Soon, the sky darkens as the sun finally sets. My usual make-up routine only consists of simple concealer, foundation, eyeliner, brows and highlighter. Occasionally I may add on falsies but since I had my eyelashes extended only a week and a half ago, there's no need for that.
Cass and I ransack my newly packed closet to dig for clothes to wear for the night. Since she wasn't prepared for the party at all, I decide to lend her something to wear seeing that we're pretty much similar in size â except that she's slightly taller than I am.
We must've flip at least twenty minutes, throwing out different outfits onto my bed to shortlist before we settle on something we both agree on.
For Cass, she chooses a white, strappy and low-cut floral romper that I actually haven't worn. The price tag on it proves that I'm a clothes hoarder and I get mad impulsive on shopping trips.
"You've got nice boobs Cass, you gotta drop that bra for this." I urge her, as her beige-coloured bra stands out in the cleavage from the cut-out of the romper.
"Jesus," she scrunches her nose when she looks into herself in the mirror. She slips down the straps and unclasps her bra in one swift move, allowing her C-cup boobs to dangle in my face. "You do have nipple tapes, don't you?"
Boy do those tits make mine insecure.
We've literally known each other for two days and she's comfortable enough to go half naked in my presence. I like her already.
I giggle. "Actually, no. But we can make do with masking tape?"
"You better not wear a bra either. If I'm left to embarrass myself I want you in with me."
"Game on," I wink. Proceeding to pick my own outfit.
I choose an off-shoulder white frilly knitty bodycon dress, which ends just slightly below my bum. Yeah, I know. I bought the same off-shoulder crop top in black and wore it just yesterday. I may have an obsession with this design.
"So, braless it is. But my nipples are on show." I rummage through various make-up pouches of mine, in hopes the magical tape appears somewhere.
"We can probably get double sided tape and stick a bra cup."
"While you're at that, we might as well just stick tissue paper over it." I roll my eyes.
"Genius!" Cass immediately takes out the soft facial wipes she keeps in her bag and folds them into two small squares. She then get some double sided tape to tape the squares over her nipple. "Damn, it fucking works!"
I laugh at her but does the same as she did. Especially since my dress is white and slightly sheer, I would hate for everyone to guess the colour and size of my areola.
I may not have been feeling up for it in the morning, but something about dolling myself up always perks up my mood. You can't possibly spend an hour putting on make-ups just to dwell in sadness in your room. I refuse to waste that effort.
As we descend the stairs to meet the boys, their cat-calls begin again. We have both decided to wear our sneakers, since none of us plan to be scoring any dick tonight. Our mission is to payback. And killer heels isn't of any advantage other than making our feet hurt, so why bother?
"Woo hoo! May I have the honour of being your dates for the night, ladies?" Drew whistles.
I giggle. "You wish!"
Here comes the flirty Drew again.
"Be glad Wayne didn't just hear that!" Carson mocks. And that's when I notice Wayne isn't sitting around with them.
"Well, I bet you'll be down for the birthday girl anyway!" Cass chuckles.
"You better not ditch me again, Cass." I glower at her jokingly. But if she really does ditch me again then that's that! "If you do, I'm blocking your number. I'm serious."
Cass leaps on me, pulling me into a tight hug. "I won't! Even if I meet someone who's dripping hot I'll just make out in your face!" She sticks out her tongue.
"Yuck!"
Everybody laughs.
Five minutes later, Wayne finally emerges from the bathroom just next to the kitchen. He's dressed in slim-cut dark denim jeans and a black button-down shirt, which he rolls the sleeves up to his elbows; his upper arm wrapped tightly beneath revealing his biceps.
"God dammit. That waffle always makes me shit like hell." Wayne groans, rubbing his stomach up and down.
He then trails his bluish green eyes on me, top to toe, checking out my outfit. I vividly notice his gaze stopping at my chest for a good three seconds.
"Christ, Kel. You're not wearing any bra, are you?" His cheeks shows a tinge of red, unsure whether in embarrassment or disgust.
As soon as he says that, the other three boys hurriedly gather around us in a small circle, tilting their heads to survey my chest. Talk about awkward.
Feeling self-conscious, I bring up both my arms and cross them in front of my chest to hide it. Cass laughs at my predicament.
"Stop it! Cass isn't wearing any either. You guys have no say in our bra!" I quickly race out to my car, Cass following right behind.
I take out my car keys from my mini Michael Kors crossbody, hopping into the driver's seat. Yes, today is bring-your-bag day since I don't intend to get sloshed nor drunk, plus I'm braless and pocketless tonight anyway.
