From the Ashes

With frozen chai tea lattes in hand from our pit stop at the local Starbucks, we round the corner towards Kaitlin’s house. I rub my temple as Kaitlin continues to tease me about my displeasure concerning my partner for the AP Physics project.

“Why the hell aren’t you excited to work with him over break, Allie?” she says vivaciously, “If I were you, I'd be fantasizing. I actually am fantasizing."

"Well, that's you," I shout over the rushing of wind, sticking my tongue out at her. She gives me a dramatically sexy wink over her shoulder as she pulls into her garage.

“The ‘rents are gonna be out tonight. Jason told them he’s keeping an eye on us, but he’s bringing us to Serpentine so he can meet up with a bunch of his college friends.”

“He’s so responsible,” I chuckle sarcastically.

"Oh, and don’t forget to text your mom and tell her you're staying at my house tonight," she reminds me.

"Oh yeah. On it." I pull out my EnV3, considered old now with all the fancy smart phones, but I like it a lot. No fancy media plan where you pay $30 a month. I send a simple text to my mother, with a friendly hello, and a sort-of-lie-but-not-really message saying that I'll be spending the night as Kaitlin's tonight.

We busy ourselves making food for an hour and a half before Kaitlin’s mom and dad bustle out the door to spend the weekend at a convention for her father. After we get the run-down of the responsibilities of being left alone, Kaitlin hurries us to her room to start getting ready for her favorite pastime. She's glowing as she roots through her closet, and I take a seat on her puffy pink and black striped bed. Her walls are plain white, to match her carpeted floor, but she has it decked out with band and scene paraphernalia. Almost every inch of her walls are covered with punk band posters, interesting and artistic pages cut out from magazines, and cute pictures she came across on the internet. I admire it a lot, and I like the simple creativity. It really shows that Kaitlin loves that kind of scene label. I love the genre of music that often goes hand-in-hand with the whole scene get-up, screamo and metal. Some time, maybe, I want to buy some band tees, and maybe dye my hair. But the latter thought scares me a bit, it's a little out of my comfort zone. I've always just been... normal.
"Kait, we're not leaving for the club until like, 8. Its... 4:45."

" I can't wait any longer, we have to get ready before I die from excited anticipation. Besides, we have to start doing hair. Your hair, my hair. Make up. Clothes. It's a process, my Allie, and we’re overdue," she recites primly as she emerges from her walk-in closet with a towering bundle of clothes. "You wear, what, a five?"

"A three."

"Ah... Well, I have a few outfits that I was a little ambitious in buying. I'll make you so sexy."

Soon, I find myself in front of the mirror, squeezed into the tightest outfit I've ever worn in my life.

It's a party dress, strapless and black, cutting off way too far above my knees, way too low on my chest, and way too tight on my butt. But I guess that's kind of the point. Kaitlin chimes her approval as she moons over my appearance before brandishing a curling iron at me. She herself looks amazing, wearing a shimmering silver dress, with a swooping neck line that makes her boobs look great. Like mine, it isn't very long, and hugs her curves.

She heats up the curling iron, and puts on some dance music to feed our excitement. Pit Bull croons from the radio with a sick Latin beat, giving me a small flutter of excitement for dancing tonight.

Master of hair that she is, Kait finishes styling mine in a shower of curls, pulled back at the sides with silver clips. She left a few cute spirals down to frame my face, though. Finishing with a good layer of hair spray, she smiles at her work.

"Yeah?" I say, watching her reaction.

"I'm a magician, go look," she winks. I turn towards the mirror, and smile at her work.

"That you are, thanks, Kait," I say as I grin back at her through the mirror. She nods, her freshly straightened bangs falling in her eyes.

"Ready?" she purrs as she dangles a pair of black stilettos in front of me. I nod as I grab them, trying not to seem intimidated by the length of heel. Which I am... I'm not sure how Kaitlin does these kinds of things so easily. We put on our heels, and make our way downstairs to meet Jason.

“Sweet Jesus,” he mutters from where he sits burrowed into an easy chair in their living room. “Take longer next time, I love waiting.”

“Thanks, we will,” Kaitlin chimes, flipping him off as he stands to join us. His sandy-blonde hair has grown out since the last time I saw him, and he wears a loose-fitting button up shirt over dark wash jeans. He smells like he just put on cologne, so my guess is that he wasn’t actually waiting on us for very long.

“Nice to see you, too, Jace,” I laugh, falling in next to Kaitlin’s brother as we follow her to the garage.
“Allie, you’re looking provocatively rape-able tonight,” he teases, and I tug down the ends of the tight dress.

“Yeah, yeah… Shut up,” I retort with a whap to his arm. I ask him how the last semester of his junior year in college went as we all pile into his jeep, and he tells me it was good as he starts the vehicle. Kait and I sit in the back together, urging him to put some Asking Alexandria on.

“I hate that screaming garbage,” he says as we back out of the driveway, and speed off to the teen club upstate.