Chapter 20

“Get ready.” Jessie demanded, storming into my room. I stared at her for a minute. I was working on a project for school that was due Monday, I’d been working on it all week and I planned to finish it tomorrow while Jessie was at the dance and couldn’t annoy me, or this weekend. It seems like Jessie has other plans.

“For what?” I asked her and she gave me an annoyed look. She grabbed my text books and literally slammed them onto the floor.

“We’re going shopping for tomorrow.” She said, placing a hand on her hip. Why was I friends with this girl?

“For what?” I repeated and she sighed loudly, stomping her feet.

“I’ve been talking about it all week! It’s the Halloween dance! You kept putting off the shopping trip so all of the good dresses are going to be gone!” She exclaimed, nearly grabbing my shoulders and shaking me to death. I gave her an annoyed look.

“I’m not going to that dance.” I stated, picking up my textbooks. I held them in my hand and she grabbed them, keeping them in her grip this time.

“Yes, you are. This is the only thing that your parents will allow you to go to because it is held by the school. Why not enjoy it?” She asked and I rolled my eyes, shaking my head.

“I don’t want to go.” I rephrased and she glared at me before she sat on my bed.

“Come on, please? They’re going to have candy.” She persuaded.

I weighed my options; stay at home and study, like the good girl my parents want me to be or go to a school dance where most of the girls will be wearing the stupidest outfits that Jessie and I could make fun of, there’s candy, and there’s not going to be any drunken people there. I furrowed my eyebrows before sighing.

“Fine, but you can forget about the whole costume thing.” I replied and she glared at me before sighing, with a nod.

“Okay. So what are you going to be wearing?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. I stood up, grabbing my purse and turning to her.

“I don’t know, let’s get shopping.” I replied. If I was being honest, I was sick of rereading that play and analyzing it. So why not go out and get some shopping done?

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“I think this is cute.” She said, holding out a dress that was imitating a vampire. It had blood covering the neckline of it and it was sleeveless. The dress itself was white with fake bloodstains on it.

“It’s cute.” I nodded as she entered the dressing room excitedly. She already put two ‘cute’ dresses back because they weren’t long enough.

“I think this is the dress.” She called from the dressing room. A few seconds later, she opened the door and twirled for a second before I nodded.

“It’s adorable.” I replied and she grinned. She entered the dressing room and exited a few minutes later, the dress in her hand.

“Now for you.” She stated and I rubbed my temples. I already felt the headache coming on.

Instead of getting a costume dress, I decided on a plain black dress. It had an orange belt, so it was somewhat Halloween like. It’s the colors of Halloween! Unlike what I’d expected, Jessie nodded in agreement once I exited the dressing room. I decided I was going to buy it.

Thinking the day was over and that I could go home, work on the project with a clear mine and go to sleep; Jessie decided to trick me and brought me to a shoe store. I glared at her while she smiled innocently. Long story short, she got red high heels and I got orange flats. She denied my requests of Vans or Converses.

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Everyone was excited today, for whatever twisted reason. The events that took place last Friday seem to drop from everyone’s minds. Everyone was excited about the events that were going to take place today after school; the Halloween dance.

“You’re going, right?” Adrian asked me, stopping me in the hall. I was on my way to the bathroom.

“To what?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“The Halloween dance.” He replied, giving me a flat look. I nodded.

“Are you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. The dance doesn’t seem like… his scene.

“Yeah, I have to go. I have to help with the Haunted House. We get to pick our masks and we stand inside of it and scare the crap out of the people that walk through it. It’s for Football. Don’t forget to go through the Haunted House.” He smiled and I rolled my eyes. I nodded and walked off.

Reminder to self; don’t go in the Haunted House.

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Lunch was loud. And I mean loud, literally girls were screaming and guys were cheering. For whatever reason, this Halloween dance was going to be fun. Their behavior made me not want to go, never mind how fun it is.

“Are you excited?” Jessie asked me and I shook my head, maybe over exaggerating a bit.

“Are you?” I asked and she nodded her head.

“They’re going to have a DJ, food, and guys from the private school.” She explained and my eyes widened at the end of her sentence. Private school guys?

“Private school guys?” I asked and she nodded. I felt my smile widen.

“Yes, Private School guys; some are from Vincent St. Vane.” Jessie explained and I listened to her. Private school guys were always hot, always; or at least the private schools over here. Plus, their parents were rich and you might even meet a celebrity’s kid when you hang out with the private school kids. I’m not a gold digger or anything, but I can’t say the same for the girls at this school; even though most of them have their own money.

“Now, I really want to go,” I explained and she smirked, nodding her head. “If you would’ve told me this before, I definitely would have gotten a costume, just like Brielle’s. It would have been short and cute.” I snorted, lying through my teeth. Of course, Jessie knew that. Throughout my time talking to my best friend, she was looking over my shoulder and smirked constantly.

“You can always go back and buy one.” A familiar male voice spoke from behind me. I closed my eyes and sighed. Of course, Adrian would be standing behind me during a time like this.

