Stolen First Times

9. My First Party

*Edited*

"Fine, I'll go to the party," I snapped. Elijah's lips twisted up in a satisfied smile as he dropped my wristlet on the table and strode away to where he must've left Bianca to dance alone. I snatched the wristlet off the table and ran off to the bathroom before Uriah started to worry about what was taking me so long.

I was surprised to see the bathroom mostly vacant with only one or two other girls inside. I propped my makeup on one of the sinks and reapplied it, touching up on the places where mine had smudged.

A girl came up beside me to wash her hands. After she was finished, she turned to me as she shook her hands in the sink. "Hey Veronica..." She trailed off, nervously.

I put down my lip gloss and turned to face her. She was shorter than me, which was kind of hard to believe since I was so short, and had her dark hair cut in a short bob with side bangs. She had huge, brown eyes that took up most of her face and she was wearing a dark purple dress that looked good on her.

Her name was Mae Carson. She's been in a few of my classes since freshman year, yet we've never spoken before since we're both shy. She had a few friends who most people considered the nerd crowd. I wondered why she wanted to talk to me now.

"Hi Mae. What's up?" I asked as I zipped up my wristlet.

She started to wring her hands together as she said, "The Reeds are your neighbors right?"

I raised my eyebrows at her question. "Yeah, why?"

"Well," she took a deep breath. "Could you help set me up with Elijah?"

My first instinct was to laugh at her request. She couldn't be serious about liking Elijah. Surely everyone knew what a douche he was, right? But then I noticed the serious look on Mae's face and knew that she really did have feelings for the guy. Then I thought how Elijah was with Bianca and would probably never go for someone like Mae. Yeah, she was cute and all, but Elijah went for more...risqué girls.

Knowing this, I nodded and agreed to help her. She bounced up and down with a huge grin on her face and I couldn't help but match her smile. She was a really sweet girl. I almost didn't want her to go out with Elijah because I felt that he would corrupt her somehow.

"He's going to the after party at Bianca's house, if you want to go," I said, then pointed at myself. "I'll be there, too."

I didn't know how it could get any larger, but Mae's smile grew. She nodded her head enthusiastically and said she'd be there. We walked back to the dance together where we met Uriah at the doors. He looked at me then at Mae and back at me again.

"Oh! This is Mae," I said, gesturing an arm at her. "I met her in the bathroom."

Uriah chuckled and reached out a hand. As Mae placed her hand in his, he said, "Nice to meet you, Mae. I'm Uriah." Mae said, "Nice to meet you, too."

Then the three of us went to the dance floor and danced for the remainder of the time together. I really liked Mae, so I vowed to set her up with Elijah during the after party just to make her happy.

Uriah offered to bring us to the party at Bianca's house. We piled in his car with me in the passenger seat and Mae in the back. Since our town was so small, it seemed like everyone from our school was on their way to Bianca's. Every car leaving the school parking lot was heading in the same direction, right for the party house.

We arrived with everyone else. Bianca had left the dance early to get ready for the party and we could already hear music booming from the outside of the house. We parked down the street, behind a ton of parked cars. Uriah and Mae helped me walk in the high heels up the steep driveway leading up to the mansion that Bianca called home.