Casually Cruel

"lit a match just to heat things up, but i got more than i bargained for"



“Does my hair look alright in the back?” Lisa was twisting around in front of the full length mirror in her room, trying to get a glimpse of the back of her head. She stopped and looked over at her cousin once she realized that she wasn't paying any attention to what Lisa was saying. “Jenna-Lee. Did you hear a word I just said?”

The tiny blonde girl sitting on Lisa's bed looked up from the book she had been absorbed in. “Did you say something, Lees?”

Lisa rolled her eyes, tossing her light brown hair over her shoulder. “Can you please just pull your nose out of that book for two seconds to tell me how my hair is on the back?”

Jenna-Lee laughed and closed her book, scooting to the edge of the bed and standing up. She pulled her fingers through her cousin's hair, checking that no strand of hair was left uncurled. “It looks fine. I don't see any pieces missing.”

“Perfect.” Lisa turned to her cousin, placing her hands on her shoulders and steering Jenna-Lee to her computer chair. “Now, try sitting still while I do something with this hair of yours.”

“My hair is fine, Lisa,” Jenna-Lee protested. “It's the middle of summer. It's just going frizz in the humidity anyway.”

Ignoring her pleas, Lisa began sectioning Jenna-Lee's sun-kissed blonde hair and wrapping it around her curling iron. “Your colour is gorgeous, cuz. It's going to look really nice with just the ends curled.” Jenna-Lee rolled her eyes and sat back in the chair, knowing that it was no use to argue with her cousin.

“So what exactly is the deal with this party tonight anyway? Colton seemed really excited about it,” Jenna-Lee asked.

Lisa smiled immediately at the mention of her boyfriend. “Yeah, he definitely is. It's a Drew Bannerman party.”

Jenna-Lee watched her cousin blankly in the mirror. “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

“Oh, right, sorry.” Lisa laughed. “I always seem to forget that you haven't been here in years. Drew is one of Colton's really good friends. He used to throw the best parties, so it's a huge deal that he's having one tonight. His parents have this huge plot of land just outside of town. It used to be an old horse farm, but they just keep it now for tax purposes or something like that. They fixed up the old barn but still haven't done anything with it, so Drew used to use it for parties. He also used to set up this huge outdoor tent. Trust me, it's always a great time.”

“He used to?”

Lisa nodded. “Yeah. He hasn't thrown one in a few months now. There was this huge bit of drama at the last one, so Drew decided to take some time off from the party throwing.”

“What happened?” Jenna-Lee asked.

The brunette shrugged and waved away Jenna-Lee's question. “It's no big deal. It's old news now.”

Taking the hint that her cousin didn't want to talk about it, Jenna-Lee nodded her head. “Okay.”

The two sat in silence for a while. As Lisa twisted the last section of hair around the hot rod, she glanced down at her cousin. “Oh, and since we're kind of on the topic of Drew, I feel like I should tell you that he's a bit... much sometimes.”

Jenna-Lee pulled her eyebrows together. “In what way?”

Lisa sighed and laid the curling iron down on her dresser before starting to pull the curls in Jenna-Lee's hair apart. “He's Colton's best friend, so I've spent a lot of time with him. He's a nice guy, really, he's just, well, he's got a bit of an ego. But I swear, he means well.”

“You're not exactly making him sound like a very nice person.” The blonde glanced up at her cousin, chuckling.

Lisa smiled. “Yeah I know. You'll know what I mean once you meet him tonight.”

“Yeah, I guess I will.”