My mom drops me off at Vicki's place with a big smile and no questions about if Vicki's mom will be staying. I walk as slow as possible up the stairs to Vicki's floor and Beyonce's voice booms through the walls of Vicki's apartment.
Shoulders sideways, smack it, smack it, in the air, Legs moving side to side smack it in the air, Legs moving side to side smack it in the air, Smack it, smack it in the air.
I did sleepover one time at Harper's when Dani was born, but we were 5 then, I'm at a real highschool sleepover which I've only seen on tv shows and movies. My fist barely makes a noise on the door and I can't stop fidgeting with my hands. Along with the booming music that's destined to get Vicki evicted the sound of footsteps become apparent.
The door swings open and Vicki stands in front of me smiling. She's not in the expected matching pajama set I'd thought she would be in, instead she's in a black romper and matching flip flop sandals. The necklace Vince gave her is still apparent spring her neck making me smile.
"Daya you're here good," she says as the music still plays. "Were going out by the way." she leads me into her apartment that's not like the last time I saw it and back to it's messy state.
"Where?" I ask. I have a real baby face and no fake ID so that limits our options.
"Daya your here!" Jada screams and runs out of the bathroom. She's also not ready to braid hair into French braids and have a pillow fight either and is wearing the same tight bright orange dress she wore to homecoming. Yup we're going out.
"To a party," Vicki answers and turns off the music. They both look ready to go to this party but are still dabbing makeup on their faces at Vicki's dining table. I stand close to the door watching them and I'm pretty sure they've forgotten all about me as they exchange makeup palettes. Vicki does some last touches on her highlight then remembers I'm standing here playing I spy with all of the clothes on the floor. I spy something indigo, is it Vicki's push up bra, yes it is.
"Daya let me take this off your hands," Vicki says and grabs my duffel bag. Oh boy here it comes. "Wait is this a Hannah Montana bag?" She holds the bag in front of her and burst into laughter when her eyes meet Miley's. I force a smile on my face, and watch Vicki do a 360 observation of the bag that has "The Best of The Both Worlds," written in a huge font.
"It was the only one I had," I shrug.
"Aww Daya its cute." For such a cute bag Vicki just runs and throws it in her room which I could've done in the 5 minutes I've been here. While Jada covers herself in lotion Vicki comes back from her room with a piece of clothing in her hand and she stands in front of me eyeing my casual jeans and t shirt ensemble. "Daya you know this would look really hot on you!" She holds up a light pink crop top that I'm convinced is a bra in disguise. It has buttons so anyone can come up to me and start undressing me, it's also december I don't need to look hot, but warm.
"Uhh I don't have a jacket." I spread out my bare hairy blonde arms. Vicki turns around to the coat hanger that's struggling to hold the billions of coats and sweaters that have been thrown on it. In a matter of minutes my green camo shirt is on the couch with Vicki's clothes and I'm wearing the pink crop top with one of Vicki's black jackets as we head out the door.
I have no clue what party we're going to, but Lauryn whines and takes 4 tries to start.
In less than 15 minutes we're parked in front of some house that has people socializing with cups on the lawn.We get out of the car and Vicki and Jada strut in front of me while I try to hide behind them. The music blasts louder than at Sage's house and the weed and alcohol smell is way stronger and more apparent when we walk through the door. I follow Vicki and Jada and squish past numerous moving bodies grinding up on one another until they have found four girls they know who are dancing in a group.
"This is Daya!" Vicki yells to a girl I've seen in the halls.
"What?" The girl yells back as she keeps moving her hips.
"I'm Daya!" I yell and the girl stops twerking and squints her eyes at me.
"Oh Vince's sister!"Yup that's me. Vicki and Jada join the girls and start dancing created a twerk circle. Vicki pulls me in and I stand more on the outside as each girl begins to get in the middle of the circle and twerk as the rest of us sort of chant along. Vicki gains the most applause when she brings her butt all the way to the floor. Vicki leaves the circle and all the girls continue cheering, by this time are looking at me.
