Aurora : Temptress Of The Dusk

Chapter 10

"Oh crap! Aurora!"
A really loud voice resonates in my ear and my eyes snap open. My muscles feel soar and I'm partially wet with streaks of sweat around my face. I try to move my hands and feel a cold sting on my skin. The sting is not like a thorn but more like a thermal sting. I feel around more and I think it's a hard surface. I try moving my head around and my neck aches as if  it had been bending in a particular direction for a long time. After a while, I discover that I'm actually lying on the floor in my room with just a towel wrapped around my body, merely covering me up. From the corner of my eyes, I notice Evelyn kneeling besides me with a horrified expression covering her beautiful face which is, for some reason, covered in layers of make-up.

"Are you high?" She touches my forehead and pulls my lower eyelid as if examining my eyes.

"What?" The confusion is clear in both, my expression and voice.

"First you bombard in my room and then you just pass out in a towel. Two things teenagers do when they're high" She raises her eyebrows as if she just stated a fact.

"Okay listen. I'm really sorry for interrupting your privacy. I really had no idea that you had a... a... boyfriend?" My apology quickly turns into an uncomfortable confirmation from her about the guy. My voice gets lower and lower as I reach the end of my statement and I stand up holding my towel tightly between my arms. I continue with the slightest confidence I am left with, "If you had informed me, I wouldn't have disturbed you." That awkward moment was as much her fault, as mine. This gives me more confidence and I raise my chin a little higher.

"Okay fine. Agreed. But what was so comfortable about the floor that you slept here instead of the bed? That too, in a towel!" She smirks at me. Of course, Evelyn loves teasing me. She's going to pester me about this for the rest of eternity. Although it does seem a bit wierd that I don't really remember how I got there. I remember the bath but nothing after that. I also remember the bath being so comfortable, that maybe, I fell asleep. What I don't understand is, how did I get on the floor? I mean, I couldn't have been so tired that I just slept on the floor instead of walking to the bed. Right?

"Earth to Aurora! Gosh I'm really starting to think that you actually are high, like seriously?" Evelyn seems a little annoyed by my daydreaming. "Don't forget we have that bonfire thing that you're forcing me to attend with you" She winks and smiles at me.

The bonfire!  I went to bath because I was supposed to get ready for the bonfire! "Oh my god! Evelyn we're gonna be late. I was supposed to be there to volunteer with the cold drinks! What's the time? Where are my clothes? Where's my phone? I had a reminder. Why didn't it go off?" I run around the room blindly searching for all the objects I just asked Evelyn about and now I don't remember what the objects are and what it is that I'm searching for exactly. In the rush of twisting and throwing things away, I pull out my towel and dump it on the floor and Evelyn grabs my arm and twists me 180 degrees with a force so strong that my hair slaps her face. It all happens in the nick of time, so quick, I feel I'm the flash.

She bends down to pick something up and as I notice what it is, I see that I'm standing naked in front of her. All the colours drain out of my face and I stand still like a pale ice mannequin, eyes popped, jaw dropped and heartbeat almost nil. "For fucks sake Aurora shut up and go wear something" She wraps the towel around me and pushes me towards my closet. "I'll be downstairs so that you can defrost, you look like a snowman." She leaves the room and I can still hear her laughing.

                         *        *        *

I'm all dressed up in baggy jeans and a camisole with a hoodie and I complete the look with white chunky sneakers. I don't really do accessories or make-up because I can't take care of either of those things and they're a lot of work. I'm all done but I don't want to step out of my room. The incidence with Evelyn, merely minutes ago, was embarrassing enough for me to never see her again, ever. I sit on the edge of my bed, the way I always do when I'm nervous and ready to run into oblivion. A few minutes pass by as I reconsider the bonfire, when Evelyn walks into my room, without knocking and gives me a sinister smile.

"Are we playing the blame game of shame? Are you ready to do the walk of shame?"
And here we go... She is never going to let this slip.
"Aww, come on sissy, we've seen each other naked... when we were maybe two" She says with absolute sarcasm. She is totally grinning. I don't even need to look at her to know that.
"I am done with my touch-up and it's time to leave Aurorie"

"Oh my god! Evelyn you didn't just call me... that! " My jaw drops. I haven't been called by that name in more than a decade.

Evelyn and I were not very compatible as toddlers. We were always competitive and faught a lot. Once, I took her cycle out without asking her and she got upset. In order to get back at me, she told everyone at our  pre-school that my parents called me Aurorie. Everyone at school started teasing me and it took them a year to forget and move past it. That was a very difficult year for me both emotionally and physically.

Her calling me that today makes me feel unsure of her intentions.

"Come on... We'll be late Aurora. Get moving before I change my mind." She pulls me by my arm and gestures me to walk downstairs in a dramatic wave of her hands. As we pass by the living room I remember about Eve.

"Eve is joining us today. She heard we were going to the bonfire and she wanted to join us. So anyways I said yes and her mother will drop her here any minute now."

Evelyn does a dramatic 180 degree turn with open arms and makes a choking neck gesture. I shush her away and she cries behind me.

"Is that really necessary? She's such a clingy little human!" She rolls her eyes.

"Yes it is necessary because she asked me sweetly, and no, she is not clingy." I roll my eyes at her with equal intensity.

Evelyn crosses her hands over her chest and makes a puppy face, "Did she look like this while asking 'sweetly' huh?"

"Evelyn! She's just a teenager. Like us." I'm starting to get a little annoyed by her rants now.

"You'll turn 18 soon and I'm 19. We're barely teenagers. And she follows you everywhere like a lost puppy."

"No she doesn't."

"Yes she does Aurora. And that is not a healthy behaviour. She is obsessed with you."

"No she's not Evelyn. Stop with your criticism now."

"Okay sissy. Whatever you say."

As we step out the porch and lock the door, I hear Eve's mother approaching in her car. Eve rushes out and starts running towards me with open hands and a bright smile.

"Here we go." I hear Evelyn say harshly under her breath, but choose to ignore it. I promised Eve a good day and I'll make sure I give her that. I smile at her as she crushes me in a hug and stays like that for a good thirty seconds. I break the hug and we walk to my car. I hope the day goes good.

(Author's note: Hey guys! I hope you're doing great. I'm back with regular updates. Please vote and comment! Ily. XO)