You Are Not Cursed

Chapter 6: The Party

CHAPTER 6: THE PARTY

The following day I visited the office during my spare as Joyce suggested so that I could inquire about getting switched into advanced English. The receptionist who I had spoken with yesterday explained that the guidance counselor handled all the class schedules and so I would have to make an appointment with her to get my schedule fixed. Turns out tons of students had made appointments with the guidance counselor to switch things around in their schedules but I managed to get an appointment Friday morning during my spare. For now I was supposed to tell my English teacher about my intentioned to switch to advanced English, which I did later that afternoon.

As the week went by I become more and more familiar with the school and even though I didn’t need help finding my classes anymore Julien still walked me to English (and obviously biology since we were both going there anyways). I also walked with Joyce to her second period since I didn’t have to rush to my own class.

When Friday came I forgot that I had agreed to go to Julien’s party; I only remembered because Joyce brought it up during math saying that I should come over to her house beforehand because her and Kris would be there getting ready together. I agreed but only because it felt like too late to back out of going to the party.

When my spare came I went to the guidance counselor to have my schedule fixed. The counsellor explained that they could make the switch but I wouldn’t officially be in the advanced class until Monday since they had to make adjustments in their system so I still had to attend my regular English class today for attendance purposes. However, I was able to get the books I would need for Monday and return the ones I would no longer need so I did that too.

After school I returned home for a little bit before I headed over to Joyce’s. Ms. Reyes answered the door greeting me happily with a hug as she always did when I came by before telling me that Kris was already here and they were upstairs in Joyce’s room.

“Hey Charlie! Perfect timing, pizza should be here any minutes,” Joyce greeted from where she sat at her desk with Kris when I came in; they were looking through all the makeup set out.

“Hey,” I reply dropping my overnight bag down by the wall before plopping down on her bed. 

“I’m doing Joyce’s makeup after we eat,” Kris said, “Want me to do yours too?” I hesitated before answering. I didn’t really wear much makeup; when I first got into makeup it was because I had really bad acne so I wore everything I could to cover my skin and make it look better and I still didn’t have the perfect skin but after learning about how to take care of my skin it got better and so I started to wear less makeup, usually just concealer for redness. Not that I had anything against makeup and complex makeup but I was just too lazy to do anything more than what I needed to.

“Only if you do something simply,” I compromise not sure a flashy makeup look would suit me.

Ms. Reyes calls out Joyce’s name, yelling that the pizza was here.

“I’ll be right back,” Joyce says before leaving her room.

“So what did you bring to wear to the party tonight?” Kris asks. I had brough an overnight bag since Joyce told me I could stay the night; she didn’t live far from Julien’s place so Kris usually stayed over after a party at Julien’s. But I didn’t bring anything for the party because I though, well…

“I can’t just wear this?” I asked indicating the skinny jeans and a long sleeve shirt (it was what I considered one of my nicer outfits).

“Well for one you’ll be way too hot,” she said, which actually seemed quite reasonable, but she added, “But also, it’s a party, have fun with your look, we’re not going to school.”

The scent of hot, greasy pizza reached my nose moment before Joyce entered the room. Before I could comment about it smelling good Kris was saying,

“Joy can you believe Charlie plans on wearing that tonight?” She genuinely appeared to be in disbelief.

“Oh no we can’ have that,” Joyce agreed with Kris, shaking her head as she set the pizza box down.

“Can we just eat first?” I ask hoping to distract them from the topic of what I was wearing what I would be wearing. My need to cover as many scars as possible made my wardrobe limited, I didn’t really need them making a big deal out of what I wore. Not to mention it made me a little self-conscious.

“Only because I’m starved,” Kris replies making me chuckle.

We end up sitting on the floor, the food laid out in the middle of our little triangle formation. Joyce had ordered a classic peperoni pizza along with curly fries and she had brought up a couple cans of pop from the kitchen fridge. I was secretly really happy that she got curly fries since they were my favorite food even though I knew they were the opposite of healthy. We ate and talked but soon enough all the food was gone, and Kris had started to do Joyce’s makeup after washing the grease from her fingers. For eyeshadow Joyce had a pink bronzy look with some rose gold shimmer, placing a similar shimmery highlight above her cheekbones and finishing the look with a nude lip. Next Kris did my makeup and as promised she kept it simple, it wasn’t as sparkly as Joyce’s look. All Kris did was touch up my base, apply a little brown (one a light shade another a medium shade) to my eyelids before handing me a reddish, dark nude lipstick to apply myself. I’ve never had someone else do my makeup before and I couldn’t help but smile slightly; doing makeup with friends made me feel like a normal teenage girl even though I was anything but.

While Kris did my makeup Joyce went into her bathroom to change and came back out wearing a light pink backless dress that ended mid-though on her.

“You did a great job,” Joyce tells Kris, complimenting my makeup.

“I know,” Kris joked before focusing on her own makeup.

“C’mon, let me pick something out for you to wear,” Joyce said, and I resisted the urge to frown and furrow my eyebrows together.

“Alright,” I finally agree after a moment that feels like forever; Kris did say I would be too warm in this and I’d rather avoid that if I could. With a excited bounce in her step Joyce went over to her closet and looked through everything before pulling a shirt out and handing it over to me.

“Here, go put it on,” she says and I reluctantly take it before going into the bathroom to switch shirts. Joyce was slightly shorter than me and a little skinner, but it should fit. It was all black made of a mesh netting sort of material except the middle had opaque black material so the scars on my abdomen, back and chest weren’t visible. It had long, kind of poofy, sleeves too except the mesh fabric should stop me from getting too hot, right? Flowers were embroidered into the sleeves which was pretty, but I can’t say I would have picked the shirt out for myself, and not just because of my want to cover my scars.

