Whatever You Want

Chapter 10

Raven pulled every single piece of clothing out of her wardrobe and onto the floor. There were so many garments in the pile, but luckily her room was huge. Sorting through the outfit ideas, she used her comfy sofa chair to store the maybe pile. The sofa had been in the living room at one point, but her mother had redecorated and replaced the pale pink sofa with a more modern cream leather one. Since Raven had loved the single seater sofa so much, mother had hauled it up the stairs and into her room, where it sat looking out of place among her black painted walls and posters of rock, metal and punk bands.

Running a hand through freshly washed hair she didn’t know what to do with, Raven wondered if it was best to go for the cool and casual look or the over-the-top hot look. As she took a sip of red wine that mum had opened for the spaghetti sauce, Raven finally decided on an oversized Behemoth T-shirt that her mum had converted into a crop top, ripped fishnets and black hot pants. If Kendal and Connor turned up looking casual, she would just shove her black hoodie over the whole outfit and still hopefully look cuteish.

Adrienne knocked on the door and walked in, looking sweaty and red-faced. The poor girl flopped onto the bed and rolled around in the ‘definitely not wearing’ pile of dresses Raven had created and groaned loudly. “Why? Why did I agree to do this? The pain in my lungs is unreal.”

“Maybe you should quit smoking. You know... to fit with the new healthy lifestyle,” Raven suggested hesitantly. She had learned from her Auntie Rose that it was never a good time to bring up the issue of quitting smoking.

“Shush, don’t go giving him ideas,” Adrienne whispered. “Giving up sugar and fat is bad enough.”

“Just think how good you will feel at the prom in a size 10 or 12 dress with Matty on your arm,” Raven said with a smile she hoped was encouraging rather than patronising.

Raven glanced out of the window and saw two figures approaching. “Oh god they’re here,” she muttered, throwing clothes back into the wardrobe by the armful.

“Why did you say it like that?” Adrienne raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Like what?” squeaked Raven.

“Like they’re a pair of flesh-eating zombies.” Adrienne’s head snapped up; eyes boring into Ravens like lasers. “You like Connor!”

“Shush,” Raven made pleading eyes at her friend.

“He is so your type. I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner,” Adrienne breathed as the pair descended the staircase to let their new friends in. Zach had already opened the door and was inviting Connor and Kendal into the games room.

Raven downed the remainder of her wine, grimacing at the bitter taste.

‘Why does the good wine always taste so bad?’ Raven wondered as she felt the warmth of intoxication spread from her belly to her extremities. She loved the way alcohol created a haze around her brain but was very wary of drinking too much. Puking up on Connor was probably not be the best way to win his affections.

Vowing to keep to the one glass rule, Raven checked her makeup, scrunched her hair and followed Adrienne to the kitchen to get snacks; vegetable sticks for Adrienne and anyone feeling healthy and chips and dip for the others. They also had popcorn, fizzy pop and the flavoured cider in the colourful cans that Rhys had managed to convince her mother were energy drinks.

In the games room, Zach had gathered a pile of DVDs on the coffee table and the three of them were picking through, deciding what to watch. They landed on a series called Higurashi no Kokoro ni but ended up talking through most of it. Adrienne was to blame for the chit-chat.

‘That girl sure can talk.’

The show was interrupted again when Rhys and Libby turned up to use the pool, bringing Kenny along. Kenny stayed indoors to give the couple some alone time as Libby lived with her grandparents in a small apartment and Rhys was the oldest of seven siblings.

Eventually (and inevitably) talk turned to prom.

“Has anyone got a date for prom yet?” Kendal fielded the question to the entire group, but Raven knew the only answer she cared about was Zachs.

“I don’t have a date yet,” Kenny slid along the sofa and wrapped an arm around Kendal’s shoulders before giving her a slow wink.

“I’m not going to prom,” Zach told Kendal. If this news saddened or disappointed if Kendal, she hid it well.

“Wanna be my date?” Kendal asked Kenny, tilting her head to give him a goofy smile. He jumped off the sofa with a “whoop!” showing he probably did. Kenny wasn’t hard to read.

Kendal blushed and laughed, and though she had likely been dreaming Zach would ask, she looked happy to have a date with Kenny. Raven had liked Kenny almost immediately on meeting him, but despite his good looks, she had never developed romantic feelings. There was something childlike and innocent about Kenny, and Raven had always found herself drawn to darkness and brooding.

Connor turned to Raven, “What about you?”

“Erm, I don’t ... Erm anyone... Have anyone,” Raven stuttered, shaking her head to try to rattle out the sentence that seemed to stick in her throat.

Connor looked down, “Too bad.”

Raven stopped breathing.

“I’m kidding,” laughed Connor. “You want to be my date?”

Air burst from Raven’s lungs with a start, causing her to make an odd choking sound that was startling to her own ears.

“Uh... Yes,” was the sum of the response Raven could manage. Her mind reeled. Was this happening? This scene had played out in her sleep so often that it almost felt like another dream. Glancing about, everything appeared real enough, but then most dreams seem real to the dreamer in their altered state.

“Are you alright?” Connor asked.

“You’re mean,” Raven smiled, “But yes, I’m good.” And she was good. She had never been better.

“Cigarette anyone?” Adrienne asked, waving a pack of tobacco at her friends.

“No!” Zach grabbed the canary yellow bag from Adrienne’s hand just as Connor was about to take it. “You won’t be able to keep up with the exercise schedule I have planned if you carry on smoking. It is time you quit that dirty habit.”

“No, no, no, not my cigarettes,” Adrienne whined. She tried to grab the tobacco back from Zach but ended up falling face first into his lap.

“Adrienne... no more smoking from now on. That is a rule,” Zach said in his ‘no-nonsense’ voice while slipping the pouch into his back pocket. She slid from Zach’s lap onto the sofa and buried her head in a pillow.

“I already have withdrawal symptoms,” Adrienne complained. She continued to complain, whine and fidget on and off for the rest of the evening. Raven sympathised, but desperately hoped it would stick. If Adrienne continued chain-smoking, she would probably end up with emphysema by the time she hit forty.

“I’ll quit too, we can support each other,” Raven told Adrienne and who reacted with a tight hug. Raven only smoked around four or five a day, and only because all her friends did it. She didn’t truly enjoy anything about smoking and could quit any time she liked.

“Me too, I mean, I barely smoke-,” Kendal began to say when Adrienne pulled her into the hug. So this is how it feels to have friends I truly like, Raven thought.

Connor laughed, saying something Raven didn’t quite catch about ‘women’ that made Kenny giggle.

“Hey... Matty is here,” Kenny smiled, and Raven felt Adrienne stiffen as she broke away and looked up. Matty was entering with the towel-clad, we-haired Libby and Rhys. The pool was heated but the air outside must have been getting cold because the couples’ skin had turned a blueish grey.

“You guys want a drink? Coffee?” Raven offered the shivering couple.

“I need coffee!” Adrienne interrupted and darted into the kitchen before either could reply

“No milk or sugar!” Zach bellowed.

“Right, now we are all here, we need to have a little chat,” Zach stood and addressed the group. The others looked up, wide-eyed and attentive like school children waiting for teachers’ instructions.

“About?” Raven frowned.

“About the elephant who is not in the room,” Zach said cryptically.

“Zach! That is so mean! I know I’m fat, but I have feelings,” Adrienne called from the kitchen.

Zach laughed, “I mean Alissa.”

“What about her?” Rhys asked.

“She made it clear she doesn’t want me to be a part of your group. So now you gotta choose,” Zach spoke as he paced around the coffee table. “Me or her.”