Before Cass can open up my passenger door, Zac steps forward and reaches it first. Eh? Why is he not riding with the other boys?
"Do you want me to drive?" Zac pokes his head into the car from the passenger side.
"Woah, you're getting comfy huh!" I sneer. "You drove for one night and now you wanna hog my car!"
Weirdly, Cass doesn't puts up a fight and simply gets into the backseat. I look at her through the rearview mirror and she smiles widely, showing her perfect set of teeth.
Zac laughs. "I just prefer being the driver. I promise, next time I'll let you drive mine."
I shrug. Since someone offers to, I don't mind playing passenger in my own car. Although I normally will never allow anyone else to drive my car except me. But Zac was the designated driver last night and he took care of me well, I guess he deserves a consolation.
I climb over the middle console to the passenger seat while Zac jogs over to the driver's seat. Wayne's car has already left by then and Cass lays herself down comfortably in the backseat, taking selfies.
"What do you drive, Zac?" Cass asks once she's done with her photos, and she leans into the gap.
"An Audi R8."
I gasp in shock. "Seriously? Why don't you bring your car around?"
Throughout these three days, the only car parked in Wayne's driveway is his own Range Rover. I've never seen any other cars. If he owns an impressive R8, why does he not drive it at all?
"I'm frequently over at Wayne's, especially during the summer break. And the four of us are usually out together. Doesn't makes sense that each of us drive our own cars, yeah?"
"So why the car then? You use it for your women?" Cass smirks, wiggling her brows in a suggestive manner.
I chuckle.
"I do drive it when I'm not over at Wayne's. Maybe I have a reason to take it more often now." Zac grins.
"Who's the lucky girl?" Cass arches an eyebrow at me through the rearview mirror again.
"Hah! I did promise Kelsey I'll let her drive."
"You'd let me drive your Audi while you drive my MINI?" My eyes widen.
"I'll be honoured to."
âââ
Shortly after, we arrive at Bianca's home where her birthday party is held at. Despite it being only 7:30PM, her three-storey house is almost packed to the brim, with a couple of partygoers hanging outside the front entrance.
Zac parks my car along the huge driveway where various other cars are already parked. I guess Wayne must've put in a good word to save a space for us.
The night breeze is chilling, with music playing in the house but not extremely loud as it typically is. We spot the three boys standing around a group of girls at the front yard, where there are fairy lights hanging on the neatly trimmed bushes. One of the girls in wavy, mid-length blonde hair with a sparkly tiara on her head â whom I assume is Bianca, is clinging onto my brother's arm; all of them back-facing us.
When we walk closer to them, I call out his name and all of them turn around to see Cass, Zac and I approaching them. I'm the new kid here, while everyone's probably already acquainted somehow.
Wayne immediately drops Bianca's hand hearing my voice, and head over in our direction, throwing one arm over my shoulder. I watch as Bianca's face turns gloomy, glaring at me like I stole her man.
"You're sticking with me tonight, Kel." Wayne says, putting on the overprotective mode again. Little does he knows tonight our roles will be reversed.
"No thanks," I act nonchalant. "Have you seen how the girls are staring daggers at me? They think I'm snatching you away from them!"
Carson, Zac and Cass laughs.
On the other hand, Bianca hasn't stopped staring at us; particularly me. She must be wondering who the hell I am, and where the hell I came from.
"Oh hello, who's this I've never seen?" Bianca comes over and stands next to Wayne, tugging the sleeves of his shirt to catch his attention.
Her face literally says screw-off-bitch, with a fake as hell smile masking over it.
"Ahh, this here is Kelsey. And she's Wayne's little precious gem." Cass winks at me. We're working on our plan.
Bianca's deep brown eyes begin to reveal a hint of jealousy mixed with anger. "What? Wayne! It's my birthday! You're here for me, aren't you?" She looks like she's about to scratch me with her pointy manicured fingernails.
I grin, seeing that she actually feels like I'm competition. "Just go, babyboo. Somebody is yearning to get in your pants."
Wayne glances at me but says nothing, shaking his head as if he knows I'm deliberately messing around. He takes back his arm and turns to pacify Bianca, but not before he spins back and makes an order. "Zac, watch her!"
Bianca narrows her eyes at me. And if looks could kill, I'm certain I would've been dead by now.
"Of course," Zac responds. But we all know tonight I don't need no babysitting.
