Growing Pains

Chapter Twenty

Trent

Gwen came over to my house before we left for the party. She looked stunning in a little black dress with dark tights and black liner coating her eyes. I told her as much the minute she walked through the door, but she only blushed and waved off my compliment.

She had been here for an hour, and every time I opened my mouth, I was worried that my secret would come spilling out like sand. I could taste it rising in my throat as if it was bile. All I wanted to do was scream that my life was changing rapidly, but I couldn't.

I almost broke when I went to her house the other day, but she seemed so scared when I told her I loved her. I didn't want her to think that I didn't want her in my life even if I had to leave.

A part of me was worried that she'd flip out if I'd told her. She had made us promise barely a month ago to never change. I didn't want to be the one who broke her heart. I wasn't sure I could handle that.

She was lounging on the couch in my living room. Her black and blue bob was spread out on the couch, making me smile at how adorable she was. She was staring intensely at her phone, which made me ask, "What are you looking at?"

She looked over at me, a frown pulling down her blue coated lips, and said, "It's supposed to be like thirty degrees tonight. I didn't even bring my winter coat."

I walked over to the door and grabbed my big puffy red winter coat. It was probably longer than her dress and horribly out of fashion, but I draped it over her anyways. I smiled at her as I sat down next to her, "Here, you can have mine."

She laughed, sitting up she said "It weighs like ten pounds."

I shrugged, "Fine, you'll just have to freeze to death." I reached for it, but she smacked my hand away. I raised a brow, "Oh, so you'll keep it?"

"Mhm," she responded and wrapped it around her. I chuckled at her, ruffling her hair. She flipped me off before batting my hand away and smoothing out the strands. She turned on her phone and asked, "When will they get here? The party starts at seven and its seven-thirty."

I smiled at her, "We'll just be fashionably late."

"Fashionably late my ass. We'll just be late," she grumbled to herself. She let out a sigh before tacking on, "Courtney's probably still celebrating her big win with her parents or something."

Yesterday the results of the Junior Class President were shared over the announcements. Courtney had apparently won by a landslide. She couldn't stop talking about it when we went out for dinner last night to celebrate.

Well actually, she did stop talking about it. The second Duncan showed up with some girl named Dakota, who was a sophomore I'd seen around before. She was pretty, but a total self-absorbed drama queen type of girl. I don't think Duncan even payed attention to one word she was saying. He just kept asking Justin a bunch of questions.

It was all very weird.

"Courtney's parents are in New York this weekend. I doubt if their assistants have even told them the news," I said with a sneer. For as much as Courtney loved her parents, they weren't very good to her. She got to call them like once a week when they were away, which was pathetic. They tried to be more available when they were home, but I think she had just gotten so used to this treatment that she didn't realize it wasn't normal. Or she did, and she just didn't talk about it.

The doorbell rang. "Finally," Gwen exhaled. She got up and ran over to the door. Courtney stood there, a scowl on her face, with Duncan and his date to her left. I noticed Gwen frown a bit before saying, "Come on in."

Duncan walked in with a smirk plastered on his face. His eyes were bright with excitement, making it look like he had just heard some very exciting news or something. His arm was draped around Dakota's shoulders, who was eyeing the place with disgust. I guess the suburban life wasn't for her.

Courtney, on the hand, looked like she was ready to kill. Her heels hit the tile with a bit more of a bite to them as she stormed inside, her face a bit pinker than normal. She kept fidgeting with her skirt, smoothing out her tight salmon pencil dress over and over again.

I was about to ask what I had missed, when Dakota beat me to it, "This place is very... quaint." Her wrinkled nose told me the opposite of that statement.

Courtney wrapped her black trench coat, one that looked too expensive to be going to some high school party, tightly around herself and muttered, "Like your outfit."

Dakota lifted a brow, "What'd you say?"

"Nothing," Courtney responded sweetly, but from the twitch in her eye, I could tell she wasn't really feeling all that sweet.

Meanwhile, Duncan looked like a kid in a candy store. He smiled at me, smiled, and said, "Hey. man."

"Sup," I responded, shooting a perplexed look towards Gwen. She simply shrugged her shoulders and walked over to me.

The doorbell rang again, thankfully allowing the weird tension in the room to vanish. "I got it," I said as I got up off the couch and walked over to the door. I opened it to see the smiling faces of DJ, Bridge, and Geoff all bundled up in the cold.

"Hey, dude," Geoff greeted before walking in. He frowned, "You guys seem tense."

"Nope, everything is fine. I'm gonna go use the bathroom," Courtney said before wandering off.

Duncan smirked and chuckled once she was gone. DJ walked in, followed by Bridge, and gave him a pointed look I couldn't decipher. Whatever it meant; it made the smirk on Duncan's mouth disappear.

"Are we like going?" Dakota whined.

"Yeah, in just a bit." She seemed satisfied with the answer. The room carried a weird energy, the kind that made you fidget and pick at your sleeves. So, I smiled, and said, "Tonight's gonna be great, guys. I promise."