I rose early the next morning, taking my time to get ready before joining my mom at the breakfast table. "You seem to be in a good mood this morning," she noted, looking up from the newspaper. I nodded in agreement and poured myself a glass of orange juice as I waited for my toast to pop up. "How was your date last night?"
"It wasn't a date," I told her, for the third time, and settled down at the table to butter my toast. "But, it was good. We just went for pizza and got caught up on each other's summers," I explained further.
"Well that's wonderful," my mother replied, folding the paper and setting it to the side of her plate. "Dylan's a good kid, comes from a nice family too." As if I hadn't heard that a million times. My mother had been pushing for me to date Dylan ever since we hit puberty. Not that I'd be opposed to it, the opportunity just never arose.
She finished her cup of coffee soon after and set it in the sink before grabing her purse and keys. "Have a good day, sweetie. I'll see you after work," she said before rushing out the door. I didn't bother to reply, as the door slammed shut.
A few minutes later, I heard a car honk outside. Chad's here. I took a deep breath and put my dishes in the sink. Why does he make me so nervous? I thought, as I picked up my school bag and locked the front door behind me.
Chad was his usual stoic self as I opened the passenger door and situated myself into the car. "Good morning," I said, trying to make conversation.
"Morning," he said with a nod, putting the car in reverse. "How was the rest of your evening?" he asked, once we were out of my driveway and onto the street.
I hid my surprise at him actually being curious about me, and answered "It was alright. I just went home and finished homework and stuff. What about you?"
This was the most normal conversation I'd ever had with Chad, it was actually nice.
"I didn't do anything too exciting," he said, looking to the left before turning at the light. I took a minute to appreciate the relaxed atmosphere at the moment. Ususally I felt so on edge and nervous around Chad, this was a nice change. "Are you going to the party on Friday?"
Party? I wasn't a huge partier, I went to a few every once in awhile, but I rarely drank or even stayed late. Before I could overthink it, I said "Yeah. I'll probably go," nonchalantly.
By this time, we were at the school, parked in Chad's usual spot. Before getting out of the car, he gave me a quick wink, "Cool. I'll see you there then," I nodded and followed his lead out of the car and into the building.
***
The rest of the week passed by pretty uneventfully, Chad picked me up and drove me home every day. It was sort of like an unspoken agreement between us. Everyday we would talk to eachother more than the day prior, and each day I felt more at ease being around him.
Friday afternoon, as Chad was pulling into my driveway after shool, he stopped and looked over at me. "So, do you need a ride to the party tonight?" Excitement burbled in my stomach before I realized that I had to say no.
"No, I'd actually planned to go with a friend." I explained trying to mask my own dissapointment with a half smile.
The disspointed look on his face was quickly and easily covered as well, as he nodded and reached his hand out. "Well, I'll just put my number in your phone and you can text me. You know, if plans change or anything," he shrugged, giving off the impression of indifference. I handed my phone over while he typed quickly and gave it back to me. "Well, I'll see you later then."
I said a quick bye and got out of his car, another wave of excitement washing over me. Excitement to know what tonight would hold.
***
"Hurry your ass up, or I'm going to leave without you," I heard my best friend say from outside the bathroom door.
I finished with the mascara and ran my fingers through my hair a bit, attempting to add volume to the light curls. "Oh shut up, we both know you wouldn't dare," I teased back, opening the door that lead from the bathroom to my bedroom.
"Sorry hun, but I'm on the prowl tonight and I wanna get there before all the guys are too sloppily drunk," Zac said from his spot infront of my closet mirror.
I shook my head and sat on the bed to pull on my shoes. "You're something else. What happened to the new boy toy?" I asked prepping myself for another tale of the plight of surburban gays.
"Too girly," Zac said dissmissively, shaking is hair out and fixing it again.
I nodded and stood, sliding my phone into the pocket of my shorts. "Ready?" I asked. Zac replied with a 'hell yes' and followed me out the door.
The party was in full swing by the time we got there, we had to park about two blocks away due to the mass amount of party-goers.
When we got to the house, I spotted Chad with a few of his friends from the other day outside. I didn't go over and say hi though. I'll catch up with him later. Music was pumping through the speakers at such a high volume, I could feel it throughout my body. Soon after we made it inside I was handed a red plastic cup filled nearly to the brim. I contemplated just ditching it somewhere, but then reconsidered. Why not? I took a big gulp of the liquid confidence and made my way through the crowd, looking for familiar faces.
Zac had already disspeared. I wasn't surprised, he did warn me that he was on the 'prowl.' I spotted a few friends in a group by the back door, but before I could make it to them I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Arabella."
