Sorry it's been so long but I've had the worst writer's block. It was like no matter what I couldn't think of what to write next. But I'm very happy with this chapter and I really hope you are too.
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"So explain to me how 'Satan stole your soul'?" Mina looked up at me after shoving a spoon full of cookies and cream ice cream into her mouth.
"He invited me to a Charity Ball and I accepted." I replied dryly. I looked over at Lita when she started giggling. Ice cream started to drip out of her mouth with every giggle made at my expense. At least I still have ice cream on my side.
"Oh come off it Sere. A charming, gorgeous man has taken an interest in you. Just be happy it's prince charming and not prince alarming." Wow did Raye really say something so corny? I must admit I'm very disappointed. She definitely is not up to par today. I mean she didn't even once make me feel inferior to her. She's probably getting sick or something.
"Wow. I'm sure my sides will be splitting any moment." I stick my tongue out at her and steal the carton of Ben and Jerry's she's been hoarding. Uh-oh. Why did I take another woman's ice cream? I don't remember making any type of death wish. Already Raye's eyes are narrowing in on me. Everyone else is just staring, mouths wide open. I very slowly, place the ice cream back at Raye's feet. And then ever so slowly pull my hands back, making sure she sees the palms of my hands at all times. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Satan for further screwing up my life.
"You know maybe this is a bad idea because she just broke the third sacred rule of friendship. 'Best friends will never steal ice cream from each other.' I don't think Serena has broken that rule throughout our entire friendship…" Finally the haze of a hot man is lifting.
"True but she has been known to hide it from us." I try to give Amy my most angry of angry eyes and in return she gives me a wink of the eye. I give her angry eyes and she mocks me. Yup that sounds about right.
"Oh Amy, I forgot you were there. Thanks for helping out. I really appreciate your clever mind always aiding me in my troubles." Sarcasm, table for one!
"How come you're all targeting me? Perhaps it's because you're all hiding something hmm?" Did Mina's eye just twitch? It did! They are hiding something!
"You are! Tell me right now or I swear!" Okay so I have nothing to swear with or by but they get the picture.
"We are not hiding anything Sere. Stop being so paranoid." Mina's eye twitched again! Haha I love it!
"Really Mina? You're not hiding anything? I'm just being paranoid am I?" Ooh it twitched again. Okay now it's just kind of creepy.
"Is it me or is there an echo in here?" Comedy from Lita? I think not.
"What a comical side you have Lita, when you're LYING TO ME!" Yes a bit overly dramatic but I think they know I know they know something I don't know. Everyone follow that? No? Okay read it one more time, but slowly. Don't feel bad I have to re-think my thoughts many a times. Everyone with me now? Great.
"We are not hiding anything from you." Amy the reinforcer. I definitely see it. It's always the quiet ones that tend to have that side. If you get my drift. -Wink-Wink.-
"Then how come Mina's eye keeps twitching?" I really wish it'd stop doing that. At first it was amusing now it's just down and out weird. They all slowly look at each other as if debating on whether or not to tell me. Ouch, that really hurts.
"Okay, but we really were keeping it from you with the best intentions. We didn't want you to freak out about it or anything because it's really not a big deal." Raye is really starting to freak me out now. All of them are in fact. I wish they'd tell me already because my mind is already formulating bad scenarios. I think people purposely take their time telling someone bad news. That way we can think up the worst case scenario and the barer of bad news can either make us feel better or make us feel worse. Right now I'm terrified.
"Steve and Carla are engaged." Oh yea that's way worse then what I was thinking. I was thinking my mom and dad were divorcing. I was thinking that all my friends were moving to a different continent. But this, this is my ex-boyfriend and my mortal enemy preparing to get married. To each other! Alrighty here comes the bad memories.
Steve was my first love. We met our junior year of high school. Carla was the captain of the cheerleading squad and my biggest tormentor. I feel you should know that back in high school I wasn't the extremely attractive woman I am now. I don't mean to say that I was ugly but I've definitely gained beauty over the years.
Steve was a major hottie in high school and out of all the gorgeous girls he asked me to winter formal. From that night on we were a 'couple.' We stayed together all through out high school. Needless to say Carla hated my guts and became my biggest tormentor when Steve and I were officially a couple. She was always trying to hook up with him but like the great guy he was he shot her down every time. Steve was my first everything and when I say everything I mean everything. We broke up our freshmen year in college. We went to different colleges and slowly but surely we pulled apart but that isn't the real thing that broke us up.
I walked in on him and Carla (who coincidentally decided to go to the same college as Steve) in the middle of sex. I'm not sure if they even saw me, I ran out of there so fast. But shortly after I received a phone call from Steve saying he felt we should explore other options. I never told him I had seen him and her together. I couldn't bare the humiliation. The only people who I ever told are these four women, staring intently at me.
"Oh." I can't believe I'm still getting so emotional about this. It's been three years already!
"There's more…" Mina threw out hesitantly. I'm not quite sure I can take much more.
