Is Life A Lie?

Chapter 11 - Building Bridges

“Alright, alright—now team, listen up. Ruell, Marcus, Alysha, and Mandy—you lot are in charge of the music. I want speakers, I want beats and I want no glitches. Declan and crew—you’re in charge of setting up the alcohol and the bbq. Alex, May, Collin, Lucy, Felicia, Ryan—you lot are in charge of the food. So get food shopping—and hand the bbq stuff to Declan and gang later. The rest of us will set up this place and make it party-appropriate. Amanda and Cara are going to pick Hazel up in 2 hours. Girls, make sure she has the necessary clothes she’s going to need. By necessary clothes, I mean her bikini. We have 2 hours. Got it?” I was met with a chorus of yesses and a flurry of activity.

            It was the day of Hazel’s party. Her birthday was the day before, a Thursday. We’d decided to have the party on a Friday as Hazel had a tradition of celebrating birthdays with family on the day itself. We told her we were going to take her to her favourite club downtown on Saturday, so she was expecting just a chill girls night in tonight. And said girls night was supposedly happening at Amanda’s place, a place Hazel hadn’t been to before. I felt good about tonight. It was going to be a blast.

            Alex and I had stumbled across an ad for this place during our search the day I moved out. It was an enormous eggshell double-storey villa that had a rustic-meets-modern look, complete with red-brick chimneys and a massive rectangular-shaped pool in the garden. We had rented out the villa until Saturday, so me, Hazel, Alex and Gingerbitch, Ruell and Declan were staying the night. The sun was still out and the deep blue water sparkled invitingly. I couldn’t wait to jump right in. But first, I had things to do. While the villa was undoubtedly beautiful, it didn’t exactly put you in the mood to party. First, we took care of the lights. Fairy lights were strung up and paper lanterns were hung in the garden. Then we took care of the Happy Birthday banner, streamers and balloons.

I had Amanda, Cara, Janelle, Matt, Kristen and Lukey working with me. As much as I wanted to be around Alex, I couldn’t. Not when she and Gingerbitch were together. “Hey guys, let’s grab all the fragiles around the house and lock them up in one room. We don’t want to break anything yeah?”

“That’s a good idea!” I started at the unexpected voice. Looking up, I saw Gingerbitch walk into the house. “Alex said you guys were here, so here I am to help!”

“Um. Hey. Uh, we’ve actually got things under control. But thanks.” I said tightly. I did NOT want to work with HER. What was Alex playing at, making her precious girlfriend come over way too early? It was a kick in the gut.

“Oh, don’t be silly. The more hands on deck the better.” Gingerbitch gave me a warm smile. “Hey Hayley, I know we haven’t really gotten to know each other that well yet. But I’d like to change that. I know you’re an important part of Alex’s life and what’s important to her is important to me.”

I stared at her blankly for a moment, then remembered she was waiting for me to actually speak. “Uh, yeah, of course, sure.” Darn my British manners. I wanted to tell her to get the hell out of here but I was way too proper for that. Gingerbitch—Claire, squealed with delight and grabbed the china vases I held in my hands. “Alright, where do you want these?” I figured I wouldn’t win this fight, so I showed her the way.

As Claire was doing party-proofing patrol, I helped the guys rearrange the furniture. I was fuming, so the adrenaline helped. We created a dancefloor, and moved chairs and tables outside into the garden. There was going to be a BBQ dinner before we danced the night away. By the time we were done, I had worked all my fury away.

“Looking great guys!” I was getting real used to that voice. Ginger—nope, Claire. I did not want to make a Freudian slip out loud. I gave what felt like a very pained smile to Claire, but she seemed not to notice. “Hey, you guys are pretty much done with the set up. I’ve locked up their china. I also put out a few garbage bags in strategic locations, and napkins on the counters.”

“Thanks Claire, you really didn’t have to.” I said this almost in my normal voice.

“Happy to help! Wow, you have luscious hair,” Claire gave my hair a stroke. My eyes popped open, but my traitorous body did not protest. I did love it when people played with my hair. It just felt so goooood. “How are you wearing it tonight?”

“Well damn, I wasn’t going to do anything with it.” I felt slightly inferior as I noticed Claire’s perfect curls. But she thought my hair was luscious, so it can’t be that bad. I usually woke up, ran my hands through my hair and was done. My hair fell prettily enough for me and behaved itself, so I never did anything much to it. Besides, with football practice almost every day, I was happy to let it stay in a messy bun on most days.

“We’re done out here aren’t we? Can I help with your hair please, Hayley, please? It’ll be so fun, you won’t regret it.” Claire was bounding up and down giving me puppy dog eyes. Well, hell. I guess it couldn’t hurt. It’ll make me look hot and it’ll make Alex happy that I was bonding with her precious. “Alright, alright. But nothing too crazy—we’re all getting in the pool anyway.”

Within twenty minutes of Hazel’s arrival, all of us were back at the villa, powdered and prettied up, with everything in place. The boys had the barbeque set going and EDM was playing in the background. When the girls were 10 minutes away, Amanda was under instructions to text me and we were going to shut down and hide. “The place looks amazing, if I do say so myself.” I had gone upstairs to get ready for the night—with Claire. Alex had joined us later. Through our girly bonding session over hair and makeup, as I allowed myself to get to know Claire, I reluctantly admitted that she was a great girl. She was generous, kind, warm and absolutely stunning. No wonder Alex picked her over me. She was also great at hair. Claire had created a cascade of soft curls that framed my face just right. I was wearing a figure-hugging asymmetrical jersey black number that showed off my long toned legs. She was wearing a crochet white bodycon dress with silver strappy heels to match. Her all-white attire made her red hair and red lips extraordinarily striking. Alex wore her auburn hair straight and looked gorgeous in a deep emerald plunge skater dress that matched her eyes.

“It does look great. We’ve outdone ourselves. Hazel  is going to die!” Alex rubbed her hands together gleefully.

My phone buzzed. “Alright guys. 10 minutes to show time!” I yelled out, running out into the garden to let the rest know. We hurriedly gave everything a once-over, straightened the banner, blew up a few more balloons, then shut off all the lights and the music and scrambled to our hiding spots.