C H A P T E R 0 4
?She's bright like glitter and bubbly like champagne.?
Liv had a car which her parents had gifted to her when she was sixteen and since then she had been using it. It has being over five years now and the car had visible signs of being old. But it was still a nice little black car.
"When are we going to reach?" I asked. It had been over half an hour and we were still driving through the New York roads to reach to her friend, Wilma's place.
"Are you so excited that you can't wait to reach there?"
"You wish."
She rolled her eyes. "We're almost there." Liv replied, excitement evident in her tone. What a party animal.
She pulled up in front of a large mansion with high walls surrounding it and a black intricately designed gate which had two men in black on either side of it.
Liv unbuckled her seatbelt and glanced at me. I still had my seat belt on.
"Why aren't you getting out?" She asked while smoothing out the corners of her dress which perfectly fit her. Her dress on me was a bit big but still it looked good.
"Who are they?" I asked, pointing at the muscular men at the gates.
"Uh...They are the guards." She said, flicking her eyes back to me which were previously on the guards.
"At a party?" I asked incredulously. Who would keep guards at a party? I didn't even know what kind of a party this was. I suddenly felt self conscious. What if I was overdressed? Or worse, underdressed?
"Yeah. Now come on, you'll be fine."
I hope so. I got out of the car and walked towards the huge gate with Liv. The gate was wide open and cars were driving inside.
We were stopped by the guards as soon as we reached the gate. One of the guards asked for our names which we told him. Then he talked to someone on his earpiece after which we were finally allowed inside.
"Why do they need so much security?" I wondered.
"Wilma's parents are rich and have a highly successful business. I don't know, they are millionaires or something like that and so they have many business rivals so they kind of, need security."
"They are millionaires?" I asked in amazement.
"Yep."
"Liv, are you sure we are at the right place.
I mean, they are so rich and all and I just work at a café.
I'll be so out of place," I hesitated. It would be so awkward for me.
Not only the people were all strangers to me, but they were millionaires too!
I shouldn't have come at all when I knew how inferior I felt even among my classmates. Stupid me had to listen to Liv.
"Jules! That has got nothing to do with the party.
Wilma is the sweetest and the kindest human being I've ever known.
She doesn't care about the status and her parents are cool as well, as long as it doesn't harm them.
So don't try to kill anyone, okay?" She gave me a serious face.
I was kind of expecting her to burst into laughter after saying that but she put on a serious expression.
"Why? I was planning your extravagant funeral tonight!" I said sarcastically.
"I know. That's why I'm telling you to not kill anyone." She said and finally her expression turned to that of amused.
There was a huge mansion in front of us. In front of the mansion was a big garden blooming with beautiful flowers and there was also a swing. There were white pillars on either side of the entrance of the mansion and at the entrance there was again a guard.
Did they really need that much of security? Were they threatened by something?
We walked up the stairs to the entrance and the guard didn't stop us. As we entered the palace-like mansion, my jaw dropped to the floor as I took in the sight before me.
The hall was huge and beautiful. The interior of the hall was spectacular with white colored walls and the other wall had a nice purple design that covered the whole wall which was also the only element giving color in the room, except the people.
There was also a big chandelier hanging from the ceiling which glittered with the brilliant lighting.
Only after my inspection of the grand hall did I notice the people in it. And man, did I feel so out of place. They were not staring at us, thankfully.
I felt as if I was really attending the millionaire parties. Which actually I was. There were so many people in the hall. All elegantly dressed. All men were dressed in black tuxedos and the women were all in beautiful dresses that would probably cost more than my entire life's earnings.
"Come on," Liv gestured, grabbing my hand and leading me through the crowd. We made our way towards the counter which was at the corner. They were serving drinks.
Liv looked at me with a pleading expression and I raised an eyebrow.
"No way. You promised me you won't drink tonight."
I didn't know anyone here and I needed a sober person to drive me back home as I didn't know where we were as Liv had brought me to Wilma's birthday party and I was visiting it for the first time.
"Promises are made to be broken," she replied.
"And if you broke this promise I'll feed your bones to my dog!" I threatened.
"You don't have a dog." She deadpanned.
"I'll buy one."
"Oh come on, Julie. Loosen up a bit. When was the last time I had a drink?"
"A week ago?"
"See? A week ago! Seven days ago! One sixty-eight hours ago! Ten thousand and eighty minutes ago! And six hundred and four thousand, eight hundred seconds ago. That's a long time."
"You sound drunk already so you don't need to drink."
"I'm not drunk and why shouldn't I drink? I have the right to do anything I want."
"Hey Olivia, you made it," I heard a kind and sweet voice from behind Olivia. We turned to the source of voice.
"Hey Willy! Happy birthday!" Liv said as she hugged her. I assumed she was Wilma.
"Thank you," Wilma replied as she retracted from her hug with Olivia. Her huge black eyes landed on me.
"She's my friend I told you about. Julie, Wilma. Wilma, Julie." Olivia introduced us to each other, casually gesturing towards us.
"Nice to meet you. Happy birthday Wil-" I wasn't able to finish the sentence because before I knew, Wilma had thrown herself at me and was hugging me tightly. I hugged her back lightly.
"Thank you. Come on." She grabbed Liv's hand and dragged her away from me and I was slowly losing her in the huge crowd.
God, help me.
I looked around frantically for any sign of her. There were too many people around me who were drinking, talking and laughing. Nobody bothered to look at me as they walked past me.
Okay I shouldn't panic. It was just a birthday party and Olivia surely wouldn't leave without me. I'd find her eventually. I just hoped she wouldn't go anywhere near alcohol.
I looked for her among the crowds of people as I followed trail through which they disappeared.
