Chapter Eighteen

What... A Party

Now, I'm not a type of girl who makes a fuss about dressing up or anything. In fact, I went to a nice couple of weddings of a such where I had to dress up. Sometimes I was even a bridesmaid, but I was just fine wearing a common dress and letting my hair down sweetly. Being this type of girl, it's not often that I would struggle this much to leave the headaches to the more tom-boyish types of girls who seriously don't know how to suck it up and be a man. (I take notice to the contradiction in that statement.) But never had I encountered someone so difficult as Lady Lilola.

First of all, her name is a tongue twister in itself. I feel the urge to just change it to Lady Lola. Why the 'Li'? (Li as in Pie). Li-Lola... why? Anyways, besides the fact that she's a vampire and I clearly disgust her for some reason, she can be very unreasonable and extremely uninclined to compromises. So this struggle went along with something like this:

"What color would you prefer the dress," Evanen had asked Lady Lilola. HER over me. If I wasn't much mistaken, I could swear I was the one going to be put in the dress.

Lady Lilola looked over me incredulously. "Yellow will be perfect," She stated. I made a face.

"Yellow? No, thank you," I responded in distaste. I knew my favorite color was orange, which is close to yellow, but it's not yellow. Yellow is gross. It's... too bright. And happy. And stupid. Black. I like black.

"You will wear whatever I tell you to wear," Lady Lilola snapped, her sharply thin face scary at the glare of her yellow eyes. She was beautiful... most vampires seem to be beautiful, but I was getting used to that. And now I could look past the beauty just enough to see the evilness of their features. It was becoming scary.

Except for Mikel. He has no evil features underneath.

"I will not wear yellow," I growled, "I'll simply have to go naked."

"Fine," Lady Lilola snarled, crossing her arms and tapping her sharp nails against her upper arm in a threatening way.

Evanen stepped in between us and gave me a look before turning to Lady Lilola. "She won't be going naked. Get her dressed. Compromise, drug her.. whatever. As long as you don't injure her and see that she's ready in two hours." And he looked at us firmly before turning to leave the room. There was a huge box of accessories, along with dresses, makeup (ha), shoes, jewelry; the works.

Lady Lilola turned to me once Evanen had left to stare determinely. "How about pink?"

I wrinkled my nose, "Black."

She scoffed. "Red."

I thought about it. Wasn't as bad, but no. "Orange."

"Absolutely not, it's a disgusting color," I was now offended deeply. "Gold."

"Silver."

"If you want silver, how about grey?"

"Grey? Gross. Green."

"No, purple."

"I prefer brown."

Lady Lilola finally stopped, looking upset. I merely knew this had to be bad, seeing as we hadn't even looked at the dress yet. We were picking out a color and already arguing. "I've got it," She said, suddenly glowing with an idea, "Baby.. Blue."

I scoffed, "Dark blue." Lady Lilola sulked in disappointment. But after an argument over the shade of blue, we decided on a nice blue in between baby blue and dark blue. Along with silver linings. Now was time to pick a dress out of all the blue ones she had brought. A lot of them went all the way to my feet, and those I dismissed. Then there were a couple that barely reached my mid-thigh. Dismissal! I decided on the ones that went down to my knees. Then I started looking at the upper torso part.

One was strapless. No thanks. I'm sure I'm tempting enough to vampires. Another had no back. Seriously. It was bare all the way to the tip of my butt. No.. thanks... Another had missing cloth in the front; showing my cleavage... more than that, by having a slit down just below my belly button. Lady Lilola said 'beautiful'... I said 'horrific'. That left two. One covered my back and front by being a turtleneck. It also had a big ass bow on the back... eh. Okay, I'm not that descrete. So that left the last one, which was pleasantly blue, It had spaghetti straps, and zipped in the back to below my shoulder blades. There was just a tiny bit of cleavage, not enough to even get kicked out of school. It was tight around the upper torso, but not disgusting.. you know, where it's so tight that you suddenly grow fat rolls that flow over on top of the dress and your boobs scream for mercy. It was loosely tight.. and then at the waist, it flowed out like a spring dress worn just to go walking by the beach. And the end of the dress was spiked in a way that reminded me of Kylee's hair.

