Breaking Hearts Has Never Looked So Cool

Four

Christmas Eve

I was the first person to arrive at Frank’s party, and I was there in time to see his parents off.

“Have a nice time auntie Dana and uncle John,” I said sweetly after they had complimented me on my attire; a chiffon beaded yet casual cream dress, heavy grey cardigan, and thick black opaque tights.

“We will, keep control over everyone now Connie,” they said, smiling, “You’re in charge,”

“Its almost as if you don’t trust me!” said Frank in mock despair.

The minute the door had snapped shut, we ran up to Frank’s room to unearth the alcohol that Ray had managed to procure through his fake i.d, and dragged it all downstairs.

“We’re exchanging our presents tomorrow aren’t we?” clarified Frank and I nodded. Our families would be spending the day together.

Soon, a knock on the door alerted us, and we put the music on, and ran to answer the door in childish excitement. The first person of the trio on the doorstep I registered was Annabelle, and she almost knocked me off of my feet hugging me and dragged me off into the downstairs bathroom before I even had a chance to say ‘hi’ to the people she was with – who I assumed to be Mikey, and the mysterious Gerard.

“Er, Annabelle, what’s this about?” I asked once we were ensconced in the small room, almost nose to nose, “I was supposed to be helping Frank greet everyone.” I was able to infer from her eager expression that the reason for this near-abduction into the bathroom was to discuss her bizarre set-up plans. The way she was making such a big deal about the whole thing was making me feel uneasy, and I bit my lip, trying to take my mind off of the nerves.
“I just needed to give you the 411 on Gerard,” she said urgently with a cheeky grin and a wink that I did not respond to with a smile.
I rolled my eyes, “I don’t think that’s really necessary,” I said in annoyance.

“He’s not that tall, unfortunately,” she said regretfully, “well, that is in comparison to you…” she eyed my height momentarily (which, by the way, is only 5ft8, hardly giant) as if it were a severe disadvantage, “but he’s probably an inch taller than you or so, he’s pretty good looking in an interesting way, but you’ll be able to see that, he seems really nice to me, and just overall a good catch! Did I tell you he was studying art? Isn’t that such a romantic subject to study, I really think he’s perfect.”
I let her chatter on for a while (something about ‘soul mates’ and ‘double dates’) before giving in to my mounting tension and pressing a finger to her lips to stop them from moving.
“Can we please go join the party now?” I begged. |

“Fine,” she sighed.

A lot more people had arrived since Annabelle and the Ways, and I had a hard time picking out my soon-to-be new acquaintance (Or, if Annabelle had her way, boyfriend). I performed a quick but discrete scan of the room and picked up nothing before I felt a painfully sharp nudge in the ribs.
“He’s over there!” she said, “with Mikey over there!” she nudged me again,
“Annabelle!” I said indignantly, feeling incredibly embarrassed at how painfully obvious she was being “I can see him now!” It wasn’t entirely true, but I could see the back of his head and that was good enough for me.

“Let’s go over,” she said, grabbing my hand, “nice outfit by the way,” she said, looking me up and down,” but take off that cardigan, show a little more skin!” I rolled my eyes exasperatedly but did as I was told and followed Annabelle obediently across the room to where Mikey was standing talking to who was evidently with his brother, holding a beer. I could only see the back of Gerard’s head, but unexplainably, I felt butterflies overtake my stomach. It was perplexing, but I dismissed it and put it down to the expectations Annabelle had unloaded onto me.

“Mikey!” screeched Annabelle, running over to him and covering him with kisses, whilst acknowledging Gerard with a ‘hey,’

“Hey Mikey,” I said, greeting him as I always did with a hug,
“Hey C,” he said, gesturing towards Gerard after letting me go, “C, this is my older brother Gerard who I told you about, Gee, this is Connie, we mostly just call her C though,”

I looked up at him from under my eyelashes, suddenly coming over totally shy. I didn’t want to look directly at him in case he disappointed me in some way – or I disappointed him.

For some reason unknown to me, making eye contact with him started to induce perspiration, and speeded up the rate of my heart. I listened closely to it and I felt sure I felt it skip a beat.

“Hi,” I said, trying in vain to control the blush creeping up my neck and onto my cheeks.

“Hey,” he said in an easy going voice, and the butterflies returned to me once again. Usually good at talking to strangers, all of my skills disappeared out of the window.

“When did you move here from England?” he asked, and I felt suddenly grateful that he had noticed my accent and was deciding to pursue a conversation with me.

“5 years ago,” I answered, “when I was 12…”

There was a mildly awkward silence, slightly perpetuated by the fact that Annabelle was hanging around close by, hanging onto our every word.

“Connie’s very linguistic,” she said hastily, “she nearly speaks French fluently!” she said, almost throwing my credentials at him unashamedly, “and she does Latin! She’s easily like the cleverest in our grade!” There was no use trying to control the blush now, Annabelle was taking care of that. I shot her a furtive ‘you’re embarrassing me!’ look. Of all the things to bring up in front of him, my experience with languages was not something I considered to be that attractive. I felt my face grow hot and I cast around desperately for an excuse to get myself out of the uncomfortable situation.

“And she’s musical!” said Annabelle desperately, as if he were about to turn away from me any minute. She clearly was ignoring the annoyed looks I kept on throwing at her.

“Wow, that’s certainly impressive,” he said, raising his eyebrows in confusion at Annabelle. I felt bad for him; what are you supposed to say when someone’s friend just shoots random facts about them at you for no apparent reason? In desperation, I tried to think of a way to perpetuate the conversation without Annabelle’s help, and without wanting the ground to swallow me up.

“I can’t draw for shit though,” I said modestly, “Mikey tells me you’re doing an art degree?” I said, feeling quite proud at how I worked it into the conversation. At least we wouldn’t be discussing Annabelle’s somewhat dubious comments about me now.
“Yeah,” said Gerard with a grin that lit up his face and made my stomach flip over. I was never any use around good looking boys.

“C’s always had a thing for artists,” jumped in Annabelle, joining us once more.

Since when?
“Annabelle has been drinking,” I said, my embarrassment reaching its peak, “I need to go and powder my nose,” I added with impeccable politeness, “It was really very lovely to meet you though,”
And with that, I escaped to the bathroom.
“See you around, I hope,” said Gerard charmingly and I laughed uneasily as I headed off in the direction of the bathroom, my cheeks burning, and butterflies causing turmoil inside my tummy.