the new year

sixty-one

S I X T Y - O N E :

With a spur of confidence within herself, Oak had decided that today was the day she would stop caring so much about what others thought about what she was wearing because at the end of the day, it was clothes, pieces of fabric that concealed what was underneath. It was also to express their personality. She was sick and tired of being in a bubble of expression but not confident enough to wear clothes like Harper, sure she wasn't as model like as her friend but at the end of the day, she couldn't change her genetics.

So, she decided to wear the dress her mum had bought her for her birthday because she was told by her mum that it was a formal-ish restaurant, she looked at herself in the mirror the skimpy dress clung to her body a little, it wasn't figure hugging but it was definitely extenuating the parts of her body that she usually covered with everything she could. Her eyes trailed down her body in the mirror in front of her, her hands slowly smoothing over the smooth fabric, thank god she'd shaved her legs yesterday because her legs were on full display and this was the sort of dress that didn't really allow you to wear tights as it'd look a bit weird. She'd paired it with some white converse because she didn't wear high heels, she didn't need to and they were the only shoes that really went with the dress, she'd put the silver pendant necklace that her nana had bought her on along with a range of all of the other jewellery she'd gotten today.

A weird feeling washed over her as she pulled the denim jacket on and looked at her reflection one last time, she'd put on some plain lip-gloss and mascara to top off her look, what she was feeling was something she hadn't felt since she was like twelve, she felt confident.

She remembers seeing something on Twitter awhile back and it said if you wanted to feel flattered ask your brother how you look, she didn't know why she did it because she knew that Tom was always rather bluntly honest whereas Seb was a little kinder with his honesty. Really, she did it because she wanted a reason to not wear the dress, which was also a weird feeling to have, she just never truly believed she looked good even if she felt it, which was also very rare for her to feel.

"How do I look?" Oak asked her brother who was stood in the bathroom, spitting out the mouthwash he'd just swirled around. He'd decided to wear a pair of grey and black checkered trousers and a plain black t-shirt tucked into them, so it was kind of a smart casual look. Tom's blue eyes looked at his sister stood in the doorway as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and slowly turned around. It was odd for him to see his sister wearing a dress and actually looking fairly confident, she had nothing to be not confident about though even if she saw every flaw she had. Tom just stared at her with a happy smile, which worried Oak, he didn't smile like that much unless he was about to insult her or something along those lines, with awkwardness radiating her she stepped from one foot to the other "It's too much isn't it, fucking hell, I knew it..." She rambled nervously.

"It's not, you look lovely," Tom complimented honestly, he prayed that those fucking lads that Charlie and Louise had invited would keep their hands to themselves because she sure as hell wasn't going to be shy of male attention tonight.

"Really?" His sister asked in shock, her posture standing up straight and her eyebrows raising, she didn't expect that. Not because Tom is a complete dick but because even though she felt confident she was still insecure as hell and wanted someone else to tell her that she was doing too much.

"Really," He responded still with a smile, he was proud of her for stepping out of her comfort zone and being expressive of herself "Now, come on we've got the table booked for half seven," Tom ushered her out of the doorway. He was dying to see her reaction when everyone surprised her. He'd been made aware of who was going, from the cast of this Netflix show Self-Indulgence that he knew The Blue had worked with, he'd heard about the show but had never watched it, the two bands that they toured with at the start of the year, all of her family that could make it and many other friends and colleagues she'd made. He hoped with everything in him that she loved the party, it was an expression of the love everyone had for her even if she found it hard to believe.