Lady Lilola suggest fur to go around my shoulder. I made a face and once she realized this was not a feat to be obtained, she went straight to the hair. I was looking in the mirror.

"I think we should dye it black," Lady Lilola stated, holding a pencil to her lip in thought. She used the pencil to try different styles with my hair. I turned sharply.

"No dying, thanks," I hissed.

"Fine," Lady Lilola snapped, and she tugged back on my hair rough enough to bring water to my eyes. "I'm putting it up in a bun." More vampire bait. Bite here, it'll say. I started to open my mouth, and she interupted with, "Let me guess? No?"

"How about leaving it down," I suggested.

"As long as I can perm it," She stated. I could smell the hairspray already.

"Okay, let's just go with this. You want it up, I want it down.. I'm thinking half-and-half," I said.

"And you want it straight while I want it permed... so ringlets, then?" I nodded, glad we could come to a compromised quickly this time. We only had forty-five minutes left. So she pulled my hair half up, leaving strings of hair out for bangs. And then she worked on putting it up in hot-rollers. At least it wouldn't be a poof-ball of curls. Just light falling ones. Then Lady Lilola appearing in front of me, "Now for makeup."

I shook my head, "No makeup. Eyeliner is all I need."

Lady Lilola now looked dark. "You humans do think you're perfect, but I'll have you know that your skin is horrible, it's dry in some places, oily in others, it's different colors varying on the place, it's scarred from previous acne, and you look blotchy when you blush." This last bit she could tell by my now blushing appearance.

"Well," I said, flustered, "I don't care. I'd rather be ugly than uncomfortable. And trust me, piled on makeup is uncomfortable."

Lady Lilola moved closer, "I could make you extremely beautiful. You'd really please Evanen. Completely win him over.."

I scoffed, "Not. Interested." She rolled her eyes.

"Fine," And she started on eyeliner first. I don't know why I couldn't do it myself, but she insisted. Then she pulled up red lipstick and I sucked in my lips so that she couldn't reach it. "No lipstick, even?"

"Chapstick, lipgloss, carmex... whatever, but no lipstick," I said shortly.

She put on chapstick then, and traced it over with a shimmery lipgloss that had a blue tint to it. "Can I at least put some eyeshadow on you? A nice blue would do wonders..."

"Nope, blue is for sluts," I stated, crossing my arms. And she spent a nice ten minutes showing me different eyeshadows that I disagreed with until I finally allowed a bluish glittery type to be lightly placed only as if eyeliner above my eyelashes. Then I denied her anything else to do with makeup. No blush. No powder. No mascara (dear God, no mascara). No eyebrow pluckage. No eyebrow linage. My face was as perfect as I would allow her to get. Which wasn't perfect at all, but to my untrained eye, it was fine.

She let down the hot-rollers, allowing loose curls to flow in ringlets around my head. She didn't stop to look inquisitive apon her work... not technically her work, but her compliance on me. She went straight to a box and opened it to reveal jewelry. Not one bit of jewelry was of my normal choice. It was all gold, fine silver, and diamonds. Before I could say anything, she pulled out a pair of earrings that had dangling diamond teardrops apon them. I backed up.

"Oh, no you don't," Lady Lilola said.

"Why can't I just wear my normal jewelry," I asked stubbornly.

She glared at me, "Listen here. Either you put on these jewels or I pin you down, perm your hair, suffocate you with makeup, and then you can wear whatever jewelry you want!" She looked extremely scary at the moment. I thought for a second, and eventually sucked it up. One must make compromises, and if just wearing diamonds is the only risk I have to take in order to leave the rest of me alone, then I'd take it. So I put on the teardrop earrings, along with a matching, danty necklace, and a loose bracelet. I got her to leave the rings alone, though, for even she figured it'd be a bit gawky with my less formal appearance than she wanted. My wrists and fingers felt naked without their usual flourishing death jewelry.

Now she talked about painting my fingernails. This was resolved quickly with clear nailpolish that held blue specks of glitter within it.

"One last thing," Lady Lilola said, and she pulled out two high-heeled shoes that were diamond studded. I looked at them as though they were hers and she just wanted to show them to me. As if it were some sort of joke to suggest I wear them. I'd die. It's simple. Usually I just get those heels that are barely off the ground. I can walk in those. They're pretty easy. But these?! Hah..

