sweet stars | robin buckley

Chapter 3 - Small Talk

Reese Mora
-
6:00pm

"No fucking way Dawn." I say, looking in the mirror, "Why do you even own this?" I've never liked dresses. Even as a toddler, my mom would bribe me with candy when she wanted me to wear a dress. I start to take this hideous neon pink dress off, and change into jeans and a striped crop top.

"Oh, come on Reese! Please wear a dress with me! I don't want to be the only one wearing one, plus it looks so cute on you." she says, jumping off the bed. I shake my head as I grab a hair brush.

"I do not look good in dresses, you do. Did you really think I would go out in public in a dress? Besides, I don't know what the 'dress code' is for this party, I don't want to be over-dressed." I tell her.

"Dress code? Reese, it's a party, live a little!" she laughs. It's funny, because when we were younger, she used to always be scared, of everything. I had to convince her to do the monkey bars, because she was scared of falling off and breaking a bone. I guess she grew up faster than me.

"Hey, look." she says as she gives me a suspicious smile and reaches into her purse. She pulls out a flask, drinks a little, and then sticks her tongue out and squinches her eyes. Like you would when you take cough medicine.

"Try it." she says, and holds out the flask.

"Really, Dawn?" I say. She just looks at me and smiles. I sigh and grab it from her and drink the Vodka. I feel a burn down my throat, and make the same scrunched-eyed-tongue-out face.

"It's not so bad!" Dawn says, laughing at me. I shake my head and gag.

Suddenly, I hear the sound of a door knob and door swinging open behind me. Luckily, Dawn is good at hiding stuff, she jokes about how she's done it her whole life. She quickly hides the flask under her bed as her mom peeks through the door.

"Hello girls! I was just checking in on you two, how is your sleepover going? Do you need snacks? What about a movie, we can rent one!" her mom says, smiling wide as she does. I feel bad for Dawn because she doesn't feel like she can tell her parents anything.

"Mom, we're okay." Dawn says. Her mood always drops when she's around her parents.

"Okay," she says, and squints her eyes at Dawn, "are you okay, honey? You're looking a little pale." she says, brow arched.

"Erm.. yeah! Yeah. I'm okay. I just.. couldn't sleep last night." Dawn says as she grabs a piece of her long hair to play with. Nice going, really played it cool.

"Okay, weirdo." her mom smiles and leaves the room. Dawn let's out a held in sigh, and that's when we hear the sound of tapping from the window.

It's Rocco, and he's tapping and waving. We get our shoes on and climb out the window, leaving fake pillow bodies in the bed.

-

We arrive just as the sun goes down, and the house is huge. Teenagers are overflowing the house in every corner, and for a second, I feel like I'm in some rom-com coming of age type movie.

Dawn pulls my arm and skips toward the front door. There's no need to knock, because the door is already wide open. I look around and see some kids in my grade and some younger. I even recognize some people who graduated last year, which is a little weird that they're still going to high school parties.

I'm not exactly sure who is hosting this party, it's one of Rocco's guy friends, but whoever it is I feel bad for them. The place is trashed, cups spilled in the carpet, food spilled on the counters. I feel like a frat boy.

I'm looking around before I realize both Dawn and Rocco have left me. I look around for someone, anyone that I know. I mean, I know everyone, but I've only talked to a couple people. I recognize some girl from english that I had a project with, but I don't think she would remember me.