Experiment X

Chapter 3: The Party

Pulling back my hair in a high ponytail, I applied hair spray to the front, to keep it in place. I hated my hair flying in all directions, and could not stand my hair being let down on any occasion. I felt like if it was let down, I would spend precious minutes of my time trying to keep it out of my face, and time is money

So why waste it when you could easily just solve the problem? In my case, a ponytail was the answer to the problem.

“Are you done?” Amanda asked as she came in from the bathroom, all dressed up in a red dress with matching heels. She looked quite nice in her outfit, in the sort of a cute way.

“Almost,” I replied, while applying mascara. God blessed me with almost perfect skin, so knowing this, I stayed away from most beauty products, lest I ruin my skin. Mascara and lip gloss were the only things I used…occasionally.

Coming behind me, Amanda squeaked, “I love your outfit! It’s so fitting for your persona. It’s so classy, yet it’s still all black, without you looking Goth or Emo.”

“….is Goth and Emo the same thing or what?” she asked in a clueless voice. To whom she was asking? I have no idea. She grew used to answering her own questions, clearly seeing that i come with little to say.

Putting up a bright smile on her face, forgetting her previous question, she bounced on her toes in an almost japery way.

“Bastian’s coming to get us.” she informed me.

“Why?” I asked akin to doing things on my own without relying on anyone else. “We could easily catch a cab.”

“He offered...and then insisted, so I just gave in, you know…”

“Mhm...who is he anyways?” I asked.

 Just then her phone rang. She answered, confirmed we were ready and hanged up. I' m guessing Bastian’s waiting then.

“Bastian’s here, come on grab your jacket because I think it’s going to get quite chilly after midnight,” she reminded me, while grabbing her purse and fixing her bra up.

“Okay,  let’s go”

“Okay lets go party! Hoot hoot! ” She lamely fist pumped in the air. Seeing that I was not amused, she awkwardly put down her hand, and in a resigned sigh she uttered,

“Alright, let’s go”

Sliding into the back seat of Bastian’s blue jeep with two other guys in there already, I plastered a smile on my face.

“Hey, I’m Jo,” moving my eyes from them to the guy in front I said, “and you must be Bastian.”

Smiling a huge cocky smile Bastian said “Yeah, I’m Bastian, welcome aboard. These are my sidekicks Johnny and Ben,” he said as he pointed to the other two. Bastian’s “sidekicks” mumbled their greetings, while he started up the jeep and took off.

 In the mean time I studied my companions.  Johnny had his arms hanging outside the window, while Ben was literally trying to get into the screen of his phone with the way his fingers were flying all across the screen.

Surprisingly there was something I noticed of myself, I could handle any device brought to me. Being the private person I am, of course i kept this observation to myself. Seems like the part of my brain where talent lies weren’t damaged.

My thoughts shifted back to Bastian, seems like he and Amanda were getting rather cozy with each other with the way they kept on shooting glances at each other; and the shit eating grin on his face never ceased to remain off his mug. Not that that mug was ugly by any means, I just…didn’t have a good feeling towards him.

I tend to rely on my sixth instinct a lot. I feel like it’s one of the only parts of me that stayed the same. There was this research that I read about how scientists came to a conclusion that humans in the past, let’s say a gazillion years ago, tended to trust in their sixth instinct, and relied on it for protection. But as time went, and we went into human technology to keep us safe, we started to rely less and less on our sixth instinct, therefore the trust between us and our natural defense lessened until now, in this generation, who uses their natural defense anymore? No one...

We reached the house and you could literally see the house vibrating from the outside. I’m guessing the party was in full swing.

Walking into the house proved difficult with all the millions of bodies jam packed against each other. After the beating through the battle of bodies, I won, and came up for air, by then I found myself in the courtyard. The pool didn’t even look blue anymore, I don’t even want to imagine what other types of fluids were mixed up in there. Eww. Internally cringing, I made my way past the pool to a swinging chair, it looked comfy and quiet, so why not just sit and gaze---- wait, those were not my thoughts; I don’t gaze at stars or at boys on motorcycles, or whatever. Satisfied with justifying my thoughts I sat and began rocking slightly.

After a few minutes of solitude, I heard a soft sound of shoes threading towards me. With my back to the party, I obviously couldn’t see this person. My mind quickly did calculations, from the sound of the shoes I was able to determine that it was probably a tall person, from the shuffling it was definitely a male, and from the pace he walked in, he was at ease. I instantly relaxed with this information, but not entirely. I never completely relaxed.

“Since you’ve come all the way to just stand behind me, you might as well just introduce yourself,” I said as I turned around to face the newcomer.

It was the motorcycle guy. Weird.

“Umm don’t you remember me Vicky?” he said as he scratched behind his head.

My eyes bugged out “Vicky?”

“Victoria, whatever. Why you acting so strange as if you don’t recognize me or something? I mean its been two and a half years, but come on,” he said with a nervous chuckle.

“I’m sorry, it seems like we’ve known each other from before. I had a bit of situation two years ago, and together I’ve had a partially permanent memory loss," I said as I formally kept my backbone straight, and kept my emotions at bay.

“What’s your name?” I asked with a tiny smile, as I regarded him closely. My brain raced in a million directions, questions bubbling on the surface, but I suppressed my desire to learn more about who I was. I had to thread carefully lest I scare him away.

 “I’m Xander, Alexander Blanc. This is...awkward,” he said as he took a step back, his face clouding in confusion “What exactly happened? Did you like lose your identity and all or are you like pulling my leg just so that I can leave you alone?” His face transformed in anger. “If that’s the case, Vicky, you could have just said so, because what you’re doing is not cool, not cool at all."

As I opened my mouth, he cut me off by saying “Oh, by the way, I don’t think there’s any need for me to keep close guard of the duffel you made me keep, I’ll drop it off, wherever or whenever I see you,” he said as he waved his hand around in dismissive gesture.

Giving me one more look, he strode away.

What in the world…?

The last look he shot me held some sort of emotion. The look held some sort of meaning, but I couldn’t pinpoint it.

While pulling back my covers that night, his eyes haunted me again, and it was then I realized what emotion his look held. hurt and pain.

why was he hurt? Those were my last thoughts before drifting away haunted by Xanders ice blue eyes.

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Picture on the right : Sebastian