Chapter 6

I propped the door open, and sat in a steel bar stool by the door. The stool made it easy to greet everyone as they came in.

Trish, followed by Craig and Devonn filled in the door.

“Hey guys! Welcome to the party. Trish, I love your dress!”

Devonn smiled and waved, Trish thanked me and said “Emery, you look great!”, and I could of swore I saw Craig wink at me.

“Thanks, enjoy the party!” She followed the guys into the room, and they sat at a table, talking, and waiting for everyone else to arrive.

More and more people came through the door, and I greeted them all personally. Everyone looked beautiful tonight. The girls were pretty and graceful in their dresses, and the guys in their suits were all very handsome.

After about half an hour of the meet and greet going on at the door, I was ready to head into the party when I heard a shy voice say my name.

I swirled around to see Lacey looking beautiful in her white gown, and slowly making her way through the door. She doesn’t have many friends, so she was probably nervous.

But I was nervous as well. I had hoped that maybe, just maybe, Lacey would back out and not come. I should of known better.

“Oh, hey Lacey. Come on in.” I put my hostess smile on and ushered her inside.

She looked around with wide eyes.

“Wow, everything looks amazing, Em. Great job!”

I smiled a real smile this time, and confessed. “Actually, it was my parents. They surprised me by doing all the decorating themselves.”

“Well, they did a great job.”

“Thanks.” There was an awkward silence for a bit, but I was tired of standing, so I spoke up. “Why don’t you go enjoy the party, Lace?”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later.”

As soon as she was safely out of sight, I jumped into the middle of a circle filled with my friends.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” they all shouted simultaneously.

“Thanks you guys, you all look great!” They were all smiling and then the DJ played a familiar song.

“Oh, I love this song!” said my friend Alyssa.

I listened closer, and soon realized it was Rihanna’s popular song, Please Don’t Stop The Music.

We all sang along-really badly!-and danced around, having fun and laughing really hard. A few more good songs were played after that, and I kept moving from circle to circle of people, dancing and giggling.

Eventually, I got tired, and headed over to the snack table to get a drink. Partying can make you thirsty, you know. I grabbed a can of soda, and headed over to where my parents where seated.

“That is one great DJ you got there. He really knows how to get a party going.”

They laughed at that, and then my dad frowned. “I wish you wouldn’t dance like that, Emery.”

I blushed. I didn’t think that they had seen me dancing. Crap. “Dad, chill. It’s fine.”

My mom waved him off and turned to me. “Don’t worry about him. He’s just being a regular Dad. Go have fun, sweetheart.”

“Ha, okay. Thanks mom.

As I made my way back to the dance floor, I saw someone sitting in a chair against the back wall. As I looked closer, I noticed that it was Lacey, sitting by herself with her head down. There was no one anywhere near her, and she was just absentmindedly picking at the nail polish on her fingernails.

I felt awful. What was I supposed to do? The angel in my head whispered that I should go talk to her, but the devil in it whispered to ignore her, and keep enjoying the party.

To my disappointment, I couldn’t stand seeing her so lonely. I walked over to where she was, and pulled up a chair next to her.

“Oh, hey Em.” she said sadly.

“What’s wrong, Lacey?” Her eyes were glassy, and I could tell she was upset.

“Nothing, really. Go have fun, it’s your party!”

“No, what’s wrong? I’m not leaving until you tell me.”

She looked over at me apologetically. “It’s just that no one will talk to me, or dance with me. I’m being avoided completely, but I don’t know why! I thought I looked pretty tonight, and that maybe, by some off chance, a boy would want to dance with me or something. Obviously, I was wrong. So I’m just sitting here, waiting out the party.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “I shouldn’t be telling you this; I don’t need you to be sympathetic when you should be having fun.”

“No, no, no. Don’t worry, its fine. Here, I’ll help you out. Don’t move, I’ll be right back.”

I walked over to where another group of friends was sitting talking at a table. I was greeted with a chorus of “happy birthdays” and then I grabbed Anthony’s hand, and pulled him away from the crowd.

