Rachel - Six Months Ago from June

It was New Year's Eve. It was the day where people waited until the hands on the clock strike twelve, allowing them to say goodbye to all the ups and downs they went through during the year and to welcome another year of new possibilities— or to be more accurate, people welcome another year while hoping for things to magically get better. New year resolutions would be made during the first few minutes and most probably forgotten in the next five minutes.

Emily and I were going to our very first New Year's Eve party with our friends today. It was weird. This would be the first time that I wasn't going to do the countdown with my family.

To be honest, I have no idea why I said yes to Ben. I know, the power of a crush is strong, but still, I never went to a party ever since that dance in middle school, not even on Christmas.

I stared at my closet and then turned to the reflection in the mirror that stood at a corner of my room. The party was two and a half hours away and yet, I was still in my shorts and t-shirt.

Meredith—a grey Scottish Fold cat that mum got me last year, right before we got home from a day out. I came home crying that day, from the tauntings in school about my stupid growth spurt—rubbed herself against my feet and purred, as if sensing my thought, or maybe she was just trying to tell me to get dressed.

"Honey, Emily's here!" I heard my mother said in a sing-song voice—the voice she always used when she was excited about something—came from downstairs. Then, I heard a patter of messy footsteps walking up the creaking steps of our stairs.

"Hi, Rachel! Aww, and hi, Meredith!" Emily shouted—a bit too loud in my quiet room— after mum let themselves in.

"You two go ahead and pick the perfect outfit to start the year off, okay?" My mum said with a smile as sweet as honey, giving me a light squeeze on the shoulders. "Meanwhile, I'll pack some cookies for you to bring over."

"Thanks, mum," I said and gave her a smile which made her even more satisfied with how everything was going on right now. She closed the door behind her as she left my room, but I caught joyous humming of a song just before the door closed. Mum hadn't hummed in a while since I started hating on my extra height.

Mum and dad had been over the moon when I told them about the party. Maybe they thought I stopped feeling bad about my height. In a way, I did, but not completely. I still got self-conscience from time to time. 

Anyway, mum  was so happy she even got back to baking almost every day and humming whenever she could. Last week on Christmas night, she even sang in front of all our relatives. She never sang much in front of anyone, humming was her limit when it came to singing. I never understood why, though, because I heard her singing in the kitchen once when she thought I was still asleep. Her voice was mellifluous, the kind of voice that could give you chills because it was so beautiful.

Dad, on the other hand, had been making up weird dance moves for the whole of December whenever a song was played. He even pulled mum in for a dance on Christmas and somehow with his goofy dance moves, all our relatives joined in the fun too, making up quirky dance moves that made everyone laughed.

"See, Rachel? Dancing doesn't have to be all serious and professional, you just have to have fun," dad said when he made a twirl, bumping his butt with mum's when he was done.

"Rachel!" Emily shouted as she waved two dresses in front of me. "Finally, you're back to earth. So, which one should I wear?"

She was holding a dark blue dress in one hand and a white dress with embroidered flowers on the lower part of the dress on the other.

"The white one looks too holy, so I think you should go for the blue one," I said. "It goes well with your coat too."

"Yeah, you're right," she murmured after looking at both dresses again. "What are you wearing?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. I walked back to stand in front of my closet, looking at the clothes I have without much interest.

"Is everything okay?" Emily asked as she came to my side. "You don't look excited."

"I am. It's just that—" I turned to face her and sighed. "—I don't know. I'm really excited about the party and getting to hang out with him, but look at me."

Emily tapped her fingers on her chin for a few seconds and smiled. "I already have a few ideas for what you can wear," she said and took an electric crimson coloured dress and a midnight blue dress.

"It's not about what to wear, Em. What if the people there make fun of my height again? I'm too tall and I'm probably also too thin because of my height, I'm literally a stick! Or worse, what if I have to dance? You know what happened."

This time, Emily was the one who sighed. She put the dresses down on my bed, beside her own and dragged me in front of the mirror. "Now, I want you to have a good look at yourself."

"I see myself every day," I rolled my eyes.