"Eww, you're no fun." I fake pout at Wayne before he gets dragged away by Bianca, while the rest of us burst into laughters.
Cass is clutching her sides as she bents slightly over her stomach while chuckling. She hasn't told me what her beef with Bianca is, but it's obvious they must've had history. "Oh my god! Did you see her face?!" She continues to laugh harder.
"I know, she looks like she wants to slap me."
Carson leans one arm over on his brother's shoulder, cracking up. "We really should mess with her longer. It's epic!"
"You've got beef with her too, Carson?" I watch as his eyes follows the direction of where Wayne and Bianca are sitting at, on a garden chair.
"Not really," Carson shrugs. "But I find her shallow and two-faced as hell. I can definitely do with some popcorns!"
Since it's so early in the evening, Cass and I figured that the host generally won't leave to hook up in the middle of her own birthday party. There's no rush as we choose to mingle around them, watching their actions closely.
"So, what's the plan?" I ask as the both of us sit on my bed across each other, chins on our elbows.
"First, get her to notice you. She's going to realize how protective Wayne is of you. And when she does, she most likely will do her best to keep him by her side. So we'll just swoop in last minute and take Wayne back to us. I'm sure he'll pick you over her."
"I doubt so," I narrow my eyes at her, thinking if she's crazy. Why in the world will my brother whom hates me so much pick me over pussy? That's impossible. "But if that doesn't works, I'm going to flirt with him. Maybe get him drunk a little so he doesn't recognize who the hell I am."
"Make sure we cut in when they're both hot and turned on as fuck. That's gonna be really interesting to watch!" Cass giggles, probably imagining the scenario in her head.
Cass and I moves forward to the kitchen, getting ourselves solo cups of punch. The boys are oblivious to our little mission, so they're hanging close around us trying to watch me like they did the day before. And since they decide to be so hardworking, I should perhaps let them worry a bit.
We laugh together as we observe different couples making out, some of them grinding each other on couches, on the floor or even on the spiral staircase.
"Holy shit!" I point to a certain couple at a corner of the house. "Look at that girl! She's rubbing off Carson's crotch this early!"
"Welcome to his wild side," Zac gives a lop-sided smile while sipping his beer, still very closely behind Cass and I while Drew is nowhere to be seen. He must be taking the 'watch her' order too seriously.
And I feel utterly bad about it. How can I allow him to be the caretaker for two consecutive days? He doesn't deserves not to have fun and pick up chicks just because I am the problematic sister of his good friend.
"Where's yours, Zac?" Cass smirks, scoping out the entire room filled with fiery, hormonal college students. "I haven't seen you with your girls around?"
"Yeah, go do your thing!" I give him a light push on his back. "I'll be fine with Cass."
"No worries, let's go find some eyecandies of our own!" Before Zac can say a word, Cass quickly pulls me by my hand up to the second floor â where there's a large bar, filled with a remarkable amount of various liquor on display and most people gathered around hanging out.
The lights on the second floor are dimmer, with only the bar counter's neon lights and a couple of yellow hanging lamp on top of each games table. There's a pool table, a snooker table, a foosball table, a darts machine and a table tennis table which I presume must be used for beer pongs. A relatively large flat screen TV is hung from the ceiling at one corner, showing whatever movie is playing on HBO on a Saturday night.
Then, a guy in blue polo shirt and black jeans comes over to the both of us. "Hey ladies! Cassandra!" They must be friends.
And the fact that Cass knew about coming up to the second floor proves even more about her and Bianca having history.
"Evans! Good to see you here!" Cass leans in to give him a friendly hug. "This is Kelsey!" She puts an arm around me, enthusiastically introducing me to her friends. Not sure what I feel about that. I'm not here for dicks tonight, don't tempt me Cass.
"Hi Evans," I politely smile.
"Hey Kelsey," a voice from behind me whispers. I turn around to see a tall, cleanly shaven guy with comb-back black hair towering over me. "I'm Leo," he grins. "Wanna play a round of pool?"
I haven't played since the last time with J. He was the one who taught me pool, in fact he was the one who taught me plenty of fun things about life. Drinking, partying, even sex. It was all him.
Shit. I shouldn't be thinking about him. I shouldn't.
"Go! I'll just be here catching up with Evans." Cass gives me a reassured smile, sitting up on the bar stool which overlooks the entire game room.
I nod, strolling over to the pool table with Leo. He wears a simple black t-shirt with jeans and sneakers, but there're slip-ups of his bicep tattoo under his sleeves. He isn't very muscular or broad, but he still looks fit enough that he must regularly exercise to maintain.
