Socialites

2.

11 months ago   

     __________________________________________

Effie Tamacheski was dressed to the nines, sitting daintily with a glass of champagne in her hand. It was her fifth or her sixth- but in her defence, she needed to be drunk to survive the sight that was unfolding in front of her. Aimee Vanderbilt's bronze chiselled face smiled at her from across the room, and Effie responded with a forced smile back. She had forgotten how magnetic Aimee looked when she smiled, her big brown eyes scrunching up from the side. It was the kind of smile people spend hours trying to imitate, but it came naturally to Aimee. Her contagious laugh had mesmerised everyone around her. Everyone including Michael. The weird feeling in Effie's gut was back, as she heard Michael's melodic laughter accompanied by Aimee's. Today should have been about her. It was her seventeenth after all, yet Aimee had gone and upstaged her again by her shocking arrival back from fucking Dubai. How typical of her

"Could you believe she's back?" Adelaide West slurred next to her, barely looking up from her bottle of whiskey. It was pretty obvious to her- even in her hungover state- that Effie, for some reason, had not been as excited about Aimee's arrival as the rest. In fact, Effie had adopted her ways of partying, binging her sixth (or was it seventh?) glass of champagne.

Effie just glared in response and bitterly took another sip from her glass. How could she tell Adelaide that she hadn't been that sad when Aimee had taken an unexpected gap year to France, leaving Effie all alone. Aimee's absence had turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Now she was back, Effie was back to being second, the fatter, uglier, best friend to the ever-so-charming Aimee Vanderbilt

"Eff? Effie?" Adelaide shook her, slightly worried by Effie's lack of response. She watched Effie's eyes turn from resenting to horrified, as three figures approached from the other side of the bar

Sebastian Smith had joined Aimee and Michael, eager to escape the dance floor where most of the lacrosse team had taken the courtesy to do a shots 'competition', despite the tryouts tomorrow. It was of the utmost importance to 'work hard play hard ' for the future athletes of Manor prep. With a resentful sigh Senastian turned back to his coke can- he was the future team captain after all- there was a reason his coaches singled him out than his usually baked teammates. 

"It's amazing to be back Eff," Aimee said grinning, linking her arms with Effie. Effie wasn't focused on that though. She watched as Michael retrieved a cigarette from his pocket and bought it to his lips. He noticed her staring and smirked at her, offering her one. She shook her head, unable to speak under the stare of Michael's irresistible gaze

"Don't worry Eff, I wouldn't tell"

Eff. He called her Eff. She didn't imagine it all, did she? Michael's eyes twinkled mischievously, playing with her heart in mysterious ways. Michael had the most beautiful eyes ever- a dark dark blue that was almost navy. Despite his charming nature, there was always a slightly bored look haunting them, not that Effie cared. She hesitated for a second, before reaching out to swipe the cigarette off Michael's mouth.

"You smoke now? I didn't know that" Aimee asked, and if Effie didn't know any better, she would think there was concern laced in her voice. The smoke filled up her lungs, leaving her with a strange urge to cough. How did people smoke this shit?

"There's a lot you don't know about me" Effie muttered irritatedly, her jaw clenched tight with anger and guilt. Okay, maybe it wasn't Aimee's fault they hadn't kept in contact- in fact, her ignoring Aimee's calls and texts was entirely her own fault, but it's not like Aimee tried either. The frequent phone calls had turned into one-line texts, and that into a rare 'Merry Christmas'. Aimee had gone for all this time; it wasn't fair that she would come and ruin Effie's final year

Adelaide took hold of Michael's elbow and dragged him away from the two, giving them a chance to talk. She had no idea why Effie was being like this, but strange mood swings were excused today. Not only was it Effie's birthday, but it was also the last day before the final year at Manor Prep. Teenagers danced in the middle of the club, laughing, glittering in shiny dresses. Normally Adelaide would be in the centre of it all, laughing and glittering along with them, but today she was on her own- still hung-over from last night. On days like these, she preferred to hang out in the corners, with those who were equally hungover as her and lines of white.

"Where's Nate?" 

"Who?" Michael muttered distractedly, trying to hold the beautiful brunette upright

"Nate. Nathanial. Natey. Where is that wanker?" Adelaide snapped irritatedly. Usually, she was sober enough to bother with pleasantries, but it had been a good few days without seeing Nate, and she still had enough dignity to not beg some random person for a hit. She needed Michael to stop eye-fucking Aimee, and find Nate for fucksake. 

"Yeah?" came a snarling voice. Nate Gallain leaned against he counter, face half shadowed with an oversized hoody. Intense eyes gaurded by long lashes. Artistic fingers inked with pen. Between the rich, Nate was somewhat of a controversial figure. In essence 'one of them', with parents that could sponsor him for life, but with a drug-dealing business on the side, hence earning the name-

"Nicotine! Just the man I wanted to see!" 

Michael sighed at Adelaide's gleeful tone and started to make his way towards Aimee "Okay, I have things to do. You- take care of her" 

"Use protection Michael!" Nate mocked, turning his attention back to the flailing girl in front of him, feeling a slight sense of pity at the sight. Adelaide held her hand out expectantly, and he sighed and took out a small bag from his pocket. 

"The usual"

Adelaide rummaged through a diamond adorned handbag and thrusted a couple of hundred dollar bills in his hand, already excited at the white happiness in her hand. Should she be doing this before the first day of school? First days were important, especially at manor prep, where competition was high, but who cared? Actually, Nate cared by the looks of it. If he wasn't her dealer, Adelaide would have jumped Nate ages ago, but as Shakespeare once said, don't mix business with pleasure

Wait- didn't Shakespeare cheat on his wife? Did he even say the quote? 

The shit techno music had morphed into a soppy love song, and Nate shifted uncomfortably on the nearly empty dance floor, causing Adelaide to promptly ask the big question: 'Who are you going with for homecoming?"

Nate scoffed slightly. Adelaide was on about freaking homecoming when she would probably be dead before half term at this rate. Honestly, A sad part of him would have wanted to go to homecoming a couple of years ago, but he had shut out the sad part the day she walked out of her life. Two years ago, taking his heart with her. He missed everything about her. Even the awful parts- and there was plenty. Those were the memories he decided to focus on when she left without a goodbye, without a fucking text message. 

"Not with you, if that's what you are asking, besides don't you have your frat-boy friends to choose from? Michael-Angelo for instance"

"Charming" Adelaide grinned, used to Nate's cycnicism "Besides, Michael seems to have found his prom queen already"

"Yeah right- who caught his attention?" 

Poor guy. Little did he know that the mystery girl that seemed to have piqued Michael's interest was none other than the girl who walked out on him years ago, the girl he loved

"Aimee Vanderblit"