Lost & Insecure

Two - Enter the Vulnerable

A thin teenager groaned as she stepped out of the small sports car she had been crammed in for the last two hours. "Katie, I know you don't want to but we have to go home. You knew that was coming eventually." The girl's slim mother responded to her groans, and Katie groaned again at her mother's statement.

Katie looked down at the buzzing phone in her hand and noticed Ashley calling, "Hey sweet cheeks," she teased her best friend, smiling to herself.

"Hey doll face," Ashley quipped right back, "you're back right?"

"Ash, you're like a superhero of timekeeping. We just pulled into the driveway." Katie took a few steps away from the car, avoiding the noise of the people around her.

"Well the timekeeper is passing along an invitation to Grace's party tonight. Can you get ready now and meet us there?"

"Why didn't Grace invite me herself?" Katie pushed her long, straight black hair out of her face, and then tucked her free arm underneath the arm holding her phone.

"She dropped her phone in the toilet again," Ashley explained through light chuckles.

"Isn't that the third time this year?" Katie's eyebrow rose involuntarily.

"Katie," Katie's mom interrupted, grabbing Katie's attention away from the phone call. "Jesse's waiting for you." Her mother gestured for her to hurry and hang up.

Katie nodded at her mom's statement. "I have to go, Ash." Katie sighed, "I'll see what I can do." She hung up the phone and followed her mom to the front door where Jesse was already waiting.

"I got your bags, babe." Jesse pecked Katie's lips, smiling at her as he looked into her light brown eyes, and then carried her bags into the house. "Your mom's boyfriend is pretty cool," he spoke over his shoulder.

"Eh, they'll probably end it soon." Katie shrugged, following Jesse to the second floor. Jesse scoffed at Katie's lack of optimism, but Katie shrugged. "Just saying, it's a pattern." Katie's mother Pamela, or Pam as she preferred to be called, called up to the young couple, stating that she had plans to spend the night at her boyfriend's, and to have fun at Grace's. Katie called back a generic response, and then suspiciously looked to her conventionally attractive boyfriend. "How did she know about Grace's party? Ashley just called me about it."

"Grace told me last night," Jesse stated nonchalantly, setting Katie's luggage by her bed.

"You were talking to her last night? I thought her phone was broken." Katie sent him a stern look. Jesse gave a subtly nervous smile brushing off the comment with a believable excuse, suggesting that Grace must've broken it earlier that day. After changing the subject, Jesse convinced Katie to get ready for the party. Katie reluctantly agreed and soon climbed into the passenger seat of her boyfriend's car, and texted Ashley: be there soon.

Ashley smiled at the text on her phone as she walked downstairs of Grace's house looking for Mason. Mason exaggerated his reaction to seeing Ashley flowing down the stairs and began bragging to Ashley and everyone within earshot how unbelievably beautiful she was and how lucky he was to call her his girlfriend. Mason clutched his thick chest as if he were in pain and made his way to the ground with every step Ashley took towards him.

Dana released a small laugh, stepping over Mason as she entered the large home and greeted Ashley. Eddie, instead of stepping over him, extended a hand to help Mason to his feet. Ashley greeted the three before her, but scrunched her face and apologized, explaining she was on the hunt for Grace to inform her of Katie coming to the party.

Dana stopped Ashley, asking for clarification on everyone. "There's a lot of names, and I'm started to get lost." Eddie nodded in silent agreement. He wasn't his usual goofball self lately due to his uncomfortable levels spiking through the roof, and the confusion of all the new people around him barely having an introduction before he was introduced to the next.