Ariella's biggest desire in life has always been such a simple one. She wants to be 'normal.' Unfortunately, that one simple wish has never been within her grasp. Coming from a long line of witches is bad enough, but she's even more different than t...
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My final minutes at work were interrupted by the chime of my phone announcing a new text.
"I'm outside," Micah said, and I gestured to Hazel across the store that it was time for us to go.
Luckily, Abi and James didn't mind if my friends hung around the store in the afternoons as long as they didn't interfere with the customers or make too much noise. On that particular night, Hazel and I had ridden to Claywood with Micah after school so that we could ride to a party together once Micah and I got off work.
After a quick goodbye to Abi, we both ran out of the store and jumped into Micah's truck. One of our classmates was throwing a party while their parents were out of town, and basically, anyone who wanted to come was invited. I was more than a little nervous about my first high school party, but Micah had insisted it was like a rite of passage, and I was determined to live my senior year to the fullest.
"Is Oliver coming?" I asked idly while buckling my seatbelt.
"Yeah, he's meeting us there. What about Lawrence?" He asked, glancing over at me momentarily while keeping one eye on the road.
I was upset to notice the reluctance in his voice when he asked about Lawrence. He and my friends still hadn't exactly meshed. They were civil when they were around each other, but I'd noticed that they seemed to try to avoid being around each other as much as possible.
"Not sure. I mentioned it to him, but he didn't really say anything about it," I shrugged.
"Oh, I forgot," Hazel exclaimed. "Ari, I brought you a shirt to change into. You can't go to your first high school party in your work shirt."
She bent forward and started digging through her backpack, completely missing my cringe. I wished I had thought to bring my own shirt and wasn't looking forward to seeing Hazel's choice. My style and Hazel's weren't anywhere near the same.
I almost groaned out loud when she pulled out a fitted, low-cut purple sweater. I didn't really do sweaters or anything low cut. I decided not to argue because high school parties weren't exactly my thing either, and I might as well get used to being out of my comfort zone.
Seeing no other option, I grabbed the sweater from Hazel's hands and changed shirts right there in the passenger's seat of Micah's truck. Once it was on, I apprehensively pulled at the bottom of the sweater, attempting to force it into covering the sliver of pale skin showing above the waistline of my jeans.
"It's supposed to be like that. Leave it alone," Hazel commented, swatting at my hands.
When we pulled up outside of a secluded house in the woods with a long line of vehicles parked on the side of the road, I knew we had reached the party. Stepping out of the truck, I took a calming breath and tried again to force the sweater to cover more of my torso. Not only was a bit of my stomach showing, but there was too much cleavage visible to anyone who wanted to look. Uncomfortable, I sighed. It was the type of thing River would typically wear, and I'd make fun of her for it.