"No... no, thanks," I stated, stepping back from the shoes.

"Either you wear these or you go barefooted," Lady Lilola threatened...

And there I was, walking towards the stairs beside Evanen; finely dressed -- not completely formal -- and without shoes. Evanen was at first confused, and then he just rolled his eyes and let it go. Which is good because I could as easily fight against him as against Lady Lilola, who was following behind us with such a moody aura around her that I was afraid to look behind me. Who knew, she might be waiting for a look, so that she could just snap some human girl's neck for being so against her wishes. I could have dressed up like this myself without her help, for crying out loud.

When we reached the top of the stairs, I could finally see the mass of people (vampires) talking to each other almost joyfully. Who knew that vampires had happy conversations. I could already imagine it. "Caught a good one yesterday, Tommy. Blood type was A-positive. What a screamer, right?" Stupid laughter follows this. Then again, I don't usually laugh about food with my friends, so I could be wrong. Anyways, we were making our way down the stairs when the group talking in front of the stairs said, "Happy Birthday, Mr. Draele!"

There was a sudden clapping around the mass of vampires, and Evanen smiled pleasantly, stepping ahead of me to greet the other vampires. Before he reached them, he turned around to look at me and muttered, "Remember... in sight." I nodded, and he continued to greet the others. Meanwhile, I backed away from that group to move to a less occupied area... in Evanen's sight, of course. I took noticed to the fact that everytimed I moved, a couple of heads would look away from their occupation and towards me. Some had hungry looks, others had curious... and some were just plain bored looking. Those were the ones I preferred, for they looked away almost immediately from boredom. Either way, I usually ducked my head, letting my hair fall into my face to attract less attention.

At some point, I grabbed the diamond earrings from my ears and pulled them off slowly before placing them on a random table, searching the room to make sure Lady Lilola wasn't somewhere watching me. I would've continued to strip myself of diamonds, but I looked back to see Evanen had disappeared. My heart nearly stopped. I looked about desperately, expecting him to be in sight, just blending in for some reason. But now everybody was starting to look bigger, and their sharp movements were confusing me so that I couldn't actually focus on anyone in the room. My eyes moved over them to see a sign lettered "Happy Birthday, Evanen Draele" in black above the window I had broken through in the living room.

I continued to slide past everyone, searching for Evanen or anyone. I spotted Katha and immediately turned back to go elsewhere, but somebody was blocking my path. I looked from the dark shoes to the suit, trailing my eyes -- with an expectation of being caught doing something wrong -- to the face of a man I hadn't met before. His eyes were grey, kind of like dads, but they were sharper. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail and flowed in its silverness down his back at great length. Personally, I found it extremely unattractive, and this could possibly be the first vampire that I could seriously enjoy not looking at. Even though his face and skin still had no flaws seen by my eyes, it wasn't suitable for my taste.

"What's a girl like you doing here," he asked in a deep voice that creeped me out -- it could be just my prejudice from first impressions, though. And he grabbed my hand, leaning over to kiss the back of it. I made a face. It's kind of how I imagined Armand from Anne Rice's book to look as an old guy. I never liked Armand. Especially since Antonio Banderas played as him. No, not my type of vampire.

"I live here," I responded at last, pulling my hand away slowly to make sure he would indeed give it back. Instead, he grabbed my other hand and wrapped his other arm around my waist as though to dance with him. I started to pull away.

"Dance with me," he ordered into my ear, and I felt dread and disgust when I was obliged to. He suddenly lowered his head to my neck, breathing in my scent. "Are you lost, love?" I could've gagged.

"Actually, Sir Trenton, she's with me," I heard a familiar voice say darkly. I felt the order in my head drop away, and "Sir" Trenton pulled me around to face Mikel. My face instantly brightened at the sight of him, but he continued to glare at Trenton. The term 'Sir' disgusts me, so I decided to just leave it off. "Thanks for attending to her. I'd only lost her for a moment there." And he held out his hand. I gladly reached out and grabbed it, allowing the cool of his skin to surround my hand.

