Harper Athena Andrews and Why Her Life Absolutely Sucks

Night Out

 It's 7:41 and I'm hardly ready. I have nineteen minutes to make myself at least a four, and so far it's not going well. Olivia got stuck in traffic on her way down from her uni, go figures. It's a Friday night and there's always traffic at this time of night. She called and said she most likely won't make it down in time to help, but she's sending all her love. She also said to wear something not me, but still be me. I have no idea what that means; she was the one who partied in high school, not me. It's whatever though, I'll figure something out.

It's 7:50 now and I'm slightly presentable now. In a fit of panic, I called Liv and she advised that I wear a mini skirt and a tube top. Now when she mentioned this, I got slightly concerned for myself since it is currently late fall in Virginia, which means it's in the late 40s to mid-50s at night. Definitely not weather for mini skirts and tube tops, but it'll have to do for one of my first appearances in the "high-school-scene". I check the time again and now it's 7:52 so I decide to add some makeup to my normally bare face. I'm not sure why I'm actually trying to make myself presentable for Brady, I heavily dislike him, but now I'm questioning why I don't even like him. I jerk back to reality and I check the time again. 7:55. Oh jeez, this is not going to end well.

ding dooooong chimes the doorbell and the grandfather clock at exactly eight. Wow, he sure is punctual on time, I think to myself, he does live next door though, not too far away. I strap on a pair of stilettos I found in Olivia's closet and make my way down the stairs. Thankfully my dad isn't home, he's a doctor so his shifts are pretty long, and he didn't ask Brady many questions about his mom and such. I can see the top of his head through the glass paneling and I instantly do not want to go, yet my feet are still moving towards the door. My hand turns the doorknob, my mouth forms a smile and the words: "Hey, Brady, it's gonna be a good night," I then walk off towards his car parked in the driveway and leave him standing on my porch stunned.

He has a used pickup truck that's horrible looking, but the forest green shade is more tolerable the more I look at it. I attempt to open up the passenger side door, but he stops me with an "uh, uh, what do you think you're doing?" and gracefully opens the door and lets me climb in. He flashes a smile as he starts the truck and I realize that what I'm doing is stupid. Two days ago, he was ignoring me, and now I'm sitting in his truck. This just doesn't feel right to me but at the same time, I don't have any intentions of stopping or getting out. 

The ride with Brady was surprisingly great. He was sweet and didn't push me to talk if I didn't want to. Considerate of me, almost. We got McDonald's before we got there because "party food is equivalent to toxic waste and someone will end up with a cold before the night is over." The party was near Menchville and we lived over in Riverside so it took us a good twenty minutes to get there. There was crazy traffic and when we pulled up to the street, I got a text from Liv saying "just made it to da house, did u already leave ? door was unlocked" Oh shoot, I knew I forgot to do something important! "yeah, sry, brady picked me up & got me mcds!!" I sent back and then put my phone away. People who live in Menchville have some sort of money so this house was a nice house, straight out of every teen '90s movie. "Hey, you okay?" I barely hear as I take a deep breath and prepare myself for the worst.

Brady walks next to me, but still in front of me on our way up the driveway to the house. I don't know if he can sense that I'm nervous or if he's normally this talkative because he's talking the whole way there about what I should steer clear from and what usually happens at these parties. I notice a baby blue car near the front of the house and chills rush down me.

"Cassie is gon- gonna be here?" I stutter with a new sense of timidness.

"Oh, uh, yeah, should I have mentioned that? I'm sorry, I totally forgot you guys weren't friends anymore," He says and I instantly feel bad because he doesn't need to apologize for anything; he didn't do anything wrong. How was he supposed to know that I would feel this way about seeing her at a party? I see her at school every day anyway.

I breathe in and tell him it's okay and an instant look of relief washes over his face. We've reached the porch by now and I can see an abundance of people inside through the windows and the nervousness comes rushing back to me. I have to remind myself that it's only a party and nothing too serious can possibly happen to me whilst I'm here. He pauses before he opens the door and looks at me, "You've got this" he whispers and we walk in together. The music is blasting, people are sprawled out on the couch, the people look like ants moving from one room to another, someone is already knocked out and laying over the stairs, everyone has red solo cups in their hands and dancing along to the music. Brady starts to walk off towards the kitchen, but before he does, he looks at me. His head is slightly tilted so his hair is covering his eyes and he has a small smile. 

"What d-" He starts, but he's quickly interrupted by a deafening "O'CONNOR!!! YOU MADE IT! LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED" and he's pulled away by the other football players. I start to look down at the ground, not sure of what to do with myself now, when someone touches my arm. 

"Hey, how ya doin' honey? You ain't lookin' so good." A smooth voice with an up-north accent says to me. I realize I don't actually know this girl and it must show because she says next "Oh, my name's Alexis, Alexis Miller. I just moved here from Jersey and some kids in my Calc class said I should come to this party tonite, so here I am."

"Oh ok, well I'm Harper Andrews and I really want to get out of here now,"

"No problemo, let's go" and with that, Alexis and I left the party going anywhere.