Granting a Thief's Wishes

5 o'clock.

Gotta get ready.

I sat in the middle of a heap of clothes, reminding myself that I certainly did not care how I'd look like in front of Nicholas. I mean, I didn't care about him. He was just a third person (plus, he still had my bracelet and I had a dreadful feeling that the bad luck thing was true).

Seriously, there must be an outfit that screamed 'not-too-casual-not-too-flirty-either-and-not-really-that-drop-dead-gorgeous-because-I-don't-give-a-damn'.

Must be.

In half an hour, I put together an outfit and lay it down carefully on the bed, admiring my own work. But just to be safe, I called Nicole to be the judge. Maybe rub it in her face that this friend of hers finally blossomed and can finally pick her own dress. I beamed at her smugly, waiting for a tearful speech about how she was so proud of me and--

"Are you colorblind?!" She shrieked.

"What? I think I did a pretty good job here!"

"Okay, first of all Susannah," she said, making her way over the edge of the bed and grabbing my sandals. "You need to burn this to ashes. I mean seriously, any unflattering shade of pink sandals with really-fake-looking-sunflowers the size of your face needs to be banished from the face of earth."

"But I thought they were really charming, in a very cute way of course."

"Wha-- cute? Oh dear, she's out of her mind," she muttered, throwing her hands up and walking over to the piles and piles of clothes scattered all over my room. "Why can't you wear these wedges instead?"

"It's too high. I want to go to a beach party for god's sake."

"Why didn't you invite me? And why were you planning on wearing a freaking formal suit to a beach? Paired with these god awful sandals?! Who the heck does that?"

Oh god, she looked as if she wanted to kill me with those wedges.

"Fine," she sighed. "Fine, let me get you dressed."

"But Nicole, I want something that isn't really too...you know, glam," I said.

Because I didn't give a damn about looking nice for Nicholas. Nope. I was just trying to look nice because...it made me feel good, and such. Any girl could relate.

In the end, Nicole asked me to put a white floral sundress with a pair of orange flip flops that Maddie had (the good thing about having the same shoe size with a friend). Nicole clasped her hand together and sighed dreamily. "So blissful, so serene. Just so darn simple. Okay, now that's done, go!"

Oh god, I actually felt nervous about this.

I had a forever, unconditional hatred for parties. It was loud, noisy and there were drunk people who might puke on your shoes every half hour. And there always seemed to be a lot of people, 90% of the time I didn't even know 98.8% of the crowd and ended up sitting alone at some dark corner because you didn't know where the heck your best friend went off to.

And you bump into people, a lot.

Like this topless surfer dude who didn't apologize for it, at the least. Instead, he said to his friend who was standing near me, "let's just wish it won't rain tonight! I spent ages trying to perfect my hair."

The clouds looked as if they got a wee bit darker and heavier.

"You look like an idiot, walking around looking up at the sky like that."

I swirled around and saw a glimpse of Nicholas without his shirt on. Then he tugged on his hoodie. "Ahh, you should've seen the wave toda--"

"I'm not here to have fun," I said, hoping that I sounded all businesslike and formal while in truth was that I wanted to rip the hoodie from his body...

Where did that came from?

I frowned, trying to get out improper, stupid thoughts out of my head. "Anyway," I said hurriedly before he could say anything. "Where's this infamous friend of yours?"

"Oh, come on," he muttered, his arm snaking around my shoulder and he ruffled my hair. "Lighten up, have some fun. Do you even know what fun is? It's an experience--"

I glared at him to shut him up.

"You dressed up well," he said after a moment.

"I wanted to look good. For me," I added and he cocked an eyebrow towards me. Thankfully, a cute, petite girl with short blond hair and big brown eyes rushed to us. She couldn't be more than...20 probably.

"Nick!" She shrieked, swinging her arms around his neck and giving him kisses on both of his cheeks. She pulled away and grinned. Gosh, this girl was so vibrant, it wasn't even funny. It was like she radiated happiness, I swear.

"Oh hey Kate, you've made it," he said, ruffling her hair too. Kate swatted his hand away. "It's been ages since I saw you and Alina."

"We've been studying, to you know, not fail in our exams," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I don't study and I still get great marks," he said, winking. Kate rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Lies," she said curtly, before noticing me and reverted back into the smiley-smiley-happy-happy girl...5 seconds ago. "And who is this?"

"Oh," Nicholas said, as if noticing me for the first time. I gave a small smile towards Kate as Nicholas introduced us. "Suzie Bell, meet Katie Young. Katie, Suzie. Now if you excuse us for a moment," he said, dragging me aside when he saw my impatient face.

Oh well. The impatient face always worked.

"You're such a spoilsport," he complained.

"I just want my bracelet back, and your friend."

"You want my friend? I didn't know you can get this naughty."

"You know what I mean!" I said furiously. His shoulders slumped in defeat before taking me near the shore.

"The entire point of being in a party to have fun, you know."

"I'm not here to have fun," I replied. "Where's my bracelet?"

"My house."

Splendid.

"Nick, you don't get it--"

"Did you just called me, Nick?" He said, his lips curling into a smile. God, I was so close to punching someone right now.

Flashes of lightning later, and the rain started to pour. At first it was just a light shower and people looked as if they enjoyed it, but then it got heavy and heavier. Just perfect. If these shoes were ruined, Maddie would cook me for dinner.

"Where is he?" I said.

"I don't know," Nicholas finally admitted after walking around in circles for 15 minutes.

I...

UGH!