I awake groggily to the sound of my cellphone. It's been ringing for awhile, and I've been ignoring it for awhile. The sound however, manages to sweep through my REM activity and become part of my dream soundtrack, forcing me to wake up.
I look up for the clock. It's ten in the morning. The room's tidied up from the mess we made of it last night. Lacey and Simone are nowhere to be found, and the Llama's still by my bedside, staring at me like it needs more underwear's.
The phone rings again. As I take it, I make a mental note to change the alarm into some meditation music next time. "Hello?"
"Allie," The voice on the other end is Lacey. "The event is about to start. Get your ass down here."
"What?" I rub my temples to hold off the painful headache from the hangover.
"Anniversary. Party. Today. Ring a bell?"
Lacey usually has a nice voice, but when you have just literally been woken up two minutes ago, even the most beautiful voice turns witchy. "Can you not speak so loudly?"
I bring the phone away from my ears as a shrill sound comes from wherever she is. When I put the phone back in my ear, Lacey's calling my name.
"Wear something black."
"Like my future?"
"It's the dress code," she says, and adds, "But yeah, like your future."
The Llama beside me grunts, and I'm reminded I still have no idea why we have an Llama.
"Why is there an animal in our..." But the other end goes dead before I finish. "...room."
I roll out of my bed and head straight to my desk. My laptop's screen is turned on, and there's a video displayed on it. I click on play as the events from last night fills my ears. From Lacey's toast, to how we ended up drunk, to my drunken confession. We filmed it all.
Simone must've transferred the videos to my Laptop. Big question is if they remembered to delete it from the camera.
I can't afford anyone else seeing that video.
Especially not Noah.
God, I sounded like a love sick puppy.
I look back at the Llama who's still closely watching me. "Don't fall in love, it's a trap."
It grunts in approval. "I like you. You know what?" I say conversationally. "I'm going to give you a name. How'd you like Alvin?"
The animal makes a sound I don't quite understand. "I'll take that as a Yes."
After taking a quick shower, I wrap a towel around my chest and spread out two black gowns on my bed, trying to make a decision on which one to wear to the occasion. The first one is an off-the-shoulder short cocktail dress. The second one is a strapless high-slit gown that'll expose a generous amount of my laps if I put it on.
Both looks good to the eye, and I'm having a hard decision picking just one.
"What'd you think?" I hold both dresses up to the Llama. "Off-the-shoulder or Strapless?"
It just stares at me. I sigh. What was I expecting talking to a Llama?
Where is my sanity?
I arrive downstairs fifty-four minutes later of trying to do my makeup. Lacey is wearing one of her slutty body wrap dress and Simone isn't even trying. She's just in a black T-shirt and a jean.
The place has amazing lighting. It projects a hundred colors at once, and has a good DJ to keep the vibe going. People are embracing themselves in hugs, greetings, and I find myself awed at the quality of people who file themselves in. They all look incredibly rich. The ladies have classy dresses on, while the men are all suited up in Tuxedos.
I don't look bad myself. My hair is pinned up to an elegant twist, a few pieces pulled out and tucked behind my ears, which are adorned by amber stud earrings. My makeup is subtle. A light dusting of rose lip-gloss that I'm somehow managing to pull off, and my dress is perfect. I went with the strapless gown. It's hugging me across my chest and showing a classy amount of cleavage if there ever was such a thing.
"So uh..." Simone speaks. "I'm going to look for where the food section is." When she's gone, I turn back at Lacey.
"You almost blew your cover yesterday," I say.
"How?"
"'Maybe you could sit on my face and I'd eat my way to your heart'" I mimic her exact drunken words as her face turns beet red.
"We both know that was the alcohol talking."
"Good thing Simone wasn't in her right mind. It would've been awkward."
"Yeah." She has this upsetting look on her face, and I nudge her slightly.
"Hey, you're going to be fine."
"Who says I'm not?"
I'm a hundred percent sure she's upset, but she's trying to have that 'I'm a bad bitch, nothing can hurt me' look, which I'd say is really working. She's a good actress, I'll give her that. I'm about commenting on that when she taps on my arm repeatedly. "He's here. Two O'clock."
My eyes wander in that direction, and they immediately catch sight of Noah walking into the event. Our eyes meet, and I finally get my first real look at him in seven days. He's wearing a black suit, perfectly tailored to that body with a grey striped tie and white dress shirt. His hair looks like it's been cut a bit, but still has it's perfectly tousled look to it, and his eyes are piercing into mine, the grey beaming out of them thanks to his tie color choice. I see them quickly drop and run down my dress before he flicks back up to meet mine, jaw set and tense.
Lordy lord.
"Good morning ladies and gentlemen," A voice cuts through the speakers. I look away from him towards Miss Renee who's on the platform, her face radiating a very big smile.
She looks back down at her speech in her hands. "Anniversaries are wonderful, magical, celebratory occasions. May we extend a warm ward of welcome to you all at this our thirtieth celebration anniversary."
There's a thunderous round of applause before she continues, but I tune out on the rest of her speech. My attention goes back to Noah who's listening to the whole speech. There's a girl standing next to him. I don't know her, but she's standing close. Too close.
Do I need to cut a bitch?
The rest of the ceremony plays out the way it's supposed to. Simone comes back minutes later with a chicken wing in her hands, chewing rather loudly.
I take a glass of wine from a waiter's tray as he passes, emptying it down my throat and giving another waiter the empty glass.
"Are you alright?" Simone asks, noticing how uneasy I look.
"Yeah. I just have this weird feeling."
"Same. But in my stomach. I think I ate too much."
Miss Renee's voice on the microphone has me turning my attention back to her. "As we've observed, the CEO of this foundation isn't present at the moment and that's why I've taken the liberty to represent him today in this occasion. Panic not, we're still going to hear from the CEO in this eight minute interview I recorded with him before he travelled overseas. I'm the best personal assistant, I know." Few people from the crowd laugh at the last part.
We all wait for the video interview of him to load on the huge projector screen as Miss Renee steps aside from the platform.
"Quick question, you guys deleted last night's video from the camera's SD card after transferring them to my Laptop, right?" I ask Simone and Lacey. They both stare at me wide-eyed.
"We didn't." They say in unison and I do a facepalm.
"Collect that camera from Miss Renee after this and delete them ASAP. No one must see that video."
"Uh... Allie..." Lacey mutters. "Don't kill us, but I think it's too late."
"What?"
The video finally plays after loading, and it's not the fucking interview. No, It's not a fucking presentation. I feel my knees start to buckle.
"I got an idea." The camera quality shuffles roughly before it finally steadies on my figure on the projector screen. "Let's video this moment, so we can watch it in years to come and look back at how stupid we were."
"Brilliant."
Murmurs grow, Miss Renee is looking as confused as ever.
"Ok, Allie go first and say something to the camera, you've been quiet all night."
I look wasted, sick, pale. My hair's like a bird nest. "I wish... I wish I could just forget Noah and move on with my life. But I can't. No matter what I try because he's always on my mind."
What's the fastest way to disappear?
"Maybe it was his laugh, or his eyes, or his smile. It might've been his hair, or his voice, or his personality... whatever it was, it made me fall pretty dang hard."
I shake my head and open my eyes, and if I was unable to breathe before I closed them, I've completely forgotten how to work my lungs now.
"There has been some sort of mistake," Miss Renee says to the microphone and laughs nervously.
I don't want to. I really don't want to but my eyes somehow finds Noah's. It's like one of those rare occasions where time literally slows down as I see him push his way through the crowd, making his way toward me, purpose in each step and eyes glued on mine. Everyone watches him and who he's walking toward.
Then I take off in the opposite direction.