Julie sat in front of her vanity mirror putting on the final touches of her makeup, one might ask why she was putting on makeup when she was going to a pool party but Julie wasn’t planning on going in that egg-drop soup of a pool. With one last swipe of the mascara wand she was finished, putting the tube away in her bag in case she needed to touch up later. Casting an eye on her watch she couldn’t help but feel a little bit uneasy, ever since April had invited Julie and Chanel to this party that she had helped throw Julie has had this knot in the pit of her stomach. But the redhead figured it was time to try to mend the broken friendship between her and April since it was their last year at King’s and all, plus she knew Chanel never wanted to pass up a chance for a good party.
Standing up slowly Julie made her way to her closet to pick out an outfit to wear. She stood there for a while pondering, she needed something that made a summer statement but still casual enough for a pool party. Finally deciding on a vintage 1997 Macmillan S/S
sundress that she paired with a pair of low vans, she was done.
Julie gathered her bag and phone as she left her room and headed out of her house to wait for April who had offered to drive the girls to the party. She stood in her driveway silently hoping she had picked up Chanel first, but mapping it out in her head told her that the chance of that were slim.
The sound of Three Days Grace’s
Break rang through the garage as April worked under the hood of her prized car. Having changed from the preppy school uniform, April now donned a rather lackluster combination of grease-stained jeans and a tank top. Having spent the majority of her time after school prepping Diablo’s house for tonight’s party, April wanted some alone time before she had to pick up Julie and Chanel. This time, now bordering 45 minutes, had been spent idly tuning her car up and cleaning every nook and cranny on it.
Now, for the final check. April opened the driver’s side door and collapsed into the seat, pressing down the brake and turning the key. A grin spread across her face as the engine roared to life, before temptation took over and she revved the car a few times. Now satisfied with the success of her work, April shut off the car went inside. Looking at her phone briefly, she had all but thirty minutes to get ready. With a quiet curse to herself, she climbed the stairs two at a time and ran into the bathroom, quickly cranking the knobs in the shower as she stripped down.
One steamy shower and ten minutes later, April was finally close to being ready. Dressed now in a rather formal get-up--a long flowing dress with no back--April put the final touches on her hair with a few hair pins. She’d gone all out with the little time she’d left herself, hoping Chanel wouldn’t go too hard on her for the choices. April wasn’t terrible at choosing an outfit, but she’d be damned if Chanel wasn’t the queen of the Palm Beach fashion world.
“Alright.” April said to herself out loud, mainly to reassure herself that she was in fact ready to go this time. She slipped on her pair of flats before walking back into the garage, being careful to not get her dress dirty as she made her way to her car. Once again, she slid into the driver’s seat, only this time when she started the engine, she let it rumble quietly as the car effortlessly backed out. In typical April fashion, she flew down the quiet, narrow roads of the suburbs at lightning speed and attracted quite a few looks as the eight-cylinder engine roared. It was mere minutes before April pulled up to Julie’s house, revving the engine to get her attention, not that it was easy to miss the Arctic-white Maserati.
Julie was startled at the sound of April’s car arriving as she was engrossed in her own thoughts. She tried to compose herself as she walked up to the passenger side door.
“You sure like your cars loud don’t you.” She whispered as she slipped in to the seat next to April. As they slipped out of the Macmillan driveway Julie started to rummage in her purse looking for nothing at all, merely as an attempt to fill the awkward silence that filled the car. Finally finding an old packet of gum Julie popped a piece in and started to chew, looking out of the window at the houses flashing by.
After a few minutes Julie couldn’t take the silence anymore so she blurted out the first thing that arrived in her mind
“So, uhm, are you and Santiago together?” she regretted it as soon as the sentence exited her lips.
April had been in a relatively good mood up to this point, even if tonight did mean spending a few awkward moments with Julie. But now? Now that had changed. The entire reason April and Julie had fallen out was because of Santiago, how he had treated Julie like trash and how April had never believed a word of it. Why should she have? Santi had treated her incredibly well since the two had met and apart from a few hiccups here and there, it had been relatively smooth sailing. April’s mind raced as the few words exited Julie’s mouth, her attitude turning on end from happy to irritated.
