Chapter 5
SIENNA
“Hair up or hair down?” Beth bursts into my room, a hand around half her hair, holding it into a ball on top of her head.
“What?” I say, too busy recovering from almost poking my eye out with my mascara wand to process what she just said to me.
“Hair up?” She motions to the hair at the top of her head. “Or hair down?” She lets it fall. Waiting for a response from me, she does this about five more times without saying a word.
Eventually, I put her out of her misery and respond, “You know you’ll look good either way, but I say hair down. You always end up taking your hair down after your third drink, once you find an elevated surface to dance on, anyway.”
Sitting next to me on the bed, Beth smooths out the yellow-and-pink quilted comforter covering my mattress.
“I don’t always find an elevated surface to dance on.” She scoffs.
I give her a pointed look, silently calling bullshit on her statement. We don’t go to many parties, but when we do, she always ends up dancing on something or someone.
Refocusing on applying my mascara in the lighted rectangular mirror that sits on my nightstand, I say, “You know you do, and I love you for it. All the way until the moment you try to drag me up on said surface with you.”
I pull an eye shadow palette out of my makeup bag, knowing she’ll be asking me for it any second now, and hand it to her.
“I still can’t believe you talked me into going to this party in the first place.”
“Oh please.” Beth waves her hand. “With the way you were looking at Theo even after he ran you over with his cart, you practically begged me to drag you to this party.”
“I did not.” I point my mascara wand at her through the mirror.
“Did too. It was all in the eyes,” she says with a dramatic wiggle of her eyebrows. “I know I beat up on him a little in the store—”
“A little?”
“Feeling protective?”
I scoff. “No.” But I did feel bad seeing the look on his face when Beth was hitting him with the cereal box.
She laughs. “I had a class with him last semester, and he seems nice enough. Charming too. And the way he was looking at you, oh my god. I might as well have been invisible.”
I make a show of rolling my eyes as I move to my closet to pick out my shoes for the night.
Being that it’s mid-June and the warm weather has officially hit, I’m wearing one of my favorite summer dresses.
A blue-and-brown paisley printed dress with straps that sit off my shoulders, a cinched waist, and a flowing hem that reaches just above my knee.
Beth helped me pick it out last summer, when I had some extra cash and could actually afford to buy an item off a rack that didn’t have a huge “Sale” sign on it.
Typically, I’d wear it with a pair of sandals, but I learned my lesson sophomore year at a welcome-back party. Let’s just say there was a lot of pushing, drinks spilled, and I ended up spending the rest of the night cleaning Fireball off my bare feet.
Shuddering from the flashback, I grab my brown Converse from my closet.
I don’t plan on being there for long tonight, and it’s probably in my best interest if I avoid seeing Theo altogether.
I can’t afford the distraction with graduation next week, especially when I still have no job prospects.
Not sure how it’ll work, considering the party is at his house, but I’m willing to give it a shot.
“I don’t really understand how you expect me to get in the ‘party’ mood when I have absolutely no future ahead of me,” I say. Beth gives me my small gold pendant necklace and moves to hand me my signature gold hoops.
Waiting for her response, I take a moment to admire Beth’s outfit.
Once again, she’s nailed it, and I rejoice in the fact that I have such a fashion-forward friend.
She’s donned a more casual look than I have, with high-waisted jean shorts that are cut off mid-thigh, a white crop top, and a loose red button-down I’m pretty sure belongs to an ex-fling of hers.
“That’s exactly why you should go to this party. It wouldn’t hurt to get your mind off things for a minute. Besides, I’m hoping to find someone tonight who can take my mind off things for a minute as well.” She gives me a knowing look at her obvious innuendo.
“Still not ready to settle down, huh?” I tease.
“Please, you know me better than that.” She waves her hand. “And don’t even think about asking me if I’ll be bringing home a man tonight. You know I’ve sworn them off forever.” She juts up her nose, playfully snubbing me.
I raise my hands in an effort of defeat.
I know better than to joke about Beth dating a woman, let alone a man.
Beth has, to put it bluntly, commitment issues.
Those issues multiply tenfold when a man is involved.
Hence, her decision to swear off them forever.
I decide to keep my mouth shut, as I’ve seen, on occasion, a man leaving her room in the middle of the night over the past few years.
But to her credit, her visitors have mostly been women.
“Hey, I won’t bug you about your love life if you don’t meddle in mine.” I point a finger at her, and she smiles.
“I’m not meddling. I’m simply pointing out that Theo’s hot, and you could use a night off from applying for jobs.” She raises one eyebrow, and it has me questioning if she’s been talking to my father recently.
“While you might need a distraction, I certainly don’t.
I need to be focused on building my career.
Once I’ve become a senior designer at a respectable company, then I can look for a husband.
” I reach for my bag on my bed, pulling out the essentials for the party and making sure my phone is fully charged.
I also check that my portable phone charger is charged because Beth will inevitably need it tonight.
“No one said you need a husband, Sienna. But a six-foot-five man with luscious brown hair, green eyes, a sharp jawline, toned muscles—” I cut her off before she starts giving me any ideas.
“Your point?”
“A man like that is one you bang and then move on. You don’t need to become his wife. You’ll still have plenty of time to apply for jobs tomorrow, even if you take the night off,” she responds.
“I was actually hoping to use this party as a networking opportunity. See if anyone has any ins with some companies that might be hiring.” I shake my head in defeat, slightly embarrassed by my plan.
“If you ask a single person for job info instead of asking them to play seven minutes in heaven or grind on you, then I will personally ensure you spend the rest of the night doing Jell-O shots with me.”
She knows I detest Jell-O shots with my entire being, and I gasp at her threat. “You wouldn’t.”
“I would.” She links her arm through mine as we head out to the parking lot to catch our ride. Once we’re outside, my phone pings again.
Theo
What’s your favorite Jell-O shot flavor? I’ll be sure to save you one.
I show Beth the text, and she laughs as she squeezes her way into the back of the sedan. She directs the driver to where we are going, while I think of a reply.
I consider asking our driver to turn around and cancel this party altogether when another text comes through.
Theo
Excited to see you tonight.