Gossamer (6 page)

“It will be fun, and that outfit would be killer.” I smiled and bit on my bottom lip. “So, what are you going to wear?”

And like that, the plans were set and my bad mood had lifted.

On our way out to the car, we almost ran smack into Grant and Cerise. Upon seeing me, she spoke, in a loud, clear voice, “Well then, I will see you tonight.” She smiled and batted her lashes.

Grant muttered something and stole a glance in my direction. My heart jumped, and my skin tingled. Then Cerise looped her arm through his and dragged him along the sidewalk. He looked back one more time, and the corner of his mouth tugged up in a smile. My body flushed with heat. Lexie glanced at me, shrugged, then grabbed my hand and rushed me to her car.

“First, we will swing by your place, pick up your stuff, then you can come to my house. We can get ready there, and you can spend the night.”

“I’m glad you have it all planned out.” I grinned. “But where’s the part where I ask my parents for permission?”

“Oh I forgot. You have parents.” She shot me a sidelong glance. “Well, what are you waiting for? Call them!”

Knowing my dad would be the easiest of my parents to reach by phone, I called him. I was just about to give up after several rings when he finally answered.

“Professor Ashbury speaking.”

“Hey, Dad.”

“Hey, Kylie. Everything okay, honey?”

“Yeah, I just wanted to ask you if it’s okay if I sleep over at Lexie’s tonight.”

He grew quiet for a second. “That shouldn’t be a problem...if you could do me a favor.” I heard humor in his voice.

I groaned. “What favor?”

“I could really use your help in my office tomorrow. I have to get these grades uploaded to this new system and for some reason I can’t get on the portal from my laptop. Which means I can’t work from home and need to do it here. It would be helpful if you could load that information for me while I grade the rest.” His voice sounded hopeful. I was pretty sure he would let me go to Lexie’s either way, but part of me just couldn’t say no.

“Okay, I’ll help.” I sighed. “But I’m not getting up early. I’ll come by in the afternoon.”

“No problem, honey. I will be in my office working tomorrow–you just stop by when you have a chance.”

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Thanks Mr. Ashbury!” Lexie yelled loud enough for him to hear.

Dad chuckled. “Tell Alexis she is welcome, and you girls have fun tonight.”

“Bye, Dad.” I hung up and turned to Lexie. “My dad says you’re welcome.”

She grinned. “Party time!”

* * * *

“Are you sure this looks okay?” I spun from side to side in front of Lexie’s full length mirror taking in every angle of my lavender dress. She came up behind me, looking dazzling in a fitted black strapless dress.

“Are you kidding me? You are stunning! Every guy at the party will be throwing themselves at your feet.”

“I’m so sure.” I grinned at her through the mirror.

“You are beautiful. When are you going to see that? Look at you standing there. You have amazing dark hair and those stunning green eyes, your legs go on for a mile and, unlike me, most of what you have up there,” she pointed at my chest, “is not courtesy of a Wonder Bra.” I laughed. “You aren’t pretty, Kylie. You’re beautiful.”

I stared at my reflection. To me, my hair lacked brilliance. I was tall but often wished I was petite and cute like my mom. My eyes were unique, but I often wondered if the yellow in them made them weird. As I studied myself now, though, I didn’t look too bad.

The lavender dress had thin straps, exposing my shoulders and collarbone and went around dipping low, exposing the curves of my back. It gathered loosely in the chest, but the scoop neck left no question about what was under there. It tucked in at my waist and fell delicately about mid-thigh. It was pretty short, and I made a mental note not to bend over. The color and fabric were soft and feminine, yet it still screamed sexy, but not in a trashy way. Actually, it screamed expensive, but either way I loved it.

The best part, the pale purple dress complemented my green eyes in a way that made them striking. I smiled at my reflection. Although I didn’t see myself quite like Lexie described, I felt good.

She reached over and slid on her black strappy heels. “I think we are ready,” she said as she winked at me through the mirror.

