Forget Her Not

11 | how lovely

"Arden."

Delilah waits next to me, bouncy and impatient. She places a hand on the countertop in front of us, trying to get my attention. I hum something affirmative to show that I am listening. She must want my undivided attention though, because she begins to drum her fingers on the bench and repeat herself into my ear.

"Arden, Arden, Arden."

I set the little jug of milk that I had been pouring to the side and press a lid onto the cup carefully.

"Hold on a sec." I tell her, pushing past carefully. Then louder, I say, "One regular sized cappuccino? Have a good day, sir."

"Arden." Delilah says, once I am looking at her again. She smiles, all perfectly polished and flashing her straight rows of teeth like a friendly crocodile.

"Are you coming to my party this weekend?"

Delilah still has the same hopeful tone in her voice, as the several last times that she has mentioned this. Despite my constant noncommittal answers, she is relentless with her pestering, as though she is incapable of stopping until she can drag a definite yes from out of me.

"I don't know." I say again. "I don't really know anyone."

She blinks. "You can bring a plus one. I've told you. Liam will be there too, and all his friends."

"I don't think we're on good speaking terms." I tell her honestly.

Delilah rolls her eyes and gives a pained sounding sigh.

"You both just need to get over it and talk to each other. That would solve like, all your problems."

I frown at her, but otherwise say nothing, brushing past her a little less gently than I normally would to make my way back to the counter.

"I'll text you the address!" she says, excited.

Thinking back on this, I had never really agreed to go. I had never agreed, and yet here I am in the backseat of Sheila's car, only mildly panicking and shrugging the strap of my pastel tank top back on, while her brother drives us towards the location of Delilah's booked Airbnb.

"For the record, I still don't think this is a good idea."

Sheila's face is blanketed by the darkness of the night, illuminated choppily by brief flashes of light from whatever we are passing outside. I can just hear the scowl in her normally soft voice though. I smooth my hands over my skinny jeans.

"It'll be a good experience." I say, trying to reassure the both of us. "Highschool parties. Drinking. Teenage life. It'll be fun."

Sheila sighs but does not push the issue further. We are already almost there anyways. She had smudged some kind of dark, shimmery eyeshadow onto my eyelids earlier on this night, and filled in my brows. I had picked out one of her nice red lip tints to wear too. It would be a waste if we just backtracked out of our plans now.

"It'll be fun." I say again.

I am vaguely anticipating now. Less heavy on the nerves and more on the excitement. Sheila huffs a fond puff of air out, and I giggle as I turn to drop my head down onto her shoulder for the rest of the car ride.

We get there on time. Sheila waves her brother goodbye after extracting a confirmation that he will be back at midnight to pick us both up, and I thank him politely for the lift here.

The party seems to already be in full swing by the time we enter. Delilah had mentioned something about a pre party, but she had implied that not many people would be there. This seems to evidently not be the case though, because as soon as we step in, a junior who I can vaguely recognise from last year's theatre performance, pushes past us to throw up onto the rose bushes outside.