Chapter Two

       “Oh, em, gee! Is that Betsey Johnson?!” Kara squealed, as I got into the car.

       “Umm… maybe?” I said, unsure of the answer to her question, though pleased nonetheless with my wardrobe choice. 

       In Kara’s world, if you wear anything non-designer you’re weird. She’s had an obsession with fashion since before I can remember. She’s like a hawk; she can spot the fact that it’s a designer brand, and figure out which one in a matter of seconds. True talent, I know. Growing up in such a hostile community like this, one learns pretty quickly what’s accepted and what’s not. Personally, I had found that trying to fit in, while having originality, is quite the struggle. The bottom line is that getting an outfit approved by Kara is like being put on the best dressed list- it’s a big deal.  

       “It’s a black dress, why does it matter what brand it is?” John questioned, looking at Kara as if she had two heads. 

       “Because, dumbass, it’s from Betsey Johnson!” Kara said, wanting to slap him.

       “Right... So, as I was saying, why does it matter?” he reiterated, not understanding that dropping the subject would be in his best interest at the moment.

       “It doesn’t!” I interjected, stopping the pre-WWIII from occuring.

       John, Kara, and I were on our way to a party. Well, not just any party, a private school kid’s party. Kids who go to private school tend to have a lot of money... well, their parents do. This fact means that the parties tend to be a bit... over the top, I suppose. Alcohol is everywhere and everyone is dressed to impress. Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of parties, but Kara wasn’t really asking me if I wanted to go, but more telling me that if I didn’t she would kill me with her expert skills she had acquired over the years from waching an extensive amount of NCIS.

       “Where’s Phillip?” Kara asked suddenly, looking both ways in the car as if he was hiding under one of the seats or she had missed him coming in.

       “With Gina,” John smirked, being the good driver that he is and turning around to face her briefly.

       “She got to him?!” Kara exclaimed.

       “Yup,” I sighed.

       “How?” she demanded, taking out a tube of lipgloss and quickly applying it to her lips.

       “Gina was alone with him, told him they were going together, and, being Phillip, he couldn’t say no without the repercussion of a guilty conscience,” John said, making a sharp turn that caused me to fly into the door of the car. I shot him a less than appriciative look.

       “Uh huh,” Kara said, understanding the situation, and rubbing her lips together to spread the glossy pink color.

       After a few more minutes of discussing our dear friend, Phillip, we arrived at a house. It was a slightly larger place, and music could be heard from it a good distance away. John parked the car in an empty space among many other vehicles, some I recognized from the parking lot at school.

       “May I?” John asked, holding his arm out for me to take, as I exited the car.

       “No,” I said plainly, as he rolled his eyes in response. The three of us walked on the gray cement of the sidewalk for a few minutes, until we reached the house. As we climbed the stone steps to the location of the party, the music and vibrations only increased. When we finally reached the lengthy, wooden door, John stretched out his hand, and rang the doorbell.

       “Hey,” a guy said, answering the door almost instantaneously.

       “Ryan!” John said, giving him one of those dumb, one-armed hugs.

       “Johnny!” the boy smiled. He looked over to me, and a flash of recognition ran through his gray eyes. “You must be Little Miss Perfect, Elle Paterson.”

       “That would be me,” I nodded, not even slightly ashamed of the nickname I had somehow come upon.

       “I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said, as I could only begin to imagine the rumors he had heard over the years.

       “What about me?” Kara blurted out.

       “What’s your name again?” he asked.

       “Kara Thompson,” she said, pursing her lips. 

       “Yeah, sorry, not really a hundred percent sure who you are,” he replied, as his eyes raked over her body.

       “Can we come in?” John asked.

       “Oh, yeah, sorry!” He moved away from the door, allowing us room to file in.

       “Elle, we should talk later,” he winked at me, disappearing.

       “Who’s he?” I asked John when I was sure he was out of earshot.

       “Ryan Harrison. He’s on the football team with us,” John said, guiding us through the house to the backyard where the party was erupting with life.

       A DJ, lights, and from the looks of it, lots and lots of alcohol filled my vision. A large group of people were dancing in front of the turntable, as others simply observed the ones around them. After scanning my eyes about the scene once, I did a retake, and then I spotted them- Gina and Rosie. They were grinding with Phillip, who looked less than thrilled to be there.

       “That slut!” Kara stated, hurt and anger laced through her voice.

       “Which?” I asked.

       “Jillian!” she said, pointing a girl with blonde hair, in a dress shorter than generally socially acceptable. She was grinding with two guys at once. From where we were standing, it looked like Henry Groff and some hockey player.