We reach the empty pool table and I leave my crossbody bag down on a couch nearby. I pick up my cue stick while he picks up his, and we both chalk our sticks at the ends opposite each other.
"Do you wanna break or should I?" I question. I really haven't played in months, and it makes me anxious to find out whether I've lost my standards.
"I'm fine eitherway," Leo raises his shoulders, his eyes gleaming in an almost amused look. Is it weird that I asked?
"I'll break then," I move over to arrange the balls in the right position inside the triangle. Cass and Evans are both sitting at the bar, eating finger food that they requested from the guy behind the counter.
I break the balls and one solid ball drops into one of the pockets, luckily. This game is fifty percent luck, fifty percent skill.
"Nice break," Leo smirks, planting his cue stick bottom side down while he leans against it. "Looks like I'm up against a pro!"
I chortle. Pro, not really. But I was once crowned champion in a local pool's bar back in Bristol. "Don't worry, I'm not making this easy for you." I offer a crooked smile.
The game goes on as each of us carry on taking our shots. Leo rarely asks anything too personal, and I genuinely appreciate that since I'm not really about making male friends. Usually anyone, especially guys that I speak to, will not end up in my contacts list the next day.
At one point, one of my shots is in a tricky position and I take some time to consider how to make the shot.
"Need some help with that?" Leo gives me a smirk, standing right behind me. I can feel his hot breath fanning against my bare neck.
I teasingly brush my shoulder in a way to say it's nothing. "Hah, it's cool. I can do it!"
The fact that I'm wearing a short dress is the worrying factor for me. Still, I bend forward over the table and aim my cue stick right to make my shot â scoring two balls at once into the same pocket.
When I'm done, I turn to see Leo still standing behind me, grinning as he must've caught a sight of my butt when my dress slid up. Almost in a flash, I feel someone rush up next to me and grips me by my waist, wrapping a denim jacket over it.
Shit. Thank goodness that I wore white thongs instead of my embarrassing cartoon printed knickers.
"Zac! You scared me!" I turn around to face the owner of the jacket, gasping. When did he even come up here?
"Next time, don't wear a short dress to play pool."
I giggle. "I didn't think about that. Thanks anyway!"
He sashays away and I realize he must've been observing and caught the moment. Damn.
The round quickly ends after I hit my last solid ball, which bounces and knocks on the black ball, causing both of it to drop in the pockets.
"Good game!" Leo pats my shoulder. "You're really intriguing. I see why plenty of men tonight are turning heads for you."
"I know right! Come on! The fun has just begun!" Cass skips over to us seeing that the game has ended.
"More drinks, ladies?" Evans asks, two drinks in hand.
"Sure."
"Mmm! I could get high on this watermelon vodka!" Cass tips the cup and gulps it down.
I sigh. "God, Cass! We're only forty-five minutes in. Don't you dare get drunk on me!"
She drags me downstairs, to where the DJ is spinning, silently inviting me to dance. I remove the denim jacket tied on my waist and scan around the house, looking for Zac to return it to him.
I spot him sitting at the living hall, on a black leather two-seater couch, with Carson and a couple of girls with them. One of them puts her hand on Zac's thighs and seems to be rubbing her breasts against his sides constantly.
Glad he's getting some tonight. I don't feel so guilty now.
I make my way to their direction, dropping his jacket over his shoulder and wink at him. He winks back. The puzzled girl next to him cups Zac's face and forces it to face her, giving him a "who's-that-bitch" look while he simply ignores her.
I return back to Cass at the makeshift dance floor as the DJ plays a mix of the latest Billboards tracks. We grab random shots on trays on a nearby table, then a tipsy Drew finally emerges.
I try my best to stay sober, reminding myself of my mission. Don't get drunk. Don't get drunk.
Drew approaches me and dances alongside me, slowly closing the distance between us before he laughs and holds onto my waist.
"Drew!" I chuckle. "You're high, huh? I'm Kelsey!"
"I know. But you're also a hottie!"
"Just don't expect me to make out with you," I grin, swaying my hips to the beat of the song like I always do.
"I wouldn't refuse if you want to!" He winks.
"In your dreams!"
Cass dances with Evans behind us, grinding her butt against his groin. We laugh and enjoy the carefree moment, dancing to the best of our limits, showing off our sexiest dance moves. And because Drew keeps one of his arm wrapping around my waist as we dance, nobody else tried to hit me up, so I know tonight there's no chance for another disaster. Or is there?