That Summer

Chapter One - Instant Attraction

"Come on, Fay. It'll be fun. You haven't been out in what, a while now, besides when we hang out? Most of my colleagues from work will be there, some I know personally while others I only know the names of. Please? I don't think you have any other friends besides me," my best friend, Nessa, pointed out.

I knew she was right. She'd been my best friend since high school. Ever since I'd had falling outs with other friends, she was the only one that supported me the whole time. I didn't bother to try making new friends, mostly because I wasn't social and still lived with my parents at twenty-five. Nessa knew I didn't like parties, so I didn't understand why she was pressuring me to go to this one, unless she really felt I should go.

Right now we were at her place, which was an apartment in the suburbs of Rochdale, Nova Scotia. She made decent money as an accountant, and had been at the same job for a while, so she was able to afford to move out last year from her parent's place.

I, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. I'd graduated college a year after Nessa as a journalist, but had yet to find work. That was a few years ago now. Since then, I'd had some temporary and seasonal jobs, but nothing really in my field of work. I'd been looking but no luck so far.

Otherwise, when I was at home while my parents were working, I had to amuse myself with my hobbies. I liked to read, write, paint, draw, and do woodworking, but more often than not, found myself rather bored at times. It was also discouraging to see everyone on social media, the people that I'd gone to school with, all grown up and living adult lives. Meanwhile I couldn't find a full time job no matter how hard I tried, it seemed. I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong. Hell, I was even still single. Had been for two years now.

"I won't know anyone besides you there," I argued. "I don't see how that will be fun for me."

"It's a masquerade, everyone loves dressing up, which is why I decided to host the party." Nessa grinned at me, twirling a strand of her brown, shoulder-length hair. Meanwhile, I was blonde, and had green eyes. My hair went down to the middle of my back and was naturally wavy. My body was rather curvy but not really in the right places, while Nessa was super skinny and looked small next to me. I was the "fat" friend. I wasn't really overweight, just felt huge next to her.

I sighed. "Even if I decided to go, I won't have a costume, and the party is in two days, on Saturday. You don't know how it is, being small and fat, finding good clothes is hard."

"Oh stop it, you're not even fat," Nessa rolled her eyes. "Honestly. You're just short, which is why you have a hard time finding clothes. But we can still go to the costume shop where I got my mask from. It's got decently priced stuff for every size. It's still open for another few hours. You're lucky today is my day off. Also, there are quite a few hot, single guys at work. I think some you'd probably like and they are coming to the party."

And, even though I really didn't want to, a small part of me was curious. Would I meet someone there? Or would I just be wasting my time going? Not that I really had anything better to do...

"Okay, okay, I'll go," I gave in.

"Great! And if you're totally bored after like two hours, come find me and we'll hang out for a while. Anyway, let's go get your outfit."

We left her apartment, got into her car and headed down to the costume store which was a few blocks away.

*****

When we arrived, I was surprised at how much was in the shop. It looked small from the outside, but inside was covered in clothing and knick knacks. I quickly found a black mask that had feathers sprouting from the top and covered half of my face. It took about a half hour of searching before we found something that would go with it - a black, knee-length dress with no straps and sequins in a pattern. I tried it on and found it fit well. I also had black sparkly flat shoes at home that would match with the outfit, so things were going smoothly.