Chapter 12
Tara
"I need a break!" I could barely get the words out with all my huffing and puffing. I went too hard during the last song and could feel my legs were cramping. I knew I should've stretched before I came.
While I was dying, Indigo was completely fine. I didn't see a single drop of sweat on that girl. She was still dancing and not showing any signs of stopping. I just couldn't keep up.
I tapped her on the shoulder. "I'm thirsty!" I shouted. She nodded and went back to doing the stanky leg. I walked off the dance floor to get to the kitchen.
I got a soda this time so I wouldn't piss off Tatiana.
I hadn't seen her in a while, so I decided to call her. She picked up on the first ring. "What's wrong?" The background was quiet, so I bet she wasn't in the house anymore.
"Nothing. Where are you?"
"I'm just out front getting some air."
"Oh okay, just checking. Come find us when you get back, kay?"
"Yup." I hung up and sighed. I should've figured Tatiana would need some space, being her first party and all. It was probably overwhelming, but I hoped she wasn't feeling miserable.
I suddenly felt the need to go to the bathroom, bad. I swore, knowing there was probably going to be a line. I went to check and saw ten people already waiting. Ugh, I would pee on myself if I waited any longer.
Though I said I wouldn't use the stairs, I didn't give a shit now. I was praying there was a bathroom up there. I would be pissed if there wasn't. Then I'd know the Tresemme Triplets were cheap as shit. Ain't no way two hundred people could share a bathroom.
I went up the stairs, squishing past people and holding on to the railing tightly so I wouldn't go over. At the top was a long hallway and a bunch of doors, all closed. At first I was gonna ask the people on the stairs for directions, but they were horse playing too much.
I started walking down the hall and knocking on the doors, hoping I wouldn't see any runaway tallywackers. The first two were ocupado and I believe bedrooms, while the third was a closet. When I knocked on the fourth, I didn't hear anything. Crossing my fingers that I wouldn't see something I shouldn't, I went in.
Immediately, I was hit with the smell of smoke and sounds of coughing. Okay, not a bathroom, but it could've been worse. It was just a bunch of dudes smoking weed. Two were on a king sized bed passing a blunt and another stood in front of them talking. The last guy was sitting at a desk on his phone.
Hey! Weed was a drug and I had some drugs in my bag. I got excited wondering if these dudes would buy.
"What you need lil mama?" One of the guys on the bed asked.
"I'm just trying to find the bathroom." And get you to buy these drugs.
He nodded. "If you go down the hall and take a left, that's it right there."
"Thank you." I didn't leave though. I was thinking of the easiest way to bring this up.
"Yo, I saw your sister earlier. She looks hot," I heard one of the guys say. I looked over at him and realized he was from my history class.
"Oh! Hey...."
"Jordan."
"Jordan!" I wasn't bad with names. I just never went to that class. "Yeah, I got my sister to come out tonight." Everyone knew Tatiana wasn't social. She rarely talked to anyone at school and was very unapproachable.
"That's crazy. I saw her though." Wow, the emphasis. Totally didn't know what he was thinking.
"Well since you didn't see her at school, you might as well just close your eyes from now on." Even though I hated Tatiana's current boyfriend, I wouldn't ever allow my sister to become someone's plaything.
Two of the guys laughed, while the dude glared at me. "Whatever. She's such a prude though."
The guy standing jumped in. "Now are you just saying that?" He said with a smirk.
The dude from History shook his head. "She is. Never talks to anyone."
"Can you not talk about my sister like I'm not here?" I was starting to get annoyed, plus I still had to go to the bathroom and sell these drugs.
He chuckled. "My bad." He started licking his lips. "What about you?"
I raised an eyebrow. "What about me?"
He got up and walked over to me, leaving only an inch between us. "You seem more friendly than your sister. Come get to know me next door."
He didn't even see me coming. I whipped off my mini backpack and smacked him in the face with it. "Yo!" Dude angrily ripped the bag out of my hands and threw it into a corner.
I stood my ground. I wasn't scared of some chump. The other guys were laughing harder now.
"You can't even be mad my dude! You tried to get with her sister first. That's what you get."
Jordan huffed. "Yeah whatever." He rolled his eyes. "I'm tryna get with the birthday girl anyway. I got a thing for Blasians." My guess was he meant Hana.
"Aye." I heard someone say from behind me. "Watch your mouth." I turned around and could see a guy was eyeing Jordan.
To my surprise, big bad Jordan didn't say a thing. He just went back over to the bed and took a hit. The other guy looked at me and I felt my entire world collapse.
How the hell did I miss this man? It had to be the alcohol.
