::Red::

“Oh my gosh, I have no idea what to wear!” I exclaimed as I riffled through my closet once more, lost. I had been doing this all day; looking at each and every outfit, but still, I couldn’t find any that suited my ideal, and the party was just in a few hours. The last thing I wanted to do was to resort to wearing whatever. That didn’t sit well with me, and it didn’t help that it was Adam, my crush, who was hosting the party. Nope, definitely not wearing ‘whatever’ I thought to myself as I studied another one of my most flamboyant dresses. It was yellow and quite elegant, but being that this party was a costume party, It wouldn’t do.

“Well, why don’t you go to the mall or something….Fantasy World has a lot of great costumes,” Lily said, her breath loud against my ears. I tried not to wince, reminding myself that she was speaking to me through the phone. She had a tendency to breath down my neck whenever we were going through my closet when she was over at my house. It was annoying, really, but there was no way I could tell her without hurting her feelings. I had decided to just ignore it instead.

“I.don’t.have.time!” I almost screamed into the phone, my voice shrill. “Gosh, this is tougher than I thought it would be,” I added.

‘Okay, calm down! Why didn’t you go shopping earlier…” She began.

“Because I had my capstone project to complete, and if you haven’t noticed, it was, at that time, more important than a dress!” I said, frustrated. I knew I shouldn’t be screaming at her since it wasn’t her fault that I didn’t have anything to wear but I couldn’t help it. That was the only way I could get rid of stress.

Adam had invited she and I to the party about two weeks before, and in the frenzy of trying to put my project together and squealing with excitement at the fact that he even knew I existed, I had completely forgotten about the most important part of a costume party; the costume. I knew that if I had had time, I would have been able to buy, or at least, make one since I had a sewing machine, well-skilled hands, and a mother who would literary give anything for me to follow in her footsteps and become a ‘world renowned’ seamstress like her, but I hadn’t had the time, and this was turning out to be the worst day of my life; a bad day. My hair was a mess, my room was a mess, I couldn’t find my make-up any way, the dress wasn’t yelling out ‘pick me’ from my closet of endless garments like I had expected it to, and nothing was going the way it was supposed to. I was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe God didn’t want me to go to this party….

“Okay, why don’t you try calming down…you know how you get when you are stressed…please, Phoenix, just…sit for a minute and take deep breathes,” Lily said, her voice sounding muffled as she either bent down to pick something or bit into something. I blew out a loud sigh and flopped into my bed, trying my best to do as she had suggested. She was right; I was getting all worked up, and whenever that happened, it wasn’t a good sign. Closing my eyes, I exhaled through my mouth and breathed in through my nose, my phone pressed to my left ear.  A knock on the door startled me out of my almost calm state and I sat up immediately, momentarily shocked by the loud sound.

“Phoenix! Can I come in?” My mom said her voice loud and dripping with excitement. I exhaled for the last time, and sighed. This wasn’t good.

“Lily, I will call you back in a moment,” I said into my phone’s mouthpiece and switched it off before Lily could reply. “Come in,” I said to my mom, and a minute later, she was standing by the door, a wicked grin on her heart-shaped face. People had always commented that I looked a lot like I, but I personally didn’t believe that. For one, she was incredibly beautiful, unlike me. She had beautiful bluish-green eyes that were emphasized by the thickness and darkness of the long lashes framing them.  Bow-shaped full lips that were the color of ripe cherries, long waist-length wavy jet-black hair, and a small-but-curvy frame. I, on the other hand, had dull brown stringy hair, a willowy frame, and thin lips. The only thing I had of hers was her eyes, and, even though I never mentioned it, I was glad I had gotten them.