Tear (Seaside 1)

I had two hours until the party and still hadn’t decided what to wear.

My cell sang the familiar AD2 ringtone. Demetri had successfully hacked into my phone and changed all my ringtones to their band. I was too impressed to be upset.

“What’s up, Alesha?”

“You’re going tonight, right?” she asked excitedly.

“Um, yeah, I told you this morning.”

“Oh.” Long silence. “I forgot. Anyway, wanna get ready together?”

“Yeah, but Alesha, I don’t really have anything here to wear—”

The line went dead. Well, that was Alesha for you.

Within minutes she was hauling a pile of clothes and a makeup tote through the door.

“Are we moving into Evan’s?” I choked.

“No, silly, but it is a sleepover, so pack some cute lingerie.” She swatted me with her free hand after she put down the duffel. “You’re already with Demetri, not that I can blame you. He’s staked his claim repeatedly. First by kissing you on the cheek in the hallway and then again when he told every guy in the locker room that if they looked at you he’d castrate them. I swear, if peeing on you would mark his territory more, he’d do it.”

I didn’t know he’d been talking about me. I shifted uncomfortably. I hadn’t ever really talked to Alesha about Demetri. It didn’t feel right. Just because she thought we were an item didn’t make it true. He hadn’t made one move since the beach.

“Anyway…” She flicked a piece of hair away from her face. “Since he’s taken, I’m going to go for the angry one.”

“Alec.” I clarified.

“Duh!” She pulled out a tight black dress. “Here you go!”

“Please tell me that is my pajamas.” I grasped the small piece of fabric, already feeling my face flush with embarrassment.

“Nope, that’s your dress.” She moved behind me and tsked. “We should probably fix your hair too.”

I lifted my hand to my hair. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Way too flat.” She grabbed a piece and grimaced as if I was somehow unclean, “We’ll rat it, no biggie.”

And just like that, I was turned from slave into Cinderella. That is, if Cinderella suddenly decided to become a prostitute.

“Absolutely not,” I said, looking at my figure in the mirror. I didn’t necessarily look bad, just cheap, and not at all like myself.

“Trust me, Demetri will die!” She clapped behind me. Alesha had low slung jeans and a short white off-the-shoulder shirt that barely covered half her chest.

“Not sure I wanna kill him, Alesha.” I hadn’t the heart to tell her I was actually going with Alec. She’d find out soon enough I guess.

“Crap!” She looked at her phone and hurriedly grabbed the rest of her clothes. “I gotta go, Evan forgot to get ice. I swear if that boy graduates high school I’m giving him a medal.” She ran to the door then stopped and turned around. “And don’t forget to pack your PJ’s. Evan doesn’t want anyone driving.”

Great, add alcohol to another lists of firsts. I gave her a thumbs-up, but felt sick to my stomach with dread. I had always avoided Evan’s parties like the plague. I’d seen first hand what those type of parties did to people, mainly what they did to Evan, since he always had the weekend shift and ended up showing up to work looking like he wanted to die a thousand deaths.

I looked at the shoes she left me. They were tall, intimidating, and pointy. I put them on and hobbled around the room as I tried to get my bearings. Finally, I looked at the finished product in the mirror. I guess it wasn’t that bad. What at first looked like dark makeup, really only brought out my features more. She used soft shadows to make the color in my otherwise plain brown eyes pop. And she straightened my hair. It looked really shiny and bright, not dull like normal.

I added the lip-gloss she left me just in time for the doorbell to ring.

After two failed attempts to run down the stairs I quickly threw off the shoes and opened the door.

Alec was leaning against the frame, all six-foot-four of him. He wore a tight muscle-tee and a leather jacket like they were made for him. Add that to his jeans ripped in all the right places, and suddenly I was thankful Alesha put me in the dress.

His eyes widened for a brief second before he aggressively shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over my shoulders. “Wow.”

“What?” Did I have lipstick on my teeth? Crap. I knew this was a bad idea.

Alec hung his head. “The jacket’s just making it worse. How is adding more clothes making it worse?” He cursed again and looked away.

“I can change.”

“No!” His hands shot out to grasp my arms, the jacket slipped off and suddenly I was in his embrace.

His heavily lidded eyes gazed at my lips. With a sigh, he pulled his arms away and took a step back. “You ready to go?”

Shaken from our encounter, I could only nod and grab the shoes I had tossed at the foot of the stairs.

I grabbed my overnight bag and followed him to his SUV.

By now I knew he drove a brand new Lexus LS 570. The car smelled like expensive leather, and although I was happy to be going with him to Evan’s party, I was still envious I wouldn’t be able to drive the car.

“Stop lusting over my car, Nat.” The darkness only aided in making Alec look more dangerous and handsome. Black wavy hair fell over his forehead. I wanted to brush it out of his eyes, but we didn’t have that type of friendship where we were comfortable with touching each other in any capacity. Every time he accidently brushed my hand, or even my arm, he would jerk back as if I burned him or something. I wasn’t sure if it meant that he was repulsed by me or felt the exact same electricity I did.