Family Secret

Chapter Three - James

Standing in front of my mirror, I see a girl with long dark brown hair, and dark blue eyes looking back at me. She looks pale in the face and a little bit confused, and most definitely she does not look ready for a college party tonight.
Holding up a pink elegant dress on my right and a teal blouse and a pair of black jeans on my left, I go with the latter. Comfort over looks tonight, well if I am being honest, it's because I don't have the confidence to wear the pink dress. My mother bought it for me 5 years ago and I never found the courage to wear it. Maybe someday, I thought to myself.
There was a knock at my door, and immediately a Thomas was poking his head in the door.
"THOMAS!" I scream clutching the pink dress to cover my not so fully dressed body.
"Jeez, calm down, it's just me!" he laughed.
"What do you want?"
"I am heading back out to Brandon's house, just thought I would say bye!"
Thomas moved out of the house about 3 years ago, it was his way to officially "become an adult", so he moved in with Brandon, his former college buddy. Although he comes back and forth really, fifty percent here and fifty percent there. Which is a plus for me, because having him fully moved out of the house would be a bummer. I smile softly at him, and hold up a finger signaling for him to wait a moment. As he closes the door, I quickly finish getting dressed, and I open the door. He is standing there all lanky and smiling at me like a dork. I laugh and say
"What..?"
"Oh nothing.. you just look pretty! My little sister!" He quickly grabs my head and gives me a nudge. I annoyingly pull away, but then I can't keep myself from smiling. Although he can be the annoying typical brother, he is also extremely sweet, he has the personality of a father and a brother. He looks at me seriously and has a side smile.
"By the way you should have worn the pink dress. It suits you."

I laugh and shake my head side to side.
"So.. Where are you going?"
"Nowhere, just was going to head out and grab a coffee." I lied. Being the silly, but responsible brother he is, he would convince me not to go to this party.
"Okay, well have fun! See you the day after tomorrow!"
He wraps his arms around me and gives me a tight bear hug, I hug him back and suddenly have an overwhelming feeling of missing him. How weird was that?

I watch him walk out the door and to his car, I quickly look down at my phone and it was already five minutes till eight. I went back inside and put on some red lipstick and sprayed myself with perfume. With one last glance in the mirror at myself, I shrugged and walked out my door. My mother was in the kitchen making some late evening coffee, I smiled and told her I was going to go hang out with Bella and to not wait up for me. She nodded and yet again reminded me of our errands tomorrow.

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*HONK, HONK*
Bella's car is pulled up on our driveway, the passengers window is rolled down and she shouts "get in loser!" I roll my eyes and chuckle, opening the car door to the sound of pop drifting through the radio.
"Well you look cute!!!" Bella enthusiastically says with a bright white smile.
"Why thank you, but look at yourself!" I say as I put on my seat belt. She has on a black romper with ankle books and a bomber jacket, her short blonde hair straightened and her red lipstick matching mine. She laughs and starts talking about the upcoming exams for our classes; I nod and look out the window while she explains how she is most definitely not ready.
Driving down a back road with pine trees on either side of the street I stare hard until my eye sight blurs with the sight, suddenly we pass a cluster of trees but there was a gap between one of them. There standing between the opening was a dark figure, black head to toe. It was definitely a male, his stance was obtruding and he was staring at our car. His head slowly, eerily turning as we passed him, Bella's car going fast, but the vision of him and his head was slow motion. I silently gasped and stared wide eyed turning my head. Bella had no idea what just happened she just kept rambling on and on.
"So I told James you were coming."
Reality came back to me, and anxiety happily came along with it. Why is it that almost everyone wants me to date?
"Ughh Bella, seriously.. don't worry about it. I am fine being the independent woman I am." I say tilting my head up with a confident smile, trying to prove my point.
"Might as well talk to him, what's the worst that could happen?"
I think about her question for a moment. Well..I could die, I could completely make a full of myself, I could get ignored, or I could explode from a anxiety attack.
"Fine! I will talk to him, but only for you."
She laughs and turns up the music. She looks at me mischievously and says, "you'll thank me later."

