𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐲 | 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐫

𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

A few days later

━━━I LAY LEISURELY ON MY BED,
my feet posted on the wall above my headboard as I twirled the telephone cord around my finger over and over again, staring at the ceiling blankly.
"You should throw a tea party!" Alice's cheerful voice rang through the telephone, breaking me from my daze. 
Alice Du Pont, my best friend since we were seven years old. We met through our ballet lessons, and we've been inseparable ever since. We come in a pair, Alice and I. She's got light brown hair and these beautiful hazel eyes that she swears are brown but definitely aren't. She has a round face, littered with freckles in the summertime, and a natural blush I've always been envious of. She is undeniably beautiful.

"I don't feel like doing much of anything," I groaned.
"Oh, don't be like that, Molly," She said. "It'll be fun!"
"I don't know, Al.."
"Oh! And we could invite Annie, and that girl we met the other night, what was her name again?"
"Alice, I don't think this is such a good idea."
"Susan! Susan was her name, what a nice girl she was--"
"Alright, fine." I blurted. "Is tomorrow at noon okay?"
"Perfect. This is going to make you feel much better, I promise. Get that boy off your mind!"

I laughed at her remark but I knew it'd be no use. The tea party, I mean.
Tomorrow would be one week without him. One week of loving a stranger I'd never meet again. I had cried every night since I first saw him. And I tried-- I tried to just forget about him... but there he was, dancing in the ballroom of my mind.
It sounded silly, really. Moping over a man I'd only seen once before. I didn't even know his name, for goodness sake! I knew it was foolish, but my heart didn't care. I mourned for him.

Alice hung up the phone, and I sighed because I knew that meant I had to start on those invitations. I guessed I would invite Darlene, Elaine, Annie, and Elizabeth, and Ruth. I would have invited Patricia but I heard word that she had been coming down with something, so I decided against it. I was deliberating over whether or not to make an invitation for Alice, but I ended up making one. To be polite, of course.

I asked Constance to mail them for me once I stamped and sealed them with a heart-shaped closure.
"Thank you!" I exhaled with a smile, turning from the grand double doors at the front of the house. They closed behind me as my heels clicked against the marble floors. I felt as though I was in a rush, though I had no reason to be. My heart raced anyway, my mind filling with a thousand thoughts all at once. I admitted to it-- losing him. Knowing I'd never find him again. I wanted nothing more than to move on, but my heart couldn't. I didn't want to forget him.

My mother sat in the parlor, lounging on a red velvet loveseat, drinking tea, and reading one of her many romance novels. She didn't look too engaged in her book. She looked as though she was thinking of something else; like she wasn't all there. She was deep in thought.
"Hello, mother!" I smiled, making my way over to her.
I smoothed out the back of my pencil skirt and briskly flattened out any wrinkles on the front of it.
"Molly!" She snapped out of her daze.
She pressed her cheek against mine and kissed the air.
"How are you, Darling?" She shut her book, placing it next to her on the sofa.

"Just fine. I'm hosting a tea party." I beamed.
"How wonderful! When?"
"Tomorrow at noon. It's short notice, I know," I started. "But I think it'll be fun."
"Sounds lovely, Dear."
"You're welcome to join us. It'll be just me and the girls."
"I wish I could; I'll be at tennis with your father. We're versing the Astors."
Daddy's been trying to beat Mr. Astor for years now. Each time he'll say: "We're really going to get them this time!", yet my Mother and Father still returned home, defeated. It wasn't even tennis season yet!
"Oh, well, have fun!"

I left the parlor room, still feeling rushed. Amid my scrambled mind, I pictured his face for a moment. And just for that moment, everything got sort of quiet.