Beyond us (all of us #3) 18+

T H R E E

C H L O E

I twirl the second straight chunk of my bang around my curling wand and hold it in front of my face, staring myself hard in the eye in Thea's white vanity. The Hollywood style light bulbs frame the mirror and also reveal every single flaw I've ever had on my skin.

This is not the time to start getting self conscious, Chloe.

Todd's on the way to pick us up and I'm just hoping this night goes smoothly.

But how smoothly can it go? I mean you heard how Thea's first time went. She never shuts up about it.

The guy actually took her B-card before he even successfully located the V. And by B, I mean anal without warning.

And Kay was in and out of urgent care after losing it to one of Todd's teammates and ended up having to confess to her mom what she did.

Come to think of it, no one ever has any good first time stories.

No one except Makenna, but who really knows what's true when it comes to her. Her whole life often sounds like a made up fairytale, and I've grown up with her and can't attest to witnessing more than half of the stories she tells.

I hiss as a sharp sting to my index finger snaps me out of my head. But only for a moment.

I set down the curling iron to suck on the burnt spot of skin, but it only seems to make it worse. I'm a train wreck tonight.

Thea walks out of her bathroom pulling down and straightening out her jean mini skirt, before grabbing a lipstick from the acrylic cup in front of me. She plucks it up so fast, I'm convinced she doesn't actually care what color it is.

She hums along to the chorus of the song playing off her pink pill speaker and briefly I watch her part her lips in the mirror, running the brush over them until they're a full coffee brown color that makes her skin look even more golden than usual.

Unlike me, she has natural curls. Big, chunky ones that only need a little water and some tossing to activate. She's so naturally pretty, and she knows it.

"Mak's riding with Diesel?" she asks me as she begins her first coat of mascara. Her long, dark lashes could eat my light brown ones.

"Of course."

"I wonder if Trent's going." The lilt of hope and small smile that appears as she screws the mascara cap tight isn't easy to miss.

I shrug, wondering when she's going to finally give up on him.

They dated a year ago for a few short months, and then one day he just dumped her. No warning, no explanation.

The next month all of our three way calls were spent mhm-ing and aww-ing while she went on and on about how she didn't understand what went wrong.

I've never been dumped before, so I didn't know what to say. I don't know what that feels like.

Honestly, I've been with Todd for so long I don't remember what it feels like to not be a girlfriend. But after all the time I've spent watching these two girls flip flop in and out of relationships, I'm glad mine is pretty solid.

And I want to keep it that way.

That's why I've decided tonight's the night. I'm almost sixteen now, it's time to take our relationship to the next level.

I think.

"You nervous?" she asks, almost tauntingly, turning her back to the mirror and leaning against the drawer to look at me. Her cheeky smile makes me want to crawl from under my skin.