STARGIRL

54. Brilliance

"Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes."
- Proverbs 6:25

Abel looked upon at his celestial goddess with a broken heart and lovesick eyes.

Arabella was an ethereal vision he had continuously seen in his sweet dreams and disturbing reality. She was bathed in sunlight, kissed from head to toe with its golden rays and shimmering brilliance — but it was the moon and the stars that were drawn to the girl like the ebb of the ocean.

Even in the dark, she was shining amongst the people around her. Her dark brown, ominous eyes were brimming with mischief while Abel's were heavy with desire and dejection.

Beneath the kitchen lighting, she looked like a cherub-faced demon. The outline of the smallest and sharpest horns was protruding from the tops of her long black hair. Her tan face seemed sharp due to the shadows that were cast on her. The highest points of her cheekbones were highlighted, and the glossiness of her pouty lips were being enunciated in a shade of crimson red.

Arabella was a star.

She was joyfully moving around in a burgundy colored, short and silky slip-on dress that stopped a few inches above her knees. Over the dress, she had on a faded denim jacket with a distressed bottom hem.

"Who's the baddest?" She called out amidst the commotion — She had easily won the beer pong game against Rashad Wayne and Ryan Chung. Arabella was jumping in her place the entire night due to the excitement, and not once did she lose her balance, not even in the 5-inch stilettos she was wearing.

Arabella didn't really like attending high-school parties, she found them to be pointless and annoying. They would never compare to the extravagant parties she had been to before in her short lived career as an escort.

Abel discreetly observed the students who would once mock her now talking to her and trying to take selfies with her or videos of her. Arabella who was usually closed off was in the mood to socialize, she was talking to others and that was what she considered being kind in her own way.

"Shit," Ryan chuckled from across the beer pong table where he was holding onto the sides and leaning his weight on it, "Let's go again."

Arabella waved him off with her hand, "I'm actually looking for someone."

"Pussy," Rashad teased her and then gave her a wide toothy grin. Arabella gracefully excused herself one more time as she pushed herself through the crowd of drunk and hyped up teenagers.

The after-prom party belonged to Griffin Carlyle, she had screamed it out during the last song at prom. She had already been tumbling around the dance floor, courtesy of the cheap vodka she had brought along with her in an aluminum water bottle.

Griffin was now currently crying in the kitchen of her home wondering why there were so many people in her house.

As Arabella walked through the living room, she caught sight of Rosario Jaramillo and Connor Gray keeping to themselves in a corner. Connor was making Rosario laugh.

Rosario looked different. In a good way. She had done a full-face of makeup, and straightened her hair for the evening. The girl was also wearing a long sleeve, dark green dress that complimented her olive skin tone.

Watching how Rosario and Connor were interacting, brought an element of intrigue to the adolescent. She could now understand why Maddox was worried about them going to the prom together.

Rosario was gullible, and a pretty face like Connor's could be her demise. Maddox would know. He was and continues to be the pretty face that makes that poor, insecure girl want to rip her heart out of her chest.