"Look closer and tell me what do you see," she demanded and gave me an encouraging smile in the mirror.

Staring at myself in the mirror, I frowned. "Me?" I heard Meredith purred and looked down to see her walking away.

She let out a defeated growl and rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll tell you what I see," she pointed into the mirror, the same thin me that had grown too tall over the last summer. "I see a pair of eyes that's as blue as the ocean. I see this beautiful blonde curls of yours that add just the right amount of volume to your hair, unlike mine which looks like a tornado just came through—"

"I don't have any complaint on your hair," I interrupted. "And your pep talk isn't helping."

"That's because I'm not done yet," Emily grumbled. She slapped her right hand on my back, forcing me to stand straight instead of slouching. "And you'll look a hundred times better if you don't slouch. Trust me."

"I slouch because I'm too tall!" I protested.

"Shut up! Do you know how many people want to be tall? You could be a model anytime you want to. You have the height, the body, the looks and your personality is so much better than most models I stalked online, so shut up and be confident in yourself," Emily ordered before scanning me from top to bottom. "And you're definitely not going to be a dancing straw if you start dancing again. In fact, you're going to be the dancing queen."

"But—"

"Oh, shut up and wear the red dress. I need your help with my hair and shoes later," she said as she shoved the electric crimson dress at me before going into my bathroom with hers.

"It's electric crimson, not red. And what do you mean by shoes?"

"I'm still calling it red. And yeah, I brought three shoes over because I couldn't decide," she shouted from inside the bathroom.

"Seriously?" I laughed and look at myself in the mirror, positioning the dress in front of me as I did. Emily could be right about everything. At least I hope she was right about it. I didn't want to become a laughing stock for everyone again. "Hey, Em, why are you so worried about your outfit?"

"Because I want to look good, duh! I don't have a model body like you. I don't look good in everything. Plus, this is our very first high school party."

"You do look good in everything," I said as I pulled the dress over my head. "But you're unusually panicky today. Are you sure it's not because of Finn?"

I heard a loud thump in the bathroom, followed by sounds of a few more things falling to the tiled floor of the bathroom. "I'm okay!" Emily shouted just before I was about to ask. "And no."

"Uh-huh, are you sure it's a no? You two had been getting quite close for the past few weeks—"

"No! We're supposed to be focusing on you and Ben, not me and Finn," she interrupted. "Are you done? I'm coming out."

"Yes, I'm done," I said as I adjusted my dress. "You guys do look cute together."

"Oh, shut up and focus on looking like a model, the way you could look like if you stop thinking about what that back stabbing so called best friend of yours said a long time ago. She's nothing but nonsense," she said, changing the subject.

She always had trouble admitting to her feelings. She would say she didn't like chocolate cake even when she was dying to eat the whole cake if the people around her didn't like chocolate cake, so it wasn't strange to see her denying her feelings towards Finn. But I could see it in her. She always laughed her heart out when we were hanging out together, the four of us, which was what we had been doing since our encounter at the gym. She would loosen up herself around him—she never really relaxed around anyone, maybe except me, but she was usually a bit uptight with everyone—and talk about anything to him. They would watch cat videos and laugh like there was no tomorrow. He would buy her a double sized burger and help her finish it up when she couldn't stuff any more of it down her stomach. They could sit around doing nothing while Ben and I scratched our heads to put another event on the list of things we could do for the weekend.

I looked into the mirror and turned around on the spot, checking myself out.

"Smile," Emily urged as she joined me in the mirror, smiling beside me. "See? You'll be fine."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Ben's house looked quiet the moment we arrived. In fact, it was too quiet for a place that was supposed to have a party. Emily and I exchanged glances—something we had been doing a lot since we became friends—before deciding that I would be the one doing the knocking.

"Call him," Emily suggested after I knocked for the third time. "Maybe they changed locations and forgot to tell us."

I pulled out my phone. "Oka—" a loud crash sounded from inside, followed by a faint argument. 

After another minute, the door finally swung opened, revealing Finn behind it. "Hello, girls! So sorry I didn't get the door sooner. Oh man, you two must be freezing. Come on in and get warm, make yourselves at home."

"Yeah, we almost freeze to death," Emily said with a smirk on her face. "Where's everyone else?"

"There's no one else," Ben shouted from the kitchen. "Wait a minute while I do a bit of clean up, will you?"

"Sure," I said with a doubt in my voice, watching as Finn gave us a smile before disappearing into the kitchen.

Emily and I exchanged glances again and shrugged. She started walking around the place, stopping every now and then in front of a picture while I stayed put and looked around. The living room was adorned with Christmas decorations, a medium sized tree standing next to the fireplace. The dining table was just across the room, with four sets of plates and cutleries placed neatly in pairs opposite each other.

"This is so weird," I whispered when Emily walked back to me, Finn and Ben's controlled voices sounded from the kitchen as they tried to keep their bickerings down. "I thought a party was supposed to be super crowded and noisy, not just four people in a quiet house."

"Me too," Emily said with a frown. 

We hung our coats on the wooden coathanger at a corner and inspected the ornaments on the tree. They were all kinds of pretty things: snowmen, snowflakes, gingerbread men, angels and so on.

I was still contemplating where to put the bag of cookies mum packed when another crashing sound came from the kitchen. 

"Is everything okay?" I asked when Emily and I got to the doorway. 

"Don't come in!" Finn and Ben shouted in unison, staring at us between shards of broken pieces from a plate on the floor.

The kitchen counter was full of take-out packages: burger, chicken drummettes, onion rings and a huge bottle of coke. What on earth are they doing? 

"Give us another minute," Ben said after he noticed us staring at the counter, his face blushing a bit and turned back to Finn. "That's the second plate you broke!"

"No, you broke the first one!" Finn protested as he grabbed the broom.

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" Emily asked.

Both boys shook their head and proceeded to shoo us out of the kitchen, making us sit at the dining table instead. 

Ten minutes later, they brought plates of food and positioned them in the middle of the table. There were the ones we saw on the counter earlier and also a few more others as well, like mashed potatoes and baked beans.

"Sorry for the wait," Finn announced when they seated themselves opposite us. "Anyway, glad to see you, girls!"

"Glad to see you too. But can we know what is going on here now?" Emily said.

"Yeah, I thought this was supposed to be a party, as in not just the four of us," I joined in the conversation before shoving the bag of cookies next to the plate of onion rings. "I even brought cookies," I paused, suddenly embarrassed for bringing a bag of cookie to a high shool party. I mean, do people still bring cookies to parties in high school? "I didn't know if you like cookies or not, but I hope you like it. My mum made them."

Ben laughed and took a peek into the bag. "That's so sweet of you. I haven't received any cookies for a long time, most just came with a bag of chips or come empty handed. And erm," he glanced at Finn—who gave him a slight nod—before taking a deep breath. "And about what's going on now, we kind of lied to you about having a party. Well, half lied."

Emily and I looked at each other, frowning with our brows knitted.

"Ben and I were just thinking of having a double date with you two, but we weren't sure if you'll agree to come if we said this was a date," Finn continued. "so, uh...hope you're okay with this."

"Oh man, this is so awkward," Ben muttered.

A double date?  My heartbeat picked up its pace. A date with a cute senior boy who I had a crush on? Of course, I wouldn't mind. I never thought I would have the chance to even have dinner with him and yet now he initiated it. 

Emily looked equally surprised as I was, her face a little pinkish too. She turned to look at me and we both smiled. 

"S-sure," I stuttered. "I mean, we're not party animals anyway," I paused. "Wait, when did you plan all this? We weren't even friends when you first invited us. You couldn't have wanted to have a double date with either of us at that time."

"Er...We planned this two weeks ago," Ben said.

"And what about the party you were talking about a month ago?" Emily asked.

"That was our initial plan. But two weeks ago, we figured we would like to have a date with the two of you instead of a typical party, so we cancelled that and made this," Ben said and took a piece of drummette. "I hope this isn't too weird to you. Are we cool?"

"Erm, yes. We're cool," I said and looked around the house. "By the way, where are your parents?"