I took my time checking him out. Starting from the bottom, I'd wish he'd put me in a leg lock. I could tell he was tall and lean. His damn hoodie was blocking his chest, but I would keep an eye out for that next time. He was perfect in the face though. He was Asian with perfectly arched, dark eyebrows. They were currently raised, and I bet wondering why I was standing there like an idiot. I wasn't done looking though. His jawline wasn't as defined, more rounded which kept a little bit of the baby face. Just a little though! Because he was all man in those eyes. Those deep brown eyes that showed a type of laziness. Or perhaps nonchalance. I don't know, he just looked like he didn't care. I was all for it!
Boy looked like he hadn't had a hair cut for a while, but I was feeling it. It was styled to where he had the right side of his bangs hanging above his eye while the other side was tucked behind his ear.
"Here." He was speaking to me! Shit, what was I supposed to do?
"Uhh."
"Here," he said louder and put my mini backpack in my arms. I had forgotten all about it being tossed away. I saw the little front pouch was opened. "Your bag was open."
Oh, I understood now. I thought he'd gone into it. Almost made me jealous of my own backpack. "Thank you," was the only thing I said but I wanted to say more. Something like, 'I love you' or 'can I have your babies?'
"Where'd you get the stuff?" He asked. I was confused for a moment before I realized he was talking about the drugs. Shit, they must've fallen out.
"Oh. It's from a friend trying to get this new stuff out. Wanna buy?" Would I actually be able to make a sale tonight?
He shook his head. "Nah I'm good. Don't you have to go to the bathroom?"
As soon as he said that, I felt the seal breaking. I ran out the door and down the hall. Once I took the left, I threw the bathroom door open. I sighed, half-relieved and half-in love. I met my future husband and made it to the bathroom.
Finishing up business, I left and started walking down the hallway. I looked in the room the guys were in and frowned, disappointed. The door was open, but no one was in there. They must've gone downstairs. I had to get back to the girls anyway. Maybe I would catch him on the dance floor.
After seeing even more bodies being squished in the living room when I got downstairs, I knew I wasn't going to find him. I couldn't see over anyone's head. Indigo was able to find me though. She could see over the whole party. But get this; she was still dancing! I left for at least 30 minutes, where did she find all that energy?
"Was it a long line?" She asked leaning in close so I could hear her.
I shook my head. "Nah, I used the one upstairs. But girl I saw this fine ass man." I fanned myself, shaking my head slowly. "It's a crime to be walking around like that."
Indigo started cracking up. "You're a mess." Then she sighed and crossed her arms. "Lucky. I haven't found any cute guys here, let alone anyone taller than me."
I patted her arm. "You don't even have to be with someone taller than you. As long as he is cute and worthy of a queen!"
"Yeah, yeah I know, but men don't want girls taller than them," she said rolling her eyes heavily.
"Then I guess they weren't real ones to begin with huh?" I shrugged. "Don't worry about that now. Have you seen Tatiana? I called her a while ago and she said she was gonna be outside for sec."
"Oh, well she might be with my brother. I saw them earlier," she said looking around.
I was surprised. "You have a brother?"
"Yeah! Atrael is older than me and Tatiana met him before when she came over to my house. I saw them chilling somewhere a while ago though."
"Oh okay." I didn't know if I liked the sound of that. It wasn't like Tatiana to just willingly hang out with someone.
"Don't worry. He's not some weirdo...well, not in that way."
As long as he wasn't interested in her, it was all good. I already had to make Les' future murder look like an accident.
Suddenly, the music stopped, and I could hear the DJ speaking through the mic from the front of the room. "Can I have everybody's attention? It's time to sing happy birthday to the birthday girls! Hana, Livvy, and Fern, y'all get up here!"
From where I was, I could make out Hana and Fern being pushed to the front. It looked like Livvy was coming from the kitchen. I hadn't seen any of them tonight, but I bet they were all dressed nice. Tatiana still looked better though.
"Alright, let's go!" When the party started singing, a big three-tier cake was brought towards the triplets. The cake was white and gold, with a bunch of sparklers on top. The three had to stand on chairs to blow them out. Everybody clapped and hollered. Blah blah.
I saw Hana take the mic and her annoying voice came through the speakers. "I just wanna say thank you all for coming! It's appreciated it. And we wanna give a big shout out to our brother for throwing this party. Thank you Jawani!"
Everyone clapped again. Then the music came on and everybody went back to partying. I saw that the cake was headed to the kitchen and decided to follow it. I was feeling a bit hungry.
I shouted at Indigo as I started moving through the crowd. "Yo, I'm going to get some cake!"
She gave me a thumbs up before losing herself to Rihanna's Don't stop the music.
🌸
Tatiana
From where I was, I watched my sister head to the kitchen, knowing Miss Piggy wanted in on that frosted action.
I had stayed outside for an extra 10 minutes after I hung up on Les. I needed to calm down before I went back to the party, knowing my mood would make things worse. Now that I was back inside, I felt a little guilty and embarrassed about what I said. Body shots were the first thing that popped in my head, but Les was an idiot if he ever thought I would do something like that.
