Corrupting the Good girl

Chapter 15

"Paige Louise Wright do not deny it, you Like Darren!" I yelled over my shoulder as I was straightening my hair.

"I do not like him, I just think he is attractive and he seems nice." She plainly replied. I noticed her reflection in the mirror in front of me and looked into her eyes, I saw that she was blinking more than usual; after being best friends with her for four years I had learned the tell-tale signs of when she was lying and this was one of them.

I put my hair straighter down, turned around from the mirror to look at her, I cocked my head to the side and offered her a look that told her that I didn't believe a word she said.

She simply giggled and continued to apply her makeup. Paige was incredibly pretty and had  such a natural beauty to her, I always found it difficult to watch her plaster herself in makeup when she could so easily get away without it.

I, on the other hand, could never leave the house without it on. I turned back to the mirror in front of me and observed my clean and untouched face: dark bags lurked below my eyes, my cheeks were red and blotchy, angry spots peppered my skin and an ugly shine covered my forehead. I put makeup on not to make other people like me or think differently of me, but because I think it will make me like myself better as I will no longer be able to see my imperfections and pick out my flaws.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, I didn't want to think like this. I distracted myself from the destructive thoughts filling my head by turning my attention back to my hair.

"So do think anything will happen with you and Ethan tonight?" Paige asked, turning around to wiggle her eyebrows at my through the mirror.

I chuckled softly to myself. Sometimes I look at Paige and life just seems to be so simple and easy for her: school comes easily to Paige and she's one of the smartest girls in our year, she lives with both of her parents in a perfect little house, she doesn't worry about what other people think of her, she is happy all the time and the most taxing thing she has to deal with each day is what colour lip gloss to wear. I envy her so much.

If only things could be that easy for me.

"Well?" She asked impatiently.

"Um well I would hope not too much happens because firstly other people are there and also because I still don't really know the guy very well." I responded smiling.

She replied giggling. "I don't think that would stop someone like him!" Her words shook me a little. What had I gotten myself into?

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked quizzically.

Before she could respond a sharp beep came from outside, telling us that Darren was here to pick us up.    
        
Paige squealed with excitement as we grabbed our phones and made our way downstairs.

Neither Dan nor my father were home so quickly scribbled down a note for them and left it on the kitchen worktop.

Gone to Ethan's with Paige.

Darren's dropping me back at 10

-Fran x

We skipped down the steps out of the front door together and climbed into Darren's car: me in the back, Paige in the front with Darren. She looked up at him and gave him her best smile.

Throughout the drive she twirled her hair in her fingers and laughed at all his jokes. I smirked to myself in the back - Paige really knew how to play.

~
               
The car came to a stop outside the front of a large, dethatched four bedroom house. There was a small garden path leading away from the gate at the end of the drive, which wound between pots and shrubbery  up to the large, black front door. Two sharp knocks on the chrome door knocker and we could hear footsteps approaching.

The door was pulled open and we were greeted by Ethan and his smirk. He stepped back to allow us in, Paige and Darren went first with me bringing up the back. As I stepped through the door I felt Ethan's hand brush the small of my back causing my skin erupted in tingles, I turned to look at him but he was already pushing past me to direct us to the living room.

We stepped through a large doorway into a expensively furnished room with two large leather sofas, set adjacent to one-another, facing a large flat screen television sat to the left of the fireplace. Looking around the room I could see that the walls were decorated with metal sculpted mirrors and photo frames.

On closer inspection of one of the frames, which was sat on a small table next to the door, I saw Ethan with an older boy who looked exactly like him - even down to the grins they both wore. Ethan cleared his throat, causing me to draw my attention away from the photos dotted around the room.

"Can I get you guys anything to drink?" He asked.

"Cider would be great thanks!" Darren chirped in, I noticed his arm was loosely draped around Paige's waist. She looked over to me and I winked, she blushed and began to giggle.

"Me too." she quietly squeaked between laughing.

"And you?" Ethan said, looking straight at me.

"I'll just have some water thanks." I decided to avoid alcohol after the incident the other night. Ethan chuckled to himself. "What?" I demanded sharply.

"Oh it's just that James told me what happened at that party..." He said. I snapped my head down to look at me feet as I felt the blush cover my cheeks. "So you're not the good little girl we all thought you were?" He said smugly. My eyes flicked up to look at him.

"I-" Before I could begin to justify myself Ethan was laughing again.

"Jesus don't get your knickers in a twist love!" He said with his hands up in defence before leaving to get the drinks. I rolled my eyes before dropping down onto one of the sofas. He really was infuriating.

Darren and Paige chose to sit on the other sofa meaning Ethan would be next to me. Paige shot me a glance and raised her eyebrows at me. 'What?' I mouthed back. She simply chuckled and turned her attention back to Darren, who by now had slung his arm around her shoulders.

Ethan returned with three bottles and a glass of water for me. He carefully placed the drinks on the coffee table in front of us and then walked over to a tall and narrow wooden cabinet set against the wall at the end of the sofa I was sat on, he lightly pulled the door open and then looked over to us.

"So who's up for a film?" He asked loudly, snapping Paige and Darren out of the hushed mumbling they were in.

"Is it just us then?" I asked curiously as I had been expecting more people to turn up.

"Yup, just us." Ethan answered and winked at me, I averted my eyes from him as I felt my cheeks begin to heat up.Damn him and the effect he has on me.

I stood up off of the sofa and walked over next to Ethan. My jaw dropped when I saw the inside of the cabinet, there was easily hundreds of DVDs in there including all of my favourites.

"Any catching your eye?" He asked softly in my ear, I felt his hot breath on my neck and shivered involuntarily, causing Ethan to smirk. He was closer than I expected him to be. I ignored him and kept my gaze forwards.

I felt his arm reach around me as he pulled out Paranormal Activity and held it up to me for inspection.

"Not scared are you love?" He whispered in my ear. I simply scoffed and returned to sit on the sofa. Ethan turned on the TV and after starting the DVD came and sat very close next to me, our thighs were touching and I could feel tingles all up my leg from the contact.

The film titles exploded onto the screen and out of the corner of my eye I saw Paige snuggle into Darren. God she was good.

I could feel my heart beat quickening from the close contact with Ethan so I decided to outright ignore him and distract myself by watching the film.

It was going well, we had been watching for about fifteen minutes now and I had started to calm down, Ethan suddenly shifted slightly causing our legs to rub together. My stomach felt like it was doing back flips. I inwardly groaned at my weakness before returning to the film.

This was going to be a long night.