“Does it matter? Like, why do you even care Julie?”Julie was taken aback with the aggression behind April’s voice, her eyebrows knotting together. How could she even ask that? April knew how Julie felt and what Santiago had done to her, going about boasting that they had been together and calling her names. But it was not his actions that had made her felt crushed no those feelings were entirely brought on by April not believing her and getting with Santiago. She shifted in her seat
“I only ask because I want you to be on your guard, but I know you can fight your own battles so whatever…”. She felt defeated and didn’t want to start anything now.
April floored it after coming to a stop at an intersection, her eyes flicking back and forth between the car’s mirrors and the road. As they rounded the final corner and Chanel’s house came into view, April let out an internal sigh of relief. No more uncomfortable silence or conflict.
“Don’t ruin tonight, I worked my ass off getting this party ready.” April spoke quietly to Julie, then let out a sigh. Her mood lightened a bit, realising she’d been a bit mean
“If you wanna talk about this, we can talk tomorrow.” Looking back towards Chanel’s house, she put the car into neutral and revved it up again to get Chanel’s attention.
Julie motioned zipping her mouth shut
“I’m done.” "Done with what?" Chanel said breathlessly as she pulled open the back door, tossed her purse into the backseat, and clambered inside the car. Chanel had been right in the middle of putting a few final touches on her makeup and
outfit when she heard April’s car pull in front of her house. Without even bothering to take the last couple of rollers out of her hair, the girl simply grabbed her purse, slipped on her sandals, and jogged down the driveway to meet them. The young woman could immediately feel the slight tension in the vehicle, and she already had an inkling of what her two friends were probably talking about before she’d arrived, which was why she decided to switch gears and try her best to lighten the mood.
“Whatever, I just hope you two are ready to turn the fuck up,” Chanel said as she buckled her seat belt and began to pull the last few rollers from her hair,
“I mean, come on. It’s our first party of Senior year. I bust out my good wig for this shit, and we all look mad good so you know we gotta show out.”Instantly Julie felt better when her best friend had entered the car, she turned smiling brightly
“Oh Coco! I heard that both Aaliyah and Elijah would be there I think we should make our move!” the red haired girl said with her face shining with her signature mischievous grin.
“Fantastic,” Chanel said, returning the grin as she pulled her cell phone from her back pocket,
“Cause I’ve got so many ideas for Aaliyah already…”“Dare I ask what you two are up to?” April asked, giving both of them a suspicious look before pulling out of Chanel’s driveway. Chanel simply flashed the girl a devious smile before rolling down the car window; she breathed in the fresh air and watched the scenery go by as April sped towards Santiago’s home.
“Oh, nothing… just the makeover of the century.”“We’re adopting, you could say.” Julie let out a small laugh as she clutched the handle of her passenger seat door, April was going a bit to fast for Julie’s own liking. But this way they would be at the party faster and the awkwardness would stop. As they sped down the road you could hear the music grow louder and finally you could feel the vibrations in the ground.
April purposely floored the throttle as they turned into Santiago’s driveway, causing the tires to squeal and the back end to slide into the turn. With a devilish grin suited to their current location, she parked in what had essentially become her reserved parking spot. After they came to a spot, April exited the car and flashed a smile when she saw Santi watching over the kingdom they had created.
Julie turned to face April
“Did you choose the uh… music?” she asked stepping out into the booming latin music echoing through the neighbourhood. Chanel exited the car last, nodding her head to the beat of the music as she smoothed out her outfit.
Turning to her friend, April shrugged a bit
“All Santi. Not my personal favourite but it could be worse.” She flashed a small, but genuine smile towards Julie before turning to Chanel. She looked between the two of them before finally asking
“Shall we go kill it?”“Hell yeah,” Chanel said with a grin, her heels clicking against the concrete as she walked alongside her friends.
“Let’s do this.”
