“Are you awake?” I heard a croaky voice emerge from my many,many thoughts.

“Mhmm.” I struggled a groan out my mouth before rolling onto my side and curling into a sleepy bundle of warmth. My eyes were still squeezed shut. I needed sleep.

“Oh come on, Lilly, wake up.” The voice got closer to me and I felt two intruding fingers poke at my sides. “It’s nearly nine. We need to get the house ready.”

I moaned again and dug my face deeper into the pillow.

“Fine,” the voice sighed and I heard footsteps walk away. I went to open one of my eyes to check the coast was clear before snatching a blanket and going back to bed; big mistake.

When I opened my face Ryan's was right up close. “Boo.”

I screamed and launched back, causing a series of laughter from his mouth to bounce around the room. “Jesus!” I yelled angrily and threw my pillow at him.

He dodged it with ease. “Come on, sleepy head, someone needs to help me clear this mess up and Harriet’s coming over in an hour. You know what she’s like.”

I did know what she was like, snobby, rich, clean, snobby, flawless, and did I mention snobby? I looked around; there was popcorn everywhere and empty cans of cider might as well have been part of the furniture.

“Fine.” I sighed and crawled off of the sofa. “Just give me five minutes to get ready, okay?”

As I made my way into the bathroom, I thought about the night before. We must have crashed at around three. After the huge popcorn and pillow fight we were pretty tired. We’d wound up watching a few pornos, and had a competition on who had the best fake orgasm. The Latino won. And then after we’d gotten comfortable we talked for around an hour, then I must have fallen asleep. I couldn’t remember anything else.

I slipped into a pair of blue denim shorts and my Two Door Cinema Club t-shirt, and stood in front of the mirror to put my face on. After washing off the makeup from the previous evening I applied the usual concealer and foundation routine, and swept a quick line of black liner across the top lid of my eyes. Compared to what I usually wore, this was nothing. I was the kind of girl who like dark eye makeup. My mother had once told me this was because of my lack of self confidence, but I was pretty sure I just liked it that way.

I didn’t need to apply too much mascara as I already had quite long lashes. So after a quick touch up to my hair I padded down the wooden floorboards with bare feet to check up on Annie. I smiled at the sight before me; she’d shifted around in her sleep a little but her face was still firmly pressed up against the mattress. She was snoring her head off. Quietly I hopped down the stairs and around the pile of her digested food and grabbed a bin bag from the kitchen. Ryan was sat at the counter with two cups of coffee.

“Weak with three sugars right?” he asked me.

I smiled, he managed to remember every time. “Yep, thanks,” I told him, eagerly grabbing the mug. It was perfect.

“I still don’t understand how you drink it like that. Isn’t it way too sickly?”

“No, I guess I just have a sweet tooth.” After polishing off the drinks, we made our way over to the living room. To this day I still have no clue how two people could make such a mess in the space of four hours. “Woah,” I said under my breath, taking in the multiple wine stains on the what was once spotless white carpet, trodden in whatsits and empty cans and packets everywhere.

“Harriet is going to freak.” He groaned. 




Not if she doesn’t show up. I thought jealously. Harriet was the type of person who couldn’t tolerate mess. We were throwing a party for Annie. She was seventeen that day and we needed to get the place cleaned up before the guests arrived. Ryan had insisted that Harriet was to be invited. Annie didn’t particularly like Harriet either but she agreed to it anyway to avoid hurt feelings.

“I’ll start with the rubbish, you hit the carpets," I instruct, allowing my feminine cleaning habits to take over.

“Why do I have to do the carpets?”

I scooped up a handful of empty wrappers. ”Because it’s your house. And my back hurts,” I lied.

After half an hour of clearing, sweeping, tidying and hovering we got to the fun part; polishing. I’d always loved making things shiny. And it was so easy it was barely a chore.

“Music?” Ryan offered as he headed over to the sound system. Their family had the most ridiculously large black speakers. The kind you’d find in a club or a festival. I nodded and squirted some spray onto the window sill.

I whirled round as soon as I heard the first strum of the guitar, a smile cracked across my tired lips. “How did you know I loved this?” I yelled over the melody, not realizing I was already swaying my hips.

He nodded down to my t-shirt. Of course! He’d seen this was my favourite band. We were listening to Make it Work by Two Door Cinema Club. We polished in time to the music, allowing the motivational summer tune to lift out tired spirits. The melody danced across my ears, making it impossible not to move along with it. It was a funny sight really, the two of us looking like zombies with huge grins on our faces, dancing like idiots around the living room with polish. Things only got better when the chorus hit.

We burst out into song, completely forgetting about the polishing and dancing with each other. I was surprised to see that Ryan also new the lyrics. I swayed my hips and helicoptered the cloth in the air whilst Ryan closed his firm arms around my waist and spun me around.

“Stop it. I’m getting dizzy.” I laughed as he twirled me round the room. So he placed me down only for me to tumble into him from my loss of balance. He caught me easily. I liked the feeling of his hands on my shoulders. “Sorry.” I giggled.

He didn’t let go. My heart somersaulted. I looked up into those wonderful emotionally dark eyes of his; he was fixated on me. I rested my hand on his stomach. I could feel his firm abs through his t shirt. He ran his hands up and down my arms as we locked eyes once again. I could feel myself sinking into them.

