Chapter 27
Y ou know that feeling when the world around you becomes muffled?
Someone tries talking to you, but their lips move in slow motion. You’re living, breathing, acting in your usual ways but you can’t take in what you’re doing?
That’s what it feels like.
My phone buzzes.
I see the message.
Hina says something to me I don’t know.
We go upstairs.
It’s only when the door shuts behind her that I’m snapped back to reality.
“I’ve never heard of a masquerade bar party.” She’s already taking apart every fit in her closet. “Masquerade ball, yes. But how does this work at a club?”
We got a message from production telling us that we’d be attending a masquerade club. I didn’t know they existed until today. Pretty sure they’re making us go because a ball is on my bucket list, but it’s too niche and out of budget to put one together.
“Guess we wear masks and shake our butts off,” Katarina enters the room. She walks to Hina and kisses her cheek.
“Look who took six weeks to make up,” the joke feels dry on my tongue. I’m stuck on Dean—wanting to talk to him.
But it’d go against what I asked and I’m not one to go back on my word this quickly.
“Funny,” Kat smiles. “It felt like a lifetime.”
“Of course it did,” Hina teases. “You lost me.”
“Now, I love you.”
They smile warmly at each other.
I want that too. The comfort of another person, to feel belonged in their arms without the fear of time pulling us apart.
Never knew I craved security until now.
“How’s your migraines doing?” Kat asks.
I didn’t realize Kat brought her own luggage in here. She sits on the ground, rummaging through clothes upon clothes.
“Better,” I tell the truth. Perching onto Hina’s bed, “Which is surprising. They never stay away for long.”
“This’ll help tonight,” she sits back on her heels and takes a sleek, black case out of her pocket. She hands it to me.
“What is it?” It looks like it’s earbuds.
“Open it,” she motions with an open palm.
I do as she says.
At first, that’s what it looks like. Silicone rings attached to rose-gold metallic rings. I take them out of the case, holding them in my palm. They’re incredibly light.
“Ear plugs,” Kat tells me. “To block out noise. People wear them at concerts, but apparently it helps with migraines too.”
“Kat…” my voice is full of awe. “Thank you! ”
No one’s ever done this for me. Albeit, Nadine and Rosa don’t know I struggle with migraines and Sunny doesn’t know the intensity of them.
“They’re not from me,” her lips take on a knowing tilt. “Dean asked me to give it to you.”
Cue my heart stopping then running like it’s under attack.
“Don’t mention his name to her,” Hina peers over a shirt. “She starts crying. Pretty sure I saw her giving you the stink eye earlier.”
“I was not!” I totally was.
Kat waves it off. “I was the same with you and Hina. I get it. Dean has only given me one-word answers since the beginning, but today it’s like I couldn’t get him to shut up and all he did was talk about you, Nova.”
“What?” My mouth falls open. “You sat there, watching Dirty Dancing, talking about me?”
She nods. “I don’t know what happened between you two, but I’ve never met a man who talks about a woman with as much respect as Dean does for you. He doesn’t just see you as someone to love, but as someone who can love him too. That has to mean something, right?”
That word again.
I don’t reply, not even sure how to.
Kat and Hina don’t know that it’s starting to mean everything .
A free day. That’s what Irene’s abrupt message to the group was.
No cameras. No crew. Just the group and time for us to have fun at a masquerade club.
I find it a bit odd they’re letting scenes go to waste, but they’re the professionals.
The ground vibrates beneath my heels .
When Hina, Kat, and I got to the venue, I instantly darted towards the bathroom. Dean is going to be here, and I need to be prepared. I’ll talk to him. Ask him if what I know is the truth or not. From there, we’ll go back to having space.
If I am Dean’s bucket list, then this changes everything .
Newfound confidence courses through my veins like I’ve injected myself with drugs. But that drug simply being the truth.
I run a hand down my figure.
Thanks to Kat, a black lacy corset hugs my top half.
The V-neckline stoops low to my belly button.
A dark, sheer fabric is the only protection I have from a closet mishap.
Skin-tight sleeves in the same material wrap around my arms, narrowing when it reaches my middle finger, hooked by a single, rubber thread.
Paired with it is a simple leather mini skirt in the same colour.
Silver, dainty jewellery adorn around my neck and ears.
My hair is back in the messy updo from before.
I’m most amused by the mask. Black, handcrafted silk with articulate design of metal on the outside. The twists and turns of elegance in each curve belong in a museum, not on me.