“No, thank you,” I replied to Adrian and he laughed, pulling a seat out beside me. Why was he sitting here? I looked over at Trent and Logan and they were eating calmly. “Why are you here?” I asked him and he laughed again.

“Where’s the; ‘no offense’ or ‘not to be rude?’” Adrian asked and I shook my head.

“I meant to be rude.” I retorted and he smiled.

“Of course you did, but I can’t come over here just to see you?” He asked, eyes softening. I could tell it was an act.

“Cut the crap, Easton. What do you want?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“Flirting doesn’t work, okay. This is a request from my mother, not me,” He explained and I nodded my head. “My mom wants to know if you’ll babysit Mattie tomorrow.” He requested and I nodded.

“Not to be nosy, but why can’t you do it? I don’t mind babysitting him, the kid is an angel, but you’re his big brother and you do live in the same house as him.” I replied, raising an eyebrow.

“I have plans for an hour and I can’t leave the little nerd by himself for an hour, so I decided to bring around big nerd.” He smiled, pointing at me. I wrinkled my nose at him.

“I’m not a nerd,” I glared at him. “And I thought your mom wanted me to babysit.” I said and he looked guilty for a moment.

“At first, she was going to ask you and she kept calling me irresponsible. So I told her I’d do it to show her that I am responsible. Then I realized I had plans that I couldn’t back out of so instead of telling her to forget it and just ask you, I asked you to do it. I’ll be back an hour before she gets home.” He said, trying to smile innocently.

“As soon as you get back, I’m leaving. I have a project to finish and that needs to happen.” I confirmed and he nodded happily.

“Thank you, Fi- Fi,” He thanked me with a huge smile. I wrinkled my nose, ignoring his adorable smile. “I’m so happy that I could kiss you.” He smiled, spinning around in his backless chair. When he finally spun back around, his eyes glanced towards my lips and I had to avoid eye contact. My face couldn’t turn red now, not now.

“No, thank you.” I replied, reaching for my drink.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? And you still haven’t told me who you’d choose to kiss,” He smirked. “I think it’s pretty obvious, I just want to hear you say it.” I rolled my eyes and shook my head, opening my drink.

“You’d be surprised.” I replied, earning a snort from Jessie, who I forgot was there.

“Don’t choke on that.” He warned, hitting the underside of the bottle that was already to my mouth. It dripped down my face and onto my shirt.

“You jerk!” I shouted, grabbing a napkin and wiping my face. He walked away, laughing.

In the meantime, Jessie was laughing at me, too. I was starting to think the two were a perfect couple. I don’t like that idea. Not that I’d be jealous, it’d just be weird. Yeah, okay, you wouldn’t be jealous.

“You two were flirting!” She squealed and it was my turn to laugh. That’s what I did.

“We weren’t flirting, honey. He was just annoying me.” I said throughout my laughter. She glared at me.

The announcements called all Football players to the gymnasium and when Trent, Logan, and Mr. Annoying were walking by, Trent smiled and waved at Jessie and me but his eyes were on Jessie. She giggled and waved back.

I wrinkled my nose at the sight while Adrian did his signature move, blowing a kiss to me. I pretended to catch it and then I tossed it onto the floor, stopping on it repeatedly and even slamming the chair leg onto it. That earned a laugh from Logan and a joking frown from Adrian. He placed his hand over his heart before Logan dragged him out of the cafeteria.

“What was that about?” I asked Jessie and she gave me a confused look.

“What?” She asked, feigning stupid. Or maybe she wasn’t pretending, I’m joking.

“What happened to Nick?” I asked and her face twisted to one of disgust.

“He was talking smack about you after you did that to Ethan.” She scowled and I shrugged. I ignored the fact that she said the words, ‘talking smack’ and we agreed to never use those words after the year 2011.

“That’s his best friend.” I spoke. It still hurt to know that someone like Nick, who I thought was nice but was obviously wrong, would talk about me in such a way.

“So?” She asked and I shrugged.

“But what was that about?” I asked, smirking. I pointed towards the direction of the gymnasium and Jessie smiled.

“That was Trent.” She spoke and I nodded, giving her a ‘duh’ look.

“Do you like him?” I asked and she smiled a small smile.

“I might answer that if you answer my question,” She spoke and I shrugged. Her liking Trent would be a big deal, and then I could ask Adrian if Trent likes Jessie. I could be Cupid for a day! “Do you like Adrian?” She asked.

Since she didn’t go into specifics I decided to ask a question of my own.

“Is that the question?” I asked and she nodded.

“As a friend? Of course I do,” I spoke and she went to rephrase her question but I stopped her. “That was the question; I answered it, now you answer mine.” I stated and she nearly growled.

“You know? I don’t know what’s so hard about admitting to someone that you like a person, especially if they’re your best friend. But yeah, I like Trent.” She said, sighing and I shrugged.

“What if I told you that I don’t know?” I asked, biting my lip. She raised an eyebrow. She was going to make me say it.

“What if I said I don’t know if I like Adrian?” I asked and she nodded, a smirk taking place on her face. I scowled at her and just continued eating until the bell rang.