But we were interrupted by angry groans coming from the staircase, so we stepped back from each other and stood there awkwardly.

“Ugh, do you guys have to be so loud?” An incredibly hungover Annie appeared, one hand pinching in between her eyes and the other scratching her bed head. “Also, who threw up?”

We couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her. Unfortunately my heart was still going from the moment before. “That would be you, Ann, and happy seventeenth!” He embraced her in a bear hug whilst I went to turn off the music to save her head.

“Yeah, yeah, I need a coffee.”

I retreated to the kitchen to get one for her, avoiding eye contact with Ryan. This was going to be an interesting day.

“I’m here!” The Queen had arrived apparently. Dressed in a tight pink sparkled dress and white stilettos.

“Hey, babe. Wow you look nice,” Ryan told her, greeting her with a strong hug and a quick peck on the cheek. Personally I thought she looked like a unicorn had thrown up on her but whatever.

“You think so? Not too much?”

He took her hand and led her into the kitchen. Her shiny bleached locks and annoyingly large breasts bounced in unison as she walked. “No not at all, you look perfect.”

I decided to look away when his lips landed on hers. I’d spent most of the day nursing Annie back to health so that she could have a good time at the party, so I hadn’t had time to get ready yet.

“Am I the only one who thinks she looks like a Barbie doll?” Annie whispered in my ear.

We were sat on the sofa having a rest from preparing the decorations. “No,” I whispered back. I felt so childish compared to Harriet’s womanly figure. My B cup breasts might as well have not even been there. Her D cups seemed to fill the room. I was so scrawny. It pissed me off.

“We’re going to get ready!” Annie called, but judging from the amount of annoying giggling escaping from the kitchen it didn’t sound like they cared. She dragged me up the stairs and into her bedroom. We tried on outfits and took photos together. We painted our nails and posed in front of the mirror like girls are supposed to, but my heart wasn’t in it. I was too distracted by other things.

“Damn we look hot!” Annie laughed and hugged me whilst staring at our reflection. 




Not as hot as her, I thought. Annie had settled on a tight orange lace dress, with black wedge heels and black nail polish. She could really pull off such loud colours as she looked almost Indian with her hair and skin colour. She’d curled her usually straight hair, which added an extra push to her look. She would certainly attract a lot of attention.

I’d gone for a more subtle look, with a backless red velvet skater style dress and white and red high tops. I wasn’t a heel person, I preferred trainers. But they went surprisingly well together. I had straightened my hair, and applied a flick to my eye liner and some black eye shadow in the corners to make my eyes appear bigger.

Annie definitely looked amazing, I looked average. We could hear the music thumping beneath our feet, and clearly most of the guests had arrived judging by the amount of noise. “Let’s show them how it’s done.” She winked at me and ushered me downstairs.

There were several hundred people overflowing in her home, the living room had become like a mosh pit, and the kitchen like a restaurant. I felt nameless bodies up against me, unknown hands on my hips and inaudible words in my ears. Some people liked that kind of thing. Not me. I worded to Annie who was caught up in between another group of people that I was going to get a drink and wrestled my way out of the living room. However on my way I noticed something that made me smile stupidly to myself.

On the short walk from the edge of the living room to the fridge, Ryan's eyes, even when he was with Harriet, did not leave me. I dodged my way around random couples making out and into the kitchen to grab a coke from the fridge. When I turned around Ryan was there, which made me jump and him smile.

“Can I get one of those?" he asked. "I’m not really in the mood for alcohol yet.” I nodded and handed him mine and grabbed another one. “Cheers.”

We sat on top of the kitchen side and made small talk for a while before he said, “You look really great.”

I blushed and smiled to the floor, but the sensible part of me told me not to freak out. “Thanks. It was Annie’s idea though. If it was up to me I would have come in pyjamas or something,” I told him and took a sip from the can.

“Why am I not surprised?”

We both laughed and carried on with the small talk. It was nice just talking to him like this, most people would have found such a dull conversation awkward but it just sort of fitted with us, if that makes any sense. We talked about the weather, but it wasn’t dull. We chatted about jobs, it was fun. It all just seemed so easy.

“Do you want to dance?“

My heart felt like it was performing in some kind of circus performance. Relax, Lilly, he means as friends, his girlfriend is over there. Of course he means as friends. Although a small part of me still hung onto the hope that he liked me more than that.

He led me through the crowd of strangers and cast me the sexy half smile that I loved. You could see his muscles through his t-shirt, and it was wide necked so his collar bones stuck out. I don’t know what it is about collar bones and jaws but they seemed to attract women like magnets.

“I’m awful at dancing,” I warned him over the loud thumps of music.

He didn’t seem to care; together we sank into the beat. We started off facing each other, not touching just dancing. But gradually, as if a force was pulling us we grew closer together. He looked amazing in the lighting, it cast moving shadows across his face, highlighting his eyes and bone structure. His thick black hair rested perfectly on his head, styled just enough to look naturally cool. Harriet was trying to persuade him to cut it off. Bitch.

I felt his hands clasp around my waist; we swayed together as the music pulsed through our systems. I wasn't sure how it happened, but we ended up grinding against each other. I had my hand around his neck as he pressed his hips against mine. That’s when I felt his erection.