Chapter 2 / Strapping Young Lass
The tight, hot pink bustier nipped and tucked Jude Harrison's already trim waist and stopped just short of her now womanly hips. Breasts were pushed up into overfilling and dangerous cleavage while softly bronzed legs were concealed at thigh height by skimming satin. She traced her fingers along the ribbon crosshatching and up to the simple knot at very top, pulling on the thin tendrils left to sway as she walked. She slipped her feet into the teetering stilettos, bending to buckle the rhinestone strap. She straightened herself up, putting a finishing touch to her short, waved hair: a diamond hairpin loaned to her from one of Darius's connections. She suppressed a laugh at her ensemble, taken back to the disastrous Crimson Party.
Grabbing a few essentials from the lavish hotel suite she was staying in, she shoved them into her tiny clutch. She left the hotel room, walking absentmindedly towards the elevator. The ride down was filled with empty thoughts and earlier times. Any other birthday on any other year, she would have felt nervous. She would have wondered what Tommy would think of her, if he thought she was beautiful, and if she could take his breath away. She would have been mentally preparing herself for impressing the tabloids' minions and making sure everyone around her was having a fabulous time, even if she wasn't. After the past couple of years, this had become old hat. She was used to everything buzzing all around her, how nothing was about her really, and she couldn't have given less of a damn what Tommy thought of her.
Apathy aside, she smiled to being back in the flock of G-Major and seeing her now closest friend after being away at college for so long. She smiled at the previous birthday and how she and Tommy bailed out of her party at the last minute. A completely impromptu idea, they took the red eye to Las Vegas and found themselves at an Elvis officiated wedding chapel. Rings comprised of switching stars and they married disheveled in jeans and t-shirts. Nothing serious or romantic for the lovers, they giggled and laughed hysterically during the entire ceremony. They finished it off with shoving yellow and white vanilla cupcakes in each other's faces, making a game out of who could clean the other up first. Even now, she could still taste the frosting on her lips and Tom's sandpaper stubble against her tongue as she lapped along his chin.
The elevator dinged and she stepped off confidently, walking with model's precision to the limo sent and waiting for her outside. The downtown Toronto night scene blurred into a streaming parade of white gold and scarlet, speckles of green and purple dotting the backdrop. High-rises rose in Titan heights, leaving the street an enclosed security blanket for the drivers and passengers weaving in and out of back ways and alleys at breakneck speed. Leave it to the unknown, behind-the-scenes coordinators to book the most exclusive night club for her celebration, Tantric White, and getting her boss and manager to make this a privatized gathering instead of a three-ring media circus. After the fiasco of her eighteenth and abandonment of her nineteenth, she was shocked anything was happening at all but with her belated junior album on the edge of dropping, this was a requisite. Still, it was going to be nice.
She was happy for the stocked limo and the tinted windows as she poured herself a small drink; there would be no sneaks waiting at red lights to snap pictures at the mysterious vehicle and its contents. She quietly toasted to herself and to the night she would make her own personal playground. Taking a dainty sip of her Grey Goose, she felt excited for the first time all week. Tonight would be her night of old friends, good drinks, and having a birthday go off beautifully. She even liked the outfit Portia picked out for her, loving the way she appeared to be more bold starlet instead of a child in Mommy's dress. She was finally a grown woman with an agenda and no one was going to step to her unless they felt like feeling her wrath.
The limo arrived shortly after departure in front of the club, the driver walking to her side of the car and granting her access to the blinding flashbulbs going off in a manic rate. She flashed a thousand watt smile, posing and winking at every interviewer who threw a question her way. She sauntered to the entrance, turned, and blew an uncharacteristic kiss to the crowd, a hurrah and cheer for making things happen.