Arm Distance Apart | ✔️

03

Chapter three | prep
"I'm an introvert... I love being by myself, love taking a long walk with my dog, and love looking at the trees, flowers, the sky."
-Audrey Hepburn

I tied my hair up into a ponytail and reapplied a coat of lip balm and mascara. I was dressed rather casually. I wore a black crop top with tight blue skinny jeans with some tan heels because I figured that's what people normally wear to parties. I tugged out a few strands of hair from the side of my ponytail and swallowed the lump rising in my throat.

I fiddled with my fingers and mentally gave myself a pep talk. Once I was prepared I grabbed my black clutch and packed essentials; my phone and charger, some extra cash and a small can of pepper spray. You never know what could happen.

I walked out into the hall where Bellamy was waiting for me. "You look great." He said with a smile and grabbed my hand to lead me which I instinctively pulled back. My mom was in the Kitchen reading all the mail as she usually did.

"Bellamy, my mom won't let me go." I told him before we caught up to her.

"You don't know that for sure." Bellamy walked up to my mom while I hung behind praying my mom would not allow us to go out.

My mom's face light up and she looked at me. She said something to Bellamy and as soon as I saw Bellamy turn around with a smug expression on his face, I knew my prayers went unheard. He ran up to me and passed me but stopped at the door and motioned for me to hurry up.

I rolled my eyes subtly but obliged and shuffled over to him. My mom called out a loud and gleeful 'goodbye' which of course I returned. As we stepped out side you could see the small rain drops falling from the sky slowly. The wind swished in the air moving the leaves in some kind of a rhythmic dance. The soft sound of retreating thunder bounced off all edges of the sky and into our ear drums.

I smiled lightly at the soft patting sound the rain created when it was hitting the ground and the thunder wasn't booming. "We can't be late." Bellamy rushed trying to stay as calm as possible but naturally, he seemed like a pretty laid back person. Except, of course, the rumors that were spread around last year, said otherwise.

I followed behind him until we got into his car. I buckled my seat belt but he didn't. I bit my bottom lip, a normal reaction somebody makes when nervous. Without thinking I reached over and grabbed his seat belt and buckled him in. I know. I know. I'm such a dweeb.

I sat back and let out a puff of air from my lungs. "Thanks, Hals, but I think we would've been alright." He said with a light chuckle. I looked up at him and parted my lips to say something but closed them again, turning my head back to the front. "Hey, I'm just kidding!" He nudged me playfully.

I smiled forcefully but made sure not to make it look that way. He pulled out of his drive way because his car was still parked at his house, and drove off to who knows where!

It didn't cross my mind till now that Bellamy could be a potential kidnapper. Slowly but surely somewhat befriending me only to later kill me.

Alarmed, I glanced at him then back down before he noticed. He didn't look like a kidnapper. I imagine a kidnapper to have jet black hair while Bellamy had caramel-like brown. And dark brown eyes while Bellamy had green that mixed with blue in the center. Also a mustache. Mustaches are shady.

But that is just my imagination. I tapped my fingers to an imaginary beat. If anything, I always have my pepper spray. "You know Hals, I am starting to realize that I am the more talkative one in this friendship." He looked over at me with his usual cheeky grin.

I rose my eyebrows. "Friendship?" Lyra and Max were all I ever needed. Sure I had acquaintances but not really anything more besides Lyra and Max.

"Yes, friendship! And finally, she spoke!"  Bellamy said with an excited tone.

I wanted to say friends don't drag friends to parties but I didn't because I did agree even though my mind fought against it. "Sorry?" I said but it came out more as a question.

I wasn't sure I should apologize for not being social. He is still somebody new after all even though we have lived beside each other all our lives. "Don't apologize that's just the way you are. I wouldn't expect you to be more social especially since that would mean you are acting like somebody you aren't." He said, explaining thoroughly.

"It's weird though. And probably extremely rude of me to ignore you or stay silent when we're talking. So sorry." He looked at me then back at the road.

"You know when you do talk, you speak very formally. It's interesting because most people around here speak with some kind of slang." That was true. I just was raised a certain way I guess. But I could the same about him.

I wasn't sure if that was a compliment or just an observation so I decided to change the subject. I didn't like talking about myself anyway. "Where are we going?" I said. glancing back and forth between the road and the evergreen trees looking for some kind of clue.

Our town was kind of secluded. There aren't many people here and the houses were a little more spread out than usual. "You know Dylan Harrington?" I knew him. Well, I've heard of him. I'm obviously not friends with him though.

"I've heard of him. We haven't ever talked." I replied honestly.

"Oh. Well, we're going to his house. His parents always let him through the sickest parties once or twice a month as long as the cops don't show up to complain." He said with a chuckle.

I rose my brows. His parents let him throw parties? That must be cool. From my knowledge, He and Bellamy are close friends. They are both with the "in crowd" but Bellamy seems to be more distant from them compared to Dylan. Tai is in their little group too and as you can imagine, he loves all the attention he gets. Especially from all the girls.

Bellamy turned and just like that, we arrived at a huge house that nearly reached the top of the woodsy trees. I may have been exaggerating a bit but what I meant was at the house was huge. Just being next to it made you feel richer even though the house didn't even belong to you.

The house was a little darker than tan and had so many windows. On the left side you could see half of the back yard and the many teens that were jumping into what seemed to be a pool but from this angle, it looked like they were jumping straight into the ground. But I just don't understand why they were jumping into a pool if it was raining. The thunder and lightning had stopped which was good but I feel like that would still be awful.

Hedges surrounded the back yard area instead of fences and colorful flashing lights shined in the windows and you could see all the dancing people inside the house. That music pounded loudly. You could almost hear it clearly from out here. "Wow." I said letting out a breath from just looking at the home in front of me.

My family had money, but not this much money. He came up next to me. "I know right."

"Aren't we late?" I asked referring to what he said earlier. He scrunched up his face and shook his head.

"Nah. I meant we couldn't be later than fashionably late." He said with a smirk. I looked up at him with a blank expression. I rushed for nothing. "Now C'mon!" Hesitantly I followed behind him as we walked to the entrance. My heart pounded in my chest. My first high school party. I'm sure it won't too crazy.

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A u t h o r ' s     N o t e

Hello beautiful people! I would just like to make a quick disclaimer; The very first chapter you read that was titled "00" isn't counted as one of the four chapters I was publishing all at once. If that doesn't make sense what I mean is that the chapter after this one is the actual forth chapter. The very first one ("00") is just an information kind of thing. So technically I uploaded five chapters to start off. That's all! I just wanted to explain why the chapter before said I uploaded four chapters at once instead of five.

*P. S.  Sorry if that was confusing. If you read this comment your favorite animal.*

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Lots of love,
Jenelee