What Love Does Is Up To You..

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Make-up really does wonders, I thought to myself, watching Haley apply and re-apply coats of foundation over my blue eye and carefully applying eye shadows, mascara and eyeliner over it. As she put the finishing touches on my face, she mentioned her opinion on how beautiful she thinks I am. With that being said,  I couldn't help but remember John.

His brutal words, 'hard to get when you're already hard to want!', his fierce blow which, of course, I have the bruises to show, his jealous attitude, envious eyes and threatening remarks. He's really something, that boy, something that surely belongs in a prison cell or maybe even a rehabilitation ward. His blows are yet to knock me off of my stand, though they were hard enough to shake it.

"You look as lovely as ever," Al hovered over my shoulder staring at my reflection, in the full-length mirror of her bedroom, with great admiration. I love my friend, I really do.

"Al, what if he's there?" I asked with audible fear, though no names were mentioned my friends eyes softened.

"Then this time, you've got us to defend you, babe," her words of reassurance did nothing but make me feel worse. I didn't want my friends to have to watch over me as if I was a toddler, making sure I didn't wander into the road and get jumped by an unseeing driver. I didn't want to be the load of the night.

My outfit was courtesy of Allison ; a dark blue, just-above-the-knee length dress with a gold waist belt and blue high heels. Thankfully, I had carried my gold clutch which matched perfectly. Haley had insisted on doing my hair and so she straightened it and let it hang to my hips. It definitely needed a trim or maybe some serious damage control. Thinking of my mother, I wore my gold watch which indicated that it was almost eight. Haley and Al wore black dresses of different styles with gold heels and accessories. Black was definitely their colour. After a few encouraging words to get me into Haley's little pink car, we were off.

Arriving at Daniel's house after 20minutes of driving, we got out of the car and, together, we walked towards the front door of his home. Al looked extremely nervous and kind of pale. I was worried.

"Okay, who's going first?" I asked, referring to who was going to be the unlucky one who goes in first and receives the stink eye from anyone who cares enough to glance at us. Just like me, my friends were extremely shy and not too keen on confrontation - surprising right? So we solved this problem the same way we would solve any other similar to it.

"Not it!" I whispered out loud, declaring myself safe.

"Not it," came Allison's defense.

"Not-aaaah that's not fair, one more time!" Haley pleaded. We agreed.

"Not it," Al was first this time but immediately after came my response, "Not it,"

"NOT-argh," Haley looked frustrated, pouting her lip and shifting her gaze uncomfortably from us to the door and then back to us.

"Alright," I groaned feeling bad for Haley who, if you remember, doesn't know any of the possible people we might bump into aside from Sage, Taylor and Daniel.

I took a deep breath and rang the bell. We waited, not wanting to seem rude by ringing it again. I rested my finger on the bell, preparing myself for another ring, when the door swung open and a seemingly tipsy Dimitri smiled down at me.

"Hey Paigey," his grin was one of a very happy sailor. So he was drunk, who else was here? I wondered..

"Com'in, com'in, gosh you're allso pretty!" his exclaim was slurred but it was still so happy. I smiled as I introduced him to Haley and Allison. He lead me into a lounge and took Al and Haley into the kitchen. Of course, they followed because, unlike me, they wanted whatever he was drinking.  The lounge was full of boys who were dressed in black jeans and shirts, black shoes and loose ties. All of them, except for John who clearly hadn't gotten the memo since he was still dressed in his black hoodie and jeans from this afternoon. He was perched furthest away from the rest of the group, closer to the window looking as if he were ready to jump through it at any moment