Never Been Kissed

- TWENTY-THREE -

                                                          -• TWENTY-THREE •-

 

Apparently, the girls were taking me to some sort of party tonight. It seemed like way too soon for me after going out with Talen yesterday, but the girls weren’t listening to my complaints anyway. After they basically dressed me up like some kind of mannequin, they left me in my room and went to their own homes to change and get ready. They promised they’d be back soon and I had strict orders not to move, or face their wrath.

They’d curled my hair again, this time in elegant, bouncy ringlets, added a minimal amount of make-up, but more than I’d worn last night and reinstated the use of the magical wonder bra that made my boobs look like a deceiving C-cup. Mom had appeared again to help, this time with a white denim miniskirt she’d kept since high school. To that donation. They’d raided my closet and found an old dark blue blouse and allowed me my own choice in footwear, which were flats. I looked pretty awesome, but I wasn’t about to tell them that. It hurt to look this pretty.

When the girls returned I was allowed to leave my seat on the bed. Mom was going on and on about how beautiful I looked and nonna was calmly sipping her minestrone and glaring at me over the spoon.

“No ragazzi, eh?” she pointed at me with the metal utensil and closed one eye. “Young men these days... they’re very deceiving. You better not be letting those little charlatans be influencing you badly, eh Amber? That’s not who my nipote is.”

I nodded at my grandmother as Jade grabbed my arm and led me outside.

Kelsey was driving this time, in her new cherry red Toyota. We all squeezed into the car as she started the engine and pulled out of my driveway. Kelsey hit the air conditioner because none of them wanted to mess up their newly styled hair. We sang along to some song on the radio as Kelsey drove (well, I mumbled the lyrics because I didn’t know the song). It was insanely catchy, but the lyrics were crap.

In no time, Kelsey was pulling her car into a spot on the curb of the house where the party was supposed to be held. The house didn’t look like it was exploding with people and for that I was glad. We didn’t have out of control parties in Starbuck; the drop of a needle would bring the Deputy running.

“Kelsey, can you at least try to park properly and not have the back of the car facing the road?” Jade complained.

“I’m trying to park as best as I can!” Kelsey shot back, unclipping her seat belt and sticking her head out of the window to see better.

“It’s amazing that you didn’t fail your driver’s test.” Jade rolled her eyes, flipping away a strand of flat ironed hair.

“Shut up. I can’t parallel park and it’s nothing to be afraid of.” Kelsey snapped, mashing down on the brake.

“Take it easy and just park the damn car!” Jade hollered. “If you can’t do it, let me do it for you.”

“No way, I’m not letting you touch my baby. What do you think this is?” Kelsey shot back, glaring at Jade as she spun the steering wheel slowly.

“Um,” I managed to get out when she braked again. “How about Selena and I just get out and leave you two to it?”

Kelsey and Jade weren’t listening, so when the car braked again, Selena and I made our getaway. We slammed the door and ran up the walk to the house, laughing hysterically as Jade shouted profanities at us and Kelsey tried to sandwich her car between a big navy blue van and an old truck.

Selena looked pretty great tonight herself. She was dressed up a little more than she usually did in a form fitting black tank top and metallic leggings. Her hair was curled too, but with more bounce than ringlets like mine. She was even wearing make-up, which was really out of the ordinary when it came to Selena.