Vanilla Chaos

Chapter 20: Lèvres Argent

"You realise you're wearing more eyeliner than me, right?" I laughed. He looked adorable, "And King Tut didn't wear huge glasses."

"Aphrodite didn't have blood red hair."

"Shut up, you chose this costume not me..."

"You know why?" He kissed me on the cheek, "Because Aphrodite was beautiful, and so are you."

"I adore you, my Egyptian prince."

"I love you, my Greek Goddess."

Corny but sweet - that was us.

We were both getting ready for Nicki's twentieth birthday party. It was at a luxury lounge called 'Lèvres Argent', the young woman seemed to find any excuse to wear the most revealing outfit she could find, thus why she was holding a fancy-dress event. She had left a few hours prior to the current moment to go prepare at the venue, we hadn't caught sight of her attire, yet. I was initially not looking forward to it: there was going to be loud live music, hundreds of people (many of which probably wouldn't speak English), karaoke, drunken dancing and skimpy costumes... But then Nicki mentioned cake so Nelly and I decided to go.

It was half six, the sun was setting. The sky was that Summery wave-length of purples and pinks it was when I first arrived here. We only had three more weeks left here, now, they seemed to just fly by. I was an English girl lost in the magic and charm of the French capital - what a cliché. Oceané Bleu was only getting more and more famous, as we were on our way the to lounge, we could see posters on buildings, I couldn't read the text, but Nelly told me that they said things like, "He's a foreigner destroying our city, spray can in hand." and "Do you know him? ARE you him? The French police will find you."
We were in a crisp white taxi, we remained silent for the entire ride - it was obvious Nelly didn't want to give the driver any hints towards the infamous artist's identity, as we saw him solemnly shaking his bald head at every poster he saw. Nelly was still painting murals, but less often, now, as some days it was nice to just stay home and relax. They still made the same impact, either way.

Remember when I said I didn't know what Nicki was wearing? Sexy anime girl. She had contacts in to make her lovely green eyes the same shade of blue her brother had been blessed with, a wig with two teal pig-tails trailing down her back and touching the floor, her outfit looked simillar to that of a stereotypical schoolgirl, except it was grey and blue, and she had a number and a barcode tattooed on her arm for whatever reason.

Even her eyebrows were blue.

She greeted us as soon as we walked in to the sweaty, obnoxious, potentious building, hand in hand, "Heidi! Nelly-Jerry! My cuties!" There were strobe lights everywhere, casting a bubblegum glow onto the floorboards, dolled-up guys and girls wherever you looked, and high heels everywhere (even a pair of sandal-wedges on my own two feet). It smelt like cigarettes, stawberries and social anxiety. "You look very good! Come in, come in! Cousin Péricand is inside, he's sat near the bar, he's a simillar age to you two. Why don't you go show him your beautiful lady?" She winked cheekily at me and pushed a stray wig hair out of her face, "There's a talent scout, here, I invited her so I can woo her into making MOI a STAR! If you'll please pardon me, I'm going to get up on that." She swayed her hips away.

"Trust Dominque, using her birthday to try and get famous." Nelly rolled his eyes.

"Oh cheer up, Crèpeboy! It's a party! Come and introduce me to your Cousin Pa-Pay-Payree-"

"Péricand, come on let's go, he's sixteen and he's probably here with his boyfriend, Luc."
He took my hand, kissed it and started slowly leading me to the bar, where I saw a teen with a lip piercing, jet black hair and icy blue eyes, like Nelly's, only frontstier. He had a dark and handsome boy sat next to him, whom I presumed to be Luc. Péricand's costume was indistinguishable (like most people's, here), he just looked like some sort of goth black parade marching performer to me, but it was clear Luc was dressed as a chimney sweep. Neither of them seemed to be my 'type' (perverted, annoying and douchey but cute), but they seemed totally in love, anyway. It was sweet: the way Péricand stared into Luc's dark brown eyes and nudged him flirtatiously, every now and again. I shipped it.

The milky white boy caught sight of his cousin and turned to face us, his boyfriend mirrored his actions. He started rambling at us in French, before Nelly half-shouted something in the same language, and he swiftly apologised, "Ah, my apologies!" These French accents were just too much for me, "Nice to finally meet you, Madamoiselle Heidi! I am truly sorry, I haven't heard much about you (which I'm not happy about, Avenelle-Jérôme), I thought you were French. But you are English, non? It is a pleasure."

He held out his hand and I shook it, "Nice to meet you, too. Péricand, is it? I'm sorry if I pronounced that wrong, I'm not the best at saying French names!"

"No, no! You said it perfectly, this is my boyfriend, Luc. His family is Jamaican but he was born here, we've known eachother since we were very young, like you and Avenelle-Jérôme! Would you like to sit down? There is a comfy table, just over there."

"Yes, please, that would be lovely." Never judge a book by it's cover - I thought Péricand would be an anti-social asshole, but he was very polite and pleasant to talk to.

We sat at a table, the chairs were big cushy leather ones, Nelly's looked way too lonely, only half of it occupied by his skinny body, so I hopped in next to him, and cuddled up. Péricand and Luc just smiled at us, we were a couple truly in love, and so were they.
"How did you two meet?" Luc asked us.

Nelly threw his arm around me, "I was nine, in the school library, after I had first moved to the UK, and suddenly I saw this cute girl, who looks like she gives great hugs. So naturally, I am scared to talk to her, but luckily, we ended up in the same class, and even better she became my best friend in the whole wide world. Heidi's mother sadly passed, so she never had the chance to travel, so I brought her here with me, and the luckiest thing of all is that she said yes when I asked her to be mine."

Péricand glanced at Luc, "That's adorable."