Someone Willing to Stay

Always be fashionably Late

"What is that look for," Riley asks me with a pout, "this dress is perfect for your long sleeve fetish."

I groan and roll my eyes, throwing my pillow at her, "It's not a fetish."

"Yeah, Riles, she just has cold blood."

"That's not a thing, Claire," Riley bites back.

It's six o'clock. All day we've been lounging around eating everything in the house and watching all the chick flicks that have ever been invented. I've seen the Notebook three times today.

But all of that is over now. The thing that I've been dreading all day has finally arrived.

The party.

No surprise, but the last party I had been to was Mason's eighth birthday party. It's funny because I've only ever been to parties thrown for his sake.

"Angel told me this party was invite only." I said as Riley put the dress on my bed.

"Well we were invited," she said motioning to Claire and herself, "and we're inviting you."

I roll my eyes, "Right."

Claire sits up, putting her phone in her lap, "Ni-Ni, it's totally okay if you don't want to go. The last thing we want to do is make you uncomfortable."

I know she's talking about me having to see Mason.

In their eyes, I have no valid reason to be mad at him. And I don't. He may have accidentally caused me fall into the pool, but he was the one that saved me. That's my problem. He saved me. I didn't ask to be saved.

I look at Riley and Claire, I can tell that they want to go to this party more than anything.

I won't let them down like I do everyone else.

"Of course I'm going." I say with a clenched smile.

Riley grins, picking up the dress and throwing it at me, hitting me in the face.

"Now go try it on." Claire tells me, pointing her finger at the bathroom connected to my room.

I snatch the dress and take it to the bathroom, shutting and locking the door.

When I take off my pajamas, I avoid looking in the mirror.

It takes me a minute to slip on the dress, it's tight and confusing. When I finally manage to zip up the back, I straighten it out and look in the mirror.

It's a red dress. Casual and fancy at the same time. The sleeves are lace, see through but dark enough so my bruises aren't noticed. It extends to my mid thigh, and I try to pull it down self consciously.

It hugs my body, clinging to me like a second skin. Every curve and flaw that I hate about my body is noticeable to me.

"Let us see!" Claire's muffled voice shouts.

"It's a little revealing." I yell back, looking at my exposed neck. Because any skin showing is revealing.

"It's not! Come on." Riley pleads.

Taking a deep breath, I unlock the door and open it slowly.

Both Riley and Claire are standing in front of my bed, looking at the door with anticipation.

When I step out, their eyes light up.

Riley claps excitedly, "You look great! You pull it off so well!"

I play with the bottom of the dress, "Are you sure?"

Claire snaps a picture and begins to type, "Trust me girl, you're gorgeous."

I smile.

"Now go change back into your clothes so we can do makeup!"

The next two hours is torture. Well close enough to it.

Riley does all of my makeup, everything. By the time she finished, my face feels itchy and ten pounds heavier. But the black eye is gone and my nose is really shiny so I suppose that's good.

Claire is wearing a cropped white tee and a black mini skirt.

"It's called being edgy." She says.

"That's not- whatever." Riley sighs as she does Claire's eyeshadow.

Riley is all decked out in a navy blue, strapless dress that compliments basically everything about her.

Both of them are beautiful.

Not flawed and covered in scars that they can't show.

The twinge of jealously washes away as quickly as it appears. They don't deserve pain.

"Hey Melanie, Mom left already but she said to remind you that you shouldn't dr-" Adam's sentence is cut short when he enters my room and sees me standing in front of my dresser with my curling iron.

"Sure thing." I tell him.

"Oh hey, Adam." Claire says absentmindedly as she scrolls through her phone.

"Eyes up, Claire. Hey, Adam." Riley says.

"Hey ladies. Just checking in. You sure you don't want an escort?" He teases, and the girls laugh.

"Riley's driving." I don't look at him. I don't want to see him eyeing me, judging me. He knows what's hiding under this confident facade.

A broken body.
A shattered mind.

"You girls look great by the way. Just let me know if you need a ride home," before he turns around, he looks at me and gives a smile, "don't do anything stupid."

"I won't." I'm making a promise and a plea. A promise to him that no more rules will be broken. A plea that he trusts me enough to still be here when I get back.

When he leaves the room, Riley turns to me with a smirk, "Your brother's so hot."

"That is so gross on so many levels," I cover up my discomfort with a laugh.

"The party starts at eight and it's already seven-fifty," Riley notes.

"We can't show up until at least eight-thirty," Claire says, "it's like the first rule of partying. Always be fashionably late."

"Why?"

"We can't be the first people there, we'll be labeled as lame for the rest of high school," Claire states as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Of course." Riley chuckles.

I figure that I'm already labeled as weird at school, but I don't comment and continue to curl my hair.

Riley and Claire are taking this very seriously. Decked up from head to toe, Claire is listing every rule of partying that no one else knows, and Riley is critiquing every eyelash and hair on our heads.

It's obviously very important to them. Which makes it important to me.

So I don't complain when Riley reapplies my lipstick. I don't say a word when we rush to the car and I'm shoved inside.

I smile and laugh when Claire blares the radio and old Taylor Swift songs fill my ears.

It's one party.

One party for Mason.

But it's fine.

I used to love Mason's parties. Although it was always only the two of us and we spent all day eating cake in the pool.

"You ready, Ni-Ni?" Riley asks, looking at me through the rear view mirror.

"Of course."