I danced around my room, my Walkman's headphones blasting a song so loud I could feel my bones vibrate. The beat of the drums matched perfectly with my own heartbeat. From the endless piles of clothing in my bedroom's floor, I picked up one of my shortest and most distressed pair of shorts.
Putting on clothing while trying to dance wasn't exactly an easy task, but you know, I like to challenge myself once in a while.
Over the noise of the strident guitars and screams of the songs, I can't listen to the light knocking in my door. I just keep twirling around my room, still in my bra, jumping to the rhythm of Courtney Love's guitar. Just a few seconds after, the song ends and just then I hear the weak sound of knuckles against the wooden frame of my door.
"What?" I say as soon as I open the door, expecting to see my mom quite pissed off and telling me to go and do something productive. But instead of an angry mother screaming, I encounter Alice, shrugging her forehead as if she was worried about something. "You look scared"
"It's nothing," she murmurs, "are you going somewhere?" She's staring at the endless piles of clothing spread all over my room.
"Not only me" I say as I pull her inside and slam the door behind her. "There's a party tonight at Amanda's, and we're going."
Her baby blue eyes widen, as if I just said something in another language. "Rose, you know I can't, we're - we're not allowed."
I roll my eyes. "Dad and mom won't notice we're away for a few hours" I say, picking up a skirt and trying it on over the shorts, walking around the mirror to see how it looked. "Plus, after along week of work, don't we deserve to have some fun?"
"I don't drink" she says softly, staring at me.
"You don't have to drink, silly" I say, taking off the skirt and tossing it to the floor again. She's sitting in my unmade bed covered with junk, her arms loosely crossed against her chest. "C'mon, Alice, we'll have fun!"
It was kind of useless to insist this much, since I knew that Alice hated parties. Or actually going out anywhere with too much people. But I guess asking wouldn't hurt. Maybe God (or whatever is up in the skies besides aliens and constellations), would hear my prayers and make Alice interested in going out with me, for once.
"I... I don't know..." she stutters, looking at the floor.
"Please, Alice, you'll have a blast" I say, sitting next to her and sliding my arm over her tiny, thin shoulders. "You can meet a cute boy"
"And throw up on his shoes," she says with a soft sigh. "Mama and Papa will kill us. I know you're fine with that, but I'm not."
"Don't be so negative, Ali" I say, putting a lock of her brown, slick hair behind her ear, letting her pale cheek exposed. "Mama and Papa won't find out"
She's just staring at the floor, thinking. Her forehead's still frowned. She looked like a little girl taking a big decission.
"Please, Ali, do it for me" I say, trying to do sad puppy eyes.
"Not the puppy eyes" she covers her face with her hands, but I can still see the blue of her eyes through the spaces of her fingers. I can even listen to a little laughter in her voice.
"Please, please, please" I say, doing a little pout.
"Okay" she whispers, so low I can barely hear it. She rests her head on my shoulder, as if she had just given up on everything.
Apparently, the thing up there in the skies had answered my prayers.
"Yes! You're gonna have so much fun!" I say, stroking her arm with my palm.
