Chapter 9

I didn't look at his message or answer Kendall back because Gabby said we needed to get ready ahead of time. So that's what we did. I charged my phone as I just wanted to know what Kendall had said. Gabby and I finished getting ready at around six. She had her hair straightened and she had put smokey eyeshadow on that only made her eyelashes look even longer than before.

"Thank you so much again for this dress." Gabby thanked me as she straightened my hair and then was going to put it in a crown braid around my head. I put on a thin line of eyeliner and some neutral eyeshadow colors. I swept on the mascara making my eyelashes look as long as Gabby's without mascara. I dabbed on a little red lipstick that Gabby made me put on to add a 'pop' to my look since everything was blue and white otherwise.

"No problem. You've been so nice to me since I moved here, even before you knew I had money or brains, I can't thank you enough for that." I told her as she finished by pulling out stray hairs to frame my face. We left then, in her car to the location. Again we pulled around the back and the party was already in full swing.

"Dang, they started earlier than my brother said." Gabby said parking the car around the back. Her brother, who looked exactly like her but with short hair and no makeup what so ever, but was still handsome for being two years younger than us, was waiting in black and white attire by the back entrance.

"Hurry up!" Gabby's brother said with a thicker Mexican accent than Gabby herself.

"Shut up!" She said as we both got out of the car and walked over to him. He smiled at me, looking me up and down a moment, but then glared at his sister. "She's taken don't even try." Gabby told him smacking his face playfully. He glared at her and laughed mockingly.

"I'm not taken." I told her in a whisper as we were now walking through the kitchen and past all the workers. The music was blaring and the party was very alive when we walked in.

"He doesn't need to know that. Trust me." She winked as she grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the dance floor. I had been on the dance floor for mere seconds before I was itching to pull out my phone, so I found an excuse to.

"I need to get a drink, do you want anything?" I asked her loudly over the music. She swaying by herself as she was eyeballing a guy across the club as I could only see the back of his brunette head.

"Nah I'm good." She said, too busy trying to stalk that guy. I sighed, and I pulled out my phone while headed to the bar where they were carding people.

"Just a Coke please." I told the bartender as he nodded and walked to go retrieve my drink. I clicked on Twitter and then waited for my 3G kick in as live performers came on stage and started singing. It was MKTO singing their song 'Classic'. I forgot where I was for a second and remembered I was at a party where celebrities could be walking around anywhere. I clicked on the messages as I felt someone's presence behind me.

"If you're going to agree to that question, you can just tell me in person." A familiar voice told me. I waited for a moment to look as I was finally able to look at my phone and read Kendall's message.

Kendall: Hey, what are you up to tonight? I can assist you into a party with an invitation, or I could even sneak you in the back door if that's how you prefer to arrive at these things?

He had sent me.

Instantly, I knew Kendall was behind me and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I poised myself and turned around to see him with a glass of some type of alcohol in his hand and a smirk on his face. I smiled brightly.

"Hey!" I said happily. Gosh, he was gorgeous. His hair was more brown in this light than blonde, his face looked as if it hadn't been shaved since we saw each other last and it was breath taking on him. His electric eyes stared at me as a smile played on the corners of his mouth. I giggled awkwardly and put a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

"I'm sorry I didn't answer your message sooner. Gabby just wanted us to get ready ahead of time so we could be early, but when we got here, it was already packed." I said trying to explain. He held up the other hand.

"It's fine, I understand. But you're here now. How is that by the way?" He asked me playfully. I laughed.

"Gabby's little brother is on the catering wait staff, he snuck us in this time." I told him embarrassed. He shook his head playing as if he was disappointed.

"You need less bad influential friends." He said joking.

"I know right?" I asked giddy at his relaxed demeanor. "But she's my only friend, and she understands me, so she's a keeper I suppose." I shrugged as the bartender tapped my shoulder and gave me the glass with a brown fizzy liquid so I knew it was soda not alcohol, but Kendall didn't know that.

"Hey, did he card you? Or are you just one of those girls who gets free drinks from the bartender?" Kendall asked as I took a sip. I rolled my eyes.

