs my forearm, trying to pull toward where all the sweaty, dancing bodies are.
"No! Stop it! Let go!" I try to twist my arm and pull back, but even though he's completely drunk and I'm clearly not, his grip is too strong. Damn my peanut strength.
"Hey, she said let go." I turn toward the owner of the voice and I nearly faint at the sight of whom it is.
Travis Greene, the notorious bad boy. The playboy. The womanizer. The player. The...you get my point.
Jerkface lets go of me and backs away, all while staring at Travis. "Sorry man. Didn't know I was barking up your girl." The drunk dude stumbles away, probably going off to find another lost, lonely girl to bang.
"Did he hurt you?" I turn, once again, towards Travis. I stare up into his eyes.
They're beautiful.
I don't think I've ever seen anything like them. They look almost gold. A bit of lights glides across his face and they sparkle like glitter.
I take a step back knowing better. How many girls have stood there and admired his eyes? How many girls fallen for his tricks? I know better. I know his tricks and the little games he plays.
"No." I say as I turn away from him. I start to walk away, but he grabs my hand.
"Hey, I just saved you from that creep, so could try to be, I don't know, a little nicer?" His eyes search mine from my decision.
"Oh yeah, because you treat all your lady friends so nicely. Sweet-talk them into bed then treat them like dirt afterwards. I'm sorry if I'm not nice. I would rather shoot myself in the head then be one of your victims." I try to storm off. Keyword try...
"Victims? I didn't murder or rape them! They made a decision and it's not my fault it didn't end the way they wanted to!" He yells at me, but I'm too far into the crowd to listen or care.
I spot Riley dancing with some guy. And by dancing, I mean practically having sex with their clothes on. I groan to myself and head to the kitchen. Or at least I thought I was heading to the kitchen. I end up going into another room. It looks like some kind of game room. It has a pool table and a couch with a giant TV. The room is slightly quieter, so I walk over to the couch and plant myself down on it.
"Heeeyyy Allyyy." The very drunk Leah Holder addresses me. "Why all lonely? Come over, come over." She pats the cushion next to her. Since I have nothing better to do, I slide over.
"There we go," Leah slurs. She throws her arms around me and wheezes in happiness, I think.
"Yep," I reply. I never know what to do in these situations. Riley always bails me out because my horrible awkwardness starts to seep up.
"Wanna drink?" She tilts her bottle of alcohol toward me. I hesitate for a moment because I've never done something like this. I never drink, never had sex, and never done anything that would have gotten me into trouble. I don't care what Riley calls me; I like to have a clean record and a good rep.
"Sure." If Leah is surprised, she doesn't show it. I take a small sip, but I can already feel it burning my throat. I start coughing and gasping for air. Now that the burning is away, I can taste the sweetness of the toxic drink. "What is that stuff?" I ask with a hoarse voice.
"Cherry vodka" is Leah's last reply before she throws up all over the floor.
I gasp and pick Leah up by the shoulders and pull her up to her feet. She groans as we start to stagger towards the door. I look around, seeing if anyone notices and is going to try to help me, but no one is watching. How does no one notice two girls hobbling towards the door? People are such idiots.
We reach the door and somehow I'm able to open it and lead Leah to the nearest bathroom. I lay her down in the tub and start running the shower.
"What do you think you are doing?" I whip around at the sudden crack of a familiar voice. Travis is standing in the entrance to the bathroom with a bewildered look on his face.
"I'm trying to clean her. She threw up." I try to explain.
"Yeah, I could smell her from the room over, but I don't think the goal is to try to drown her after she throws up. Here." He turns off the tub and hoists her out of the tub and raps a towel around her. Travis then picks Leah up bridal style and walks out of the bathroom. "Coming?" He calls from the hall.
I run, as much as I can in hells, to catch up with him. He leads me up the stairs and knocks on a door then turns the handle.
"Thank God it's empty. Last time I open one of these rooms, I found two people in the middle of- "
"Okay! Thank you for helping me with Leah, but I really got to go." I interrupt. I really don't need to know what he found. Whatever it is, I know it will haunt me for the rest of my life, and that's one image I rather not have in my dreams.
"You came with that Riley girl, right?" I nod. How does he know Riley? We are practically at the bottom of the social pyramid. "Well she took off in her car earlier with some guy."
What?
"Was she driving? She can barely drive as it is! Oh my, God! She'll die!" I can't lose my best friend because I wasn't there to take her home.
"No, no, no. Some guy was driving and he was sober." Thank the gods that love to torment me but somehow love to bless Riley.
"What how am I suppose to get home then? Ugh!" Think, Ally, think. I can't call my mom. She'll be able to smell the alcohol and pot on my clothes and never let me leave the house again. I mean, I could give her an I told you so, but still. I don't want to lose this little bit of freedom that was finally granted to me.
I hear Travis mumble something under his breath.
"What?" I ask.
"I said you could sleep here then I could drop you off in the morning." Is he kidding me? There is no way I'm spending the night here. No way.
"Hell no. Can't you just drop me off at my house or something?" I refused to sleep in the same structure as the infamous Travis Greene.
"If I leave these people here alone, they'll destroy the house. I would love to get rid of your rude ass, but I sadly can't." He rolls his eyes like I should be on my hands and knees, thanking him for letting me stay in his house.
How can I get home? The answer is I won't. I'll have to sleep here.
"Fine. I'll stay here."
He smirks. "Thought so. Follow me."
FINALLY! AN UPDATE! I'm so sorry this took so long to write, but I couldn't think of anything and my summer has been insane. Tell me what you guys think about Travis. I couldn't resist so Francisco Lachowski is playing Travis, but I don't think you guys will mind.
Tell what y'all think and I promise to definitely update soon.
Thanks and love you guys soon much.
~Preplexed~