White Noise

11

"Whose dress is that?" Lauren interrogated as she got into my car.

"Mine," I lied, glancing down at the light blue dress I was wearing—only a few shades lighter than JD's eyes. The dress itself was far more revealing than my usual attire. The neckline plunged so low that I had to wear a white lacy bandeau in place of a bra and it was so short that I wore spandex underneath just to feel comfortable.

I could feel Lauren glaring at the side of my face. "I know for a fact that you don't own a bandeau."

Damn. I was hoping that when I picked her up to go to Landon's party she would be in one of those moods where she just talks nonstop. With Lauren, you either got overly observant, ridiculously skeptical, and incredibly protective or annoyingly outgoing, endlessly talkative, and completely unaware. Clearly, she wasn't the latter as I had hoped she would be.

"Spill," Lauren insisted as she buckled her seat belt and I put the gear back in drive.

"Caroline said I could borrow some of her clothes for tonight."

This was also a lie. Caroline had no idea I was wearing her bandeau or her dress.

Still, Lauren faked a gasp. "Catherine Blanchard? Choosing to wear a dress? To a party?"

"Shut up," I grumbled, pulling on a road that led towards Landon's house.

"It was weird enough when you agreed to come tonight without any protest, especially when you could've easily stayed in with Bridget and Emily. But this," she said, waving her hand frantically at my dress, "is a whole new level of weird."

"Maybe I've turned over a new leaf," I said nonchalantly.

Lauren pulled down the passenger seat visor and began to check her makeup in the mirror. "Now you're really scaring me."

I let out a breathy laugh as the already very present knot in my stomach tightened even more. "I don't know. Maybe I just want to have fun for once."

You could feel how tight the air inside my car got in that moment. Lauren's eyes were on the side of my head again. "Is something wrong?"

My stomach sank deeper into my gut and I felt like I might vomit. You know it's bad when your best friend thinks something's wrong when you say you want to have fun. On top of that, Landon's house was approaching quickly and I couldn't help but see JD's face in my mind with each passing minute. I knew that I should probably tell Lauren about him at this point since it was very likely she was going to meet him at the party. But now, it felt like too much to tell in too little time. And I was far too anxious just thinking about him. The thought of talking about him out loud made me want to turn the car around and go home.

"Nothing's wrong," I said as coolly as I could. "I just want to see what this 'having fun' hype is all about."

Lauren laughed, still sounding a little constrained and confused. "Alright then, KB, let's see what you've got."

When we found a parking spot near Landon's house I almost didn't get out of the car. My butt felt frozen to the seat beneath me, but Lauren was already out and walking towards his house, talking nonstop. I knew I had to follow her quickly otherwise she'd get even more suspicious than she already was.

Landon's house was so big I'm surprised people still called it a house. Between the semi-circle driveway bordered by the crispest green grass and the archway over the front door, centered perfectly between two identical sides of the house that Landon's family legitimately called the East and West Wing—at least, that's what Lauren told me—it was truly a mansion.