"Go Daya, Go Daya," the girls chant. I don't twerk let alone dance, and I'm trying to avoid getting attention put on me especially around these men who are towering over us.
"Come Vince's sister you got all of that junk in the trunk use it," the girl who almost broke her back in the circle yells. Not every girl with a butt knows how to twerk,when you reach puberty and grow a butt you don't receive a pamphlet on how to use it. I take a deep breath and move into the circle, but an idea pops into my head.
"I have to go the bathroom," I say. The girls shake their heads and one points to across the hall that's thousands of people away. "Thanks." I squish through more people and simotameoulsdy say, "excuse me," or "pardon."
I'm only steps away from the bathroom, and there's no Ziyah so there's no reason for me to fake going in there.
Instead I turn and head to the bar where surrounded by a bunch of liquor is lemonade, or at least a yellow drink in a lemonade bottle. I pour some in a cup and take a sip, yup lemonade. I down the whole cup, but I'm so close to spitting it out when I spot Vince outside on the patio. He's in a lounge chair and he's not alone, a girl sits on his lap with her lips glued to his and her hands struggling to get through his curls. Like everyone else in this claustrophobic hell she doesn't look familiar, but I can only see the back of her short bob and bodycon dress.
I can't take seeing my brother with a girl's tongue down his throat and take another cup of lemonade and head back to Vicki. I squish through more people and get back to Vicki and the girls who have stopped twerking and are swaying their hips slowly to the r&b song playing.
"Vicki!" I yell. She continues to dance and laugh and I hope her mood will stay this way. "Vicki!" She and the girls don't say a word or turn their heads. With little thought I do the one thing that will catch their attention and get in the middle of them and mimic the move Jada did before.
"Okay Daya," Vicki says. I get back to my normal posture and hope they savored the first and last time I will twerk.
"Vicki can we go," I say.
"Aww why?"
I can't tell her the real reason, because that's sure going to upset her so I search the party and my head for some logical reasons to leave. There are so many reasons to leave like the music is killing my earbuds, there is too many sweaty people, and there's 20 year old guys staring at us.
"Because-" someone stops my thoughts and bumps into me.
"I'm so sorry, " the girl says and when she turns around to show me her face I've found my reason to leave. She gives me one smile with her freckled cheeks, and that's all I need to bring back the memory of her in the hallway being kissed by Ziyah.
"Because I had some lemonade that's not sitting too well." I shoot Vicki a knowing look and she nodds and grabs Jada who is grinding up on some guy with dreads. Ahh guys with dreads. They say their goodbyes and we squish through more people, and I make sure Vicki doesn't turn around to see Vince.
We get in the car and it's dark out, but my normal bedtime doesn't apply to this night. When we get back inside Vicki's place the actual sleepover starts and they take off their makeup and we get into our pajamas. We don't shove our faces with ice cream while watching a romantic comedy and instead have a mix of Vicki's leftovers over How I Met Your Mother which Jada and Vicki now love.
"This show is white as hell, but it's funny," Jada says as we conclude another episode.
"Can I tell you guys something?" I ask.
"Shoot," Vicki says.
"I wanted to leave because Vince was there making out with someone and I saw the girl Ziyah kissed," I say.
I turn to Vicki and she now has a smirk on her face "One, I knew that lemonade thing was a lie because you haven't blown up the bathroom." Well I just had some of your thanksgiving turkey mixed with Chinese noodles so let's not get ahead of ourselves. "Two why do you think we pulled up to that place?" Vicki raises her eyebrows and flips her phone over to me.
It's a blurry Snapchat of Vince that looks like a paparazzi shot. In the middle it says, "Come here and make him jealous."
"Mhm," Vicki says when I'm done looking over the photo. "I was grinding up on some guy I wasn't worried about Vince." We both share a bit of a laugh. Mine is forced because I feel like I'm being disloyal to Vince, but it passes when Jada shushes us and we continue watching How I Met Your Mother and gossiping until we fall asleep. Jada goes or first and of course ends up with a drawing of a dick on her cheek.