Amelie (ON HOLD)

I

ɪ ʜᴀᴛᴇᴅ ʜᴀʟʟᴏᴡᴇᴇɴ.

  Yes, gasp or call me boring but I don't care. That holiday was the bane of my existence.

  As I child my mom would always force me to dress up as a fairy or a cat. One year she forced me to be a pumpkin princess for the annual Spook Parade my town held, and did I hate every minute of it? Yes. I was only six, but the distress it caused me allowed myself to forge a vengeance against the holiday all together.

  Every year since I turned thirteen, I stayed at home, ordered a pizza, and watched some sappy rom-com. Yes, call me boring but it was better than dressing up in some itchy costume and spending the majority of my night in the cold, begging strangers for knock-off versions of popular candy, or spending all night at a party I did not want to be at.

  If you are here thinking that I must be some giant scaredy-cat, you are correct. Everything scared me. I could go down the alphabet and find at least two things I feared for each letter. A, ants, and aeroplanes. B, bees, bats, and blood. C, crocodiles, cemeteries, coyotes, clowns, coffins – you get the point.

  So how I ended up at Jacqueline Rayford's Halloween sleepover was a complete and utter mystery.

  Well, it wasn't really. Jaqueline was one of the most popular girls at college. She was pretty, rich, and athletic. She was everyone's dream whether you wanted to be her or get with her. What she wanted with me was a mystery.

  I was the complete opposite, my looks were... not like hers, and I wasn't the richest. Sure, I wasn't poor, and I acknowledge that, but my parents always pretended that they were richer than what they actually were. We lived in a nice neighbourhood, but in the smallest house in that nice neighbourhood, and when talking to random people on the street, my mother would always point at some random large house, claiming it to be ours when, in fact, ours was the small, two story one by the side of the bus station.

  My athletic skills were non-existent. I was more of an academic soul. In other terms, running and me? It equalled anatomical destruction.

   "You can do this." I said to myself in the bathroom mirror next to Jaqueline's living room. There were about fifteen girls at this sleepover, all in silk Victoria Secret's pyjamas. I looked down at my Looney Tunes pyjamas and Stitch themed fluffy socks and cringed. I should've stuck with plain pyjamas but no, I threw the closest ones I saw in a rush to leave my dorm knowing I was already fifteen minutes late.

  I had hidden in the bathroom about an hour in as the girls started to play 'Never Have I Ever' and I knew it would be a failure. I hadn't done anything. Sexually wise but also generally wise. Like never have I ever been on vacation abroad or never have I ever snuck out. I was a complete virgin in almost everything. Playing the game would be a total embarrassment.

  It had been over thirty minutes since they started playing and so I assumed the game was over. Holding my breath, I stepped out of the bathroom and made my way into the living room.

  Fluffy pillows and pastel sleeping bags covered the white carpet as the girls giggled with cups of wine in their hands. One of the girls was telling an unbelievably detailed story of her first time giving a blow job, one I wished I had brought earmuffs for.

   "Amelie!" Jaqueline said as I walked past her. "Come sit!" she pulled my hand down to sit right by her. "I've been wondering where you've been, you've missed all the good stuff!" I gingerly smiled and pulled my knees up to my chest.

  I noticed someone whisper something in Jaqueline's ear and a smile spread across her pink painted lips.

   "How about a game of truth of dare?" Jacqueline cut of the blow job girl and all the girls giggled in excitement. Truth or dare? This one shouldn't be so bad. "I'll go first. Kristen, truth or dare?"