"They're going to the Charity Ball too. To the," Raye looks at the other girls and then back at me, "masquerade." Oh boy. I'm definitely not feeling very well. I think I have to throw up.
"Excuse me." I get up and slowly make my way to my bathroom. I shut the door behind me, kneel down in front of the toilet and heave out the contents of my stomach. Waiting a few moments to catch my breath, I flush the toilet and move to the sink. I grab some mouth wash and rinse a little. Then I throw some cold water on my face. I hear a light knock on the door. I look at the door for a moment, debating on whether or not to open. I decide, against better judgment, to let my friends make me feel better. Opening the door I see all four of their faces.
"We didn't tell you because we wanted you to have fun with Darien. He seems genuinely interested in you. We just want you to be happy again Sere." Lita says and I can tell she means it. They all mean it.
"I know. I'm still going. I mean what's the worst that can happen? They see me dancing with a man twice as hot as Steve?" I laugh lightly but they and I can tell it's fake.
"You can have my ice cream Sere." Raye ventures out. I look at her for a moment and burst out laughing. Then they all start laughing. I told her my sides would be splitting any moment.
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Three days before hell on earth. Yes here I am, the optimist. Mina demanded her and I go shopping for our dresses together. Luckily she's going to the masquerade also. In fact I think a majority of the people going to the Charity Ball are going to the masquerade. I don't know any of the other themes but from what I picked up from Darien was that one was Prehistoric themed. That one should be interesting.
"Let's go into that boutique." Mina points to a tiny hole in the wall store. She has this insane notion that if you pick the tiniest, cruddiest looking store you will find the most choicest of clothing. I haven't had the heart to tell her the truth on the matter. She seems much happier in her delusions.
"Okay but after that we're done for the day!" I'm so beyond exhausted at this point. I can't even feel my feet anymore. I'm constantly looking down to make sure that they're still attached to my legs.
"Don't worry. I'm positive after this store we will find our perfect dresses!" She says in a sing song voice. I know I said I didn't have the heart before but I'm very tempted to pop her little bubble of optimism. I instead opt for the high road.
"Maybe." I may be on the high road but it's not the flying high road.
We walk into the store, Mina's hopes high, my feet swollen. We take one look at the boutique and our jaws drop. We promptly leave said boutique and try hard to rid our minds of whips and chains.
"Never again woman. Never again. This ends now." I sound a little off kilter. I hope I don't do anything rash. I pull Mina roughly into a nice shop situated in the middle of two prominent stores. It's a lovely store. The mannequins in the window were wearing gorgeous renascence clothing. I know we're not going to a renascence themed party but maybe they have a variety.
"I want this one!" I hear Mina exclaim. She's holding a floor length gown. It's a bright gold color made of a shimmering material. The sleeves are off the shoulder and look just long enough to go about mid hand on Mina. It's a V-neck gown, that ties in the back in a criss-cross pattern. Wow I feel bad for whichever guy goes home with her. By the time he gets that dress off her it'll be a new day.
"Well go buy it. I'll wait here for you." I reply absent-mindly.
"What about you?" Mina inquires. But I can tell she's more interested in the gown in her hands.
"Don't worry. Just go buy that dress already." I shoo her away and towards the cashier. When she finally moves I browse around the store. Stopping at a rack of dresses every now and then. I'm not even really looking at the dresses just kind of appraising them.
"Can I help you with anything miss?" I look up and find a somewhat attractive guy staring at me with a slight smile on his face. Well hello cutie.
"I don't think so. I'm browsing I guess." I give him my cutest smile and he smiles right back. Okay why am I getting this nagging feeling like I'm doing something wrong? Oh for goodness sake! Darien and I aren't even dating! Yet another aspect of my life Satan has ruined. I promptly remove my cutest smile and turn back to the racks of dresses.
"Well if you need anything, just call me." The cute sales clerk stays for a moment longer. I wish he'd just leave already. He's not getting any from me, unfortunately. I don't want any of you to get the wrong idea. Don't start thinking that I want Dar—Satan, because I don't! That sales clerk had really weird……facial expressions. That's right, weird facial expressions.
After kicking myself a few dozen times I continue my trek through the rest of the store. I find myself at the end of the store. I slowly turn around to go back to where Mina is and I see it. The dress I want.
It's a gorgeous shade of silver-white. Not a dark shade of silver but not light enough to be a shade of white. There are small, pearls along the hem, right under where my breasts would be. The pearls are just on the front of the dress. The top of the dress is like a halter top. It has no sleeves, just a tie to go around my neck. The back of the dress leaves the top half of my back exposed and covers the rest. It's gorgeous and it's mine.
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It's the night before the Ball and I can't sleep. This is great. What am I supposed to do to pass the time. I don't really like to watch TV late at night. I don't really know why, it just doesn't really calm me. I know I'll eat some ice cream. Now I know it's bad to eat in the middle of the night but I don't care. No one's going to know but me and I think I can live with the guilt.
