Rave

All youth are idiots, it just so happens when two of them are together acting like idiots, it is referred to as love. “You do this for fun?” she sneered, carefully observing the boy dipping his hand into the tub of face paint, not caring if it stained the bed sheets. A heavy hand contracted with her cheeks, smearing the gooey substance with little consideration for gentleness. “My dermatologist is celebrating the loss of clear skin,” she sardonically whined.

“I think you’d look gorgeous either way, Dee,” he grinned, nearly slapping her face with the paste.

“My name is Heidi,” she snarled, folding her arms obstinately across her chest. Heidi despised pretending not to like him; she hated him so much she rather not talk in his presence. “And why is this necessary to go to some lame shave?” she defensively scooted away from the tribal painted man.

He shrugged, patting down his short chocolate brown hair, “It’s a rave, Dee,” he rolled his eyes.

“I would give you a ridiculous nickname, Dorian, but I would hate to be like you,” Heidi muttered under her breath, picking herself up from the cheap mattress lying on the floor. The entirety of her skin felt dingy, whether from the intricate UV paintings, or the dirtiness of the sheets she was forced to sit on, Heidi didn’t wish to know. “Harrison is going to be here in thirty minutes,” Heidi continued to add to her distaste.

Dorian shrugged his shoulders, sliding his legs to the side of the bed. Heidi prepared herself in anticipation for whatever Dorian was about to do. “Well, I’ve got to make a quick run to the liquor shop, I’ll say hi to your old man,” he rubbed his temples with the brightness of the sun shining through the window panes.

Heidi felt the rough hand of the words Dorian spoke encase her neck, choking life and free will out of her. She hated her father; her father got her into this mess. Self consciously, her nimble fingers traced the outline of a ragged scar on her collarbone, a reminder of her predicament and how much she loathed it.

“Alright,” Heidi sighed, really teeming with excitement inside as the caramel colored male made his way from the bed to the door of the bedroom. His lazy stagger and the carelessness he paced with was a good sign that Dorian would take his sweet time.

As she meandered out of the bedroom and straight into the living area, she studied Dorian even closer. He was so helplessly haphazard, the wallet he held stuffed with random bills jutting out from all sides, a pickpocketers dream. “Well, you’re going to come and kiss me, right?” Dorian remarked, grabbing the keys off of the key tree.

Heidi deeply grimaced. Nothing would make me more bulimic, she thought silently to herself. Meekly, she took her hand and blew him one through the air. He sighed with great disappointment and strutted towards the door. “I have a cold sore,” Heidi lied so Dorian wouldn’t speak badly of her to her father. Even though Heidi felt like she spent a majority of her time here, she lived with her father and had to keep him happy for her welfare.

Dorian didn’t answer her, but shut the door rather violently, and audibly strutted down the hallway. As soon as she could manage to sprint back into the bedroom, she clutched the phone bolted into the exposed brick wall and pounded her favorite number in. Just the mental recalling of the number made her flush with an embarrassing shade of flame. Nestling the phone in between her ear and her shoulder, she held her back against the wall, eyes closed and fingers crossed.

Each dial tone made her cringe, what if he was out? What if he did not have time for her? By the fifth dial tone she snagged her bottom lip in between her fangs.

She nearly cried when it went to voicemail, hanging the phone back up on the wall and turning to sit on the destitute bed. Before her bottom could make a connection with the musty hued cloths, she released a large, toothy grin.

He gave one, polite rap on the window and Heidi ran over and fiddled with the locks, her fingers trembling with happiness. When the opening was large enough for him to crawl through, Heidi’s most favorite person in the world appeared in the same room that was so miserable mere minutes ago.

“Oliver!” she beamed, wrapping him in a hug before he could say anything.

His arms entangled around her, Heidi could feel the warmth of his smile, and she swore she could smell the intangible pleasure. “May I ask what is on your face?” Oliver queried, still holding her in a tight embrace.

Heidi broke away, though she did not want to, “Dorian is taking me to some stupid rave tonight because it’s the official beginning of summer.”

Oliver rolled his eyes, the beautiful shade of turquoise Heidi fawned over, even dreamed about. “I thought he was never going to leave,” he tucked a piece of hair lovingly behind her ear, “What happened to your hair?” he asked, genuinely concerned.

“Dorian wanted it straight,” she grunted as she held up a small swatch of her raven colored hair. It was incredibly long when it wasn’t in its natural state of coiled curls.

“Do Oliver’s wishes matter?” He pathetically pouted. If Dorian had said it, Heidi was sure she would take Dorian and his pathetic traits out of the gene pool.

It’s different—it’s different when it is someone you love—Heidi knew that. “They always do,” Heidi gazed into his eyes.

“Well, I’ve got to go,” Oliver groaned.

“No, you can’t leave, you just got here,” Heidi whined, clawing into his arm.

He winced, the slightest tensing of his pale skin made Heidi regret the action. Immediately, she let him free from her talons. “I’ve got to go get ready for this rave, calm down,” Oliver nonchalantly chuckled.

Heidi’s eyes became wide with joy, she was speechless. Her night instantaneously became better, and dusk had yet to set. Oliver crawled through the window and shut it, seemingly pleased leaving Heidi like this. She watched him move slowly down the fire escape, a hint of nervousness radiating off of him.

“…There you are Heidi!” Another voice caught her attention. She whipped her body around in surprise, hoping her friend hadn’t had the time to eavesdrop on her secretive escapade. “You seem relatively happy,” Harrison said with the slightest hints of dismay.

Heidi exhaled, trying to figure out when and why her life became a tornado of emotions. At seventeen young years, she was thrust into a world that she could not handle, one full of hurting others and her being hurt. Harrison was the one of the people she happened to hurt solely by being a person in Dorian’s life. “You coming with us to the rave?” She forced out, trying to keep a cordial environment with her best friend, or at least that’s what they used to be.

“I love being everyone’s second choice, or not even a choice at all,” Harrison admitted, leaning against the door frame. He was on the taller side of the ruler and the smaller side of the scale, sandy hair resembling the sidewalk on a rainy day, but he carried a sense of suffering with him. Heidi hated that she was the reason why.

Yet again, she didn’t understand why he blamed her. “You know if things were different…” Heidi trailed off, unable to find a reason that would satiate his animosity that she hadn’t said already.

“Whatever,” Harrison grumbled. Aimlessly, he studied his cuticles with intense importance as if a hangnail was something dire.

She felt her painted face droop the smallest, the hot-headed tendencies she possessed being brought to a surface. “I am forced to be here in this relationship because my father is going to kill me if I don’t,” Heidi shook, trying not to remember the promise her father made her that night he found out about Oliver. It was the same night the knife carved the blunt wound into her clavicle.

Harrison was not impressed; instead, he changed the weight on his feet. “Look at me, I’m Heidi Hamilton, my daddy is mean and I hate my boyfriend,” Harrison imitated a high voice. At this point in the dispute, Heidi was too awestruck to even fathom how Harrison or any humane human could speak to her that way.

With tears in her eyes from the hurtful chides, she ignored whatever else the bitter, rejected Harrison had to say. In fact, Heidi pitied him. Dorian would never love Harrison and Harrison would never stop loving Dorian.