~Cassidy~
“CASSIDY!” I shot straight up from a sound sleep at my name being yelled through the house. I tossed on an oversized hoodie and sprinted downstairs to see my parents running around like madmen. I cleared my throat, making Mom look at me.
“What’s up?”
“I need you and your sister to try on the dresses in the study after school today for the event tonight.” I nod and walk into the study grabbing the six dresses, three for me, three for her. I walk up to my room and drop the dresses off before walking across the hall and knocking on my twin sister’s door.
As soon as I knocked I heard giggling and shuffling coming from inside and I rolled my eyes, “Don’t bother, it’s only me.” The door cracked open and I saw my sister and her boyfriend. He shuffled around some more and put his shirt back on. “Mom wants us to try these on after school today for the event tonight.” I handed her the dresses and gave her a small smile.
Our parents are a part of some country club or whatever, every year each family puts together an event to keep their status up. This year it’s our turn apparently and my parents decided on a masquerade ball.
I walk back to my room and throw on a pair of leggings and a loose crop top, I run a brush through my hair and throw it into a low ponytail before brushing my teeth and grabbing my bag. “I’m heading to school.” I call to my parents as I make my way to the front door.
“Make sure you’re home by four-thirty!” Mom calls back.
“I will. Love you.”
“Love you too sweetie.” I grab the keys to my ’96 Road Star and smile as I make my way out to the bike sitting in the driveway.
I pulled out of the driveway and drove to school with the wind blowing against my skin. I was going at a decent speed but not fast enough to be hurt by the wind or anything. I pulled into the parking lot and smiled as Chloe pulled up next to me.
I took my helmet off and made eye contact with some girls from my volleyball team. I’ve never been close with any of the girls from the team but I don’t mind that. I have Chloe and to me, that is all that matters. My sister got out of her car and linked her arm with mine. Chloe and I are super close even though we are different. She is my best friend and I couldn’t ask for a better one.
We walked over to our lockers and talked, we don’t have any classes together so we hang out at school whenever we can. We grabbed everything we needed and waited as we saw Mason and his best friend Andrew walk over to us.
Mason gave Chloe a kiss and her cheeks lit up like a Christmas tree. I smiled at her and rolled my eyes at Andrew who stood right in front of me. I started to move away from the wall of lockers and ran my shoulder into Andrew’s. I rolled my eyes and spat a sarcastic sorry his way. He just sighed as I walked away.
✽✽✽
I walk out of the last class of the day and walk over to the locker room. I look around and see the girls standing in their regular clothes. My guess is Coach Maggie said we can skip practice today. The other girls and I walk out of the locker room and see Coach Maggie standing by the wall in the main gym.
“We don’t have a game this weekend so I am letting y’all skip tonight’s practice. But to make up for it, practice Monday morning.” Everyone groaned a little, “I’ll bring donuts.” then they all cheered. I chuckled and looked at my phone. It’s only 3:30, I have an hour and I don’t want to go home just yet.
I put my bag down on the bleachers and got a confused look from Coach Maggie, “My mom said I don’t have to be home until four-thirty, and I don’t want to go home just yet.” she chuckled and put her clipboard down.
“Want to play one on one?” I smiled and nodded as we started to play a game. I served it to her and she hit it back. Coach Maggie is one of the best coaches this school has ever seen. She loves what she does and makes the rest of us love what we do.
After a while, I beat her by five points and she smiled at me. “You’re getting a lot better than you were when the season started.” I smiled and nodded.
“Practice makes progress.” she smiles and nods.
“Make sure you wrap up those elbows.” I look at my bruised and skinned elbows from sliding without my pads on. I nod and grab my bag. “See you on Monday Cassie.” I nod and walk back out to my locker and grab my helmet.
I walk back out to my bike and see a silhouette of someone standing there, I walk closer and see Andrew leaning against my bike. “What do you want?” He looked up at me and then back at his phone.
“See you at the ball.” was all he said before walking away, I watched his shaggy hair blow in the breeze as his back turned to me and he walked away.
I glared and got on my bike and drove back to the house. People were still running around like chickens without their heads as I walked in. I saw Mom and Dad standing on the back porch making sure everything was in order and I heard Chloe and Mason in the kitchen.
I walked upstairs after dropping my keys in the basket by the front door, I dropped my bag and started working on some homework while having my headphones in.
I heard a knock on the door, the door opened, and rolled my eyes as Andrew smirked at me, “What do you want?” he leaned against the doorframe and shrugged.
“Chloe told me to tell you I was here so you weren’t too surprised later.” I gave him a sarcastic smile and sat up on my bed, I cleared my throat and flipped him off. He rolled his eyes and walked away closing the door behind him.
Andrew and I used to be best friends. We used to tell each other everything and we were close. Until a few years ago I started seeing this guy and we got close to the point we hooked up a few times. Nothing more than extremely steamy make-out sessions but when I told Chloe about it Andrew overheard and got pissy. We got into a huge fight over it and it broke our friendship. I have disliked him ever since.
✽✽✽
I finished my homework right as someone knocked on my door. Mom walked in and gave me a small smile. “Why does Andrew have to be here?” she sighed as she looked through the dresses I have to try on for tonight.
“Your sister and Mason asked him to come. Are you guys still on bad terms?” I nod and shrug.
“It’s whatever, I just don’t plan on talking to him.” Mom frowns and hands me one of the dresses.
