Verity

It was fair to say that when it was time for me to leave my house for the party, I was pretty nervous. It's so idiotic to be so stressed over a stupid party I know but all I could think about was how I always seemed to mess things like these up. I mean, that's why I'd never been invited to these things before, right? I thought back to the day before Amy moving in when I saw Henrietta in the park boasting about Maisie's party. I knew it was a completely different set of people to who would be going tonight but some part of me was still expecting everyone to stare at me like I'd grown a third head when we showed up. It felt like a pretty done deal: Verity Winters did not attend parties because Verity Winters was never invited, for a reason. 

I took a deep breath as I knocked on Amy's door. This wasn't even the hard part - I'd pretty much been living at Amy's house for the past couple of weeks now, pretty much only going home to sleep. I suddenly realised how rude that must look to Amy's dad but tried to push it out of my head as something to worry about later. 

"Hey!" I squeaked out as the door opened and Amy's face relaxed into an easy smile. She looked absolutely incredible and it took all of my strength not to just kiss her there and then in the open. Her blonde hair had been straightened and she'd put a medium amount of makeup on her face, not that she needed it, with red lipstick. 

"Hey!! Are you excited?" She ushered me in by holding my hand, and we made our way up to her bedroom. Apparently her dad was out tonight so it was just us and her brother had given a small wave from the living room. 

"Yeah?" I wanted it to sound confident, but in reality it just gave all of my anxieties away. Way to go, Verity, way to go. 

"Oh come on, it'll be absolutely fine! We'll have a great time, and plus even if it's shit, at least we know James and Nick will be there too" She dropped my hand slowly, placing it on my cheek instead. "It'll be really fun, I promise. And if it's not, we can always leave early."

I could feel the closeness between us, something that I'd been craving all day. It felt like I was addicted to the intimacy we could share when it was just the two of us - as if I could just be here forever and ever. Our lips touched easily, warming me up as it always did. We stayed there for a while, gently kissing, pulling each other close without another word spoken between us before it was clear we were probably running late.

"No, I've wiped off your lipstick, I'm sorry" I said quietly, upset that she'd made an effort for it to be ruined by me.

"Verity, it's fine, kissing you is worth it" She replied, laughing. Her hands smoothed over the blouse I was wearing. "Nice shirt by the way"

"Thanks," I said, my face warming at the complement "It's like a dark green colour, and the buttons are brown." I think something that would probably surprise someone if they didn't know us was that Amy was way more into fashion than I was, and knew a lot more about which clothes looked good with others. "I don't know, I know it's kind of lame but I didn't know what to wear. You look amazing."

"Nah, it's not lame at all, it's cute I promise" She kisses me again "And thanks, I try my best."

XXX

W

e met James and Nick on the walk as James' house was on the way there. I could feel the nerves spiking every now and again but I suppressed them as best I could by focusing on Amy's words from earlier. It was going to be fun, that was the point, it was going to be a fun party. 

"Heyyyy, my boys long time no see!" A tall guy with dark brown skin flashed a smile as he opened the door of his house, bro hugging Nick and nodding at James before noticing the two of us girls stood next to them. 

"You're right, it's been too long" Nick replied breezily, "These are my friends Verity and Amy from school," He turned to us "Verity, Amy, this is our friend Jackson"

"It's really nice to meet you Jackson!" Amy said, beaming her usual beautiful smile,. Just looking at her made me blush, I actually need to be stopped. 

"Yeah nice to meet you" I piped up quietly, internally facepalming once again, how nervous I was and how obvious it was that I was nervous. 

"Awesome," Jackson ushered us in, Amy holding on to my arm as I warned her about the step up through the front door and into his house. Immediately after entering, I was hit with how busy it was already - people standing or sitting in groups all over the place. The music was what I had expected from the movies - generic drum and bass - but luckily it wasn't blaring so that was a plus. "Drinks are in the kitchen so feel free to help yourself!"

We meandered through the crowds, James going first and holding my hand so that I could lead Amy through easier. I was slowly seeing that Amy was right about it being much easier with the boys with us - at least they knew what they were doing and where they were going. We made it to the kitchen without too much fuss and, as Jackson had promised, there was a stash of different alcohol and mixer bottles lining the kitchen counters and the island in the middle. 

Amy was busily chatting to James while he was describing what drinks were available while Nick had gone missing talking to some guys I'd never seen before, and I was just stood like a complete loser looking completely lost. 

"Hey you look familiar," I looked up from the alcohol bottles to see a girl I also recognised. She had her shoulder length hair dyed half blonde, half brown and her septum pierced with a small silver ring. Part of me thought her look was shocking, and the other half of me thought it was really cool and brave. "Did you go to St Margaret's?"

"Yeah I still do," I replied, trying to smile genuinely. I was attempting to rack my brain for who she could be and also not be too scared about what she'd say when she realised who I was. It was pretty widespread what a complete disaster of a person I was in school. "I'm Verity"

"Oh my God, yeah of course you were in my GCSE maths right?" Suddenly I recollected who she was and some relief washed through me.

