Beating hearts

Chapter 10

Saturday morning came and Ara awoke with a smile on her face, she knew exactly why. She had a date with Zac tonight. It was her first date, not just with Zac, but it was her first date ever. She's been asked out before, taken to a dull movie, and cheaply dined at Burger King. But she's never had an actual date. And she couldn't be more nervous about it.

"I shouldn't think about it too much," she says to herself as she lays in bed daydreaming of how her dates going to go. "I'll probably jinx it."

She was about to get out of bed when she heard a knock on her bedroom door.

"Good morning," Lilly says as she entered the room.
The whole ride home from her date last night, Lilly talked about how much fun she had, how intriguing Ben was, and how much she liked him. It made Ara really happy to hear. She wanted her sister to be happy, more than anything.

Ara sat up in her bed, just as Lilly plopped down on it, her childhood bear Georgie wrapped around her arms.

"Aren't you getting too old to be carrying that stupid bear around?"

Lilly gasped and covered the bear's ears. "Shush, you'll hurt his feelings," she says.

Ara laughs and shakes her head. "Is there something you're wanting? Besides just annoying me?"

"So, you know how Morgans's birthdays coming up?"

"Yeah?" Ara says wiping her eyes.

"Well, I was thinking we could throw her a big party. You know, to say thank you for saving us from our psycho dad and all. What do you think?"

"Yeah. I think that would be great," Ara says.

Lilly squeals and then hops up off the bed.
"Yay! I've always wanted to throw a party. And it will give me a great excuse to invite Ben over," she says as she walks across the room into the hallway with her hello kitty slippers rubbing against the hardwood floor. Georgie by her side.

"She's 16 going on 4," Ara joked to herself.

She groans as she flops back onto her mattress and pulls her covers up over her head.

~

"Okay, what to wear?" Ara says rummaging through her closet. She stops when she comes to a red silk dress, she stares at it for a few seconds, examining its red silkiness. The first time she ever wore that dress was to her 16-birthday party, her favorite and most memorable birthday. her mom rented the ice rink/arcade for the whole day, decorated it with all of Ara's favorite things, invited all of her friends, she even hired a band to play.
After the long but fun-filled party ended it was just, Ara, Lilly, their mom, and dad, skating back and forth on the ice rink, making fun of each other as one would fall and slide on the ice.

Ara throws the dress on and stands in front of the mirror. She twirls around in it a couple of times before realizing that it just isn't her anymore. Then pulls it up over her head, tosses it on the ground, and heads over to her dresser drawers, pulling out blue skinny jeans and a red blouse. She throws on old Adidas and heads out of her bedroom and downstairs to where Lilly sits at the kitchen counter, planning Morgan's birthday party.

"Great you're here," Lilly says looking up from an address book. "Would you do me a favor?"

"What is it little flower."

"I'm not five, stop calling me that," Lilly groans. "And I need you to run into town and get me some things for the party, while Morgan is at work?"