Anvaila Emerson, a vibrant party lover, juggles her crush on Kevin Diaz, the basketball team captain, and the return of mysterious Austin Smith to senior year. Caught in a high school drama, Anvaila faces the complexities of emotions, friendships, a...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The weekend was finally here, and everything was happening so quickly. I had been looking forward to this moment for what felt like forever, but now that it was actually happening, the nerves had completely taken over. My stomach was doing flips as I stood in front of the mirror, trying on different outfits. Nothing felt right. How could I possibly pick the perfect outfit for a night like this, especially when everything else seemed to depend on this one evening? I couldn’t shake the feeling that everything had to be perfect. There was this unshakable pressure weighing on me, and I hated it. This night was supposed to be special—the night. So many feelings were packed into it, and I couldn't help but feel like if I messed up even the smallest detail, it would be a disaster.
“Vinny, relax,” Jade’s voice called from behind me, her tone soft yet amused. I could hear her tapping away on her phone, her attention clearly diverted to whatever message or notification she was scrolling through. She was always the calm one, the one who could easily see through my spiraling. “You’re overthinking it. You look amazing in everything, anyway. Just pick something and stop stressing.”
I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair, fighting the frustration that bubbled up in my chest. “I just don’t know. What if I mess it up? What if it’s not enough?”
I didn’t want to sound ridiculous, but my mind kept circling the thought. What if I wasn’t good enough? What if he didn’t see me the way I saw him? What if tonight ruined everything? It was silly, I knew that, but the fear was hard to shake.
Jade, ever the pragmatic one, rolled her eyes playfully. “Mess it up? You’ve already been with Austin for a while now. Tonight is just... official, right?”
I let out a small chuckle, trying to ease the tension in my shoulders. “Yeah,” I said quietly, feeling the weight of my own words. “But... tonight is when he asks me to be his girlfriend. That’s a big deal.”
Jade put down her phone and stood up, walking over to where I was standing, the sound of her footsteps light and deliberate. She didn’t need to speak right away—just her presence calmed me, like I could finally breathe again. She was always so steady, a constant in my world of chaos.
