Beat Of My Heart

Verse Six

I took a quick shower in the luxurious guest bathroom attached to the guest bedroom and I had never felt so pampered in my life. 

I used all of the fruity scented shampoo and conditioner left over from his sister and when I got out I wrapped myself in the fluffiest towel in the world. 

Fake eyelashes in the trash can, I stared at my reflection in the mirror. 

My hair was wet so obviously it was still darker than normal, but I could see the red tints in it.  I had thought about cutting it when I saw how long it was getting, trailing close to my belly button, but thought better of it when a girl in our class cut her hair and said how much she regretted it. 

My mutant eyes stared back at me in the mirror and I wanted contacts now more than ever. 

They were green in the center and blue around the edges, mismatched forever. 

I stared at my complexion then, noticing how my tan skin looked lighter in the fluorescent lights of the bathroom and how my sculpted cheekbones from my Native American heritage framed the rest of my face. 

I always hated my freckles though.  They weren't that noticeable in the summertime, but in the winter they came out with a vengeance.

They dotted along my nose and dusted my cheeks, making me seem younger than I actually was.  I always hated getting mistaken for someone who was fourteen or fifteen instead of almost a legal adult. 

And although the majority of that could be fixed with a little bit of makeup and nicer clothes in the morning when I got ready for school or to go somewhere, I just didn't really have it in me to dress up all girly. 

That is, until that night.  Dressing up made me feel confident for the first time in my body and in who I was as a person. 

Shutting off the light in the bathroom, I quickly went to my cell phone and texted Josie telling her that I was safe and staying at another friends' house. 

She said that she had rode with a friend to the after party since she thought I had taken the car back home after not answering her texts and calls for so long, and that she had already made it back to her house safe and sound.

I locked my phone after sending a good night text to my mother, pretending that I'd been up all night painting my nails or some other dumb teenage girl shit with Josie instead of at a concert where I was accidentally kidnapped by the singer we went to go see. 

I could just see the headlines now. 

I slipped under the covers in the soft bed and closed my eyes, hoping that the music would die down soon so that I could get some sleep. 

***

The incessant blaring of my alarm clock that I had forgotten to turn off the night before woke me up and I stared around the room, dazed and confused for what seemed like hours until I finally realized where I was and what had happened the night before. 

The concert.  The microphone. The alcohol.  The accidental kidnapping.   The flat tire. 

It all came rushing back in one big blur and I blushed out right when I thought of how close I'd been to actually kissing Sebastian Jennings, a person who, before that night, I'd thought was untouchable. 

Three knocks sounded on my door after I was up and getting ready and I went over to it to see that Sebastian was at the door, looking refreshed and sexy as ever with his mussed up black hair and sleep in his eyes.