I asked a few people whether they had seen Wilma and most of them responded that they didn't see the birthday girl yet and some of them said that she probably was in her room. I thanked them.
Her room? How on earth was I going to find her room in this humongous place?
I decided to just stay put. It was her birthday so she would come to cut the cake or whatever. I retreated back to the counter where they were serving drinks and sat on one of the chairs.
I felt so lonely. She had better come back to me soon.
I sat there for God knows how long. I watched as people talked, danced and ate around me.
I so knew this party was a bad idea for me. I should never listen to Olivia. I promised myself to never attend a party ever again.
"Do you need anything, miss?" I heard a voice behind me and turned towards the source. I saw a young man dressed as a waiter looking at me. He was probably the one who asked me.
"A glass of water would be fine," I told him. He raised his eyebrows at this probably wondering why I wasn't having a drink at this party like the other people.
"Are you okay?" He asked as he filled a glass with water.
"Yeah. What time is it?" I asked.
He looked at his wrist watch for a second and looked back up at me. "It's almost ten," He said and extended his hand towards me, holding the glass of water. I took it from him.
"Do you know where Wilma could be?" I asked him, not sure whether he knew or not.
"She must be somewhere here. It's her birthday and cake cutting is yet to take place in a few minutes so she must be somewhere around here. Is she your friend?"
"No. She's my friend's friend. She's Olivia's friend, I mean."
"Oh," He said shrugging. "I don't know who she is so I can't help you."
"It's okay. I'll go search for her," I said, taking a sip of the cold water. I got up from the chair I was sitting on and turned around to leave, the glass of water still in my hand.
As I turned around, I bumped into someone and the glass slipped from my hand. The water spilled on the person's dress. Thank God it wasn't alcohol.
"I'm so sorry, ma'am. I didn't mean to spill water on your dress," I said quickly as I watched the lady who had an annoyed expression plastered on her face staring down as she frantically tried to dry the water. Her gown was all wet.
"What the hell." She muttered. She didn't look up at me and some of the waiters came up to us. They started cleaning the glass off the floor and I immediately felt guilty that they had to do that because of me.
"I'm so sorry," I said again and this time the woman looked up slowly to glare at me.
Her eyes met mine and for a second I saw so much anger in her eyes that I gulped. And then very soon her glare turned to a confused stare and her perfectly shaped eyebrows knit together. My face mirrored her expression and I was confused as to why she hadn't spit something insulting at me.
Her expression finally changed and her eyes widened as if she had just seen a UFO land in front of her. Her mouth dropped. She looked so shocked. Her eyes roamed all around my face and from head to toe.
"I'm really sorry I spoiled your dress." I said and quickly walked away from there. I knew I shouldn't have done that. I should have helped the poor lady but I was just so confused at her actions and I didn't want to get into any trouble. And the way she stared at me was creepy.
I looked back and caught her staring at me with the same expression. I quickly disappeared in the crowd, escaping her surprised stare. Thank God she wasn't following me. I could have been in trouble if she demanded me to pay money for ruining her dress.
I was actually kind of surprised that she didn't chase after me for spoiling her dress. She looked pretty pissed off when it happened but it completely changed once she looked at me.
I looked at my reflection in the full length mirror adjacent to me and I wasn't looking scary, or anything that excessive that caused the lady to look so shocked and surprised at seeing me. Then why did she react like that?
"Hello everyone!" An enthusiastic voice brought me out of my thoughts. I turned around to see a balding, old man who was probably in his 60's with a mic in his hand over the aisle. The crowd stopped talking and everyone's attention turned to him.
"Today, is my darling daughter, Wilma's birthday and I am so happy and proud of her. She turns twenty two today," The crowd clapped at this. As their claps died down, the man continued. "She has grown from a cute baby to a kind child to a mature and beautiful adult!"
At this time Wilma came over the aisle and gave a hug to her dad. "Thank you so much dad for everything! I love you so much."
Olivia must be there somewhere around her. I pushed past people to reach there. The father-daughter duo continued their speech but I didn't pay attention to it. I was more concerned with finding a hopefully sober Olivia.
But no matter how much I tried to find her, I wasn't able to. Finally fed up with searching for her without any success I flopped down on a chair and listened to the speech. How long was the speech going to be? I needed go confront Wilma about Olivia's whereabouts.
After about ten minutes or so, Wilma finally cut the cake and people began dancing after that. Thankfully I was able to reach Wilma before she was roped into another conversation. I tapped her shoulder and she turned around.
"Hey, Julia!" She shouted enthusiastically over the music.
I smiled at her. "It's Julie."
She gave me a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I'm terrible at remembering names. I used to call Olivia all sorts of funny names when I first met her. I would call her Olive, Olay or Oliver when I forgot her name. "
"It's okay. Happy birthday Wilma." I said, smiling softly at her.
"Oh, thank you!" She said as she once again gave me a deathly hug without warning.
"Um...Do you happen to know where Olivia is?" I asked her, politely retracting from the hug.
"She was here with me just now. I don't know where she went. Don't worry, she's probably peeing as that's what she does right after twenty shots of vodka."
My eyes widened. "She got drunk?!"
"Yeah!" She said, looking oblivious to my outburst.
"Oh no! I'm going to kill her!"
"Don't do it here. I don't want to bury a dead body on the eve of my birthday," She said and laughed.
I smiled weakly at her.
"I'm going to go find her."
"Hey, how is the party?"
It sucks. It was an instantaneous thought and I was relieved the words didn't escape my mouth.
"It's really nice. I love it." I said, not meaning any of it.
"That's good. You should come often to my parties. I would love to have you here."
"Sure. I'll come." Not.
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