Ruined

6

"Oh my gosh, I love this one Ella," I hear Max say. I peer towards the dressing room door. I bought the black dress and black heels that I found in the 2nd store. We are currently in the 5th store of the day, looking for Max's dress. She insists that she has to look absolutely breathtaking just in case Gabe is there.

She walks out in a sheek pearl pink dress that stops midthigh. It hugs like my dress, but has spaghetti straps and accent gems spread out on the chest area and around the back. She looks great in it. The silver heels that she wears accommodates the dress perfectly, matching the gems. It's perfect.

"I love it Max," I beam as her face breaks out into a wide grin.
"I'm buying it El," she says happily.
"Gabe will love you in it," I sigh,"if he's even there."
"He'll be there, or at least I hope he will," she says frowning a bit.
She checks out after having a short gossip with the cashier about Channing Tatum being the hottest married man. I remember something as we walk towards the food court.
"Max, I have to get a necklace or something."
"Well, you're coming over to my house tomorrow night to get ready, so I might have something," she tells me.
"Well, I'm happy that you already have my Saturday planned, but I'm pooped right now from all that shopping, so I'll call Dad so that we can leave."
"Okay sounds good, but first, let me go pee," she says as she walk towards the bathrooms. I follow taking a seat on the bench next to the door and decide to call Dad while she's in there.

"Hey Dad," I say as soon as he answers.
"You ready?" He asks.
"Yeah, we'll meet you at the car in a couple of minutes."
"Okay, bye."
"Bye."
•••
"Go get your own popcorn," I whine as Max grabs a handful of mine.
"No, sharing is caring El," Max says giggling then shoving popcorn in her mouth.
"Who says I care?" I grumble in a low tone.
She gasps, "You have wounded my heart," as she talks a piece of popcorn is spit out of her mouth and lands on my cheek.
"You have wounded my cheek," I chastise her as we fall into fits of laughter and giggles.
"Shut up and watch the movie," she says suddenly being serious, or at least trying to be.
"Excuse me, popcorn thief," I say, "wasn't it you that were just covering my face in popcorn spit because of your talking?"
"No, it's my house anyways, which means that's rightfully my popcorn anyways," she mumbles with a mouthful of popcorn.
"Whatever princess," I sing sarcastically. She pouts and sticks her tongue out. So I push her off the bed, and she lands on her butt with a thud.
"Pfft, ahahahahahaha," I cackle as she whines.
"It's not funny," she wails.
"Yes-yes it i-is," I say, my ribs hurting as I help her up.
"Payback is a bitch," Max grunts.
"Really?" I say, "Profanity is not needed."
"Neither are you, but here you are," she says staring at the tv with an impassive face.
"You love me," I say as I jump on her and we both fall off the bed, her landing on me. The air leaves my lungs and I cough.
"Max, can-can't brea-breathe," I whisper loudly.
She sits up as I start coughing.
"Haha, I told you payback is a bitch," she laughs.
"Yeah, whatever. You're also that-that word," I huff quietly, still catching my breath.
"Woah. That's the closest to cussing I've ever heard from you," Max says as we climb back under the covers. We finally stop playing and giggling after she spills popcorn on the bed, and we have to try and clean it off.
"Night whore," Max says.
"Night popcorn princess."
We soon fall asleep in her bed surrounded by itchy pieces of popcorn and the TV still echoing with sounds of Rose saying, "Jack, I'm flying."
•••
"Ella! Ella! Wake up!," I shoot up in the bed, and I see Max is on her knees beside the bed.
"You were having one of those nightmares El," she says sorrowfully.
"Oh, sorry," I tell her quietly as she crawls over me to get to her side of the bed. I've been crying. I can feel the stickiness on my cheeks.
"Don't be sorry. It doesn't bother me. I feel like I'm helping you or something when I wake you up. I hate waking up to you crying and screaming," she explains, tears peaking at the corners of her eyes. I pull her into a hug.
"Thank you," I say, "I'm so glad to have a best friend like you. I love you."
Tears start streaming down both of our faces as we lay on the bed, hugging each other.
"I love you too, and I wish I could make it all go away for you El," Max sniffles.
"I don't know if it will ever go away Max."
We end up up falling asleep like that, hugging each other, and our eyes tired from crying.
•••
"And done," Max says popping her lips to rub in her recently applied lip gloss,"Now it's your turn. Sit." I sit in her vanity chair as she spins it to face her. Now I can't see myself in the mirror. She had already curled my hair and hers before she did her makeup. She kept it light with a minimum amount of blush and eyeshadow, but her eyes popped beautifully with the thin line of black eyeliner and her thick lashes covered in mascara. She's absolutely model material.

