Lucy and Grace // on hold

six

Grace and Jasper spent the majority of Saturday morning tidying their flat. It had been a while since they had had anyone other than each other around, and the layer of rubbish and dirty clothes littering the floors were not exactly ready for a party. Jasper had tried to argue that having a party would lead to the flat becoming even more messy, so why bother tidying in the first place, but Grace had fixed them with a glare.

"I know that we both know that we're slobs but no one else needs to know that. Especially not Lucy." Jasper rolled their eyes at that.

"Oh yeah, I forgot we were doing this so you could hang out with your crush more. Why couldn't you just ask her out like a normal person?" Jasper yelped as the pillow hit them in the stomach and threw it back just as quickly as Grace had thrown it. Before Grace could enter into a full blown pillow throwing contest with Jasper, Arisa emerged from bathroom, yawning and stretching. She looked at Jasper and Grace, mid pillow fight and rolled her eyes before disappearing into Grace's bedroom, muttering something about how she was supposed to be the younger sibling.

Arisa was Grace's younger sister. You wouldn't be able to tell from looking at them; Arisa was much taller than Grace, which was saying something, and due to playing on her school's rugby team, she was a lot more toned than Grace could ever hope to be. She was also a lot more focused and driven than Grace was. Arisa had known that she wanted to be a lawyer from a pretty early age, while Grace had kind of fumbled her way through life unsure as to what she was going to do next. For an eighteen-year-old, Arisa was a lot more insightful and observant than most people her age., which often meant that people usually assumed that Arisa was the older one, much to Grace's annoyance.

They had both inherited the resting bitch face though.

When Arisa eventually reappeared, she was fully dressed and had pulled her hair back into a high ponytail. She surveyed the mess in the living room with her hands on her hips and mouth set in a firm line. Jasper and Grace exchanged a look. Arisa meant business.

"Right, are you two idiots ready to actually clean this dumpsite up so it will be presentable in the next," she looked at her watch, "six hours or are you going to carry on acting like children?" Jasper grinned and opened their mouth to reply but Arisa held her hand up, silencing them. "We don't have time to mess around Jasper. This place needs to be immaculate by the time everyone arrives. I don't want you two to stop until this place is looking spotless." Jasper gave a mock salute.

"Sir yes sir!"

Four hours and twenty-seven minutes later, the flat was looking like an entirely different place. The floor was now visible again, and Arisa and Jasper had strung up the fairy lights along the walls, bathing the apartment in a soft yellow glow. Everything was laid out ready and the fridge was stocked full of food and drink. Arisa had taken up residence in the bathroom curling her hair, while Jasper was in their room, trying to decide on the outfit they were going to be wearing. Grace sighed. She was already ready and waiting for 7 o'clock to roll around was making her anxious. She was wearing a loose cream coloured silk shirt with koi fish on them, tucked into a pair of high waisted black jeans. She and Jasper had been watching a lot of Queer Eye recently, and Tan France was already influencing the way she dressed.

She pulled out her phone and texted Lucy, looking for something to do.

Me: looking forward to later?

It was a few minutes before Lucy replied. When her phone buzzed in her hand, she scrambled to read the message.

Lucy F (bus): kinda! im a bit nervous tho, parties make me kind of anxious ahaha