At the party, my theory was right from before. This was definitely not a "small get together" this was a blown out party. James house stretched up high, three stories tall, all the windows were opened, colored lights streaming from within. Rap music blared the speakers from somewhere inside; it was so loud my heart beat was instantly pounding with the music when I opened my car door. Fellow college students, some I seen before and some I never knew were all out and about. It looked insanely crowded inside, people were even dancing in the doorway, and about thirty people were outside lounging around smoking cigarettes and drinking from red plastic cups. I sighed and looked over at Bella. Even she looked intimidated. She gave me an apologetic smile and said "Sorry Runa... I really thought it was going to be small."
"If this is James idea of small, then remind me to never come to his large parties."
"Well, who knows! After tonight, you may want to come to all of his parties!" Bella says with a wink.
I roll my eyes, and secretly considered stealing her keys and taking off, and later picking her back up. My idea of a Saturday night was not this. It was at home alone in my room with my cozy socks on reading a book while stuffing my face with chocolate.
We walk inside, trying to weave our way around the hot, stuffy bodies dancing around us. With a push and shove there from the dancers we finally made our way into James's large kitchen. Alcoholic drinks everywhere, I instantly grabbed a can of diet coke and opened it. Bella grabbed a cup of punch (although I wouldn't have trusted it) and took a sip and smiled. We both stood in the corner of the kitchen awkwardly until Bella decided to take a photo.
She stretched her arm out before us and we took a photo, which knowing her she instantly uploaded it to the worldwide internet. She was pooching out her lips in the photo, and I just gave a smile with a peace sign. She clapped her hands, pleased with herself and suddenly her eyes lit up, in the background Taylor Swift started playing.
"Runa, your favorite song!!" Bella grabbed my hands and pulled me into the dance floor; I laughed and couldn't help but dance with the beat. We swayed our hips left and right and lifted our hands in the air during the chorus. I spun around while jumping up and down on my heels.
Colors spun around my vision and flashes of Bella's wide smile, and laughs echoed in my ear.
We grabbed each other's hands and did a small ballroom dance move, laughing at ourselves. It was fun to feel carefree, and since there were a lot of people dancing around us, I didn't feel the need to be self-conscious.
Suddenly a large group of guys entered the middle of the room they had beer bottles in their hands and were cheering looking up the extremely long stretch of stairs.
"DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!"
They were all shouting so loud the music even disappeared. Me and Bella stopped dancing as well as everyone else, people around the whole house had their attention. Up at the very top of the stair, there stood James, his buzz cut blonde hair and tan skin with a black jacket on, he had a motorcycle helmet in his hand and he held his hand up waving at everyone with a goofy grin on his face. Somewhere within the house, a light shone on him, it was so bright, the kind of light you would see on Broadway, it was so theatrical. Everyone had their phones out videoing him, he put on the big bulky helmet and took a few steps back, as if he was about to launch into a race. I gulped and suddenly I had a idea what would happened. I looked over at Bella, and she looked frightened as well but she managed to keep a smile on her face. James ran towards the stairs, lifted himself quickly onto the railing and slid all the way down; on the last few feet down he jumped midair and crashed on the table. A huge vase broke with a loud clash, and sharp pieces of glass flew everywhere. People started clapping and cheering as if it was the most wonderful thing they have ever seen. Two guys helped him up from the table and he had a big, bloody scratch on his right arm. But nevertheless when he took off his helmet he was smiling like a fool ear to ear and they all entered the kitchen followed by a wave of others. The music started back up and people continued to dance again. I looked awkwardly over at Bella.
"I don't know why I ever had a crush on him." I whisper in her ear over the music.
"I don't know either!" She joked. She laughed and started dancing again to the music.
"I'll be right back!" I say even though she probably didn't hear me. I walk into the kitchen to see what James was up to, he was surrounded by his group of friends all talking. I grabbed another coke and I met his eyes. He looked at me and got off the kitchen counter and walked over to me. All his friends were watching and it was really odd.
"So Runa, what did you think of my skit earlier?"
"Ummm.. it was interesting." I say while taking a sip.
He grabs a beer next to me and shoves it into my hand.
"Have a real drink, Runa! Have some fun!" He smiles a smile that says he wants fun that requires something else.
"Aw no thanks, I don't drink." I say putting the beer back into his hand.
One of his friends laughs behind him and I hear them say "there's always at least one prude at a party." They all start laughing and I see James chuckle under his breath.
James looks at me seriously and says "Well that's okay; I thought you weren't so boring but I guess I was wrong." He smirks and pushes past me, making me bump into the table a little bit. My diet coke spilled all over my blouse and I look at him perplexed as to why he was so rude, and then suddenly I see a familiar face of Thomas in the background. He looked at me and walked up to James, I see them talking but I can't hear them. He pushes James to the side, literally knocking him full on to the ground. His friends stared wide mouth at Thomas, and James gets himself off the ground and says something and walks away.
"Are you okay? What was that about?" Thomas looks at me with concern and then realizes my spill and grabs napkins and helps me dry my blouse.
I say nothing, I am red in the face and I just wanted to go home. I can't believe I had the idea to even try to talk to James. I did like him once before, but I've come to the conclusion that my judgement in guys was very bad.