• 97: Blue Dress • - Story Paper Thin

• 97: Blue Dress •

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Melody

After a shower, I dried off and put on some makeup. A smoky eye seemed appropriate for a night out, so I had a little fun with it and then used a nude lip colour to lighten the look. I took my flat iron and went to work on my hair until it was pin straight, then stood in front of my closet deciding on what to wear. It felt like an eternity before I made up my mind; too fat for this, too tall for that...but I chose a lacy, navy blue dress that hugged my body. I then found a silver pair of heels and put them on. I looked at myself in the mirror and shrugged.

As good as it's going to get, I thought. I quickly headed downstairs before I lost my nerve and changed my mind on what I was wearing again. As I got to the foot of the stairs, I noticed Mia lounging on the couch. She looked up from the television as she saw me, her eyes raking my body with an expression on her face that I couldn't quite read.

"Are you going to a party?" she asked.

"Yes," I said hesitantly.

"Is that what you're wearing?" Mia scrunched her nose up,

"Yeah. Is it too much?" I asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

"Well..." she started. The doorbell then rang, cutting whatever she was planning on saying short. I sucked in a breath and opened the door, to see Carson there. He smiled at me brightly.

"Hi beautiful," he said. I felt my nose wrinkle in rejection of the compliment, despite my cheeks heating up. He chuckled softly at my reaction before asking, "ready to go?"

"Yes, let me just get my jacket," I said reaching into the closet by the door.

"By the way, Harvey and Emma asked for a ride, so they're in the car," Carson added.

"Wait! You have Harvey Fuller in that car too?" Mia asked suddenly from the couch. I pulled on my coat and turned around to face her.

"Yeah," I answered dryly.

"I am quaking. Whoa. You might actually not be a complete loser," Mia said. Carson opened his mouth to say something, but I held up a hand and stopped him. I couldn't be bothered to get into it with my annoying stepsister.

"I guess not," I said quietly before turning my back to her and opening the front door. Carson followed behind me and closed the door once we were outside.

"You really shouldn't let her talk to you like that," he said. I shrugged and began walking towards the car.

"It's whatever," I replied, fidgeting with the skirt of my dress.

What was wrong with it? Was it too short? Did it fit too tight?

"It's not 'whatever'. You should stand up for yourself," Carson said as we stopped outside of his car.

"I don't have the energy to always be fighting with her," I replied. "Besides, if that gets her through the day, then it's not a big deal." Carson sighed and kissed me on the forehead before opening the car door for me.

"Hey girl hey!" Emma squealed as I got inside the vehicle. Carson closed the door for me and then walked around to his side.

"Hey!" I said as brightly as I could manage. I glanced back at Emma and Harvey in the back. They each had a hand in between them, intertwined by their fingers. I bit back a smile.

"Ready to get lit?" Harvey asked as Carson slid into the driver's seat. Carson smirked and buckled himself in.

"Ah, the desperate cries of a teenage alcoholic," Carson replied, dramatically, making Emma, Harvey and I laugh in response.

We pulled up to a row of cars parked along the curb and realized we would have to fall in line and walk from here. Carson parked behind a little silver car and we all got out of the car. We stepped over the snow and onto the shovelled sidewalk to start our small trek to Veronica's house.

Carson held my hand in his and pulled me closer, which shielded me a little from the cold as we walked. We went up a long driveway before finally getting inside the large house. The front door was unlocked, so we let ourselves in, and tossed our jackets together on a shelf in the coat closet at the front. While the music was audible from when we were at the bottom of the driveway, it was now pumping loudly, bouncing off the walls.

A dragged out "ayyy!" was yelled out by some of the boys when they noticed Carson and Harvey's presence at the party. They sauntered over and bumped knuckles. Everyone had a red solo cup in hand and seemed to fit in so easily to this jigsaw puzzle of a party. I felt like the piece from a different puzzle that got tossed into the wrong box. I decided however to suck it up and smile because I was out of the house and the popular kids weren't picking on me anymore.

We wandered into the crowded area and I found myself gripping Carson's hand tighter as my smile got wider.

"Oh my gosh! Melody, your dress is killer!" Julia squealed, rushing towards me. I sucked in a breath as she threw her arms around me. She gasped as she looked over my shoulder. "Emma that skirt is literally to die for!"

"Oh, thank you!" Emma grinned. "Your outfit is so cute!" Julia was wearing thigh high boots and a little black dress that looked amazing on her. She beamed at the compliment. I was in awe of how easily Emma was able to navigate popular people.

