Happy birthday, Sophie! Love yuo. ;)
Massie sighed, crossing her arms tightly against the pink and white sequins of her Alice + Olivia pencil dress and tapping the rounded toe of her patent leather pump impatiently on the gleaming redwood floor of Alicia's house.
The dinner party had been written off as being in honor of Mr. Rivera's latest court victory, but everyone knew it was actually just an excuse for Nadia to show off how much nicer her home was than everyone else's. Massie's friends were clustered in a small group by the stairs giggling and pointing at some LBR's unfortunate haircut. Massie forced herself to laugh along with them, but her frustration was rising. They'd been at this party for nearly half an hour and as of yet, not a single person had noticed the fact that Massie's normally amber eyes were now Tinsley Carmichael purple, courtesy of her new color contacts.
"'Scuse me," Massie muttered under her breath, pushing past her friends and weaving through the crowded entrance hall. She held her breath as she squeezed past a group of overly perfumed old ladies to keep herself from suffocating and made sure to give the five year old with sticky fingers and a chocolate mustache a wide berth. Finally she reached her destination: the powder room. Massie turned to face the gold gilded mirror and pouted at her reflection. Maybe another coat of mascara would draw attention to her new look. She turned to the medicine cabinet and rummaged through it, hoping that Alicia or her beauty-conscious mother kept a spare tube in there. As she was searching, the door swung open loudly, startling Massie.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize anyone was in here," Josh Hotz apologized, letting himself in and closing the door behind him all the same. Massie frowned at him.
"Do you need me to leave?" Massie asked coolly, raising her well-groomed eyebrows and glancing pointedly at the toilet.
Josh shook his head, giving her a lop-sided grin. "Nah. Not unless you want to. I actually came in here to hide."
Massie found her interest unwillingly piqued. "Who do you have to hide from?" she asked curiously.
"You know. Rabid fan girls, embarrassing parents." Josh shrugged. "Crazy ex-girlfriends," he added, glancing sheepishly at Massie out of the corner of his eye.
"You're hiding from Alicia," Massie stated.
"Is that incredibly wimpy of me?" Josh asked, running a hand through his dark hair.
"Just a little bit," Massie acknowledged. "Why come to the party then? I mean, this is her house."
"Free food." Josh grinned.
"Is that all boys think about?" Massie asked scathingly. "Girls and food?"
"And soccer," Josh added. "You can't forget soccer."
Massie rolled her eyes.
"So…do you want to get back to the party?" Josh suggested. "Not that I'm not enjoying this chance to have a one-on-one conversation with you. I'm sure your friends are missing you by now, though."
"Okay," Massie agreed, and Josh opened the door, chivalrously holding it open for her to go first. As Massie brushed by him, Josh caught her wrist, and she turned to look back at him.
"I almost forgot to ask…did you get new contacts?" he asked, flashing that lop-sided grin.
"I was wondering when someone would notice," Massie scoffed. Together the two took off across the crowded hall, and for the rest of the night, whether anyone noticed her new contacts was the last thing on Massie's mind.