Captivated

Last Night

Oooof, okay, so dance happened tonight. I'm gonna be SORE tomorrow. Rip me. Also, I joined a specific class because I was sure that a certain person WOULDN'T be in it BUT SHE IS. UGH. now I'm stuck with annoying kids a grade younger AND her. Help. Anyway, enough about me, enjoy this chapter. Comment and vote, if you wish!
-ab

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December 13, 2024

Harper

I hug my knees to my chest as I sit uncomfortably in the corner of the couch dressed in Taylor's pajamas. Out of all of the girls at this party- Taylor, Selena, Abigail, Gigi, Karlie, Kelsea and Britney- I'm the youngest by far, and I'm also not part of the 'squad,' so to speak. I don't really know any of them that well at all. I don't know why I agreed to come to this party... I really do love that Taylor asked me, and I'm totally honoured, but I don't fit in. All of these girls are closer to Taylor than I am, and they're prettier, older, and just all around better than I am.

As they all sing karaoke to an NSYNC song that I'm too young to know, I just watch them and smile politely, laughing when they all do and clapping at the end.

At that point, Kelsea looks over to me. She comes and sits down. "Hey girl," she smiles, "What's up?"

"Not much," I shrug.

"You know, you can join in with us... classically trained singers can do karaoke too."

I giggle a little bit. "No, it's not that..."

"You're just worried because you only know Taylor all that well, right?"

"How'd you know?"

"I've been there," she laughs. "I promise, everyone here is super sweet. Just join in. I'll speak for everyone when I say that we would love to get to know you."

I give Kelsea a small smile. "Thanks."

"Hey guys," she speaks up, "let's do a song that Harper would know."

Taylor whips her head around and only then notices me sitting on the couch, away from everyone else.

"Harper, yeah, come on! Get up!" she exclaims. "What do you want to sing?"

I bite my lip. "I don't know popular music, you know that."

"Let's see, you're 22... so..." she scrolls through her options. "Do you know 'Fight Song?' That would be from your early teenage years, and I love that song."

"Yeah, I do know that one," I laugh. "I actually saw Rachel Platten's concert at the peak of that song's popularity..."

"Perfect," Taylor smiles. "I love Rachel. She'll be at the wedding tomorrow."

"Really?" I ask.

"For real," Taylor laughs. "Now, take the mic and start singing."

"Oh god," I giggle, reluctantly taking the microphone from her. I begin to sing, and everyone else joins in.

By the end of the song, I'm feeling quite loosened up. "That was fun. Thanks Tay," I smile.

"No problem. You let go of some of those classic techniques for that... that was good for you. You've gotta stop being so uptight."

I laugh. "You have pointed out one of my many faults."

"No, I didn't mean it that way at all..." Taylor says, drawing in a quick break, afraid that she has hurt me.

"No, it's fine. I'm not offended in any way," I giggle. "I'm well aware of my many faults."

"Okay," she laughs, giving me a side hug.

The rest of the night, Taylor makes sure that I get out of my shell a little bit more by singing some more karaoke, then forcing me to participate in a pretty intense game of truth or dare.

"Truth or dare, Harper?" Kelsea asks me.

"Um..."

"Pick dare," Selena laughs.

"I'm going to regret this," I mutter, "but dare."

Kelsea smirks as she scrolls through the website that we all have pulled up on our phones that has a long list consisting of both truths and dares. "Go to the door and howl at the moon for thirty seconds."

"I'm sorry, what?" I ask, mortified.

"You heard her," Taylor nudges me. "Go."

"Oh my god," I mutter, picking myself up off of the floor and walking towards the door to the balcony. "If the neighbors call the cops on a noise ordinance violation, I'm blaming you people."

I do as I have been dared, and everyone laughs. I'm nearly sure that somebody gets it all on video, so all that I can do is hope that it doesn't get posted on social media.

Eventually, we all go to sleep, understanding that Taylor, and all of us, as the matter of fact, need our beauty rest for the big day tomorrow.

"Last night as an unmarried woman, Tay, how does it feel?" Selena asks as we are all laying in the dark.

"Amazing," Taylor smiles. "I can't wait to be finally married."

When I wake up in the morning, I'm the first one awake, so I scroll through my social medias for a while, until the others begin to wake up. We all eat some muffins for breakfast, then Taylor announces that a hair and makeup team will be coming over in half an hour for the wedding party. Since I'm not technically part of that, I decide that it is my time to head home and start preparing myself for the big event. I give everyone hugs, then head to the tube to go home, dressed in a hand-me-down sweater and leggings from Taylor, with my clothes from yesterday rolled up as tiny as they will go and shoved into my purse.

Though I'm excited, Patrick's reminder to me keeps ringing in my mind: it's going to be a highly photographed event. Picture are going to leak onto the internet undoubtedly.

That means that our relationship is probably going to be outed to everybody outside of our immediate families.

There are very high chances of the eyes of the entire world being on our relationship in less than 48 hours.

That thought terrifies me a little bit.

Back at home, I pull my dress out of the garment bag, drawing in breath as I'm reminded of just how gorgeous it really is. Stepping into it, I feel like a princess. I straighten my hair, then curl it into nice little ringlets and pull it out of my face with a sparkly headband. I apply a little bit of makeup, then check my phone to find out that Patrick will be arriving in ten minutes.

Perfect timing, I think to myself, gathering up my things for my clutch, then heading out to find Nessa sitting on the couch.

"Dang," she says, looking at me. "Where are you off to?"

"Oh, a wedding," I shrug. "It's for a friend of mine." I know that I should probably just explain the whole situation now, as Katherine and Nessa will almost surely know soon enough, but I've been avoiding the topic for so long now... and I still have a tiny shred of hope in me that Patrick and I will be able to keep our secret.

"You look gorgeous," she smiles. "Have fun."

"Thanks," I tell her, as I head out of the door of the apartment, down to the lobby, where I wait for a moment until Patrick pulls his rental car up in front of the building.