"Ow! Kiley! What the hell is that?"
"The curler got stuck in your hair! Damn!" Kiley yells frustratedly at me.
"Get it out, get it out, get it out!" My sentence sounded more like "Yea ye ow yea ye ow yea ye ow." I laugh silently as Kiley yanks at the curler one more time and it comes loose.
"Ouch." I rub at my scalp and Kiley frowns deeply. "What's wrong?" I ask and she looks like she's going to cry.
"I messed up that part of your hair!" She exclaims and she desperately uses a comb to straighten out that part of my hair that is tangled up in some sort of halfway down bun. Before I get a chance to complain, Riley, Tanya and Cleo bangs into the room, Cleo is holding a speaker blasting 'Locked away' by Adam Levi... or was it Levine?
The three are singing with romantic gestures in our direction and I feel my cheeks burning. Riley strides right up to Kiley and sings, "If I showed you my flaws, if I couldn't be strong. Tell me honestly, would you still love me the same?" Kiley is about to cut in but Riley glares at her and shakes her head in some sort of warning and I laugh.
Tanya does a pirouette and slides across the room singing, "If I judge for life, man, would you stay by my side? Or is you gonna say goodbye? Can you tell me right now?"
Cleo hums along until it's her turn, she does a pointe all the way to the empty space beside me and harmonizes with the tune, "If I couldn't buy you the fancy things in life, shawty, would it be alright? Come on show me that you know."
Kiley kicks her legs and stands, her hands are thrown out in a balancing position and her left leg points towards the ceiling. I believe this move it's called a développé. Me and Gemma used to learn ballet by ourselves in our home's basement. I'm thinking of joining dance but my confidence just isn't there anymore. Kiley is rapping now, "Now tell me would you really ride for me? Baby tell me would you die for me? Would you spend your whole life with me? Would you be there to always hold me down? Tell me would you really cry for me?"
This may just be the most dramatic dance choreography I've ever seen, not to mention that it's spontaneous. I notice Cleo performing more advanced dance moves, she is after all still holding the speaker, so I'm guessing she's the—
Woah.
Cleo does a fouetté with the speaker near her chest, then she throws the speaker high up into the air almost touching the ceiling, and finishes with a hand stand, catching the speaker with her right feet. The speaker is at the edge of her toes, almost falling off.
"Holy shit!" Kiley gasps, "You did it!" Cleo is breathing hard and I see her beaming behind all that make up.
"Bullseye!" She pumps a fist into the air once she's stood up.
"You should totally audition f—" Tanya starts but Cleo blinks her eyes ten thousand times as she shakes her head profusely, "What?" Tanya frowns and Cleo starts laughing with the twins joining in.
Tanya shares the same look as me as we look at them confusedly, "Why are you all laughing? What did I say?"
"I applied for college with dance. They accepted me almost immediately because they just couldn't reject me, even if my results are shit. I thought you knew, you are in dance after all."
"Damn, I didn't know." Tanya laughs just as Ivy and June walks in.
"What's happening?" June smiles at everyone and waves at me. Ivy flops to the floor beside Tanya. Tanya turns to Ivy then June, "Well... let's see. You two missed a whole dance choreography and I did not know Cleo applied for dance in college just like me."
"What do you mean by 'you did not know'? She's going to be a dance profesional!" Ivy blurts.
"Yea— well— I. Forget it." Tanya rolls her eyes. "Also with everything that happened, I didn't get to ask Sky, what happened to your hair?" I perk up and my hand instantly moves to my knotted hair.
"Shit." I cuss.
"Oh no!" Kiley cries but Riley places a comforting hand on her shoulder and resolves the problem with a single quote, "Mum always says, "If you can't unknot the hair, straighten it then fix it.""
"Ahh." Kiley laughs, "I don't think that ever worked."
"Better than nothing. Plus, we are supposed to impress Alex." Riley shrugs, I blush and they got to work. Six girls working on one girl's hair. My stupid, messed up hair.
—————
The girls made 'woo' and 'aa' sounds when I emerge from the toilet, hands fidgeting nervously in front of me. My silky baby blue dress matches all my features, my blue eyes, my blonde hair and my blue heels, but not my nerves. I smile shyly and a flashback pops into my mind.
"Gemma! It's so nice." Little me played at the blue tutu dress that hung from my tiny butt.
"On your fifth birthday, I plan to get you a silk dress. Those sort that mummy wears to meetings and parties."
"Really?"
"Yes, I promise."
The flashback ended quick and I don't cry. Instead, I smile sadly at the memory. A broken smile for a broken promise.
I miss you Gem, if only you could be here to hold my hand and tell me that everything will be alright.
"Skyla, come here! Tell me what you think of your look." Kiley squeals excitedly. I move up to where she stood and stare at myself in the mirror. In the mirror stands a completely different person. A perfect girl but she's wrecked inside. I smile sweetly at Kiley and thank her.
I notice that we share similarly designed dresses and I point at everyone's dresses unable to speak. I stare down at my own dress, and I finally find my voice when I turn to stare at Kiley, "Did you buy these?"
"Yes I did, but not just." Kiley chuckles. She further elaborates, "I bought these last year, it had this exact size for all the colors and I decided to get all of them. There was a great discount for it and I made an oath to myself to give it to all my best friends. Thank heavens we've all got slim waists and big boobs." The others cackle out loud and I smile.
I look at her with delighted eyes, my face probably displays how touched and glad I am. Riley owns a cherry red dress. Cleo has the orange dress. Kiley is wearing yellow. June's hand slides down her emerald dress. Tanya with midnight blue and Ivy who completes us with a violet dress.
"I love it. I love this." I draw a circle around us and smile.