"Yeah! You're Ingrid right? Sorry I didn't recognise you with your new haircut." Ingrid was one of those girls in my schools that the teachers were always trying to get rid of because she was a bit more rebellious than everyone else. She was forever getting told off for breaking uniform rules, and was one of the only ones to really stand up to Henrietta because she didn't really give a shit. Henrietta hated her - if I remembered correctly she used to call Ingrid 'Emo freak' all the time. I don't know why but I hadn't really clocked that she hadn't returned for sixth form, but I guess it made sense. 

"Ah no worries, it's pretty different from last year to be fair." Ingrid flashed me an easy small smile, like she knew this wasn't really my scene but not in a way that she'd obviously point it out to make me feel any more uncomfortable. "So, Verity, what are you drinking?" Her head pointed towards the various bottles and my stomach did a bit of a weird lurch.

"Errr..." Who was I kidding? I had no idea what I was doing and I didn't recognise any of the bottles beyond sometimes seeing them in the supermarket when my mother had sent me out to do the shopping. Ingrid laughed lightly, probably at my facial expression. 

“Do you like rum?” She asked, her lips still half curled up in a smile.

“I… don't know. I've never tried it.” I thought it was probably a better idea to just be honest about it instead of bullshitting my way through it. 

“Okay well you can give it a try at least.” She poured some dark brown liquid into a glass and then filled it with cola before passing it to me. I took a sip hesitantly, worried that I'd embarrass myself by not liking it but it actually tasted pretty nice. “are you still at St Margaret's?” 

I nodded my head, not really knowing how to elaborate. Why hadn’t I considered moving schools for sixth form? I realised I had absolutely no idea, it was just sort of assumed that I'd stay on and I guess the way I thought back then was that I was the problem not the school. I was still figuring it out, but there was a niggle in the back of my brain that said it could have been a possibility.

“Poor you, that school sucked so much. I moved to Watson's as fast as I could.” Watson’s was the local state school, which made sense in my head - neither St Margaret's nor Riverside would allow Ingrid to have such dramatic hair, even in sixth form. “Is that bitch Henrietta still there?”

“Yeah, she's still a bitch.” I replied, nor wanting to say anymore on the topic. For some reason, everytime she was mentioned, I had a small sick feeling in my stomach from what she did to Amy because of me. I guess I still felt guilty. “But since Amy, James and Nick joined it’s been a little better.” 

I pointed my head in their direction, as they were discussing something funny, all laughing together. 

“You know what, I'm happy for you. You always looked miserable in school, no offence.” 

“No, that's fair, I think I was.” I said plainly. Ingrid looked at me for a minute like she was debating whether to say something or not.

“I think in that school with girls like Henrietta, it’s pretty understandable.” It could have been an off the cuff comment but something about it healed a part of me, if that doesn't sound too stupid. I think I spent so long thinking I was the problem - most of the time I still did - that hearing someone tell me that I'm not feels a little like a revelation. “Anyway, sorry my girlfriend’s waving at me so I'm gonna see what she wants but it was nice to see you again, you're cool.”

I smiled properly this time. “Yeah I feel the same, thanks for the drink.” She waves bye and I stand there for a moment. Ingrid Peters, the girl I was always so intimidated by in school, thinks I'm cool. That's just pure insanity right there. The world’s turned upside down.

XXX

“Do you wanna go explore the house more?” Amy said to me, later on. We’d spent a decent amount of time socialising with quite a few people, and although I'd done way better than I thought I'd do, I was definitely still an introvert. Exploring the house felt like a much needed break from it all, especially if it was with Amy.

“Yeah, sounds good,” She smiles at me and I lead her up the stairs, where everything’s a bit quieter, the loud voices becoming more and more distant as we move through the hallway. I realised quickly this house is much larger than I’d thought originally. “Okay also I'm sorry if I get us lost because I have no idea where we're going.” 

She laughed, squeezing my elbow affectionately. “I can think of much worse things than getting lost with you.” I blushed immediately, beaming despite myself.

“Well okay then, that's now the plan.” I laughed.

“Oh I am totally up for that,” she reached up with her free hand to stroke my hair, “are there any rooms that look free?”

I look around, now noticing that all the doors were closed, but also that there were no sounds coming from behind any of them. 

“Don't know, this one seems fine.” I led her to one directly to our right, opening it as Amy stoked my arm, still laughing. 

“Oh my –” it was safe to say all I felt after seeing what was in that room was pure shock “I'm so sorry” I closed the door quickly, my cheeks burning. 

“What, what was it?” Amy asked as I slowly guided her away from the door, further down the hallway. 

“James and Nick, they were -” I didn't know what to say “they were, well they had their shirts off and they looked like they’d just been making out.” 

I replayed the scene in my head despite myself. How the sound of the door opening had caused them to spring apart from each other, both looking at me in sheer panic. I felt awful, discovering them like that. Not because I wasn't comfortable with the idea that they were together, but because they clearly didn't want anyone to know and now we did. 

“Oh my God.” Amy breathed out heavily, taking it all in. We sat down in the corridor, leaning on the walls just staying silent and taking it in. 

“You know what this means?” She said eventually. 

“What?” 

“We're beards, for each other.” She let out a small laugh. “Think about it, Henrietta thinks you and Nick are a thing, and my brother said some people thought me and James were close. They have no idea it's the other way round. We're all beards!”

We immediately burst into muffled laughter, melting into each other.