The Richardson List

The room was familiar to Audrey. In fact, even with her eyes closed she could clearly picture her surroundings. Down to the pink and green walls and the magenta fuzzy rug at the foot of the bed, it was engrained in her mind. It had only been a short time that she had spent in said room; still the place had been burned into her memory.

This was Nina's bedroom, the one she had spent gossiping and talking about everything and nothing with the girl. Their friendship was new but the hours they spent together made Audrey feel as if they had known each other for much longer. And lately Carter had been spending loads of time with her newly acquired friend Tiffany. A nice little brunette who had a spunky side that shined through.

Because of this, the time her and Carter spent together slowly became less and less and soon most of the time they ever saw each other was at lunch or in class, but even then she was preoccupied with something or another. Audrey had nothing against Tiffany, but Nina had advised her not to get too close to the girl. And so she didn’t hang out with Carter when Tiffany hung around.

Audrey didn’t know what happened, but Nina had an very distinct dislike for Tiffany, and told her that she was untrustworthy and not worth Audrey’s time. Except, when Audrey wondered aloud on whether or not to she should inform her friend Carter of this, Nina recommended that she didn’t in case Carter took it the wrong way.

The blonde thought more about it and decided that what Nina said was true, knowing that her good friend could take it all the wrong way. And honestly, to Audrey she felt she was already gradually losing her friend already, she didn’t need anything else to help that.

That night they were both getting ready for the party together. Or rather, Nina was and Audrey had decided that her hair and make-up were fine from the morning. She liked to look nice but spending over half her day caking on make up never seemed appealing to her.

Her gaze snapped to the stereo that sat on Nina’s white dresser when the volume became incredibly louder. A grin split Nina’s face as she began dancing around the room, swaying her hips to the beat. A giggle passed through Audrey’s lips as she watched her, picturing Carter at the back of her mind and her horrible dancing.

“Come on, dance with me!” Nina ushered her friend to her feet, clasping Audrey’s hands and dancing with her. Audrey surrendered and began dancing too, belting out the lyrics of the song while Nina made a performance on her bed.

The song came to an end and they both dissolved into giggles, falling to the floor while clutching their stomachs.

“We should go for American Idol!” Audrey suggested with a laugh once she was able to breathe properly again.

Nina shook her head, dismissing the idea. “Psht, no way, no one gets famous off that. We have to go stalk Diddy!” They both burst into another round of laughter, overpowering the music from the stereo.

Audrey was sprawled out on the carpeted floor, staring up at the ceiling that had a poster of Lil Wayne tacked onto it. She wrinkled her nose slightly, finding that his voice and appearance always seemed to cause her to inwardly cringe and think of a bulldog. Of course, she didn’t say this out loud because he obviously held a place in Nina’s heart if she had him tacked onto her ceiling.

The owner of said poster was situated in front of the vanity with had a large mirror that she was staring into, brushing on a light, sparkly beige eye shadow. Her mouth was slightly agape in regular make-up coating fashion.

Without realizing it Audrey found herself staring at the girl in slight fascination as she put on the rest of her eye shadow, adding a thin line of eyeliner around her chocolate brown eyes.

Their eyes met in the mirror when Nina finished and she grinned at the blonde.

“You look so spellbound!” she teased, turning to face Audrey who was now sitting attentively with her legs crossed and her eyes glazed slightly.

A grin broke out onto her face before she stood up and stretched her arms wide.

“Yea, it’s very fascinating. Anyways, when are we going to the party?” she asked, noting the alarm clock that sat on a drawer, blinking a large nine-thirty in bright red numbers.

Nina glanced at her clock and shrugged, making her way towards the door. “Eh, now?” she guessed. “The party’s only down the street.”

Audrey watched as the girl disappeared down the hall before trailing after her friend, grabbing the navy blue tote bag that she had become attached to since Christmas when she first got it, and was planning to take to the party. Inside it only held her cell phone, a few loose notes that she wrote down as reminders, a small compact hairbrush and some make-up Nina dumped in there in case she needed to freshen up during the party.

She didn’t exactly need it, but wanted to bring it along anyways. Also, in advance she had been chatting with Matt earlier the other day and learned that if she hid it in the closet that the chances of it getting stolen were slim to none because the closet was pronounced off-limits, mostly because before people had slipped on jackets that belonged to him before stumbling off on other occasions.

Downstairs Nina already had her ballet flats on, hands on her hips as she waited for Audrey to slip on her own pale blue shoes. “My make-up’s in there, right?” she checked, receiving a head nod from Audrey as a conformation.

“It’s going to be in the closet if you need it, okay?” Audrey told her friend who was now stepping onto the driveway, running a hand through her caramel flat-ironed hair. A thumbs up was put in the air from Nina to show she caught the message before Audrey quickly caught up with the girl.

A sense of giddiness erupted in Audrey’s stomach as they inched closer to the venue of the party, parties still something new for her since she never went to them before and so they still got her excited.

“I wonder if Skye’s going to be there,” Audrey speculated aloud, pursing her lips in thought.

A light laugh sounded beside her courtesy of Nina.

“Of course, he loves going to these things! He was there last time, well for a bit anyways. Then he just disappeared… but anyways, I hope he doesn’t this time, maybe we’ll get lucky,” she said suggestively with a wink, breaking down in laughter afterward.

