Innocence {{Jaden Hossler}}

⭒ One ⭒

⋆  Vada ⋆

"Vada, you can't wear that!"  Maeve sighed and shook her head, slowly getting more annoyed at her pink-haired friend.

"Why? I'm comfortable," she looked down at the grey sweatpants and purple cropped cardigan she wore, "and besides, I don't even want to go." Vada argued back, crossing her arms and laying backwards on her plush bed.

"Avani invited us and I haven't seen her in months!" Maeve tried to reason, to no avail. Vada stayed, unmoving, staring at the ceiling fan with her arms crossed. Maeve shook her head, letting out an exasperated sigh and stormed down the hallway, into her own room, slamming the door loudly.

Admittedly, Vada felt quite guilty.  She had only been friends with Maeve for a short time but was aware of how much Avani meant to her. Avani had moved to LA a few months ago and when the girls got a chance to move there too, into a small two-bedroom apartment they jumped at it.

Vada had never met Avani, however, she felt like she had due to how passionately, and frequently, Maeve talked about her. They were childhood best friends that had kept in contact after Avani moved, and when the girls packed up and moved to LA Maeve saw no better time to see her best friend again.

"Vay..." a soft voice came from the doorway, "you know how important tonight is to Mae" Violet spoke. She was their other roommate, she was the reason Maeve and Vada had met in the first place.

Violet was always the peacekeeper in their friendship. No matter how much Vada loved Maeve she had to admit that they butted heads, a lot, and would probably kill each other without Violet around. That was the reason Vada and Violet shared a room and Maeve had her own, they were prone to fighting and they all decided pretty early on it'd be easier if they were separate, but Vada didn't mind.

They all had their own space, when Violet brought anybody over Vada would go sit with Maeve in her room, and if by any miracle Vada brought somebody home she was sure they'd do the same, after much interrogation.

"I know" Vada uncrossed her arms and sat up, swaying her dangling legs off the bed, "but I don't even know any of them" Vada tangled her fingers together.

"Neither do I,"

"At least you've talked to them online, I have no clue who any of them are. What if they don't like me? Or what if they think my style is weird"  she whined, throwing herself back into the bed face down, burying her head into her arms.

Vada had a very unique sense of style. She loved all things pastel, especially pink, and incorporated it into all of her outfits. This obviously made her stand out from other teenagers her age and usually gave her some backlash, she got plenty of it on her Instagram from people of all ages. She also received too many messaged from older men expecting her to be much younger than she actually was; they usually offered her money, which she never took (no matter how much she considered it).

In her day to day life, she got the same reaction, it bothered her less in LA because not as many people stared but in her small home town of Pecos, Texas she got plenty.

"They're excepting people Vay!"  Violet walked round the bed frame to sit next to the smaller girls head and ran her fingers through her hair, trying to comfort the girl.

"And they all do social media so they won't judge you at all" Vada stayed silent, her stubbornness showing brightly.

"Come on Vada," Violet sighed, "how about we go and if you feel uncomfortable I'll come home with you" Vada's head shot up to look at her with furrowed brows.

"But you want to go, I don't want to keep you or Maeve away from your friends"

"You won't be, trust me I want you to feel comfortable" 

Vada felt guilty, it wasn't her intention to take her friends away from having fun. She didn't want to be that person.

She hated the idea of going to the party tonight: at a house, she didn't know, with people she'd never met, that would have opinions on her made tonight. But she hated the idea of upsetting her friends even more.

"Give me twenty minutes" she mumbled, as Violet muffled a shriek, "and we can stay for as long as you guys want. I'll suck it up"

"You're the best" Violet hugged her awkwardly, as she was still laid down.

"I know, I know" Violet laughed and walked to her side of the room and jumped onto her bed, pulling out her phone.

Vada let out an over-exaggerated breath, pushing herself up onto her elbows before rolling off the bed and dragging herself to her white painted wardrobe.

She didn't want her outfit to be too over the top, considering it was her first-night meeting all these people, but she never believed in hiding her true self.

Not wanting to overdo it, Vada decided on a white two-piece that complimented her skin tone. It had frills on the top and down the skirt and was one of her favourite summer outfits. She styled it with her white air forces with pink ticks and a necklace before starting her light make up.

"You should probably go get Mopey out of her mood, tell her we're still going" Violet laughed, that was their nickname for Maeve when she went into a mood. They had overheard her father calling her 'Mopey Maeve' last time they visited and it had just stuck, much to Maeve's annoyance.

Vada nodded her head, letting out a slight sigh before slipping down the hallway to Maeve's room.

"Mae?" She knocked, "can I come in?" To which she received no reply.

"I want you to see if my outfit looks okay for tonight," Vada spoke louder in a sing-song voice, slowly laughing as she heard loud bangs coming from the other side of the door.

"Really?" Maeve breathed, eyes wide with excitement as she stared through the small gap in the door.

"Someone has to look after you and Vi..." Maeve screamed, rather loudly, as she pulled Vada into a tight hug.

"You won't regret it! You're going to make so many new friends,"

"God knows you need some" Violet shouted from their room, receiving loud laugher from Maeve.

"Hey, maybe she'll even find a boyfriend"

"Let's not get our hopes too high" Violet walked down the hallway towards them.

"Hey!" Vada shouted, crossing her arms again and faking an angry face, only pushing the others to laugh harder.

"Keep it down!" The girls looked up at the ceiling as their upstairs neighbours banged on it, making them laugh even more only stifled now.

"We're going to have so much fun" Maeve started, running back to her room to slip on her shoes.

Yeah...fun

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Edited: March 25th 2021