THE THINGS THAT HOLD US DOWN

- P R O L O G U E 3 -

  - O N E  Y E A R  A G O -  

"Hey guys," Malia greeted us when we joined the small circle of people. 

"How come the both of you are always late, it doesn't matter whether you come together or not, but you guys are always late to everything," Dom complained after we had returned the greetings.

"Sorry Dom, but most of us aren't okay with chucking on a random t-shirt and jeans to wear to a party," Anna says, speaking in a high pitched voice with a hand on her hip.

"At least they match," Malia adds, looking his outfit of plain t-shirt and jeans up and down.

"It's unreasonable to spend ages choosing an outfit. What you wear doesn't matter." He says while the girls glare at him. One of the other boys, a boyfriend, is waving his hand across his throat in a 'stop talking' gesture. Dom doesn't take heed of the warning. Instead, he turns to me.

"Rowan, you're reasonable, right? What you wear doesn't matter." He repeats his sentence again, with absolute conviction.

"I'm going to stay out of this little argument," I say smiling. What you wear does matter, but I won't tell that to Dom. He probably wouldn't understand that some skirts and shorts make your thighs look massive or that a loose fitting top makes you look fat but then so does a tight top. He wouldn't understand that sometimes, clothes don't like right together or they don't look right on you but they looked nice in your head or on that model in a magazine.

"Sure," He says rolling his eyes. "Anyway, do you guys want a drink?" He asks, looking at Anna and I, who are empty-handed whereas everyone else in the group has a drink of some sort in their hands.

"Yeah sure," I say as Anna nods her head at the same time.

"Beer? Fizzy drink?" He asks again.

"Whatever Anna chooses," I reply, leaving Anna to make the decision for me. She glares at me, but it doesn't last long before her expression breaks into a smile.

"We will go with beer then." He nods and walks off to the closet table. The rest of us take a seat on the ground and start up a conversation about some random topic. Dom soon comes back, three cans in hand, he takes a seat and hands two of the cans to Anna and me, keeping the third for himself. 

A while later, after more drinks have been consumed, more than we should have drunk, we are all considerably tipsy. Music is playing on a speaker, night has fallen, meaning the bonfire has been lit and everyone is having a good time. A song starts to play and it sounds very familiar.

"Hey!" Malia sits up abruptly, knocking over a drink that's propped up next to her, "I know this song. We did a dance to it." Anna groans when she recognises what it is.

"Please don't make us do it, please Malia." She wines, although she is still smiling.

"Come on, we have to." She argues back. I stand up, brushing the mud off the back of my legs and my skirt.

"let's just do it, Anna, she won't stop complaining otherwise." I hold out a hand, which she takes and pull her up to her feet. Malia springs up, a big grin on her face. 

"Hey, you with the speaker," Malia shouts then waves when the guy standing by the speaker looks up. "Can you restart the song, please?"