I Do Until I Don't

Chapter 17

  If it weren't for Mélanie's wedding, I wouldn't have brought any party clothes. If it weren't for Julia, I would have only brought one dress. Thank god for my sisters. At least I look pretty decent as Alex, Sabrina and Fannar pick me up from the beach house.

I'm wearing this flowy pink dress, that reminds me of the one Liesl wears in The Sound of Music, with black flats. I even let my curly hair loose because the ocean makes my curls more tolerable.

"You look cute," Fannar says with a smile.

Sometimes, it takes me a few seconds to remember we are only pretending. I take the compliment straight to the heart until I remember he's probably saying that to grab Alex's attention to make him realize that I do, in fact, look cute.

"Thanks." Fannar makes these eyes, like he's trying to tell me something. "You look good, too." He smiles and I know I've said the right thing. I'm not used to complimenting guys. I always feel like they'll think I'm flirting with them when I just feel like giving them compliments.

"Is it okay if we park the car here?" Sabrina asks. "We can walk from your house. We'll save the environment that way."

Alex scoffs. "Because not driving for two minutes will save all the turtles in the world."

"Well, if everyone walks for fifteen minutes instead of driving for two, yes, yes it could."

"You're doing your hyperbola thing again."

Sabrina shakes her head. "No. You're doing your pessimistic thing again."

"I'm being realistic."

"Well as you waste all your time being realistic, I'm changing the world."

Fannar and I look at each other and smile. I'm with Sabrina on this one.

We decide to walk on the sand (well, Alex doesn't because he doesn't want to ruin his new white shoes) and arrive about twenty minutes later to Alex's friend's house who I think is named Jeremiah.

Inside Jeremiah-I-Think's house, it's all marble. There are two enormous marble staircases in the entrance and a big chandelier. There are a few tables laid out in the hallway with food and drinks. One is filled with sushi, the other is a hamburger bar, the other is chips and guacamole and salsa and nachos. The last one is a dessert table with a chocolate fondue in the middle, macarons and strawberries covered chocolate. And truffles. And cake pops.

"How rich is your friend?" I ask.

Sabrina shoves her elbow in my ribs. Maybe I shouldn't have asked that, but it's not my fault I don't have a filter. Well, it is kind of my fault.

Alex doesn't seem to mind, though. "Enough to own a McLaren," Alex answers, picking the biggest strawberry and popping it in his mouth. His mouth still full, he points to a picture of who I think is Jeremiah-I-Think in front of a gorgeous orange sports car.

"He might have rented that," Fannar points out.

"Nah. He showed it to me."

There aren't many people inside. I bet they are all outside. Alex told us as we walked to the mansion that Jeremiah-I-Think has a hot tub and a pool and an ocean view front. I don't know what his parents do for a living, but I wanna do that.

"Shall we go outside?" Alex proposes, already heading down the hallway and out on the patio.

*****

There's a DJ. And a barman. And this cool colour-changing smoke. And a s'mores bar.

And way too many people.