Before heading out, I reapply my lipstick and tuck it away in the tiny pocket of my skirt. Then, look for Hina and Kat, which doesn’t take long because one’s doing shots and the other is smiling stupidly at her.
My eyes are on them, every other part of me is on the lookout for Dean.
“Didn’t the night just begin?” Laughing, I sit on the chair next to Hina.
She scrunches her whole face after the shot, instantly sucking on a lemon. “What do you mean I drank three shots, and I don’t want more? ”
“It’s called getting old, babe.”
Hina gives Kat a look, who simply kisses it away. “I love you, but we’re not built for club life anymore.”
“Says the one who keeps bouncing her leg and going I love this song every two minutes.”
Kat rolls her eyes, then looks at me. “How are you doing, pretty girl?”
Automatically, I touch the earbuds. “Good. Great, actually. These are magic.” They really are.
Not once have I paid attention to the music even though I can feel it bouncing off my skin.
I can still hear well, but it muffles loud sounds.
Best way to describe it is like I finally have control over one of the triggers.
“I’m glad,” she smiles into her glass.
“ Ugh ,” Hina’s looking at herself in a compact mirror. “Does anyone have lipstick with them?”
“I do,” I reach for my pocket, only to find it empty. What the heck? I pat and reach into it, but nothing’s there. “Or well I did,” I look at the ground around me. “I lost it.”
My heart falls at the realization.
“Was it expensive?” Hina asks.
I’m someone that gets sentimentally attached to objects.
Back when Nadine wasn’t married and we lived in the same house, I always used her lip combo.
Before she got married, she gave me a new set.
It’s not about attachment issues, but about how every object she had that’s now with me is a part of her that hasn’t changed—will never shift into a person I don’t know.
An object remains permanent, even when the paint chips away, it doesn’t grow legs and walk away.
The lipstick is a lot more than the colour on lips for me.
I release a well-concealed shaky breath, “No.” Everything happens for a reason .
“I’ll keep an eye out for it,” the familiar voice makes me smile.
“Thanks Rhys,” I say. “Want a drink?” I change the subject because if we keep talking about my lost lipstick, I’m going to cry, and no one wants that.
“Got it,” he thanks the bartender. “You look good, Nova.”
I blush, “Thanks. It’s all because of these two.”
The two in question are sipping water through straws, their eyes flinging back and forth between us. “Did you guys fuck?”
Rhys snorts out his drink.
“ Hina ,” I close my eyes. “Why is everything sexual with you?”
Kat shakes her head but she’s smiling.
“What?” Hina surrenders her hands. “It’s less awkward between you two.”
“It’s a wonder what communication can do.”
She glares at me, “Point taken, bitch.”
Hina then smacks her lips, grabbing something out of her bag. It’s a small white bottle with a prescription label.
“I’m not a drug kind of girl,” I say quickly. “But I’m totally cool with it. If it’s legal, of course.”
Hina snorts, “Not my kind of scene either. But,” she takes one out and offers it. “It’s Propanol . I saw one sad pill waiting for its turn in our room. I pulled some strings to get you more.”
First Dean, now Hina. I’m blessed with good people.
“You’re gonna make me cry.”
“Don’t cry on my Chanel,” she jokes, leaning back.
The earplugs help muffle out the noise. Sounds of my breath are louder than the club, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Swallowing the pill with water, “Has everyone arrived?” I ask, tentatively.
Hina peeks beneath her mask and smirks. “Someone in particular you’re looking for?”
“Oh, shut up.” I gently shove her. “I’m asking about everyone.”
“They’re all here,” Kat teases. “Saw Shaan grinding it down on a poor woman earlier.”
Rhys chuckles at that. He’s been listening to us talk. Rhys is a great guy and somewhere out there, a great woman will fit perfectly in his arms.
“You can tell them the truth, you know?” He doesn’t sound sad when he says it.
“What truth?” I swirl the chair around to face him.
“You rejected me,” he shrugs. “I’m not embarrassed by it.”
“Oh, I…” It’s not like I didn’t want to tell Kat and Hina. I’m not one to go around telling people I rejected him. In another world, it could’ve been Rhys and me. But then, that would be a world I’m not happy in.
“It’s making them think there’s still something here,” he explains. “You want Dean, Nova. You shouldn’t be scared to let anyone know, especially yourself.”
“You should be a motivational speaker,” I swallow the truth.
“And you should go find him,” Rhys pushes. “I saw him moping in the corner somewhere.”
A picture of Dean, leaning against a wall, looking at the bustling people, brings a smile to my face. Verbally, he’s a closed book. But the second you look at him, all his secrets are painted in bright red.