Lights, Camera, Action

New Years

THIRTEEN - NEW YEARS

ALYSSA’S POV

“Is the food done?” Aubrey and I were running around our apartment frantically. Guests were going to arrive to our New Years Eve party at any moment, and we were barely going to be ready.

“The pizza rolls are about to be done. Bagel bites will be about five more minutes. How’s the playlist?” Aubrey had been put in charge of snacks and I was finishing up with the music choices for the night.

“Done! Finally!” I exclaimed, adding one last song to the list on my laptop. I walked around, checking the gold and silver decorations, making sure everything was just right. New Years was always a fun party. I loved that Christmas and Halloween gave us easy themes to use for music and decorations and whatnot, but New Years was wide open. Sure, it had its own theme in some ways (champagne, the ball drop, silver and gold, etc.), but we could play any music, any games, have any food…the possibilities were endless. Aubrey and I had utilized the typical silver and gold theme with colors mixed in to brighten things up. We had blown up what felt like a million balloons which were everywhere. We had noise makers and 2015 glasses and headbands for everyone, along with some confetti cannons that I knew we would regret when it was time to clean up. We had banners up, a pretend photo booth (basically, a back drop with props for everyone to take pictures in front of), sequins scattered on tables for decoration, and every cool idea we found online that was doable. It was going to be the last big bash of 2014, so it had to be amazing.

“Alright, I think we can somewhat relax now. The food is almost all done, everything that is done is out, all the decorations look great…everybody take a deep breath,” Aubrey prompted, kneeling down to pet Webster, who was wearing a special 2015 collar. Right after she said that, the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,” I decided. I checked myself in a mirror on the way to the door. My long hair was curled and down, and I was wearing a silver sequined shirt with dark jeans and metallic pumps. My makeup was dramatic and my nails were brightly colored. Meanwhile, Aubrey was wearing a very similar outfit but with gold instead of silver. Our apartment wasn’t the only thing that had to look good for the party, after all.

“Hey,” Mark smiled when I opened the door. Of course, he was right on time, and his light gray button up and dark jeans suited him well.

“Hi. Come in and see Webster,” I told him, but Webster was already there, circling Mark with a toy.

“Hey, buddy!” Mark greeted him. He calmed down after a minute or two, and then I was actually able to have time with my boyfriend. Webster liked to steal him from me, or that was how it felt, at least. “You look great,” Mark told me quickly before pulling my body close to his and kissing me. “I mean, the apartment looks pretty good too, but you look slightly better.”

“You two disgust me,” Aubrey said dryly, shaking her head.

“Ten minutes ago you told me that we were a cute couple,” I reminded her.

“Shhhhh! He didn’t need to know that!” she scolded me.

“Whatever.” I went over to my laptop and pressed play on my iTunes. A couple minutes later, more people started arriving until our apartment was full. By then, the food was all done and delicious, the music was loud, and the party was getting fun. We all took pictures, ate, danced, talked, and Aubrey and I even made a vlog for our channel that included all of our party guests. As it got closer to midnight, we turned on the TV and watched the countdown. Mark grabbed me and kissed me as soon as midnight hit. Meanwhile, everyone else was yelling, “Happy New Year!”, as well as going crazy with their noisemakers and the confetti cannons. A few of the single party guests who weren’t preoccupied with kissing their significant others at midnight focused on surrounding the couples and trying to distract them with their loud noises and confetti. Fortunately for Mark and I, Aubrey managed to get a great picture of us with the confetti falling on us and whatnot. I actually had quite a few pictures and silly videos of Mark and I, many of which were posted on social media for the world to see, but none that screamed relationship. This was another one that would just stay on my phone for a while until we decided to make ourselves public. I wished we were, in some ways. Both of our fans were always asking if we were together, and sometimes, assuming that we must be. I knew there would be angry fangirls that hated me if we did let our fans know that we were together, but did I really care? I just wanted to flaunt my relationship. I wanted people to look at us and ship it. I wanted to let guys know that I was taken and that it was by an awesome guy. I wanted my fans to know that I was truly happy, because I hadn’t always been that way. 

I did suffer from depression, and my fans had seen me at one of my lowest lows. They saw me at a time when I had given in and cut again even though it had been months since I had last done it. They saw me when I had happy moments sometimes, but I wasn’t truly happy, even though I should have been. But ever since moving in with my best friend and focusing more on our channel, and me, more on my little acting jobs, things had gotten much better. Now that Mark was in the picture, I rarely felt unhappy, and the state of nothingness I used to sometimes experience, when I had no motivation to do anything and I almost felt no emotions at all - that wasn’t much of a problem. It was being alone that truly ruined me, and even when Tess wasn’t at the apartment, Mark usually was available.

I guess I was just in a really good place, and I wanted to embrace it. I decided I would talk to Mark about being more public with our relationship soon, but for that night, I just focused on having fun with everyone. I didn’t even worry about cleaning - Aubrey and I just left it when the party ended. The year had just begun - we had plenty of time to vacuum our confetti-littered floors and take down the decorations and wipe down the tables and counters. Of course, we couldn’t tolerate the mess for very long, so we just cleaned up the next day after our slight hangovers went away. 2015 was not the year to be too lazy.

Hey guys, sorry that this chapter is so short! The next one will be longer and more eventful, I promise! I hope you liked the update anyways. Please vote if you did, and comments are always wanted and appreciated! Thanks for reading :)