Picturesque

Chapter 9

I grabbed my dress upstairs in my closet, the exact same dress I had been waiting for the longest time to wear. I had bought it months back on one of my various shopping tips to the mall with my old friends, but right after I bought it, Jenavieve came and, well you know the drill.

I stared at its dark blue fabric contrasting against my skin color and quickly sliped it on, absolutely more than eager to show off the dress I never had anywhere to wear to. I stared at myself in the mirror for more than probably necessary, but I tweaked my imperfections as best as I could.

"My boobs are so small," I muttered to myself before looking in distaste at myself. No wonder nobody liked me anymore. There would be absolutely no way anyone would want this, especially not Alex. Just the thought of him made me overwhelmed by the thought that I wasn't good enough, but I shoved it aside and fixed my hair until the blasting music began to shake the ground beneath me. I squealed like a little girl going to her first birthday party and ran downstairs immediately.

"Who invited her?" someone with an edgy voice darted at me. I spun around and narrowed my eyes. A freshman. A way too easily-convinced, unintelligent little freshman. I bet Jenavieve could tell her that she was from the living dead and she'd believe her.

"I live here. I'm pretty sure you weren't invited either, last time I checked, gullible little three year old prisses weren't allowed in my house," my mouth surprised me by blurting. I felt a small smile form on my lips; I was finally changing back. Her mouth opened for a bit, then she closed it, unsure of what to say. Her face turned bright red until her friends whispered some lame comeback in her ear.

"You think I'm gullible enough to believe that you like, live here? Yeah right!" she shouted back, wearing a smug look.

"You dropped your pocket, sweetpea," I said sweetly, watching her look down and search frantically for her "dropped" pocket. I stifled a smile and "accidentally" dropped a family portrait of Noah and I in front of her.

"Ohmigosh guys! My pocket had all my money and my phone and my iPod, and like my...," she trailed off and saw the picture in front of her and looked at it, completely unbelieving. Then, I watched as her face turned red from what she realized she was looking for. "That was so, like not funny," she growled.

"Alright Miss Non-Gullible," I said, walking away with a smirk.

"Well played, I'm impressed," I heard someone say.

My heart began pounding and I had to quickly tell myself to get it together.

"Ha, thanks Alex," I said to him. He laughed and sat down on the couch as I did.

"Aleeeeex!" I heard Jilly's annoying voice squeal as she walked up to us with a bunch of her other friends.

"Hm? Oh hey Jil," he replied, looking at them. They all sat down and started to flirt with him, making me want to puke there and then.

"Er, Hey Tuesday, didn't see ya," Whitney said, causing the rest of the girls to stop flirting for a second to look in my direction. Their faces showed extreme uncomfort, still not really understanding why I was here. They all awkwardly greeted me in some sort of way. Blaze sat next to me and quickly flashed me a grin.

"Nice party you've got," Blaze sat back and complimented. I was about to blurt that it wasn't mine, but it wouldn't hurt to lie, right?

"Thanks, haven't had one in a bit," I said with a smile.

"Wait, this party's yours?!" someone asked. All of the girls' expressions were identical, in complete disbelief.

"Yep. Hear about a party and you go to one, right?" I lied smoothly. They broke into awkward grins and nodded.

"If I heard about some dumbass party you had, I wouldn't go. Neither would the rest of these, oh, two hundred so people? I mean, since it's Noah's, no biggie," Jenavieve butted into our conversation. I gritted my teeth together and stood up in her face.

"Oh?" I dared to say. Looking almost shocked that I even spoke up to her, she stuttered for a moment before narrowing her blue eyes into tiny slits.

"Yeah. There is no way possible that anyone would come to a party of yours,"  she muttered. I had realized that everyone was dead silent, and had formed a circle of space around us. My jaw dropped suddenly. What did they want, for us to get into some kind of fist fight? I'd seen Jenavieve beat a kid up from her karate before, I stood no chance against her. I glanced down near the couch and saw a half-empty slushie and grabbed it, sipping at it and looking at her. Just as she was about to make a rude comment about me being a pig, I plunged the ice-cold slushie at her face. After that, it seemed like everyone had caught onto the food-fight, and everyone made their way into our kitchen and through every single piece of food we owned at each other. I couldn't even see past all of the food being thrown around, so I sprayed my whipped cream at everyone in hopes they would settle down. Let's just say that it did the exact opposite; everyone's yelling was even louder than the pounding music. I was being pelted with food, just like everyone else. I suddenly felt myself being picked up, and I screamed as loud as I could.

"Calm down!" he shouted in my ear. I glanced at his face and frowned.

"Blaze?" I asked. He nodded and wiped the food from his face to confirm it. He ran outside on the back porch and I took a huge breath of relief. He set me down on my feet and I was glad for the sound-proof walls.

"Ew," I muttered, wiping the cake and pizza off my face and dress.

"Honestly," he replied, shaking the food off. I stared up into the sky and forgot about everything for a second.

"Look!" I absentmindedly said in awe. Blaze automatically snapped his head up and faced the crystal-clear night sky sparkling with each star striving to shine brighter than the other. The full moon by it was larger than usual and glowed yellow.

"That's.. beautiful," he said in the same voice as mine. I instinctively grabbed for my camera in my pocket to take a picture, but it wasn't there. I glanced over and realized that Blaze had beat me to it, already taking shots.

"I wish I had my camera," I complained.

"Yeah, well sometimes you just have to keep these images in your mind. A picture can mean a lot, but nothing means more than the actual memory itself," he said gently. He pushed his blonde hair from his face and I couldn't help but stare at the way the shadows from the moon complimented his face, and how his green eyes were sparkling in the light of the moon. He was so cu--

"Oooh, do I sense a little rooomance here?" someone obnoxiously yelled from the doorway. My face flushed to see the entire party eavesdropping and laughing. 

"Tuesday, let's go out to dinner sometime?" someone suddenly asked. Afterwards, invitations were thrown at me so suddenly, I couldn't even remember half of them. I watched as everyone left my house and I fell asleep on the porch bench, exhausted from everything.