Escaping Reality

Chapter 9: Queen Bee

My daydreaming was cut short by a cute blonde girl who didn't waste a second.

"Hey, I overheard you offer that girl a ride home. I was wondering if you can give me a lift?" She asked.

"Huh. Oh ya, ya of course! I can give you a ride home! My name is Lincoln, it's nice to meet you" I said as she sat down.

"My name's Madeline, this is a nice car you got here," she said as she looked around and ran her hand along the dashboard.

It didn't take long for me to realize she was the perfect girl to befriend. She was the typical popular girl, the same as the ones at my school just to an even further extreme. She might have been in the same uniform as everyone else but her mannerisms, excessive use of filler words, and Louis Vuitton backpack were dead giveaways. She lived about a fifteen minutes drive away so we had a little time to get to know each other.

Of course, I was the stranger in the scenario so she wanted to know about me first before she shared too much about herself. I fed her the rehearsed material that I had spent weeks practicing and preparing. I even offered her the fake Instagram account I had created. That had been a real doozy. I needed to legitimize myself but didn't want to run the risk of anyone trying to contact my friends back home. As a result, I spent months fabricating a multitude of accounts, buying followers, and creating false content. It was an entire operation, and it worked like a charm on Madeline. She didn't bat an eye.

I didn't even have to offer her the "I'm new to social media" line, she was satisfied enough with what she saw. She was nice enough and after she had assured herself that I wasn't some creeper she even opened up a little. She told me all about her school, her friends, the local partying scene, her favorite restaurants, her college plans, and so much more. It was like a tell-all, I wish I would have gotten it recorded. None the less it gave me some vital information to better understand the people that would hopefully be showing up to the party in a matter of hours.

As she went on and on talking about her favorite luxury malls and boutique shops I mulled over the best way to bring up that I was throwing a party. She had mentioned partying and seemed to be very popular and well connected at the school, at least by her account. It was up her alley but it felt a little blunt to just unload the information all of a sudden. Almost on cue, she interrupted my train of thought.

"Hey, have you heard about the rooftop party tonight? Everybody is talking about it in the group chats but nobody knows whose party it is" she asked followed by a bubblegum pop for dramatic emphasis.

"Oh yeah, that's my party," I said, trying to mask my nervousness with false confidence. "I wanted to throw a sort of self welcoming party to get to know everyone since I'm new to town"

"Really?" she asked, seeming a little startled. I nodded. "Is there going to be alcohol there?" she followed up excitedly.

"Wouldn't be a party without it" I said trying out a line that didn't seem right coming out of my mouth.

She smiled which I took as a good sign. Luckily we had just arrived at her house so she didn't have the opportunity to ask any more pressing questions about the party. I figured it was now or never, at this point I was sort of counting on her to either make or break this party.

"It should be a lot of fun, there's a pool and everything. Think you'll make it?" I asked hopefully.

"If there really is a pool and free booze my friends and I will be there for sure she said with a giggle.

"Alright then, I look forward to seeing you tonight" I shot back feeling proud of myself.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world" she returned with a shy smile as she turned on her heels and strutted inside her lavish house.

Oh boy, tonight could get interesting I thought to myself. We'll see what kind of social pull Madeline really has I thought to myself. I hoped she hadn't been bluffing but part of me worried about the other extreme, that she would invite the entire school and things would get wildly out of hand. I guess only time will tell I thought to myself as I carefully pulled out of her driveway and turned my music back up.