Only because you asked // Rafe Cameron

Chapter Three - The constant state of panic

"I don't know how to do this," she panicked, complaining to Sarah over the phone. "I don't know what to wear, what to do with my hair, how to apply eyeliner, how to act."

"Calm down, give me a sec and I'll come over. Start putting your best dresses on the bed and we'll decide together."

A few moment later Sarah knocked on her bedroom door after letting herself in the house only to find her in a towel.

"Help me."

"Okay so let's see," she started, examining all her dresses. "Lana, this isn't even a question. Wear the black dress." Her face dropped in fear, she hated the black dress. "I love this dress on you!"

"I don't want to wear that dress, it's too tight."

"It's not tight," Sarah stated. "It's meant to fit your figure like that."

"Yeah, I don't like that."

"Well, you either wear this or you can wear the flower dress and show up looking like my Grandmother's curtains."

The two girls stared at each other for a few second, as if it were a staring contest.

A few more seconds passed.

"Fine, gimme that," she finally gave in, grabbing the black dress from Sarah's hands.

"Okay but first, let me do your makeup."

Another thing that Lana despised. She wasn't doubting the fact that she would look prettier with it, though she was beautiful without too, however the idea of product on her face terrified her.

With the help of Sarah, she was finally ready.

She wore the black dress that hugged her figure perfectly, as if the dress was made for her.

"I only did your eyes, I put some mascara on and I gave you some eyeliner." Lana flat-ironed her hair, liking it better that way. Sarah spun her around to face her, feeling like a proud Mum. "You look so beautiful, you're definitely leaving with a boy tonight."

"Stop it," she turned back to face the mirror, admiring herself before she returned to the self hate. "I look
stupid."

"You sound stupid, stop doubting yourself," she pep talked, picking up her phone to answer a call. "Yeah, Topper's outside to pick us up. Come on."

"Maybe I should leave it," she panicked. last minute.

"Come on," she sighed, grabbing her arms and forcing her down the stairs.

The car ride was painfully silent, Sarah was yet to break up with Topper and she was probably going to do it tonight. Until then, it was just dreadful silence.

Once we arrived at the party, the gloomy atmosphere livened however, that frightened Lana. She started to sweat. She want quite sure what exactly was so daunting, but she just knew she hated it. Tonight could either go extremely well, or extremely bad and she was about to find out.

The music boomed, thumping almost. Sarah and Topper linked hands as they walked in and Lana followed behind them. She knew it was only a matter of time before they left her to be on their own, so she started to think ahead about what she could occupy herself with.

After standing in one place for several moments, she decided it was probably best to intoxicate herself as much as she can so she wouldn't have to worry about confidence issues. She sighted the alcohol table and began to walk towards it, starting to regret the decision already but she continued nonetheless.

She grabbed a red cup and poured herself some vodka, choosing to ignore the tonic water. After forcefully downing it, she thought to be 'creative' with her next drink. Creative was one word for it, needless to say her slight intoxication clouded her thoughts a bit. She poured herself some random whiskey that she found and mixed it with a raspberry gin.

"Jesus, you sure you wanna ingest that?" someone asked, concern in their voice.

"JJ," she breathlessly addressed, slightly freezing in place.

"If you drink that," he began, pointing to the red cup that remained in her hand, "you will die."

She locked eyes with him and downed the whole cup, not breaking eye contact. His mouth dropped, in either an impressed manner or a worried one.

"Isn't this meant to be a Kook party?" she questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"It is," he exclaimed brightly, removing the cap of the whiskey and bringing it towards his lips, "but I couldn't resist the free alcohol." He took a swig, or two, or three, before slamming the bottle on the table and hissing at the toxicity of the fluid. "That stuff will kill you."

"In that case," Lana retrieved the bottle and took a few swigs of her own before reacting the same way JJ had.

"Rough night?" he asked.

"Not yet."

He subtly took the bottle away from her and returned the cap. "It feels like forever ago we last spoke," he spoke, gazing into her eyes.

"Yeah, I was hibernating."

He let out a laugh, before returning his eyes onto hers. "You haven't changed."

"Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic," she said melodically, realising that the drinks were starting to hit.

"I miss you," he muttered, still gazing into her eyes.

Everything felt deadly silent, even though they were surrounded by a loud crowd and roaring music.

"I have to go find Sarah."

She politely barged past him, alarmed, before returning to really quickly to grab the whiskey, and then walking off again.

She walked over to Sarah, who smacked her forehead with her palm. "What the hell was that?" she shouted over the music. "Why did you walk away from him like that?"

"I panicked!"

"Oh for Christ sake Alannah."

She glanced around, trying to spot someone else she might know when her eyes landed on Kiara. Her and Sarah used to be close during her 'Kook year' however they parted ways abruptly one day and no one knew why. They don't speak at all now, however Lana occasionally stayed in touch.

She thought about approaching her, but before she could conclude, JJ got to her first. She resumed her search and landed on John B. They were friends, despite the filthy names they would call her for associating herself with such 'scum' which she found tremendously rude, but she knew better to assume that he too would join JJ in a matter of minutes.

Not to her surprise, the four of them, Pope included, gathered together shortly after; when she turned around to face Sarah, she was gone. Great.

"You look like you need a drink," another voice declared. Ryan Mayfair. He was a tall figure that towered over her, brown wavy hair and eyes that shone of emeralds. He was an absolute douche.

"I'm not so sure that I do," she nervously stated, praying to the lord that he would go away.

"Here, take this." He handed her a beer, feeling superior about himself about the fact that he had offered a lady a drink when in reality, Lana despised beer.

"I'm good," she smiled, not knowing how obviously fake it appeared. Of course the signs flew right over his head and he was clueless about how to take a hint.

"You wanna get out of here then?"

Lana snorted, she could help but laugh only to look back up at him and see that he wasn't laughing. She quickly pulled herself together and told him that she'd rather not, thinking that this would finally rid herself of him.

"I guess it's pretty early anyways, don't you worry tho," he winked. "I'll be back soon." And with that, he walked away.

What a strange encounter, she thought to herself.