“You look so good!” Joyce tells me when I return to her room and Kris looks over her shoulder at me, nodding and humming in agreement with Joyce.

“Thanks,” I mumble uncertainly. “Your makeup looks really good,” I tell Kris. Her makeup was mostly natural except for the bold black winged eyeliner that elevated the look more than mine.

“Thanks, I’m gonna go change,” she replies grabbing a pile of clothes off the bed and heading for the bathroom. She returns a minute later with a white lace body suit on under the high-waisted black skinny jeans she was wearing before with the addition of a black belt that had a gold buckle.

“Alright, we better get going, we want to be fashionable late but not too late,” Kris says grabbing a pair of heels off the ground.

The three of us headed downstairs; I slipped on my converse, Joyce laced up her white Adidas sneakers and Kris buckled up the strap of her heels. I drove the three of us over to Julien’s; it was just under a ten-minute drive, but no one wanted to walk.

Finding parking was a nightmare but we managed to get close enough to the house. The streets were packed and it made me anxious just thinking about how many people would be in the house. The music could be heard from the front lawn and I had to question how the neighbors (not to mention Julien’s parents) were okay with this. Actually, now that I think about it I’m pretty sure Joyce mentioned something about his parents earlier this week, when they told me Julien has a party every year at the beginning of the school year it’s because it’s parents always go away for that weekend. Still… I’m surprised the neighbors haven’t complained. It was big house with a big lawn but there still wasn’t much space between each house.

Kris grabbed Joyce’s hand and Joyce grabbed mine right before we entered and once we were inside I could see why. The house was packed; we could easily lose each other if we weren’t attached. Kris led us into the kitchen where the familiar faces of the rest of group were. There was a loud chorus of hellos when the guys saw us.

“Can I get you anything to drink?” Julien asked me when he noticed I wasn’t getting a drink like Kris and Joyce. Joyce cracked open a can with a colorful design on the front while Joyce grabbed a red solo cup and began to mix something up.

“I’m alright for now,” I reply having to talk a little louder than normal for him to hear me over the music.

“You sure? We have non-alcoholic options.” He offered.

“Maybe later but thanks.” He nods and takes a sip from his own red solo cup. The seven of us chatted but Andrew was quick to leave us when a girl I haven’t seen before came over and whisked him away with just a few words.

As the conversations went on Joyce and Mike went to dance in the living room where most people crowded to dance and Kris and Jaxon left soon after as well. When it was just us left Julien chuckled as his friends for leaving one by one and then asked me if I wanted to dance. I agreed after a moment. It was somehow even hotter in the living room than it had been in the kitchen but that was probably because the windows were cracked open in the kitchen and as I realize this I regret leaving the kitchen as the heat grew more and more uncomfortable. As I grew hotter and sweaty from awkwardly moving to the music in the body packed room the material of my shirt became even more itchy. Every time the netting like material rubbed against my hot scars, especially the more recent ones, my skin would crawl.

“You mind if I get a drink now?” I ask, partially yelling to be heard over the music. That was another thing that was starting to bother me: the music. It was so loud and there were so many other noises along side it, some being noises only my enhanced ears could pick up, but all together it was starting to tire me out and make my head ache.

“Sure! I’ll come with,” Julien replied before taking my hand and leading me back to the kitchen. “Any requests?” he asked in the kitchen as he let go of my hand.

“Water?”

“Alright, I’ll grab you a bottle,” he says swinging the large fridge door open and leaning into to grab a bottle of water before handing it over to me.

“Thanks.” I cracked the bottle open and took a much needed drink of cold water. We chatted for a couple minutes but it didn’t take long for me to finish the water since I found it helped cool me down.

Julien suggested that we dance again and I agreed despite the heat making my shirt even more uncomfortable. We bumped into Joyce and Mike in the living room and I was surprised that we hadn’t ran into them sooner. Joyce excitedly grabbed my hand making me do a spin. The four of us danced for a while but the longer we danced the more irritable the shirt became against my skin.

“I’m gonna go find a bathroom,” I told Joyce, leaning in close for her to hear me.

“Okay! Try the one on the second floor, upstairs is off limited to everyone but us,” she replies and I nod in thanks.

I weaved through the crowds, it was easier when you were alone, but I still brushed up against people making the fabric rub more harshly against my arms. Unconsciously my face scrunched up in disapproval of the oversensitivity I felt bubbling inside of me. There was a rope crossing off the stairs that I carefully stepped under before hurrying up the stairs. Would it be weird to stand in the bathroom with my shirt off just to have a moment of relief from this shirt?

Every door was closed except for the bathroom door so it was easy enough to find. Once I closed the bathroom door behind me and finished actually going to the bathroom, I ended up pulling off my shirt. It was an extremely weird sensation knowing I was standing in an unfamiliar bathroom naked from the torso up aside from my bar. However, the cool air was a relief against my skin, it was like I could breathe easily again. For a handful of minutes I just stood there trying to calm my heart. This is why I’ve always believed I wasn’t a meant for parties, too many senses all at once, it was a complete overload to my body and brain when my senses were naturally so enhanced – I say naturally but there was nothing natural about being a werewolf.

Eventually I knew I had to leave the bathroom; I couldn’t just stay in here all night. Looking down at the shirt I had left on the counter I hesitated to pull it on. Sighing I glared childishly at the shirt before grabbing it to put it on. However, just as my hand came into contact with the shirt the bathroom door opened.