I drowsily make my way to the freezer and take out the carton of ice cream. Placing it on my kitchen counter I root through one of my drawers and finally find a spoon. I pause briefly at one of the cabinets, debating on whether or not I need a bowl. I decide against it because, well because I'm going to eat the whole carton of ice cream. I'm not even going to lie. It's late and I'm grouchy so down goes the ice cream.
I pop the top of the ice cream carton, spoon ready to dive into the delicious dessert. I almost start to cry when I see that there's nothing inside. I guess at that ice cream party the girls and I had, we really must have partied. I throw the carton angrily into the sink, along with my hopes of satisfaction for the night. I glance at the clock. It's only 1:00 a.m. The convenience store around the corner is open twenty-four hours. What the hell. Changing into a white tank top and some brown running shorts, I grab my tennis shoes and make my way to the convenience store.
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All the flavors! So many choices so little money. After what seemed like hours I make my choice and walk towards the check-out counter with a pint of vanilla caramel cup. I pay and leave the store quickly. The clerk was giving me the weirdest looks! Like it's so unbelievable that a woman would go out into the night by herself, for ice cream. What self respecting woman wouldn't for ice cream?
"Serena?" Not damn way. Just keep walking. It's all in your head.
"Wait Serena. It's Darien." Damn you ice cream! I blame you for all my troubles! Deciding to face my fate, I plaster a giant smile to my face and turn around to greet Satan.
"Hi. What are you doing out so late?" Oh this is awkward. Why are my eyes on his lips? Stop it! Move, up, now!
"I could ask the same to you." Touché.
"I needed a fix." Did that make me sound like a druggie? Okay I'm guessing by the stare he's giving me that's a definite yes. I quick hold up the ice cream carton and watch as his eyes go from confused to relieved. Relieved? Why should he care if I'm addicted to crack?
"Well I couldn't sleep so I was going to go walk on the beach. Would you like to come?" Wow I think he's actually being earnest. Hmm. This is definitely a man who gets a heck of a lot more attractive under the moonlight. Well I guess I could make his night.
"Sure." He turns to me and smiles. There's something about his smile. It's like he's thanking me in his smile. But why would he thank me for walking with him? We head towards the beach, neither of us really talking. Luckily it's not one of those awkward silences. Those are definitely uncomfortable. I hear the waves crashing against the shore as we near the beach. I'm still walking when I realize Darien stopped a few steps behind. I turn, about to ask why he was stopping when I see he's taking his shoes off. For some unknown reason I smile. What is it about this man that keeps grabbing at me?
Following his lead, I take off my tennis shoes. We leave our shoes where we took them off. And start walking the beach, the sand lightly crushing under our weight. Still neither of us say anything. Darien never struck me as the kind of man to ever be at a loss for words. I can see swings just ahead of us. Instead of asking him, I just walk to them, him following close behind me. We start off in a slow swing and gradually pick up the pace. Not a fast pace but not slow.
"How did you get invited to this Charity Ball?" Yes I decided to break the silence. Where's my gold star for effort?
"I'm throwing it." What?
"What?" I've been known for thinking out loud.
"I'm rich. I have a charity ball every year to give my money to people who actually need it." I think my brain's broken because I'm not comprehending any of the words coming out of his mouth.
"How?" What else can I say with a broken brain?
"My parents left me their fortune. Over the years I've managed to make it grow." Oh well that makes sense. Oh wait does that mean his parents are dead?
"I'm sorry." This conversation is not going the way I had planned.
"It's okay they died when I was young so I had some years to cope." He's smiling. That's good.
"That's good." I feel dumb and guilty.
"Why did you decide to go with me? Not that I'm complaining but you seemed to hate my guts from day one. But I do admit I didn't really give a reason not to and I'm sorry about that." This is so twilight zone.
"My friends. They seem to think…well that you're genuinely interested in me." Oh please say you are, please. I know I've been prickly but please say you are.
"I am. You're….." Do not say prickly. "interesting, to say the least." I giggle and he smiles at me. He has such a beautiful smile.
"How long do your balls usually last?" Oh god. That came out wrong. "I mean your parties." I'm so glad it's dark otherwise he'd be seeing me wear a lovely shade of red.
"Late. Midnight, sometimes past that." Say Sere. Just say it. Things can other get better right? After everything you've heard tonight, you got a good thing coming to you.
"Too late for dinner?" I think my heart stopped beating. 911! He's being awfully quiet. Why is he being so quiet? It's a simple yes or no. It shouldn't take too long to say. Unless…oh God unless he's trying to word his rejection just right so I still go to the party with him. Please answer me already!
"No dinner is too late for you." Just one more question. Please answer it right Darien. I don't want this to end.
"Darien please don't hurt me." I stare directly into his eyes, desperately trying to make him understand that I can't be hurt again. Not again.
"I don't think I could ever bring myself to hurt you Serena. Never you…" He trailed off as his lips found mine.