       Jillian came to our school as a sophomore. The girls weren’t too happy to have her. She isn’t one to make friends, and not many dare speak her. Change isn’t something people like. The girls at my school were slightly... intimidated by Jillian when she first arrived. I remember the first day she came to school; she was wearing a short top that exposed her peirced belly button, and a yoga pants. Though her attire was simple, she was able to violate six dresscode rules. Due to her less than modest approach in fashion, she was deemed a “slut”.

       “She looks great!” John said, widening his eyes.

       “Yeah, maybe to be stripping on a pole!” Kara hit him.

       After walking over to the general area where the dancing was going on, I caught a better glimpse of Phillip, and waved. He saw me, and thankfully approached us.

       “Looked like you were having a blast over there!” I greeted him.

       “Elle, you look nice, and yes, I was having a blast,” he said, forming his fingers into a gun, and putting them up to his head.

       “Phillip!” Gina called sternly.

       Before I knew what was happening, Phillip grabbed me by the hand and took me deep into the ocean of people grinding, kissing, and dancing. He put his hands around waist and I put my hands around his neck.

       “So, how was the drive here with Gina and Rosie?” I asked, feeling slightly awkward dancing with him.

       “I don’t think I’ve ever had such a bad experience in a car before,” he shuddered, adding a weak smile

       “That bad?”

       “Let me put it to you this way, Gina asked if we should make out before, during, or after the party,” he laughed, though I could tell that he hadn’t thought it was funny at the time.

       “What’d you say?” I inquired.

       “Neither.”

       “Phillip! There you are!” Gina said, making her way through the crowd over to us. It was the first time I had gotten a good look of what she was wearing. Maybe it’s just me, but a red tank top, black mini skirt, and matching black heels don’t really scream “Party” to me.

       “There I am! Looks like you found me!” he said, still gripping my waist.

       “I want to go talk, by the pool, away from all the people, alone,” she glared at me, snatching his hand, and pulling him away from me. I waved as Phillip departed, slightly amused.

       “Mind if I step in?” John questioned, coming up beside me, and without having time for rejection putting his hands on my waist. “Now this is the part where your hands go on my shoulders, or around my neck.”

       “Right,” I said, sticking with the shoulders option.

       “What happened to Phillip?” he asked.

       “He was carted away by Gina,” I said.

       “Ah.”

       “Where’s Kara?” I noticed that there was an absence of a certain blonde girl.

       “Jillian went over to some kid and started making out with him, so Kara took the chance to go dance with Henry.” I nodded.

       “What a perfect moment!” an irritating voice said, coming up to us.

       “What do want Jordan?” I groaned.

       “I just wanted to join you two in this beautiful moment!” he said, taking out his phone and snapping a picture.

       “You better delete that right now!” I snapped firmly.

       “No way! Don’t worry, no one’s going to see it… expect mom and dad,” he smiled angelically.

       Jordan is probably the most annoying older brother of all time. He’s a year older than me, and that makes him think that he had all types of authority on me. Because he happens to be friends with a good amount of people that I know, the two of us generally go to the same parties. Being the type of brother that Jordan is, a good about of my time that I spend thinking about him is wondering if he’s either adopted, an ailien, or was slammed into a brick wall as a baby.

       “What?” John asked, confused.

       “You see, Elle loves having the boyfriend talk with our parents, it’s one of her favorite things to do. I’m sure if they saw this wonderful picture, they’d strike up quite the conversation!” he said evilly.

       “John is not my boyfriend!” I said.

       “I’m sure you can’t wait to tell mom and dad that when they see the picture!”

       “What do you want?” I groaned

       “To dance with Rosie,” he said, making me sick by his simple request.

       “Fine,” I retorted.

       I made my way out of the mob of people with John and Jordan following closely behind. As soon as I was out, I spotted Rosie straightaway, and went up to her.

       “Hi, Rosie, do you know my brother?” I asked.

       “Umm… no,” she said, staring at me with a mixture of confusion and amusement. I really hated Jordan.

       “Well, uh, this is Jordan,” I said, grabbing his arm and pushing him forward.

       “Uh, hi,” my brother said smoothly.

       “Hey! I’m Rosie! We should go make out!” she said, staring at him.

       “Sounds like a plan,” Jordan said, not objecting like a smart person would.

       “Give me your phone,” I demanded. He did so unwillingly and I deleted the picture of John and I. Rosie and he then went off to wherever to do whatever. Why girls find him attractive will always remain a mystery to me, considering I want to throw up in my mouth every time I look at him.

       “Ah, brother-sister love!” John said, putting his arm around my shoulder.

       “Elle, right?” someone said, coming up to us.

       “Yeah,” I said to the guy I had met earlier, Ryan.

