The Smile (GirlxGirl)

Chapter 1

"Hurry up Jessie. We're gonna be late!" My best friend Claire tapped her foot impatiently as she leaned on the wall by the staircase. She had straightened her shoulder length light brown hair and was in a black, one shouldered dress that I thought was way too short. I sighed and stood up from my bed to examine myself in the mirror.

I had curled my long blonde hair but it went into more of a wave than anything else. There was a tiny bit of darkness to my emerald green eyes from the mascara and eyeliner but other than that the only makeup I had on was the tiniest bit of foundation. Happy 16th birthday, I thought to myself before I turned to pick up my handbag and walked down the stairs to my increasingly impatient best friend.

Claire's other friends were sitting in my living room but I forgot their names as quickly as I heard them just a few hours prior. There were six of us all together and we all squashed ourselves into a cab that was heading into the city. Claire was basically sitting on my lap which really didn't bother me but she kept apologising, insisting that she was too heavy. I giggled and took her hand. "You're fine. Now shush before I throw you out."

Claire flashed her perfectly straight white teeth in her smile and gave my hand a squeeze. "So how's it feel being 16, hun? All grown up?"

Claire was 18 and she always found a way to make me seem younger than her even though I was considerably taller. "Well it's good I guess but I don't feel any different." I shrugged and she kissed my cheek.

"It just hasn't set in yet," she whispered in my ear. "You'll feel great when it does." She gave me one of her most man-eating winks and I had to turn away. There weren't many things I disliked about Claire but her overly flirtatious ways was definitely one of them. I had the biggest crush on her when I was thirteen, when we first became friends. She was the cool older girl who seemed to have it all. She was one of the over-populars but not a total bitch, gorgeous to the point where I felt like I always had to have makeup on around her and just nice. Nice to her friends, to her boyfriend (she seemed to have a new one every month) and nice to the geeky younger kids.

When I was thirteen one day she bumped into me, cliché I know, and she dropped all her books. Before she'd even realised what had happened I was holding her things out to her with a small smile. She called me superwoman because apparently I moved faster than a speeding bullet.

We were the same height then and our friendship went from there. I never told her I liked her though, I didn't wanna ruin things between us, again a total cliché. She had kissed me once when she was very very drunk but I think she forgot because she never mentioned it again...but I never forgot.

"What are you thinking about Jess?" She reached her hand up and stroked a wave of hair behind my ear, and I'm sure she made the extra effort to touch my neck as she did.

I bit my lip before i turned back to her and smiled. "Just about when we first met." I shrugged

The cab stopped and one of Claire's friends paid before she opened the door and nearly killed me with the blast of cold air that hit my bare legs. I felt Claire shiver but she just pulled me out of the car and wrapped her thin arm around my waist. "Come on Superwoman. Let's get this night started."

I smiled at her and looked at where we were. A club. Sometimes it felt like Claire didn't know me at all.