Don't Hesitate

"Does this dress make me look fat?"
"No way, honey, it's like, it like makes you like look all like stream-lined, like..."
"Like you mean I need stream-lining?"
"No, babe, like, like it just makes you look even skinnier, like, it totally works."
"So cute."
"Totally chic."
"Amaze."
"Kelly, what do you think?"
A pair of brown eyes made their way slowly from magazine page to the bunch of girls gathered close, took a few moments to take in all the fake tan, black lycra and glitter, blinked slowly before they fixed on a petite blonde in the centre in front of the mirror and grew a little wider.
Kellin cleared his throat and said, "You look good."
Each head turned in sync, five pairs of eyes stared him right down and back willing him to change his response or get up and get gone.
The blonde girl's lip quivered. "Good?Just good? I mean I'm going for something else here, baby, like I'm really-- this is something different and I want to look--"
"Baby, you look great. You look amazing. Really," he added, getting up from his seat, trying not to let his eyes drift across to check the clock and confirm how late they were, having the girls skitter away from him and spread out like a pack of hyenas as he approached their leader.
"Really?" The blonde asked, a gentle pout of triumph spreading across her lips.
Kellin looked down and offered a mute smile. "Really." Taking her hand he left a gentle kiss on her lips, a kind of making-up gesture before the fight had even begun, and storm clouds seemed to clear, at least for the moment humidity or tension lifted and he felt his chest which had been constricted loosen. "Can we um, leave now?"
"Mm-hm," the girl murmured, stepping away to smear on a little more lip-gloss and check her false eyelashes. The other girls moved away to the door, he tucked his hands into his pockets and stared at his feet a moment as he waited, mind heavy and pensive. Sweeping his fringe from his eyes he started,
"Jule, are you..."
"Yes," she hissed, snapping a lid on firmly and sharply, throwing him a sharper look. "It's like you don't even want me to look good."
Kellin bit his lip and held back a volley of potential come-backs all of which flooded his mind as he looked at her. He watched as she rolled back her shoulders, checked herself from the side once more, and then turned to him, a thin smile leaping to her lips as she gently wound her arms around his neck and said in a smoother softer voice,
"I do it for you, baby. It's all for you, y'know."
Kellin faltered and covered up quick. "I know. And you look- you look beautiful." Something inside him caught, something deep in his insides, and he tried to ignore it. He was not looking forward to this evening, and if he was, it was not because of the prospect of taking his drunken girlfriend home and taking advantage of that fact, it wasn't even because his friends would be at the party, it was because someone else would be there, someone he knew would never pester him for constant reassurance she looked good.

They left the apartment, and Kellin took a seat in the front of the taxi, beside a driver who offered him a vague look of sympathy. His eyes watched the houses and the trees and the cars as the rushed by, he felt silent and sank into his own thoughts until a piece of the conversation going on in the back permeated his conciousness.
"...So you think Demi's gonna be there?"
"Uh, yeah. Like she hasn't figured no-one wants to see her face there already, God."
"Oh my God I know, like, the last time I saw her at this party, she came up to me and like, started talking to me, as if I even wanted to do that, I mean I swear she's like-- uh-- she's like a total potential boyfriend stealer, I mean have you seen the way she looks at..."
Kellin tasted the metallic tang of blood in his mouth the realised how hard he'd been biting that lip to stay quiet. He turned a little in his seat.
"The way she looks at who, Julia, baby?"
A pair of glittering brown eyes came back at him from the depths of the cab, a voice followed, "Um, nobody."
He didn't say anything. He didn't say anything because he knew that she knew and it was enough. As they pulled up outside the bar he glanced out the window and thought he saw a familiar face glance at him from inside. It was going to be a long night.