Chasing Fallen

Chapter 21

Stella grabbed my hand and excitedly shoved me into a chair.

"You're going to look hot after I'm done with you!" She squealed.

One think I liked about Sakuba was that during weekends, you could go home if you could and if you wanted. I was planning to stay at the camp for this weekend.

For good reasons, sure.

Firstly, the beach party was this weekend.

Secondly, mom was back from South Africa.

When Saturday came, I figured I didn't have a choice when Stella barged into my room unannounced.

And now I was in her room being pampered for the football teams party.

I would have preferred to babysit my twin brothers and that was saying a lot.

"Makeup!" She cooed and dropped an overflowing make up kit onto her dressing table. For a whole forsaken hour, I was tweezed, poked and drawn on.

She worked on my face diligently with the precision of a surgeon. If it wasn't for the fact that she was putting me through physical and emotional turmoil, I would have admired her at work.

When she was done she made me face the mirror.

I looked, wow.

Since Stella was good at art, naturally she was good at make up too.

She had a killer steady hand.

"So what do you think." The smirk on her face told me that she already knew it was superb and nothing I could say would make her believe otherwise.

She made the face-beat bring out my natural beauty rather than cover it up and make artificial beauty.

I puffed out some air as I soaked it in.

Seconds later, she was dragging me to her walk-in closet for me to wear the bikini we'd picked out for beach party.

I wore a crop top and denim shorts on top of it.

I couldn't help but feel exposed though.

When I was done dressing, Stella was already done with her hair and make up. Not that she had done much. She was a minimalistic type of girl.

"Looking hot, babe!"

"You clean up good too, hun."

We started laughing together.

After packing some emergency clothes, we were in Stella's car and headed for the beach house in which this whole thing was being hosted.

We chatted animatedly about the happenings in our lives. Stella was now dating the art guy I'd seen talking to her in the mall. I was still as single as ever.

I loved the conversation.

I needed it.

If it ended, I'd start thinking and that is the last thing I wanted to do.

I hadn't been to a party ever since that night. I didn't go for homecoming and prom just because of that night. Noah and Peyton sat through both of those events watching reruns of the Mean girls with me.

Now Stella has somehow convinced me to go to what I avoided most.

I could hear the waters washing over the bay. And I could smell the saltwater.

Oh great, we're close.

I resisted the urge to bring my knees up and curl up in my seat when I saw the beach house coming into view. I could already hear the music and see bright colored lights coming from the area. I looked at Stella, she was already looking at me.