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As soon as she walked into the room, Lydia knew this girl was someone from out of town. No one here had half as much grace or charm as the new girl who showed up at her party uninvited, twirling her hair around her finger as she smiled at everyone who passed. At first, Lydia couldn’t tell if she was simply shy, or begging everyone to pay attention to her without any effort. But from the look of Kira’s amused stare, Lydia quickly realized she was the only one who stopped in her tracks.
“Please don’t tell me you’re serious,” Kira said, intercepting Lydia’s stare through the sea of people. “Lydia!”
“Hmm?” She quickly snapped out of her daze and gave Kira her (divided) attention. “What was that?”
Kira rolled her eyes. “She would never go for you. She doesn’t seem like the type who would go after the most popular girl in school. Who knows, maybe she’s not the type to go after girls at all.”
“Oh so now you’re the one with the perfect gaydar?”
Kira shook her head with a laugh. “I’m just saying, you two are on completely different planes of existence. You’re only going to embarrass her, or yourself for that matter.”
Lydia spotted her again, floating behind the crowd of sweaty teenagers. Wherever she went, people parted a path for her, whether either of them knew it or not. No matter how out of place the new girl seemed, she fit in perfectly. Lydia knew her party had been missing something vital, and she was it.
“To be perfectly honest, Kira, I’m not gonna let that girl leave without me saying hello to her. Or without me asking her out. Possibly.”
Before she could leave, Kira grabbed her arm, spun her around, and said into her ear, “You’ll never follow through with this, Lydia.”
“Really? Watch me.”
Kira tried to protest, but Lydia was gone, two red solo cups in her hand filled with one of the beverages she pulled out of her parents’ fridge prior to the party. As long as it wasn’t alcohol, Lydia could possibly pull this off.
“I’m usually not the person to come up to strangers like this, but I have to say: that jacket is to die for. Where’d you get it?”
The girl faced the bathroom door, probably waiting for a drunk kid to finish vomiting down the toilet. But once she heard Lydia’s voice, she pulled her head of the wall flattened her dress frantically. Her dimples created shadows on her cheeks in the dim party lights. Lydia’s heart melted.
“Thanks. Oh and from some….store, I don’t know.”
“You’re new here, right?”
She nodded nervously. “I’m Allison.”
“Lydia.”
After a long moment of silence filled with Lydia running possibilities through her head and searching Allison’s face for answers, Allison blurted out, “You know I hate parties. A lot.”
Lydia smiled hesitantly, but she quickly replaced the unusual, timid one with the one she usually wore. The one that looked like she could make or break your whole world and she knew it. “I’m offended Allison. This is my party after all.”
She covered her face with her hand embarrassedly, completely unaware that Lydia wasn’t offended at all. Flirting had always come easy to her, but now she didn’t even know if Allison was flirting back, or even getting the gist. Before Allison could say anything further, Lydia said, “Don’t get yourself worked up. Trust me, once you get used to this place, you’ll realize it’s a good thing that your first party was Lydia Martin’s. Not some loser with no taste for music or alcohol”
“I feel blessed, truly.”
“Sounds good.” Lydia glanced back towards Kira to see her peering over at them over the rim of her cup. “Well it looks like I’ve got a party to host. See you on Monday, don’t forget about me, ok?”
Allison beamed at the ground, trying to conceal the blush forming on her cheeks. Lydia cherished the minor victory.
“I don’t think that’s possible.”
See Lydia, she told herself, that wasn’t too bad. At least you didn’t fall on your face or something worse. As Lydia approached the island, Kira shook her head back and forth like she knew something that Lydia didn’t.
“What’s your deal?”
“Oh man, you got it bad.”