The boys let out a sigh of relief and laughed.

"They're at a friend's place for the celebration," Ben said.

"And you skipped that for us?" 

"Yes," he shrugged. "It's no big deal. They're mostly adults over there anyway, I'll probably be bored to death if I joined them. Anyway, sorry that all of this are take-outs. Although  my parents said yes to me inviting a few friends over for the New Year, they did warn me about not burning the house down," Ben said, clearly embarrassed of what we saw in the kitchen earlier. 

"We don't want to have a double date in a burnt house either," I joked back, hoping it would hide the feeling of my heart pumping against my chest as Ben flashed another one of his smiles at me.

  ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬  

"So," Ben started. "why do you hate dancing so much?"

Ben and I were sitting on the couch after dinner, Law and Order playing on the screen of his huge LED TV. Emily and Finn were laughing in the other room—Ben said it was his family's game room—dancing along to a pop song on the radio.

"I don't hate dancing, I just don't know how to dance," I said with a sigh. I didn't really want to think about dancing in this wonderful moment. I didn't want that memory to ruin this moment.

"I can teach you—"

"No," I said curtly. 

There was a silence before I heard Ben sighing. "Is it because of Vicky and her friends? You know they're just mean to everyone, right? Don't let them strip the fun out of you." 

I looked at him, surprised that he knew about them. Well, of course, they know each other, but the Overdoers always changed their attitude towards us the second Ben and Finn appeared, switching into holy-mode when they were anywhere near us.

"I heard them talking about you and Emily once. They called you a dancing stick. Is that why you hate dancing so much?" Ben asked as he turned his full attention to me. "You should ignore them."

"It's not just them," I sighed and looked down at my pointy knees. I didn't know why, but I felt like telling him about everything that happened the moment I started growing into a giant. I looked up at him again. He was staring at me with his clear blue eyes, waiting for me to elaborate and I did. I didn't know how or why I did since I never told anyone about that except for Emily. Maybe it was just me being stupid because I have a crush on him.

He shifted himself on the couch after I was finished, facing directly at me and held onto my hands. When I didn't resist his hold, he continued. "You're not a dancing straw nor a stick, silly," he chuckled. "You're too beautiful for that."

I forced a smile at him. "Thanks for saying that. It's nice of you to say that."

He frown. "I'm serious, you are beautiful. Can't you see it?"

I shrugged. I did feel a bit light headed by his compliment. I mean, he was one of the school's popular kids after all and he noticed me, even gave me a compliment. That had got to count for something, right?

"I like you," I blurted out from nowhere. 

He stared at me with wide eyes and I realised I actually said that out loud. 

"I'm sorry," I said, my eyes avoiding his as I pulled my hand away from him. I felt my face getting hotter and hotter as I thought of a way out of it. 

I'm dead.

"Erm," I swallowed my saliva and stood up. "I need to pee."

With that, I turned around to escape, but his hand grabbed onto my wrist, gently but firm, and pulled me back.

Oh god, he doesn't even want me to use his bathroom anymore. He's going to chase me out of the house.

"I like you too," he said and after a second, burst out laughing. "If I knew you felt the same way, I would have asked you out weeks ago."

"What?" I wasn't sure if I was hallucinating this, all I knew was that I was starting to get this whooshing sound in my ear as my heart pounded harder under my chest.

He held onto my hands again and laughed. "I like you too, silly. I want to be your boyfriend, that is if you want."

"Yeah, that would be nice," I said, the whooshing sound in my ear drowning out all the other sounds around us as he wrapped me in his arms.

   ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬   

Little Note:

Tada! Another chapter and it's a little longer than the previous chapters because I couldn't stop typing. xD So, do you ship them or you rather have Rachel with Finn instead? Oh, and what new year resolution did you make this year? Whatever they are, hope you keep them. :)

Anyway, leave your opinion on this chapter or the story as a whole so far and give it a vote if you enjoyed it. Next update will be around the same time, probably next Thursday/Friday. 

Stay tune! <3    <—that sounded so much like the end of a TV show. :P