"A rainbow never splits, so we'll stick together no matter what." Ivy says and we nod in agreement. We smile at each other a little longer and June yells exaggeratedly, "Come on! The car won't drive itself to school. I'm taking the wheel."
—————
It's Valentines baby!!
"This is sick! This place looks so different with those colorful spotlights and that huge disco ball!" Riley squeals excitedly.
It definitely looks glamorous but messy too, juniors and seniors don't seem to recognize each other, they are mixed together, I even recognized some juniors making out with unfamiliar seniors, it's crazy. This whole room makes me feel uncomfortable. The touching, making out, slapping of butts, groping and gawking. It's insanity. College is insane.
I notice that I've caught some attention. Male and female's. A senior walks over, he places a hand on my shoulder and turns me to face him. His other hand grabs my shoulder and he frowns, "Aren't you that sophomore who doesn't like to talk much?" I freeze. My throat tightens and I can't talk.
Thankfully, Kiley notices the missing of my presence. She walks back, places a hand on his shoulder and pushes him away forcefully. He turns to look at her and she glares, "Yes, and she's got a date."
Once he leaves, she winks at me, "You'll have to buy me a drink."
I raise a hand and shake my head, "Your 'sophomore' who doesn't like to talk much? Na uh, in case you don't know, I joined late, I'm twenty already."
"Holy molly!" She gasps.
"Suck it up sophomore." I laugh in her face and she pouts. I grab her hand and say, "Come on, I don't want to lose the others."
"Someone is excited to see her date." She teases me and I push her away from me. She slams into someone and I cup a hand over my mouth. Kiley is muttering to herself, or the girl. I'm not sure. I can't hear them over the loud music.
"I'm so sorry!" I apologize. Kiley stands up revealing the DJ, Samantha.
"Hi!" She waves to me and I smile sheepishly at her. She beams at me and walks over, "You're that girl who fixed my platform too high." She realizes.
"Yea, that's me. A mess up." I reply.
"Yo, it's cool. Anyways, call me Sam."
"What are you doing here, Sam? Aren't you supposed to be doing vibes on that podium of yours, twenty four seven?" Kiley recovers from her fall and shoots me a devilish smirk.
"Oh, I was off to check the speakers. More specifically, check if there are anyone making out near them. Last year, a bunch of sophomores hung out near that area and a couple made out and accidentally knocked down a whole speaker from its stand."
"Damn." Kiley mocks and adds, "Thank heavens Skyla here, didn't push me towards one of them." I give her a plain smile as Sam laughs and waves us goodbye. "See, you can't run from having to get me a drink, now you owe me for banging into someone." Kiley tells me and I walk past her.
"There you are!" Alex greets me as we walk towards our group of friends. "Ah, I see you've completed the rainbow eh?" He looks at Kiley and I take the chance to take in Alex's look. He's wearing a light blue suit with a matching pants. The color matches me!
"I've found you a match, now you don't have to blow up my phone about the hot chick sitting in front of me in class! Exposed!" Kiley winks at him and I hear some people teasing him. Kiley pushes at me, "My drinks are still on you, this school still needs money."
"Drinks on me." Alex deflects her request for a drink and places a hand reassuringly on my shoulder. "Also Mason won't make it." The moment I hear his name I just can't not spin my head around and ask, "Why?"
"I think his mum died."
"What?"
"Chill. Y'all aren't supposed to know his shits." Alex says in an almost relaxed tome that pushes me off the edge. I pull him to the side while the others remain in their own shock. "Why are you getting so pumped up?" He frowns at me.
"It's his mother you're talking about!" I fume but he attempts to tame my anger like a man who can walk through fire.
"His family has always been having tough times, his mother doesn't give a damn about it. His stepbrothers and him never got along. Apparently, his mother only gave birth to him so no one else really cares about her so he has to. His father is a hick of a playboy."
"Oh." My body is moving faster than my mind, already planning to fish out my phone from my purse to text Mason but my mind finally processes the fact that I don't actually have anyone in this college's number.
I sigh and bring Alex to the drinks area.
"Identity card." The person at the counter demands. Alex was about to take his out but I'm quicker. I show it to the person and he nods, eyeing Alex as he notes down my order. I got a cup for everyone and he hands me a tray of drinks in no time.
"I could have—" Alex starts to protest but I interrupt him, "I'm twenty this year. I'm a latecomer."
"Oh." He manages and I feel like he's going to reject me for being two years older than he probably is. Until he adds, "I'm actually nineteen this year, cool that you're only a year older." He smiles cheekily and I steady the drinks as I giggle.
We hang out for what seems like a few minutes but I look at the clock and I realized that two hours have already passed. Drink after drink and I don't even know how many gulps I've already took, but I know I've reached my third cup and I'm drunk enough to do something stupid.
And I do. "Guys, let's play a game." I call out and everyone turns towards my direction, agreeing.
"Catchphrase." I think someone, Cleo, suggests. "I'll start. Kiss."
"I never miss a kiss." Ben says and Tanya laughs out loud, "I think you've missed before." She says.
"How does this work?" I whisper into Alex's ear and he laughs.
"Basically the person who starts gives a word and you have to use that word and name your own catchphrase. The person who answers goes next." We've sat with each other for so long and I now realize that his arms are around my shoulders.
"Oh." I swallow a bile coming up my throat and gently push his hand away. He scoots away, eager for Ben's word.
"You." Ben smirks straight at Alex. Seems like it was directed to him.
"That's simple." Alex calls out to him, "See you later alligator!" He laughs and people around us join in to the laughter.
"That's copyright, another." Ben waves his phrase away.
"Fine." Alex shrugs, "See you later, sucker." People laugh harder and Ben realizes that he's just getting humiliated.
"Fine. You pass." Ben gives in and I see Alex contemplating on a word to give. He turns to me for help but my eyes are far from distracted. Distracted by the sight in front of me.