The next morning, Nessie was heading off to class, still trying to decide if she should call her father or not when she felt Sarah start walking next to her. Nessie was surprised but kept walking.
"Um," Sarah said meekly. Sarah hardly bothered speaking to her anymore. "There's a big party this weekend, if you want to go."
"Me?" Nessie asked.
"Yeah. I mean, it's going to be awesome. Skylar's older sister's boyfriend lives in town and his friend is having this totally awesome party and Skylar's sister said we could come. So, if you want, you can come." The words tumbled out of Sarah's mouth in one breath.
Nessie was stunned. She hadn't been invited to anything since the night they all snuck down to the closet to drink. "You're inviting me?" she asked again, still not believing it.
"Yeah. I mean we were kind of hard on you and we all kind of feel bad about what happened. So, if you want to come to the party, it's going to be so cool. There's going to be all these older guys there and everything." Nessie didn't know what to say. Sarah sat looking at her expectantly for a long time. "So if you don't want to come, that's fine," she said, looking slightly disappointed.
"No!" Nessie yelped. "I do want to come. I totally want to come." Nessie knew exactly what she was going to wear. This is what "just in case" dresses were for. Calling her father could wait. If her friends were going to give her another chance, she was not going to blow it this time.
Nessie spent the rest of the week trying desperately to act more human than she ever had. She was aware that she was following Skylar, Tammy, and Sarah around like their pet, but it was much better than being a pariah. She laughed at all their jokes, agreeing with anything they said. The party itself really did sound like fun. There was going to be dancing and boys and the best part was that she would not have Jacob standing over her shoulder the whole time.
The plan was for Carla, Skylar's older sister, to pick the girls up Friday night to sleep over at her apartment. They wouldn't be expected back at the school until Sunday evening. They were going to get ready there and then head over to the party. According to Skylar, Carla's only rule was that they all acted "cool" and didn't embarrass her. Nessie didn't feel as though she was doing too well in the "cool" department, but she felt as though she could pass at a party full of drunken college guys.
Carla picked them up at the school as planned, and then took them to dinner at a pizza place. Jacob had gotten Nessie to try pizza once, but she didn't like it so he had promptly downed the entire thing. She opted for spaghetti and meatballs instead. She ate the meatballs and pushed the rest of the food around on her plate. Carla made a comment about how Nessie needed more than a couple of meatballs and a glass of water, and Nessie realized that this was exactly the type of behavior that was classified as "weird", so she pretended to eat a couple of forks of spaghetti and hid them in her napkin.
When they got back to the apartment, Nessie poured herself into the "just in case" dress and preened in front of the mirror for a few moments, admiring the way it clung to her. After indulging herself, she stepped away. Esme had always told her how important it was not to be boastful or to show off. Nessie took advantage of the opportunity to play with the makeup Emily had bought for her. She dabbed on some light pink lip gloss and considered the mascara, but it seemed too hard to put on so she skipped it and settled for some shimmery eye shadow. She held the compact up to apply it and stopped, staring at her reflection. She had not noticed before but the irises of her eyes, usually a mild amber, had become tinged with a dark scarlet.