Ignorance Is Bliss

1 . Marion

"I'm telling you, this is going to be life-changing," Raven said, swishing her splayed fingers through the air. Her eyes were lit with amusement, as she looked at me with that contagious smile of hers. She had a way of making me feel equally as excited as she was, even though I wasn't looking forward to it.

"Raven." I stopped in midst of my tracks, pulling her back by our intertwined hands. She turned to stare at me.

"What?"

I rolled my eyes. "It's just a party."

She whacked me with the ridiculously long sleeves of her red sweater.

"Don't be silly," she crowed. "You know how important this is to me."

I sighed. Raven had boasted about a person, she had seen once in the hallway, for weeks now. The main reason she was going to that party was because of her. I had the feeling she wouldn't show up at all. Even if she did, I didn't exactly know what she expected to happen this evening. For starters, she had no idea what her crush was called nor what grade she was in.

"I know, alright? I was just saying... we've never been to a party before."

Without counting those middle school birthday parties.

"As I said," she continued. "It will be special."

I huffed in exasperation. I had no intention of going anyway, although it would take a lot of convincing for Raven to let me stay home. I had to think of some excuse, that would be believable enough.

I stepped around her, dragging her along with me. Raven tried catching up with me, almost tripping over her own feet.

"Can you slow down? We have plenty of time."

I ignored her and ran a hand through my tangled hair, hoping that it didn't look too bad.

"Who are you trying to look good for?" Raven teased.

"Nobody," I retorted. "Besides, you're the one that's all dressed up."

This time Raven held her mouth shut, her cheeks suddenly flushed.

We walked along the path leading to the entrance. I felt my heart pounding in my ears. I hated it. There wasn't any reason for me to be nervous. I already knew the people in my class. It wasn't like I was the new girl there or anything. My fingernails dug into my cold and clammy skin, whilst we passed the groups of people around us.

That's when a black-haired girl broke away from her group and waved to us. The first thing I noticed about her, was her height. I didn't have a problem with short people, but she didn't even reach up to my shoulders. And she was wearing heels.

"Raven!" she squealed and leapt to hug her. Raven dropped my hand and returned the hug. I turned my head away, feeling slightly awkward. I could tell that that girl was glaring at me from the side. While we continued walking, she hooked her arm onto Ravens. I rolled my eyes. Raven always seemed to meet the wrong kind of people. The short girl bantered about this guy she met, but her voice trailed away as I tried to focus on something else.

The hallway was packed full of people, once we entered the building. I tried squeezing through the people, wondering why they had to stand exactly where I was heading to. I looked behind me, only to see how Raven got swallowed up by the mass.

My foot rammed against the heel of someone's shoe. I winced and looked at the dark mop of hair before me. That must've been painful.

At once I was staring into the eyes of a stranger.

"Watch it," he gritted through his teeth. I tried avoiding his stare before my face turned beetroot.

"Sorry," I muttered and brushed past him. Darn it. I regretted not looking at him, knowing that I would be thinking about that incident for the rest of the day. My mind kept rewinding the situation. I hope he heard my apology.