* * * *

We arrived at the party after it was already in full swing. No sooner had we walked through the door, I heard someone let out a low whistle. Lexie and I turned in the direction of the sound. Dylan stood there with a wicked grin on his face as he eyed us. He tapped Bryce’s shoulder and pointed in our direction.

Bryce turned. When his eyes found mine, the expression on his face made me blush. He wasn’t exactly gawking, but he definitely seemed to like what he saw. He also looked surprised. I glanced down, embarrassed by the attention. The boys approached us, and Dylan swept Lexie in a giant hug.

“Lexie, beautiful as always.” He kissed her, then examined me. “And Kylie, damn. I mean you– Damn.”

Lexie laughed and nudged me. “I told you so.”

“Hey Kylie.” Bryce stood in front of me, looking sheepish. “Glad you could make it.”

“I wouldn’t miss it.” I met his eyes and smiled. It seemed to relax him, and he gave me a big hug.

“You really do look pretty.” He spoke into my ear. I was smiling at the compliment when I saw Grant over Bryce’s shoulder. His stance turned rigid as he focused intently on me.

“What’s he doing here?” I whispered, not actually intending to say it aloud.

“Who?” Bryce released me and shifted to follow my gaze. “Oh him.” His voice fell flat. “Cerise brought him.”

“Who invited her?” It slipped out, my voice oozing with disgust. Bryce stared at me, seeming surprised by my malice.

“I think Will invited Sophia, and Sophia invited Cerise?” He shrugged. “I don’t know. You know how parties go. One person invites another and pretty soon you’re in a house full of strangers.” He smiled but his face was stiff. He turned away from Grant and eyed me thoughtfully.

“You know you’re too good for him.”

My shoulders tensed. “What are you talking about?”

“Grant. You are too good for him.” He stared at his feet. “Dylan told me you had a thing for him.”

My mouth fell open. Blood rushed to my face. I glanced in Grant’s direction and found him staring at Bryce. There was no way he could have heard what Bryce said, standing so far away, but something about his expression made me feel otherwise.

“Any guy interested in Cerise is not good enough for you. You are beautiful, smart, funny and genuinely a good person– Everything she is not. If he likes
that,
then he’s no better than she is.” My cheeks grew warmer. I looked down, and a small smile formed on my lips.

“That’s sweet, Bryce.”

I peeked at Grant through my lashes. He glared at Bryce with his jaw tensed, and his eyes narrowed. When he realized I watched him, he relaxed and walked away. Distracted by Lexie making a spewing sound, I spun around just in time to witness her spitting out punch of some sort.

“Oh my God, what is that? Paint thinner? Are you trying to kill me?” She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Dylan bent over as he laughed.

“It’s not that bad, Lex,” he managed to get out between roars of laughter.

“It’s not bad? It’s terrible! Kylie, stay away from the liquid death over there.” She pointed to a bowl of red punch. “Thank goodness, I came prepared,” she said, reached into her oversized purse, and pulled out two bottles of wine.

“Kylie, can I interest you in the red,” she held up her right hand, “or the white?” She lifted up her other hand.

“I don’t really like wine.” I looked back and forth between the two bottles.

“Then white it is.” She smiled at me and made her way around the bar. “Don’t worry, you mix it with some ginger ale and you won’t taste a thing.” Her head disappeared behind the bar, and I heard shuffling through the mini-fridge. “Ah, here we go.” After reappearing, she fiddled with some contraption which supposedly opened wine bottles. “How do you use this crazy thing?”

Bryce joined her on the other side of the bar. He placed the wine bottle under the opener, pushed something down and the cork popped out with ease.

“Thanks.” Lexie took the bottle, pulled two plastic cups from the stack and filled them halfway with wine. I heard a fizz as she popped open a can of ginger ale. She topped our glasses with soda, gave them a quick stir and handed me one.

“Here you go, one white wine spritzer.” She smiled, then frowned. “At least, that’s what I think they’re called.” She shrugged.

I tasted it apprehensively. “This is good.” I took another sip.

“Let’s mingle.” Her hand found mine as she led me around greeting our friends.