“What’s up, Emery?” he said. Anthony was handsome, and I would like him if I didn’t already like Craig. He was tall, tan, and has bleach blonde hair that fell over his eyes, which were brown.

“Hey Anthony, your single, right?”

My question caught him off guard. “Yeah, but I don’t like you like that…”

“No, not me. I want to introduce you to my friend.” I walked him over to Lacey, and introduced each other.

“Lacey, this is Anthony. Anthony, this is Lacey.” They both gave shy “hey’s”, and then stared at each other. I began to feel a bit weird, so I cleared my throat.

“So, obviously, you two don’t know each other. Why don’t you guys go dance?”

Anthony looked at me and smiled. “Great idea, Em. Come on Lacey, would you like to dance with me?”

“Sure.” She looked my way and mouthed thank you. I could tell that this was going to work for Lacey. It should keep her happy as well. And if she’s happy, then I’m happy. That means no Roxy.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, and turned around to see who it was.

I looked up to see Craig, smiling down at me.

“Emery, you look beautiful.” He held his hand out to me. “May I have this dance?” It took me a moment to notice that there was a slow song playing.

“Of c-c-course.” I stuttered. Way to be smooth…

He laughed at my nervous slip up, and lead me to the very middle of the dance floor.

He placed his hands on my hips, and I placed mine on his shoulders. We began to slowly rock back and forth, swaying along with the music.

“That was really nice, what you did for Lacey. I almost felt bad for her.”

“So did I.”

“You’re a good person, you know.”

I smiled “Really? Well, did I mention how handsome you look tonight?”

“Hmm…no I don’t think you did. But thank you anyway.”

I placed my head on his shoulder next to his neck, and closed my eyes, enjoying the moment.

The song slowly sped up a bit, which meant a faster version of slow dancing. I picked my head up, and looked into his angelic eyes.

We began dancing a tiny bit faster, elegantly twirling and spinning.

‘Wow, I didn’t know you could dance so well, Craig.”

He laughed and spun me around into a dip. “Yeah, I know a thing or two.”

The song slowed down to its regular pace after that, and we were both staring at each other again.

He slowly leaned in towards me, and I leaned up on my tiptoes, preparing for what was about to happen. He was so close, I could feel his breathing, and I closed my eyes. Yes! I thought. This night could not get any better. He placed his hands on the back of my neck, and I braced his shoulders.

Just as his lips were about to touch mine, the song suddenly stopped, and I heard my mom call my name loudly over the DJ microphone.

“Emery! Come over here, we have something to show you! Everyone else make their way over towards the door!”

I opened my eyes, and was immediately angry. He was right there and I had to pull away. Thanks mom, way to ruin the moment.

He laughed and pulled back as well. “Don’t worry, we can always try again.” He leaned in and kissed my quickly on the cheek, and stepped back as I made my way towards the front of the room.

I walked up to my mom and she could tell I was mad. “This better be good, Mom. You don’t even know what you made me miss.”

“Oh, relax. You’ll like this.” she motioned for me to step outside into the night, and I did. She got the rest of the guests outside too, and we waited.

“Why are we out here?” I asked her. This was stupid.

“Hush, you’ll see.”

Just then, my father came around the corner in a car and parked in right in front of where we were all standing.

“Happy birthday!” he shouted. I gasped and ran over to it.

It was a brand new 2009 Mitsubishi Eclipse Convertible, all black, with a huge red bow on the hood.

Everyone began cheering and whistling, and shouting out congratulations to me

I screamed and jumped up and down. It was the car I had wanted for so long!
“Oh my GOD! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love it!” I ran over and practically ripped off the door to look inside. Everything was black, and all the stitches were red, along with the ones that spelled Emery along the headrest of the driver’s seat. I let out a loud squeal, ran, and tackled my parents.

“THANK YOU SO MUCH! I LOVE YOU GUYS!” They laid there laughing for a bit, and when I recovered from my hysteria, I helped them up.

We stood up, and eventually made our way back inside. I skipped the whole way there, ecstatic with how the night was turning out. It was only halfway through, and could only get better from here! Right?

Wrong. Dead wrong.