I start to focus on the way that the bristles of the foundation brush tickle my nose and jawline. She soon starts working on my eyes. It feels like she's putting to much stuff on my eyes, but I trust her. My eyebrows are plucked, and blush is applied.
"Part 'em," she commands, and I part my lips for her to swipe lip gloss on,"rub 'em together, and you're done." I do so quickly and try to turn around to look.
"No, no, no, not so quick missy," Max says grabbing my arms and dragging me to the bed where our dresses are laid out neatly, along with our shoes and jewelry.
I'm either cold or nervous about the party because I'm shaking.  But then again, we are only in our strapless bras and underwear.
She hands me my dress and I pull it on, zipping it up quickly. She does the same. We both sit on the bed to pull on our heels. I pick up the simple, silver necklace with a diamond charm hanging on it and clasp it around my neck, and then I put the matching earrings on, the small diamond bracelet soon following.
"Okay, now you can look," she says smiling.
I step towards her vanity mirror until I'm standing in front of it. I don't even recognize the girl in the mirror. "You look stunning," Max claims,"too bad it's not prom night. I'm sure every guy would be tripping over their feet for a dance with you."
My makeup consists of a smoky eye, smooth foundation, and light blush. The smoky eye makeup makes my baby blue eyes stand out, and the blush makes my cheeks look more contoured. The eyeliner is a lot to handle, but I like it. It adds more volume to my eyelashes that have been coated with mascara.

"I love it Max. I look... like a doll, but in a good way, not the plastic, fake way," I stammer laughing.
"I understand," she says quietly giggling,"now let's get our crap together and leave so that you can go let loose." I nod and walk over to pick up my extra pair of sandals in case the heels start to hurt my feet and an extra tube of lip gloss. Max does the same.
"We're ready to go," I say, butterflies filling my abdomen. We walk down the stairs, and out the door, Max's mom yelling,"I love you!" before we close the door after yelling it back.
•••
"Are you nervous," I ask Max as she drives.
"Hell yeah," she exclaims,"Gabe might be there."
"Yeah, but I mean, you've been to a party like this before. I haven't, and I'm just nervous as to what it's going to be like," I explain.
"It's not as bad as your thinking," she tells me as she turns on a tight curve,"and anyways, we're already here so you can't back out." She turns left into a driveway filled with cars on each side. We drive a little further before a big house comes into view with cars scattered all around outside and people stumbling on the lawn and sitting on the railings of the porch. Where are we supposed to park? This place is filled. Max weaves through the cars and pulls out her phone, stopping the car while she dials a number.
"Hey Ryan... Yeah... I'm here... Okay... See you in a bit." She pushes the end button and starts driving around the house. She turns drives straight toward a wall, and stops before the wall moves, and I realize it's a garage. As the door comes up, there's Ryan grinning while Max pulls in.
"Family parking perk," she says as we step out of the car and Ryan greets her with a big hug. He's a handsome guy, with his dirty blonde hair and royal blue eyes, but I'm pulled from my thoughts as I'm picked up by strong arms and spun around.
"Long time, no see Walker," Ryan says with a cheeky grin. I gasp when he gives me one last squeeze as Max just laughs. He walks over to a keypad and taps a few buttons. The garage door starts to close, and Ryan gestures for us to follow him. Max happily skips ahead of me while I take small steps, nervousness takes over my body as we enter the kitchen. People are on the island bar dancing, mostly girls in what looks like pieces of fabric put together with string to barely cover their private areas. I know I'm staring so I quickly divert my eyes as Max tugs me over to a cooler. She pulls out two bottles of a drink called Smirnoff. The description says its strawberry flavored. She hands me one after using the bottle opener and she takes a sip of hers.
"Whoo!" Max says,"letting loose Annabella!"
"Does this have alcohol in it Max?" I ask her.
"Of course. Now drink up," she says pushing my bottle towards my mouth. I slowly bring it to my lips and tip it back. The cold liquid makes its way down my tongue and throat and burns a little afterwards. It's actually not that bad. I like it. So I follow Max through the crowded house, sipping on the drink until it's gone.