Caught

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"Tighter," Princess Taylor ordered the maid who was helping me into my ball gown, since apparently, you can't walk into one with a sweater and jeans. I felt the strings get pulled as one of the other maids helped me with my makeup.

I had no idea what I looked like at this point. Taylor prevents me from looking into a mirror, telling me 'it's a surprise.'

It certainly is a surprise that I agreed to this.

Taylor was already dressed for her birthday ball but like Aidan said earlier, she really did want to drag me into this getting ready for the ball thing as soon as I stepped back into the palace. It took us two hours to find a dress that I actually liked, and another ninety-minutes to get me actually dressed.

Taylor was dressed in a sleeveless, purple silk gown, the ends sweeping the floor. There were tiny sparkles littered all over the dress, looking like stars scattered on the... purple night sky. Her normally straight hair was put into waves and in the back, there were two side braids that formed a flower in the center. Her lips were painted a nude pink, some silver eyeshadow put on her eyelids.

"Okay, done," Taylor stated as the maids back away. "Now turn."

"I feel like I'm going to trip over these heels," I complain. "Can I wear sneakers?"

She laughed. "You'll manage, I'm sure. If you were still injured, I might've let you, though."

I cursed at Aidan, the boy who told me to heal it so we could dance. I'm positive that if the girl, Beth, saw us not dancing at, at least one point at the ball, Aidan would be put in between a rock and a hard place.

"You don't invite everyone to your parties - or birthday balls, do you?" I asked, curious.

She laughed again. "Of course, not. We don't have enough space for everyone. It's usually the kids in town that are my age and their families, since I don't really hang out with people my age much. I didn't go to normal school like Tyson did. It's gonna start off as a formal ball, then it usually turns into a big, actual dance. Like in those high school related movies."

She bit her lip and I could swear that she felt like crying. "I really missed you, Lauren. Things weren't the same without you or Aidan or Alyssa or Tyson."

I felt guilty, even though it wasn't entirely my fault that I left. The girl clearly had trouble making friends, only sticking to a few since childhood. And the fact that she, the princess, could basically become friends with anyone she wants had trouble making friends.

"Are you scared to be lonely?" I asked her.

She gave me a shy smile. "You're using song references again?" Honestly, I didn't know that was a song. "But yeah, I hate being alone. I'm scared that at one point, everyone I care about will just disappear without me. But then, on top of that, I have social anxiety."

"That's an... interesting combination." I didn't know what else to say. "And you throw huge parties?"

She laughed. "Yeah... It's strange, isn't it? Now, look in the mirror."

She helped me walk over to the mirror, since I tripped a million times just to take a few steps. I had to be honest, I didn't think the girl in the mirror was me.

I was wearing a dark blue gown that, like Taylor's, swept the floor, even when I was wearing heels. It stated off full of sparkles, which slowly faded to look like snowflakes in the dark sky. My hair was put up into a messy but stylish bun, with stands falling to my sides. A coat of red painted my lips. The last piece of the outfit was a Spencer's gold necklace hanging around my neck.