Audrey joined her, but a little part of her mind wandered as well. She herself hadn’t had much conversation with the boy either, Carter had though.

In fact, most of Math class rolled by with their continuous whispers in the background, Skye’s voice sometimes a little louder than it should’ve been and then they’d both get scolded by the teacher.

But it seemed out of that classroom they hardly acknowledged each other, passing in the halls or at lunch they’d barely even grace the other with a simple glance. And Carter never even mentioned his name either, not unless someone did first.

She hadn’t asked Carter about Skye lately, her thoughts on the boy and such, but she assumed that her feelings on him hadn’t changed from the last time when she thought he was stupid and degrading.

Right?

“Audrey,” Nina’s familiar voice brought her out of her questions raging in her mind, startling her slightly.

“Yeah?” she asked, regaining her composure and reminded herself to focus on the party.

Nina gestured to the house that stood in front of them, the light from inside contrasting against the darkening sky that hung above them.

“Is this it?” Audrey asked, not really thinking the question through before it left her lips.

At this Nina giggled slightly, rolling her eyes. “Of course it is! Come, come!” she ushered the blonde up the stairs and into the fairly large house quickly.

Once the door was opened and Audrey was inside she was instantly assaulted by loud music and a buzz of chatter, many people loitering around the house and chatting idly with each other, booze in hand. She quickly hung her bag in the closet before she was pushed swept by Nina further into the house.

Many people had plastic cups in their hands that Audrey assumed were either filled with some kind of pop or alcoholic substance, most likely the latter. A few familiar faces popped up here and there as she tried to match faces with names while being pushed further in the house.

Nina was greeted by many, Audrey receiving a few hugs and hello’s herself that were soft over the pumping music. It was then when she saw Skye, leaning against the wall and talking with one of his friends, pausing to take a sip from his cup from time to time.

“Audrey!” Nina instantly grabbed her attention. “I’m going to go get a drink, I’ll be back.” And with that she vanished off, leaving Audrey standing by herself. But at that moment Skye’s friend happened to walk off for reasons unknown and Audrey found this her chance to talk with the boy.

Quick with her motions she scurried to where the boy leaned casually, eyeing the people walking by while taking another sip from his drink.

“Skye, hey!” she greeted him enthusiastically, grinning when he looked in her direction.

When he saw her he paused for a moment before smiling at her. “Audrey, hey!” he returned the gesture, opening his arms as if he were about to dive into a hug but stayed against the wall.

Audrey felt this was something good for her, at least he remembered her name and she was grateful for that.

“Having fun?” she asked, making conversations and rubbing the back of her neck, a habit she picked up from Carter over the years when her hands were unoccupied.

“Yeah,” he nodded, taking one last swing of his drink before eyeing the next guy to walk by who wore a hoodie. Swiftly Skye placed the cup in his hood and he walked off unknowing, causing Skye to grin triumphantly and Audrey to giggle.

Skye then returned to his position against the wall, his arms resting against the back of his head.

“Hey, so Carter really didn’t show up?” he asked, looking over his shoulder in case said girl was about to make an appearance.

This brought up, yet again, question of their relationship. If it weren’t for that Tiffany girl hanging around all the time, she could’ve asked Carter. It started to itch under her skin, not knowing.

“Uh, yea, she decided she wasn’t coming,” she answered hesitantly, awkwardly laughing while her hand trailed down her back.

“She doesn’t seem like the partying type,” he thought aloud.

Audrey stood conflicted on what to say next, whether to continue the conversation about Carter or start with a new topic. She didn’t really want to talk about her friend, hardly knowing what she would say, but didn’t know if she could use that to her advantage.

“Yeah,” she agreed lamely, scolding herself for not coming up with anything better.

“Tell her I said hi next time you see her,” he passed on to Audrey before walking off, meeting a guy halfway before engaging with a type of man hug that always confused Audrey.

She sighed, feeling that she had failed in conversing with him and stood even farther from becoming friends with him,

But it seemed at that moment Nina arrived and saved her from standing alone with her thoughts, bringing two cups, one for herself and one for Audrey.

“Thanks!” she took the cup gratefully, taking a generous swing.

Usually she wasn’t for getting drunk and all, rather take small sips throughout the night, but felt that she would like to soothe her troubled spirits. And feeling her lips purse and her throat burn, she didn’t care.

“Whoa, slow down there, you’ve got the whole night ahead of you,” Nina cautioned with a hint of laughter.

Audrey smiled and licked her lips, taking a large gulp and preparing herself for another drink. “Yeah, I guess.”

Nina rolled her eyes again and laughed, pulling on her arm. “Come on, Zack downstairs got some blunts and he said he’d share.”

At this Audrey stopped in her tracks, feeling herself freeze. “What?” she asked, clearly hearing what Nina had said but hoped she had gotten it somewhat wrong.

“Zach said he’d share some blunts, come on. If not I’m sure there’s a bucket we could burn instead.” Nina tugged her towards the door, cocking an eyebrow when Audrey stood still in her stop.

It seemed that she had heard correctly and as before, Audrey stood conflicted on what her next action would entail.