       “Let’s talk,” he said, taking my hand and leading me into the house. I looked back at John, but he had already resorted to texting to fill the void of my leaving.

       After going through the house, we got to what seemed to be Ryan’s bedroom. It was big, blue, and bare. Not that I had been in an extensive amount of teenage boys’ rooms, but the room felt empty; as if the space wasn’t being utalized properly.

       “So, Elle, I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said, taking a seat on his bed as I stood motionless, looking over to him.

       “I’m sorry I can’t say the same about you,” I said, being to wonder why I was even talking to this boy.

       “You’re the smart chick, right?” I nodded, unprepared for his next question. “Are you going out with John?”

       “No!” I frantically shook my head, aggravated that he would even think to ask such a question.

       “Let’s talk about me for a minute, because apparently you really don’t know who I am.”

       “Okay…” I said, ignoring his slightly pompous remark.

       “Well, first of all, this is my house, and my parents are always away on business or something. Second of all, I’m on the football team. And third of all, I’m really attractive,” he said vainly, sending me an egotistical vibe.

       “So, why exactly are we talking again?” I asked.

       “I kinda have a thing for smart chicks, and was hoping we could make out later,” he admited, making my cheeks redden slightly.

       “Funny,” I said.

       “I know, aren’t I!” he smirked.

       “Elle?” a recognizable voice said in the hallway. My heart started thumping in my chest as if I was running a marathon, and was now on mile twenty-six.

       I rushed out of the room, and screamed, “Jake!” hugging the older boy I knew so well.

       Jake Ander is Phillip’s older brother, and if it’s even possible, is hotter than Phillip. He also happens to be my brother’s best friend. The relationship I have with Jake is typical for one of the younger sister and brother’s best friend; he treats me like a little sister, and I treat him as a brother... a really cute brother. I’ve always had a crush on him, but never told anyone due to how messy things could potentially get if I acted on my attraction.

       “Jordan told me you were up here,” he said.

       “Yup,” I said, staring up into his captivating eyes, and then quickly looking away.

       “You look nice,” he complimented.

       “Thanks,” I bit my bottom lip.

       “Ryan!” Jake said, high fiving the boy who had emerged from within his room.

       “Jake,” Ryan said, sending a small smile in his direction.

       “John was wondering where you went,” Jake adressed me.

       “Where’s John?” I asked.

       “He went to go look for my brother,” he nodded in the direction of where the main party was going on, outside.

       “Sorry, Ryan, I need to go help Phillip,” I said, rushing down the hallway, down the stairs, and through the house.

       When got back outside, I spotted Phillip immediately. He was sitting between Rosie and Gina. Let me rephrase that: He was trapped between Rosie and Gina. Rosie was texting someone who was probably only a few feet away, and Gina was playing with his hair.

       “Boo!” John whispered in my ear, coming up behind me.

       “What’s our game plan?” I asked.

       “Personally, I wouldn’t mind punching Gina in the face; maybe then she’ll get another nose job and they’ll finally do it right,” he said, smiling at his witty response.

       “As much as I would love to punch Gina in the face, you know we can’t, so what’s plan B?”

       “I vote on ambushing him; grab him before he knows what hits him, and escaping,” John suggested.

       “Well, we could just leave him there,” I teased.

       “Yeah, I think my plan’s better.”

       “Fine. Go get Kara and that may just work,” I instructed.

       “Meet you at the car?” he verified.

       “Yeah,” I said, watching him head over to Kara.  

       I went straight into action, marching up to Phillip. I took his hand, and ran before anyone could process what was happening. Gina was in disbelief, as Rosie was still texting so it took her a minute to realize what had occured. We kept running until we reached the car, and were safely in with the doors locked.

       “Thank you!” Phillip said, taking a deep breath. Though he was physically stronger than the two, Phillip is a gentleman, and would never try to cause anyone harm or displeasure, even if that meant putting his own wants aside.

       “See, I was going to leave you there, but John convinced me it was a good idea to save you from Gina before we left,” I said.

       “I’ll thank John too,” he grinned.

       “Who’s Ryan?” I asked abruptly.

       “Ryan?”

       “Yeah,” I nodded.

       “He’s a friend. It was his party.”

       “Why did he want to talk to me?”

       “I have no idea what goes on his head.”

       “You’ve mentioned me?” I questioned.

       “Busted!” John said, opening the door and sitting in the drivers seat.

       Kara got in the back with Phillip and looked pissed. She had a pout on her face that I doubted was coming off soon.

       “Yeah, once or twice,” Phillip shrugged. 

       “Let’s just go!” Kara yelled angrily. And that was the end of that.