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34: Terror

34: Terror

After Selena got off work, she came straight to the guest house so we could get ready for the party together. J.P. was with Emmett in the other house—no, Emmett would never let me venture into unsafe territory alone, so he decided to accompany me—and they were probably just eating. I knew they'd ordered pizza for a pre-party meal, but they hadn't brought any over. If it had arrived, I knew they'd already eaten it all.

I opted for my favorite black dress. It was long sleeved, and the back swooped low to the small of my back. The dress stopped at my knees, just short enough to be casual. The neck was almost a straight line from shoulder to shoulder. I found some black booties with five inch heels.

"We are going to slip a lot," Selena decided, looking into the full body mirror in my bedroom.

"Yes."

"And our ankles are going to get frostbite."

"Yes." I paused, frowning at my feet. "If only one part of your body can get frostbite, that is."

"Yes."

We stared for a few more minutes. "Did you state the specific attire to be worn to this party in the invitations?"

"Yes. It's by invite only, so it shouldn't be too crowded."

"Selena, you have over a thousand followers on Instagram."

"Yes."

"And you posted the invitation on Instagram."

"Oh," she said, realizing the conundrum. "Well, I'm sure only a few people will bother to show up."

"A few? At least everyone from the grade."

"Save for the introvert here and the geek there."

"Yes, of course. They are all probably studying for the pre-exams we will have when we get back."

"What's a pre-exam?"

"It's all the stuff we are going to start before we take ACTs and SATs and whatnot. I call them pre-exams because we stress and do a lot of stressful work before we take the exams at the end of the year."

"Oh," she said thoughtfully. "Pre-exams."

"Yes."

We continued to stare at ourselves in the mirrors, searching for any small mistake in the looks. "Should I wear my dark red booties instead of my black ones?" I asked, looking to her. "I'm wearing my dark red lipstick and it's about the same color as the shoes."

"That would look really good." She nodded enthusiastically and I quickly went to get my shoes. They were the same ones as the black, with stiletto heels on the bottom but ankle boots on the top, but in a maroon type color. The heels were a little taller, as well. "Your calves look amazing," she said.

"Really?" I asked, arching my back to see my legs. "I feel like I look really pale in this dress."

"You call it pale, I say you look like porcelain. You know, those dolls are really pale yet have, like, the angel colored skin. That's what you look like."

I hummed in contemplation. "Should I have gone with the white dress?"

Her nose wrinkled. "It looked like a wedding dress that cut off at the knees. The sleeves were lace. So was the back. That's ridiculous."

"It was really pretty, though," I countered.

"Yeah, if you want to look like an eighteen-year-old bride, like Bella Swan. That was pretty. This one is hot."