“I think you should at least try and give him a chance. He is still really good friends with Chloe and Mason. I don’t see why you can’t join in on the trio.” I roll my eyes as I walk into my closet and slip the dress on. The bright baby blue dress makes my dirty blonde hair stand out a little but I am more of a darker color kind of girl.
“How does it fit?” Mom called.
“It fits fine but by now you should know I am more of a darker-color kind of girl.” she chuckles.
“I know, I just want to see how it looks.” I nod and walk out of the closet holding the dress against my chest so it doesn’t fall. “It looks good.” I nod.
“But this is more something Chloe would wear.” We both laugh and shrug as she hands me the next dress. I walk back into the closet and hang the baby blue dress back on the hanger. I slip the black dress on and smile at the color. I pull the spaghetti straps over my shoulders and walk back out to Mom. She smiles at me.
“I like the color.” I nod, “I think the thigh cut might be a bit much.”
I shake my head, “I like it, it gives more freedom to my legs. But I do think a tighter dress would fit me better.” She nods and hands me the third dress. I walk back into the closet and hang the black dress back up. I take a deep breath as I put the last dress on.
The second black dress fit perfectly, it wasn’t too poofy but not too tight either, It had just the right amount of movement and had the thigh cut which gave me more freedom. While also exposing my curves and letting me show off my cleavage. I smile and take a deep breath as I grab the first two dresses and walk back out to Mom.
“I had a feeling you would pick that one.” I chuckle and lay the dresses down on the bed. She zips up the back of the dress for me before telling me to sit down for her to do my hair.
She finished doing my hair in an elegant half-up-half-down look. She told me to be ready in about ten minutes so I fumbled around my room for a little while looking for my mask.
I grabbed my Converse and finally found my mask. I tied it around my head and took a deep breath as I walked out of my room.
I said hello to a bunch of different people even though I couldn’t tell who they were. The area my parents set up was decently lit, it’s hard to tell who everyone is but I guess that’s the point. I saw Mom standing and talking to some other people. I walked over to her and smiled at her.
I felt someone watching me, I met their gaze and felt everything fade away. It was like we were the only two standing in the entire world. I took a deep breath as the person made their way to me. He was tall with an extremely nice frame. His mask hid most of his face but let his dark green eyes shine through. Like Andrew’s.I shake the thought from my head, I would know if this is Andrew. He doesn’t normally dress up for these types of events. He’s probably in the house somewhere.
The guy reached his hand out to me, I looked back at Mom, she smiled and pushed me forward slightly. I took a deep breath and took the mystery man’s hand. He pulled me onto the dance floor and he pulled me flush against him, making me suck in a deep breath. I stare into his eyes as heat floods my body.
The music starts and we start dancing in a more sensual type of waltz. I feel people staring at us and my hand shakes in his but he gives it a reassuring squeeze. I don’t even know who this is, why am I not nervous around him?
I let out a stuttered breath as he pulled me closer, I felt his breath on my lips “Who are you?” I whisper, he shakes his head and spins me around.
✽✽✽
The mystery man and I danced all night. Other than when I asked who he was we never spoke. I didn’t need to speak to him, whoever this was, everything just felt right with him.
The event is ending now and people are leaving. The guy in front of me stopped dancing when the music ended and just held me close to him. I took a deep breath as someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around to see Chloe and Mom, I gave them a confused look and turned back to the guy I was dancing with. He pulled off his mask and I stared back at the one person I never wanted to talk to tonight.
I stood there in shock for a few seconds before I pushed past him and quickly walked back to my room. I closed the door and sank to the ground. How could I not tell it was him? How could I not tell from his eyes or the safeness I felt around him?
I haven’t gotten over the fight but I still care about him. I doubt that will ever stop. But how could I not tell? I paced back and forth before changing out of my dress. I put on a pair of shorts and a baggy shirt before I continued to pace.
Someone knocked on the door, I frowned and opened the door. I looked at Mom who gave me a small smile. “Why didn’t you stop me? You knew it was him.” She followed me over to the bed.
“Cassie, you were smiling.” I give her a confused look. “You had a genuine smile on your face. A smile I haven’t seen since you two had your huge fight. I didn’t want to get in the way of you being happy.”
“He ruined me being happy when he got mad at me for trying to date someone so I could stop pining over him.” Most of my friendship with Andrew was me trying to keep my feelings at bay. I did like him. But when I knew he didn’t feel the same way I tried to get over him by seeing other people but he got pissy at me and ruined our friendship.
“I know sweetie, but what if you gave him another chance.” I shook my head.
“I can’t. Yes, I care about him. I always have and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop but I can’t be friends with him again. I can’t be anything more than what we are right now. I can’t hurt myself like that again.” Mom frowned and nodded as I laid my head on her lap.
“But why didn’t he say anything?” I cried, “I tried talking but he never said anything back. He just shook his head and ignored me. If he wanted anything to be different don’t you think he would try and talk to me?” Mom started to stroke my hair and gave me a sad smile.
“He probably didn’t want to ruin the good moment you guys had. I would have done the same thing in his position.” I frown and take a deep breath.
“But now everything is worse and my heart is broken again.” Mom frowned and wiped my cheeks.
“It will get better. You are only seventeen.” I frown and nod. I take a deep breath and she spreads her mom’s magic or whatever and I close my eyes and drift off to sleep.
