Communicating Vessels [COMPLETED]

Chapter 9

Ten years earlier

In a lucky turn of events, Sigrid's parents were also out of town for the weekend of Josh's party, having decided to go on a romantic getaway for Valentine's Day. Her older brother Einar, however, was still at home. He had plans to spend the night with his girlfriend, but the Sjögren parents had decided to put him on babysitting duty for Sigrid and me instead. Sig was smart, though, and she managed to secure us a deal with Einar. He would drive us to the party and back, no questions asked, and we would not rat to his parents that he went to his girlfriend's instead of looking after us. Mutually assured destruction, we called it.

Minutes before leaving, Sigrid and I took a good look at each other. It was crucial that we be irreproachable style-wise. We would be the outsiders at that party, we knew almost nobody, and nobody knew us, we couldn't afford to look out of place.

Sig was rocking a hot pink tube dress which covered her butt and very little of her stupidly long legs. The color was so bright against her snow-white skin. She wore silver heels that added unnecessary inches to her already tall frame and had tied her long platinum blond hair into a high, sleek ponytail. She had gone very light-handed on makeup, her angular features astounding enough as they were.

I was different from Sigrid in many ways, but the most obvious way was our physical appearance. My hair was dark brown, my skin tan, I was of average height, and my body had curves in places where Sigrid's was very slender. Except for the boobs. Both Sigrid and I were flat-chested ladies. If it fit Sigrid's model-like figure very well, it looked out of proportions on my own body. I was still hoping that puberty would give me a final dose of hormones to make those tatas grow (spoiler alert: it didn't).

I was wearing a baby pink skater dress with a V-shaped neckline and spaghetti straps. I didn't own any heels, my parents would never allow it, so I was wearing white trainers. Sig had helped me curl my hair. It was so big and tightly coiled, the eighties called to get it back. That was a welcome change from my natural straight flat hair. I put more makeup on than she did, lining my eyes with black and applying a light pink gloss on my lips. I had recently found out about the magic of makeup and loved using it to feel more confident on the rare occasions my mom allowed it. Or, in that case, when she didn't know about it.

After thorough inspection of each other, we were ready to go. We took our jackets and purses and followed Einar to his car. I had made a small gift for Josh, since it was his birthday, and I hoped it wasn't too corny. As we were getting closer to Josh's house, the present felt cornier and cornier.

"It is quite corny," Einar commented from the driver's seat when I asked Sigrid for the millionth time what she thought about the gift.

"No, it's not," she retorted and glared at her brother. "Trust me Abs, he'll love it."

I had no other choice than to believe her.

We arrived a few minutes later and nervously made our way to the front door. We could hear the music playing and the people chatting. We were not early. Good. We had carefully chosen our arrival time. I rang the doorbell with a shaky finger.

"Happy birthday!" Sigrid and I said when Josh opened the door on us.

He was wearing a baby pink tank top and light gray jeans. It looked off, I had only ever seen him wear various shades of black and the occasional white shirt, and yet he still managed to rock this lighter palette. Even his fingernails were painted fuchsia for the occasion. He also had a lipstick heart on the cheek that someone – a girl – had painted for him. I tried to ignore the way this thought made me feel.

"Hey!" He exclaimed, looking pleased to see us. "Thanks. I'm glad you guys made it, come on in!"

He hugged us shortly as we stepped in. I handed him his gift.