"Hey, are you cold?" Atrael asked. I was, and it was only now I realized I was shivering. I guess I hadn't warmed up yet. Atrael, who was leaning up against the wall, must've noticed.
I nodded, crossing my arms over my chest. They were still cold.
"Should've worn more clothes," he deadpanned. My eye twitched. I hated him. He looked up in the direction of upstairs. "I'll be right back. I'm going to the bathroom." Like I care. My eyes followed him up the stairs, wishing looks could kill.
I was hoping that Tara would have her fill of fun and Indigo would finally get tired of dancing so we could go home. I yawned a bit, surprised at how tired I was. I was expending so much mental energy in appearing normal.
"Wow. What are you doing here," I heard a girl's voice say. I glanced over to my left and saw Hana standing there with her arms crossed. She was wearing an off shoulder green sweater dress and a tacky-ass birthday girl tiara. It was so blingy. Brandy, part of the reason I was here, was coming up from behind Hana, click-clacking in stilettos. I was surprised I could hear them over all the noise.
Brandy's mouth opened when she saw me. "You actually came! And you look hot," she said, giving me a wink. I gave her a pained smile.
Hana whipped around towards Brandy, hair looking stiff from hairspray. "You invited her?"
Brandy nodded. "Yeah! She never comes to our parties. I thought why not?"
Hana glared at Brandy. "Because it's my party."
Brandy seemed confused. "I don't-"
"Just shut up Brandy!" Hana shouted, cutting her off. She sighed deeply before turning back to me. "Look, you can stay and whatever, but a piece of advice - stay away from Atrael."
My mind went blank. "Huh?"
Hana leaned in closer to me. "Did I stutter? I said stay away from my boyfriend. Don't think because you look cute tonight that you can steal another person's man."
I was puzzled. Wasn't Atrael an adult? What did she mean about stealing another person's man? And was it time to go home yet?
"Okay." I didn't know what Hana wanted for me. I figured if I agreed with whatever insanity she was talking about, I'd be left alone.
Hana let out a laugh "Oh okay, I see how it is. It doesn't matter if he got a girl?"
I looked around, trying to see if she was talking to anyone else, but Hana's hateful gaze was reserved for me. Oh man, where was Tara when I needed her? I was so lost.
"You got something to say?"
Yes! Get the fuck off my back. For obvious reasons, I didn't say that, so I tried apologizing.
"Sorry." I made sure to smile. This way, she wouldn't misunderstand.
"Wooooow." Her voice rose a bit, catching the attention of a few people nearby. "That was so fake!"
Livvy who must've been close by, squeezed through a bunch of people to get to us. "What's wrong?" She asked Hana.
Hana sneered. "New clothes got her thinking she can bag everybody. Not mine tho! Think again!"
This was getting out of control. There really wasn't a need to be so dramatic and bring all this attention to ourselves, but no, Hana wanted a show. Livvy was rubbing Hana's shoulder, trying to calm her down but she was also glaring at me, believing I was the source of her sister's anger. "She needs to learn her place, Liv. Already can't stand her hoe-ass sister."
That got my full attention. Whatever she was mad about had nothing to do with Tara. It was so uncalled for. In the moment, I just blurted the first thing that came to mind.
"You're mean."
By this point, a sizable crowd had gathered, and everyone was starting to notice something was going on. I tried my best to ignore them and defend my sister's honor.
Hana laughed. "Yeah?" Everyone else laughed along with her.
"Yeah. That's why no one really likes you. All your friends are fake, just like that aluminum on your head," I said pointing to her tiara. "You're just a big-ass bully and even if you do look good, you must be missing something since you keep putting others down. To simplify things, you're just a dumb bitch."
The crowd around us went crazy when I finished. Hollering out "worldstar" and "yaaass". Someone even clapped me on the back. It was cool people agreed with me, but I was only standing up for my sister.
Hana looked like she was going to explode. "Get the hell out!" She pointed at the door. Trust me, I wanted to leave, but I had to get the girls first. Hana wasn't having it though and was trying to kick me out herself. She grabbed my arm and started yanking it towards the door.
"Lets go bitch! Get the hell out!" She yanked again, harder this time. I looked around, hoping someone would help me get this crazy girl away from me, but no one jumped in. Matter of fact, they looked thoroughly entertained. This was all just a drama for them to watch. It was like no one cared that something could actually happen to me.
Another hard yank from Hana. I shut my eyes in pain, feeling tears prickle at the corners of my eyes. I'd thought she was going to rip my arm out of my socket. Yet the next thing I knew, Hana had let go, followed by the sound of her screeching and the crowd gasping. I opened my eyes and knew shit had hit the fan.
Tara had entered the chat.
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