Trenton could've said something like "Next time, Love" or something, but I couldn't have been less attentive if I were dead. I followed Mikel back towards a direction in the house I hadn't ventured to before, and he eventually led me out two glass, sliding doors that led to a wooden porch with it's own mini fountain and flowers surrounding it. There were less people out here. Mikel turned around, looking concerned.

"He didn't hurt you, did he," Mikel asked slowly. He looked tired. He didn't act it, but he looked a bit more tired than he usually did. Which is weird because vampires don't look tired. Either way, it was barely there, so it could've been the lighting.

"No," I said slowly, "It's just..." I hesitated.

"What?" Mikel looked worried. I ducked my head, blushing a bit.

"I didn't know there were vampires who weren't.. you know.. hot," I responded. Mikel's concern turned to relief at these words, and he looked me up and down. Then he broke into a smile. "What?"

"Nothing," Mikel said, "It's just.. the one time you're suppose to be really dressed up, and you go to the party barefooted."

I smirked. "Well, you'd understand if you'd seen those stilts of heels. They expected a miracle, and didn't get one."

Mikel held out his hand, "Would you like to dance?" I nodded, taking his cold hand once again. He spun me around slowly, and gripped his other arm about my waist. It was more comfortable than having "Sire Trentoness" pull me around like a prize. I suddenly felt better; more happy than I had been since I'd come here. Maybe more happy than ever, and it was making me warm enough to not even notice Mikel's cold pull at my warmth. "You dance beautifully."

I laughed, "And you do, too. I mean, I may be stepping on your toes, but at least it's not the other way around." There was silence as he seemed to look off in the distance over my head. I bit my lip, and slowly lowered my head against his chest. "I wrote something in that journal once," I suddenly said, not sure why I'd mention this, but I did. "It was after a weekend at being at my friend's house... and I had said... it was amazing how someone's presence could be so welcoming as to never want to be missing. How life can become so dull once that presence is missing.. and death can seem so... there, like a shadow over you because it's like you know that there's a chance you could never see that person again. And it such a horrible feeling; the loneliness, the quiet without them, and the whisper of their words that were no longer in the air. Then I feel like I wished I'd never been in their presence to feel this way. Until they're back. Then I forget it all, forget to even wish them to not go away, leaving myself open to feel the pain when they leave once again." I stopped, and automatically regretted saying that. What if he thought it was just childish that I'd tell him that? Or what if he chose to ignore it... or thought it was meant for someone else? Why did I even say that?

"You write beautifully, as well," he suddenly responded, no longer looking off in the distance. "Just as I expected you would, of course." And he smiled, shining with such beauty that I couldn't help but feel relieved. I smiled back. He spun me around again, then gripped both arms around me and dipped me back. In complete trust, I tilted back my head with a smile, breathing in the suddenly sharper air around me. It smelled beautiful out here. It looked beautiful.. sounded beautiful. And then I was pulled back up again to look at the silver film over Mikel's caramel brown eyes. He looked a bit stunned.

"Wha-," I started to ask, and I was interupted when he pressed his cool lips against mine. At first, I was stunned. And then I started kissing back. I forgot about breathing, about being seen, or even about being kidnapped at all. I didn't care anymore. I reached up to place my hands on Mikel's jaw, and just when I thought I would die by suffocation, he pulled away. I gasped in air, and he grabbed my wrist to pull me away from the porch, around the house, and out of sight of the party within.

Then he turned to me. "I don't know why this is happening," he said, "Or how long it's been happening, but I can't stop thinking about you. Sometimes, I listen to you talking to Evanen or... or humming when you were bored or laughing at some little thing... and your laugh, it just.." I was nodding as though in understanding, but my head was buzzing in such a way that I couldn't understand anything at the moment. And he locked his lips over mine again, pressing me against the wall. Then he pulled away again relunctantly, as though tearing off his own skin.

"And I knew... I knew when I would lay in my room, listening to your slow breathing as you slept," He hesitated, "I knew that I'd fallen in love with you." I felt suddenly scared. Out of all the feelings that was going through me at the moment, fear was the one that had dominated. Not because he was a vampire or anything. In fact, I had no idea. Maybe it was because I hadn't actually heard anyone tell me such a thing... and be sincere at that. And maybe it was also the fact that Evanen would not allow this, and I knew it. But the one thing that most likely scared me the most was the fact that I believed myself to be in love with him as well.