The Bluest of Eyes

Chapter five

The knocking on the door was barely noticeable in the bedroom as music blasted through the speakers, and the blonde sitting on the bed jolted as the door suddenly swung open and her younger brother appeared.

“Haven’t you heard of knocking?” she spat and turned off the music, crossing her arms as she got off the bed and stood face by face against him.

“I did knock,” he rebutted with a frown. “This came for you,” he continued and reached out a package which had just been delivered to their house.

“Oh, awesome!” Kenzie exclaimed joyfully and accepted the package from her brother before carefully placing it on her drawer. “I bought a new pair of shoes for the final,” she explained further, knowing that her brother honestly didn’t care. He was used to seeing package upon package arrive to the Harper home; both Portia and Kenzie seemed to spend most of their free time shopping in physical stores or buy items from online retailers. The fact that the Harper family was upper middle class, almost bordering on being upper class, allowed the girls to take on a somewhat luxurious lifestyle.

Nathan was more interested in gadgets than clothes, and he would never understand the fascination with fabric when you could get technical appliances instead. A game console would last much longer than clothes would, so he saw his spending as more as an investment. Obviously the girls disagreed heavily and the two sides would never see eye to eye on the matter.

Then again, when did siblings ever see eye to eye?

“Cool,” he said nonchalantly and turned around to leave the room.

“Hey!” Kenzie uttered. He turned back around and looked at her somewhat confused.

“Yeah?”

“Do you have any plans tonight?” she asked curiously.

“No… Why?” Either he was confused or suspicious; it was probably the latter. Their brother-sister interactions rarely went past yelling at each other and wishing each other a happy birthday once a year.

“Do you want to go to the movies?” she walked over to her desk and rummaged through the top drawer until she found the card. “I still have the movie ticket gift card grandma got me for my birthday, and since I’m off to a party and Portia’s staying the night at Jenna’s place, I thought you might want to get out of the house too.”

“Eh…” he hesitated, surveying the card in her hand as if it was a big ploy and she was pulling some lame trick on him. Finally, he took a few steps closer to her and shrugged his shoulders. “I guess I could go.”

“Have fun,” Kenzie smiled and handed the card over to him. She knew all too well what it was like being the sole kid left in the house with their parents on a Friday night. They’d pull out board games and insist on a fun family night which turned out to be a bust because – let’s face it – parents were never meant to be fun. “Now get out of my sight, I have to get ready for the party.” She ordered with a grin and waved him off as he left her room.

**

This Friday night had been marked in her calendar for the past two months. It was a farewell party of sorts; all the students that had graduated from her high school two months prior were gathering to have one last night of fun together before they all set off on new adventures. There was going to be alcohol, good music and probably a shit ton of party crashers. Needless to say, Kenzie was looking forward to it, as were her friends.

Truthfully, she was happy that the farewell party was a big event rather than an intimate dinner with her closest friends, just because she wouldn’t be able to handle the latter. Things would get soppy real quick and the night would end with all of them looking like emo panda’s because of their runny mascara. The worst thing that could happen now was a hangover from hell (and Kenzie sure counted on having one the following day), and that was more than fine with the blonde.

“Did Nicole run off with some guy already?” The party had only just begun and their flirty friend was nowhere to be found. As usual. Whenever there was a party, Nicole would be the one to drag the other girls along and then she’d wander off with some guy, meaning they had to find their own way to pass time. Kenzie shook her head and made it over to a plastic table which was covered with booze of all kinds, while Lily and Courtney headed in another direction.

The party was held in a secluded barn area, locally known as the “party palace” amongst the younger crowd. Whenever the teens needed a venue for their parties, the party palace would be the first place to go. There hadn’t been any major incidents during the festivities held there, so it had managed to slip under the radar and avoided the prying eyes of the Tarrytown adults.

Filling up a red cup with liquid, she noticed that somebody had joined her at the table, and she leered to her right. “Drew?”

“Well if it isn’t Kenzie Harper,” he replied with a smile and filled up a cup of his own. “Did you lose your posse?”

She laughed and raised her eyebrows swiftly. “They just ditched me. I seriously don’t know how to manage to go through this party by myself,” she joked and drank some of the liquid contained in the plastic cup.

The quartet was infamous for never leaving each other’s sides. They had been friends since middle school and managed to stick together throughout the ups and downs of growing up. The saying ‘attached at the hip’ would be a perfect way to describe the girls, and many a times they acted more like sisters than they acted like friends.

“I’m sure a girl like you won’t stay alone for long.”

“I’d rather be alone than having the company of a drunken jock who stares at my cleavage instead of making an attempt at having a conversation,” she replied honestly and shrugged her shoulders casually. “Anyway, I’m not completely alone,” she added and gave him a nod. ”Unless you have somewhere else to be…?”

“I’m all yours. Fair warning though, I’m not sure I’ll be as good company as Pat Jack. I saw him without a shirt, showing off his new tribal tattoo. Quite a class act, that one.” Drew commented with a hint of sarcasm.

Kenzie rolled her eyes and mentally thanked God that she had dodged that bullet. Pat Jack was the self-made nickname of Patrick Jackson, a football player who she had been dating during their sophomore year. The two were more known for their prom break up than their actual relationship, something which Kenzie was more than okay with. He had become quite obnoxious and spiraled out of control by the start of their senior year. Nowadays he looked like warning example of an infomercial on bad tattoos, and to top it all off he was booted off the football team for showing up to practice drunk. She hadn’t even talked to him for about half a year and she would rather forget she ever associated herself with him.

“Don’t remind me!” Kenzie begged. “As long as you keep your eyes away from my cleavage, I think you’ll be a contender for gentleman of the year.” It was surprisingly difficult to find a guy in town who mastered the art of looking at someone’s face while conversing with them, rather than letting their eyes wander down south.

Linking her arm with his, they walked away from the table, not really knowing where they were heading.