We were talking with some girls from school when I noticed Cerise. Even though I knew she was there somewhere, I hadn’t actually seen her. She wore an extremely fitted white dress, and of course, looked drop-dead gorgeous in it. Between her white dress and silky blonde hair, she appeared angelic. I scoffed. Now that’s ironic.

I watched as she made her way to Grant, who now stood with Conor. She dragged a friend with her, who I assumed she wanted to hook up with Conor.
Cute, now they can double-date
. I took my drink and gulped down the last of it. Lexie watched me.

“Refill?”

“Please.”

She followed my gaze and grabbed my glass. “On it.” A few moments later she returned with a full glass.

“Thanks.” I took another drink.

As much as I tried not to, I couldn’t help watch Cerise with Grant. Her casual touches and flirting made my blood boil. I took another drink and let my gaze roam the party in search of Bryce and found him outside. I walked through the big double doors and a nice, cool breeze greeted me. I took a deep breath and let go of my pent up anger.

“Hey.” Bryce gave me a lazy smile.

“Hey.” I stood next to him and leaned against the patio railing. “What are you doing out here?”

He shrugged. “Nice night.” I nodded in agreement. “I’m sorry if what I said earlier upset you.” He met my eyes, his filled with sincerity. I nudged him playfully.

“Don’t worry about it. It didn’t upset me. You’re probably right anyway. Well, you’re completely right about Cerise being a horrible person.” He chuckled. “Let’s just forget about it and have fun tonight.”

His eyes brightened, and a tiny bit of regret drifted through me. Clearly I’d just given him hope, which wasn’t my intention. I wasn’t even sure yet what I wanted. I took another sip of my drink, but to my surprise found it empty.

“Want another?” he gestured toward my glass.

“Sure,” I answered, happy to have an excuse to go inside and away from this uncomfortable conversation.

On the way in, I noticed Grant looking at us. He leaned over and said something to Conor, who nodded slightly. I forced myself to look away. We made our way to the bar and found Lexie.

“Hey, Kylie, we are out of the white, so now,” she lifted up the other bottle, “it’s sangria time!”

“You know how to make sangria?” I asked skeptically.

“Honey, when you have a mommy like mine, you don’t learn how to make brownies, you learn how to make sangria.”

I laughed and leaned against the bar, watching Lexie work. I turned and found Cerise glaring at me. Her wicked little eyes were narrowed on me. This couldn’t be good, but at this point I didn’t care. I just rolled my eyes and looked away. Lexie handed me my drink, and I tasted it.

“Excellent job, bartender.”

Lexie curtsied. I stayed in a group to avoid being alone with Bryce. Lexie, in typical Lexie fashion, had us all cracking up, when it occurred to me that I was having a good time and didn’t even care where Grant was or who he was with.

Two glasses of sangria later, I was having a
very
good time. I walked with Lexie to the bathroom, giggling about something which was probably actually not that funny. When out of nowhere, disaster struck.

“Oops.” Cerise’s saccharine voice caused me to look up just in time to see her bump into my sangria-filled glass.

The contents sloshed and, in what felt like slow motion, I watched red wine teeter around the edges of my glass, threatening to ruin my beautiful new, expensive dress. Before it had a chance, a hand darted out in front of me, steadying my glass. The tiny bit managing to escape dribbled down the arm in front of me. My dress was spared. Surprised, I gazed up into the crystal clear eyes of Grant.

“Careful there.” I wasn’t sure if he directed his comment to me or Cerise.

She put on a million dollar smile. “I’m so clumsy sometimes. I’m so sorry, Lyla.”

“It’s Kyla.” My voice was ice.

She turned to Grant and put her hand against his chest. “Thank goodness, you were nearby to help.”

Rage pulsed through me. I spun around and walked away. As I left I heard Cerise feign concern. “Oh, I hope I didn’t upset Lyla.” I clenched my jaw.

“It’s Kyla,” Grant corrected. My name sounded musical coming off his lips. I smirked, imagining how much that would eat her up, and threw back the rest of my sangria before anyone else had a chance to spill it on my dress.