Full Throttle

Chapter 12 - 22

We get out of Melissa's car, close our doors and she locks the car with an audible clicking sound. I walk around the car so that I can stand next to her and we stare up at the red-brick house in front of us.

The walkway leading up to the house is absolutely covered with sparkly gold and silver balloons, all of them either with Taylor Swift's face on them or who I'm assuming is Mabel's face on them. The elegant black windows are lined with shiny tinsel and it looks like the entire house has been sprayed with glitter. Other balloons spelling out 'Happy Birthday, Mabel!' are floating just above the bushes lining the house and the music, Taylor Swift, of course, is blasting so loudly from inside the house that the pavement out here is practically vibrating and shaking to the beat. 

I stare at the whole extravagant set-up in disbelief. All I can wonder is how much this must have cost her parents. Probably a small fortune by the looks of it! I look over at Melissa who seems completely unsurprised by how over-the-top this house has been decorated. Clearly, this is something that is not new for Mabel.

Apart from the decorations seeming quite over the top, it seems like this is going to be a really cool party. The front door is wide open and every few moments more people enter the house through the front door and are greeted by hoards of people wanting to say hello to them and wanting to tell them the lay of the land.

As people walk in, they look back at Melissa and I in confusion wondering why we are just standing in the driveway instead of coming inside like everyone else. After the third group of people goes in looking at us like we're being very odd, I turn towards Melissa and begin,

"So... is there any particular reason we are standing here and not going in or can we just go inside now?"

Melissa laughs. "No particular reason," she replies. "I suppose I just don't know what the protocol is. Do we go in together holding hands? Do we just go in together side by side? Like what are you comfortable with and what do you want to do?"

For once, I'm not the person in the conversation who is overthinking things I guess. It feels kinda nice.

I reach towards Melissa and gesture towards her hand, silently asking if she's okay with me holding it. In response, she grabs my hand and holds it tightly.

"Look," I say. "The way I see it, if we are going to do it, we might as well really do it if you know what I mean."

"I agree," she replies. "Well, I guess we should go in. Let's do it."

Hand in hand, both wearing our 22 Taylor costumes, we walk up the driveway and towards the entrance to the house. We stop just outside the front door, both take a long and deep breath and step inside. Immediately, I can feel eyes all over me and the energy of the room shifts almost instantly as people realise that Melissa and I are here together.

I can feel the excitement bubbling around the room as people start to talk about us and I actually quite enjoy it. Let them talk about us for the entire night if that's what they really want to do. It will only make this fake relationship seem more legitimate which is amazing for me.

I'm broken out of my reverie when a girl comes running towards us. She has a paper tiara on that says "I'm the Birthday Girl!" and looks exactly like the girl on the balloons outside so I know that this must be Mabel straight away. She has beautiful and incredibly long auburn hair that almost goes down to her knees and I can tell it has been professionally done today because it is curled to absolute perfection.

I assume that she also had a makeup artist do her makeup for tonight because that too is about as close to perfect as you could possibly get. Her eyelids are covered in an exquisite, deep blue shade of eyeshadow that brings out the colour of her gorgeous almost navy blue eyes, her cheeks have been delightfully blushed and there is just the right amount of glittery silver highlighter on her cheekbones as well. Finally, her lips have been painted a very pretty shade of scarlet and her eyelashes have been curled so beautifully, they look like they are practically miles long.