"Let's grab a drink and say hi to everyone," Julia said, grabbing Emma and my wrist in each of her hands. My eyes widened at the sudden contact once again and I glanced towards Carson who smiled at me.

'You're okay,' he mouthed. I smiled and let myself be dragged off to the group of girls in designer clothing.

They all let out an exaggerated, high-pitched 'hey', that was so in sync I wondered how long it took them to nail it down.

"What are you drinking?" Veronica asked Emma and I, holding up two cups.

"Um, what do you have?" Emma asked.

"She's so cute," Veronica laughed. "There's vodka, rum, tequila, coolers, and beer."

"I guess just a cooler," Emma said hesitantly. The girls turned to me and I shook my head. Alcohol was empty calories that I didn't plan on ever putting into my body.

"I'm fine," I said. "Maybe a water."

"Booooring!" Jennette booed.

"Leave her alone! After two parties I'm sure she'll be knocking almost as much tequila as you!" Julia laughed. She poured some water into a cup and handed it to me. I took it and sipped it slowly.

An upbeat pop song came on and the girls squealed. It had a summery kind of vibe to it, bouncy and light. Jennette squealed and knocked back the rest of whatever was in her cup.

"Oh! I looove this song! Let's dance!" Jennette cheered. It was a little obvious that the tequila Julia was referring to was running through her veins. Nonetheless we all went over to where everyone was dancing and joined in. Or at least, they joined in. I managed a little two-step motion, hoping that I didn't look awkward as I balanced the action with my water in hand.

Emma on the other hand, blended in seamlessly, tossing her hair and shaking her hips. I smiled as we made eye contact and then took a deep breath, deciding that I was going to at least try to look like I was having almost as much fun as she was.

Suddenly, the girls straightened their spines and went from genuinely having a good time to trying to look casually cool. I glanced in the direction of the front door and noticed that Rose and the twins were making their way towards us. They stopped every so often saying hi to people they passed by. When the got to us, Rose gave me a once over, a glare in her eyes before she smiled at her friends.

"Rose! Fashionably late as always!" Jennette grinned. Rose wrinkled her nose in disgust at her intoxicated friend and flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder.

"You can't make an entrance if you arrive at the same time as everyone else," Rose replied. She looked at me an Emma. "I see you've invited the losers."

"They're dating two of the hottest guys in school. I'm sure they would have been here anyways," Veronica shrugged.

"Yeah, they're practically one of us now," Julia said, with a smile.

"Hardly," Rose said. "Melody is whoring her way to the top, and Emma is hanging on to her ugly little dresses to be up there alongside her."

"You know something Rose? We don't have to stand here and listen to you insult us. Instead, you can stand here and be jealous, while Emma and I go flirt with the 'two hottest guys in school,'" I said with a sarcastic smile. Her eyes narrowed and she grabbed a drink out of a nearby dancer's hand. Leaving me no time to move, she tossed the contents of the cup out onto my dress.

"I think you might want to clean that up first," she said with a sickly-sweet smile. "Bathroom is that way," she pointed before pulling her friends away. I huffed in frustration, feeling the sticky, cold liquid seeping through the upper torso of my dress.

"I can't believe she did that!" Emma yelled.

"I can," I replied flatly.

"She is so mean!" Emma grumbled.

"I'm going to go clean this up. You can just go to the guys. I'll meet you there," I said, walking in the direction of the bathroom.

When I got inside, I glared in the mirror at what looked like a Coca-Cola stain forming on my blue dress. I sighed and closed the door behind me, then grabbed some toilet paper and began trying to clean it. After a couple minutes, I realized the stain was fading but wouldn't come out until I threw it in the wash, so I gave up. I washed my hands and opened the door but stepped back when Diesel stumbled into the doorway.

A huge grin spread onto his face the moment he laid eyes on me and suddenly, I wished that Emma hadn't gone to wait with Carson and Harvey.

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Author's Note: Hiii! I'm so sorry! I know it's been way longer than my usual updating schedule but I had a bad case of writer's block! I knew where I wanted to go but not how to get there, but I think I figured it out now! Haha! At least this chapter is pretty long in comparison to others! Hopefully I can get the next chapter up by next week; I've just started my fourth year of university so it's probably going to be crazy busy! But I'll still try to update as often as possible!

I also left you on another cliff hanger! LOL! What do you think of the popular girls? What do you think might happen next?

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And of course, thank you to all of you for voting, commenting, and reading! It means the world!

Melody's outfit: