Knock it Down

Knock it Down (3)

Hey all! Sorry, this one didn't turn out to be as long as I had intended, but I already have most of Chapter 4 done. It should be posted by the middle of the week (for those of you who want to keep up.)

I know we're just waiting for the plot to build, and I promise it's happening next chapter. SOOOOOOOOOO read/comment/vote/tweet/facebook!

xoxo,

Mel

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Chapter 3 - Getting Ready

I quickly ran into the bathroom to shower. As I waited for the water to heat up, I looked at myself in the mirror. I reached behind my head and started pulling the hair-tie out of my tangled ponytail. While I was trying to free the black elastic bland from my blonde hair, I remembered, I didn't always look like this. I used to straighten my hair every day, put on makeup, and wear clothes that looked decent on me. I had been told I looked like Reese Witherspoon. I never saw it, but I always said thank you whenever I heard it. Now, with my long blonde hair in a constant tangled mess, tired blue eyes, and baggy clothes, I didn't hear much of anything.

As soon as I stepped out of the shower, I heard the front door open.

"Hey Mel, your sister and I are going now. Have fun at Chelsea's!"

"Ok, bye Dad! Love you!"

He didn't have to say where they were going. I already knew. And he knew I wouldn't go. I never went. It was morbid and creepy. I was glad he never pushed the issue, and glad he stopped asking because I knew it hurt him when I refused to go.

I grabbed my hairbrush from the counter and started running it through my hair for the first time in weeks. Chelsea had said she wanted me to look nice, so I figured I'd help her out. I really needed to get my mind off of things. The crunching of tires on gravel announced Chelsea's arrival. I'd hear her voice in 3....2...

"I'm here! Please tell me you showered!"

"Yeah Chels. I just got out. Give me 2 minutes to dry my hair, then we can get ready, k?"

I tuned out her response by turning the hair-dryer on high. Even though my hair is long and pretty thick, it dries quickly, so I was finished in about 5 minutes. Chelsea was sitting at my computer picking a song. She ended up with Summer Girls by LFO so of course, instead of getting ready at first we ended up dancing around my room singing for a while. When the song changed, she started going through my closet and I grabbed my makeup bag. I turned to look at what outfit my best friend was going to put me in tonight.

I'm pretty sure she gave up on my closet and started going through her own that she brought over, because I do not own that. It was sky blue strapless dresses, and all I could think was, 'cute'. And of course, Chels was right. I would look good in it. The blue would bring out my eyes, and it was a fun, flirty color. That's why we're friends. She always knows what I need. I smiled and she winked. I started to pull a hair-tie off my wrist and she just about killed me.

"MELANIE ELAYNE JENKINS! STOP RIGHT THERE!"

"...What?" I froze with my head down by my knees, left hand clutching my hair, right holding the elastic. Seriously, what'd I do to her?

"You did not blow dry your hair just to throw it up into a sloppy ponytail. I told you, you will NOT come to my party looking how you did at school today!"

"..But"

"No. Leave it."

I sighed reluctantly, but she was right. I stood up straight and let my hair fall back down. After a few minutes of searching, I found a few bobby pins on my dresser to pin back some of my hair, and kept a hair-tie on my wrist just in case.

Chelsea gave me the once over. "Perfect," she informed me.

With that, we headed out to her bright red Jeep. On our way to her house, we sang obnoxiously with the radio. When we pulled onto her street, a commercial came on, so I figured it would be a good time to ask her who all she invited.

"Oh, just the usual crowd. You, me, Joe, Chris, Nicole, Libby, and just a few people from the dance and football teams. Just the ones we like, no worries."

She sounded like she was hiding something.

"Oh and I invited Mack."

There it was. That feeling in my gut like someone had punched me. I'd had a crush on Mack since freshman year, but I had never really found the chance to talk to him, and then when I stopped caring about how I looked, I figured he wouldn't be interested.

"Thanks Chels," I said dryly. By this time, we were sitting in her driveway so I got out of the car and started grabbing groceries out of the trunk. My stomach was doing flips. Maybe Mack was just the distraction I needed. Then I'd actually have a personal experience to write about. I grabbed the last 2-liter of Coke out of the trunk and Chelsea slammed it shut and we both walked up to her house.