third time's a charm

eloise from south

chapter one: eloise from south

Friday, December 8. 9:32 PM.

"I can't believe you are taking this long to get ready." While I was sitting at the vanity in my room, my best friend Rowan started to whine from her place on my bed. "I didn't think you were going to spend an hour on deciding what to wear."

"Rowan, you are forcing me to go to a party I have no interest in. Do you think I'm going to race to get ready and willingly go with you?" I turned to her as I spoke and her eyes slowly rolled before she got off of my bed and walked up to me.

"Ellie, we're going to have fun. I promise!"

"No, you're going to have fun. You're the one that's going for a stupid boy. I am going to be sitting in a stranger's house praying you remember to take me home at some point." I sighed quietly as I turned back around to look at myself in the mirror, and I could tell Rowan was starting to feel guilty about making me go.

"Ellie, I need you. And besides, there is no way in hell that you're going to have a bad time, unless you let yourself have a bad time. You can't go to this party thinking it's going to be the worst night of your life, because then it will be." I looked at Rowan in the mirror and she was wearing a sad smile as she placed her hands on my shoulders. "If you really don't want to come, then don't come."

"I don't want you to go alone," I said, ultimately deciding I was going to this thing whether I really felt like it. "How did Andy get invited to this thing, anyway? You said it's a North party, right?"

"Andy went to North, remember? He only transferred two years ago." I nodded my head as I vaguely remembered that Rowan had said something about that before. "And we know plenty of people from North: Missy, Henry, Nick Halter, Wendy..."

"They're not really the party type, Ro."

"Well, that doesn't mean they don't go to North, does it?" As I got up from my seat, my eyes rolled. "You look really good, Elle."

"Thanks," I said, sighing quietly as I looked at myself in my full-length mirror. "You, Eloise Bosley, are going to have fun."

"That's the spirit!" Rowan said, clapping her hands together as she stepped into the mirror view.

"It didn't make me feel any better," I pouted as I continued to look at myself; Rowan countered and gently bumped her hip into mine.

"You're thinking about it too much, okay? Let's just go and have a good time." I slowly nodded as I agreed to try my best, and Rowan smiled as she hooked her arm through mine. "Ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

The next ten minutes consisted of the both of us gathering our things, going downstairs, putting on our shoes, saying bye to my mom as well as my brother, and finally escaping to Rowan's car. "Is Andy already there?"

"Yeah," Rowan said, nodding as she started her car. "He told me to tell him whenever we got there, and he said he'd meet us outside."

"Does it bother you that we don't get along?" I asked, tightly hugging my arms as I tried to find warmth in the coldness of Rowan's car.

"You and Andy?" Rowan asked. I nodded in response as I looked over at her. "You guys just don't know each other... you'll get along once you get to know each other."

"If you say so," I said with a shrug of my shoulders. "Are you guys ever going to start dating, or are you always just going to be talking?"

"We've been talking for three weeks, Ellie... you act like it's some sort of race. We haven't even been on a real date, we're just having some fun."