"No, it's Coke. I'm only eighteen." I told him. His eyes widened as he was genuinely stunned.

"You're eighteen? Not even." He said waving the possibility away. I shook my head.

"Even." I said contradicting what he said. He shook his head in disbelief eyeing me as I grew uncomfortable sitting while he stood behind me. No seats next to me were available so I needed to move, so I then hoped off the bar stool and about broke my ankle forgetting I was wearing heels. Kendall's arm steadied me as I gripped onto his forearms with a gasp.

"Whoa, don't wear heels enough to know not to hop off things?" Kendall asked as I stood straight and sighed. I giggled and felt my cheeks turn red. I let go of his arms and grabbed my drink from the bar and turned to look at him once I was steady and embarrassed. 

"No, and if that wasn't embarrassing enough, this is one of the fanciest dresses I've ever worn in public, and the most red lipstick I've ever had slathered on my lips as well." I told him as he chuckled.

"I can see you don't get out much." He said as he then must've remembered what I told him. "Oh yeah, you're not the rebel, you're the do-gooder." He said. I furrowed my brow.

"Not exactly, but sure. Yeah." I said giggling.

"You know what I mean." He said with his hand on my upper arm. I froze for a second then reminded myself he was just a guy, that I just so happened to love. Also, who I kissed on the lips and never spoke about that with.

"So, this is another installment of your rebellion?" He asked as we naturally started walking slowly along the crowd of dancing people. 'Turn Down For What' came over the speakers and everyone who had been like Kendall and I, not on the dance floor, migrated to it and there was a nasty amount of bumping and grinding that I would've expected at a high school dance, but not a place where people could afford dance lessons or have seen enough Dancing With The Stars episodes or Step Up movies to know how to actually dance.

"Yeah, it is in fact. I didn't think you'd remember that." I told him honestly. He shrugged as we came to the now empty couch in the corner of the room and sat down.

"It was interesting, not something you hear everyday." He said taking a sip of his beverage that I couldn't quite put a name to.

"Well, you haven't talked to me everyday, so that's why you haven't heard it repeatedly." I told him as he nodded with a smirk.

"True, you're definitely different." He said leaning back on the couch in his dark blue button down and black jeans.

"So, what exactly are you trying to accomplish?" He asked after a few crazy people were thrown out for starting a drunken fight close to Kendall and I. He had protectively put an arm in front of me as the one guy almost fell on us. But they were now outside and we were safe.

"Uh, well, I never partied in high school, which doesn't really make sense since my parents were almost never home." I told him. He nodded watching me as I spoke.

"Because they worked a lot to make your trust fund baby status." Kendall remembered. I nodded slightly impressed he paid attention to what I had messaged him.

"Exactly, and even when they were home, I never really spoke to them. I did school work, stayed in my room a lot, and was always alone then even." I told him with a shrug. He furrowed his brow.

"You sound like you'd be socially awkward, you're doing pretty well now." Kendall teased slightly amused I'm sure. I smiled down at my glass. Do I dare tell him?

"I was okay in front of people, being civil and everything, but I don't just make friends as most people do. I don't let people in easily I gathered. I have to work hard, unless you bring up Gabby and mines friendship that was easy and the only easy relationship I've had in general, but my past isn't. Guys, well they weren't the nicest to me, let's say." I said as his mind went immediately to the worst place. His eyes widened and a frown crept onto his lips making me alert to his thought process.

"Oh m-" Kendall started as I smile sweetly and shook my head.

"Nothing like that. What I mean is, I was 'that' girl, who went out with jocks because they all thought they could be the guy to finally 'break me' as in being my first well everything basically, or making me break free from what people thought I was. They wanted to get me in bed or most likely a back of a car, they wanted to get me drunk, they wanted to get me on drugs, they wanted to test me, and when they and all the girls at school realize they couldn't get me to do that, it was already graduation and people didn't care if they kept their friendships with me either. I had friends, but I knew they weren't true." I told Kendall. He nodded watching me tell the story.

"So you're unbreakable?" He asked me smiling. I shook my head.

"I was to them. But now, I'm trying to break myself." I told him as his eyes watched my lips speak.