Revival

17. All the Chaos

~~All the Chaos~~

When Stella opened her eyes, she was sixteen again.

It was the night of her end-of-school party. In London, that was pretty much a less toned-down version of prom. Everyone dressed up as nice as possible to celebrate the end of secondary school, but their grammar school was hardly willing to donate enough money each year to spring for a decent location for their prom, nice foods, or even a good DJ. One of the chaperones just hooked up their phone to the sound system and blasted the Billboard 200 hits.

Stella wasn't particularly looking forward to prom. Mostly because, unsurprisingly, she hadn't found a date. Everybody had a date, including her best friend Carter Jones. He was going with his long-time crush Cecilia Kelley. She supposed that she didn't make for a desirable date between her awkward, sarcastic demeanor passed off as unapproachable, and her notoriously overprotective brother and father. The fact that she was one of nine black girls in her year group probably didn't help matters either.

But she especially didn't like sitting across from Carter and Cecilia being all cozy and touchy with each other in their rented limo, when only a week ago, Stella had been in Cecilia's place. That was awkward.

He basically guilted her into coming, as he went on about how nervous he was about his date with Cecilia, and how he needed her for moral support. And as mad as she wanted to be at Carter for going on about Cecilia when they had just had sex for the first time the week before, she knew it wasn't reasonable. They both agreed on what it meant for them before they did anything. It was just practice, and though Stella wasn't entirely sure she wanted her first time to mean so little, she always had a hard time saying no to him.

That was why Stella had spent the better part of two hours sitting alone at a table with another couple; a pair of boys, she recognized from her chemistry class. She wasn't too close with either of them but liked talking with them during classes. They both had a wicked sense of humor and laughter was never in short supply while their teacher droned on.

It was why, she agreed when Carter finally found her again at the table and asked her to dance. She knew it was probably out of pity, considering he'd spent most of his time hanging out with Cecilia and her friends and only just remembered her. He clearly didn't need her for moral support, she had thought angrily, upset that she was here, upset that she was humiliated and alone. She wanted to tell him that she wanted to go home and pretend this night never happened. But the sincere look in Carter's stormy grey eyes as he extended his hand out for her to take was one, she couldn't deny.

"You're a much better dancer than I am," Carter declared with a laugh, as they danced together amongst the room of teenagers and chattering chaperones. Something was different though, Stella recalled, looking around the room through narrowed eyes and sensing a mystical sort of energy that clung to the party guests. They were much older now and unfamiliar, but still draped in vibrant silks and satins. The pop music melted into a seductive trance and her head pulsed with the desire to break away from Carter and dance until she was a part of the golden ethereal dust floating all around her, "Star?"

Stella blinked rapidly, lifting her gaze to Carter's again. His eyes were grey like twin moons above her head. A man clad in a dark tunic with a mandarin collar marked with strange symbols over the breast brushed past her, but it wasn't his strange attire that made her stomach bottom out in fear when she looked at him, but the brutal grooves cut into his high cheekbones and his pitless eye sockets. Instead of eyes, Stella saw flames or suns. She couldn't quite tell.

"Carter?" She answered finally, looking back to him, who didn't seem to notice the man with no eyes. The roar in her ears muted a little, "That's because I was the one between us that stuck with the cotillion classes."