Only Fools - Chapter 3: Chapter 3

"So, when are you going to put the outfit on?" Naomi asks me after taking one look at what I'm wearing.
"....this is the outfit," I say back slowly as I look down at what I put on. The black tank top ends right above my belly button. The short shorts are a dark shade of denim with rips on the front of my thighs. Around my neck, a chain hangs loosely and rests right above the top of my shirt, at first leaving a coolness on my chest.
"Is the rest of it invisible then?" she asks me, one eyebrow raised in questioning.
"Fuck you. I think I look hot in this," I tell her as I look back down at my outfit. I mean, maybe this is too much. Will people judge me for what I have on? I glance up at my face. Am I just overcompensating for a lack of confidence? My dark naturally pin straight hair stops at the middle of my back. My eyes are nearly the same shade of brown as my hair, nothing special or outstanding. Chubby cheeks hide anything that could be a stunning cheekbone or impressive jawline. My tan from summer is already fading because of the many cloudy fall days. I'm an average height, not short enough to be cute and not tall enough to be hot. The muscle gained from cheer makes my shoulders too broad which almost dissuaded me from wearing a tank top in the first place. So maybe this outfit does look terrible.
The chain was supposed to distract from my shoulders, but maybe that's not working. Maybe choosing to wear all black just makes me look even less tan than I actually am. Maybe because I'm not short enough to make this outfit look cute or tall enough to make it look hot, I do just look like I'm trying too hard.
"Actually, with that outfit it is more likely that you will look cold. You're shivering will be the dead giveaway. I mean, is there anything at all there to protect you from a gust of cold air? To be honest, I'm just worried that a gust of air will blow that outfit right off," Naomi voices her disapproval, though I'm not entirely sure why as it isn't anything different from what I normally wear, so I'm not entirely sure why she's being so extra overprotective this time. Is this time different for some reason? Should I change into something else? I mean, Nao has to be saying this for a reason. She normally says something, but this almost feels different. That could just be accidental on her part, but, then again, it could be purposeful.
"You know what? Let's just wait until Tori gets here and we can see what she thinks," I suggest.
Tori will probably assure me that everything is fine. If not, I can just change and move on. But she'll probably be wearing something similar, and I'll see that there isn't actually a problem. Unless there is a problem that is.
"I guess you'll be wearing that no matter what then. If I know Tori at all, she'll be wearing less than you and it'll be hypocritical for her to even try and disapprove,"
I just shrug as I lean closer to the mirror in order to apply my mascara.
"So.... I heard Dustin is probably going to be at the party tonight," Naomi says with a coy smile as she tucks an escaped strand of her short curly blonde hair back behind her ear.
"And?"
"I don't know. I just figured you'd like to know that your crush was going to be there. Even though I feel kind of betrayed by the fact that I had to hear about this crush today, and it wasn't even you who told me," Naomi says with a shrug as she begins to inspect her nails.
"I swore Ivy to secrecy," I explain with a shrug.
"Yes, because it would be a shame if word got out about your fake crush because your real crush couldn't keep it to herself,"
"You're a little shit. You know that?" I say with a laugh as I close my mascara and turn around to face her.
"Ok. But does she genuinely believe that you have a crush on Dustin?" Naomi asks me. I give her a shrug in response.
"Wow. How oblivious can she be?"
"Hey. Oblivious? I'm fine with oblivious. It's always better than rejection," I say with a laugh.
"But it's not as good as finding out she likes you back," Naomi says in a sing-song voice.
"She's straight, dude,"
"How do you know, dude?"
"Oh, I don't know. I may have picked up on it from the multiple times she has gushed about guys to me,"
"She could be internally gushing about girls," Naomi defends.
"I highly doubt that. I'm her best friend. She tells me everything,"
"You don't tell her everything, clearly,"
"Well, I never claimed that was a two way street,"
"Alright then, if she's so straight, why don't you try to move on from her. You have to have some kind of hope if you're still clinging onto this crush,"
"I am trying to move on from her!"
Lies.
"Lies," she says, voicing my thoughts, "Have you looked at what you're wearing to this party?"
"She's not even going to be at this party!"
"But you're going to get wasted,"
"Yeah.... and?"
"And that means she will be there. She'll be picking you up,"
"Because that's like tradition for us!"
"Wow, how cute. I would also enjoy having the person that I'm practically in love with see me completely black out drunk every week,"
Naomi lets out a yelp as I slap her arm before giving her a glare.
"I just think that-"
"I'm here, bitches! Who's ready to par-tay!"
Tori has a wide smile etched onto her face as the door to my bedroom is swung open, and my eyes immediately fall upon her outfit. I nearly let out a sigh of relief. She has on a white cropped t-shirt with the logo of a rock band I doubt she's ever listened to on the front, paired with a short black skirt that has a zipper rising up the center. The outfit compliments her naturally tanned skin well. Her brown hair is simply left down, the purple at the end accentuated by the light colored t-shirt serving as a background.
"So, what were you two just talking about?" Tori asks.
"Nothing much," Naomi says with a shrug. Tori opens her mouth to say something else, but Naomi beats her to it.
"Ok. Tori, how do you feel about Aspen's outfit at the moment?"
I anxiously glance down at what I'm wearing before looking up at Tori. Even if she's wearing something similar, that doesn't mean what I have on is acceptable.
"I mean, if I was a guy, I'd bang her," Tori says with a shrug. As Tori turns around and begins to rapidly type on her phone, I warily glance towards Naomi who clearly found the irony in Tori's comment, with one eyebrow raised accompanied by the smirk playing on her lips. I send her a quick glare before Tori suddenly lets out a loud groan, causing Naomi and me to immediately turn our attention to her.
"I just can't believe Diesel likes Emma. I really just didn't peg "nerdy" as his type. I mean, seriously. That's just like asking to be one of those young adult romance books or whatever. I can see it now. 'The Bad Boy Has A Crush On Me?' Wait no. 'The Bad Boy Stole My First Kiss?'"
"Tori!" Naomi exclaims.
"What? I mean, I'm only stating facts really," Tori says with a shrug before going back to typing on her phone.
"Oh. Wait, shit. Also, you guys didn't hear any of this. I wasn't really supposed to tell you, but you know I can't hold in gossip that good for too long. I mean seriously, Diesel sleeps around so much that I'm shocked he even has the ability to want a relationship with anyone,"
"Sleeping around so much that you lose the ability to want a relationship? Are you sure you're not just talking about yourself, Tor?" I ask jokingly. Tori just rolls her eyes at me in response, but I can see the smile threatening to spill onto her lips.
Just then, Tori's phone begins to obnoxiously ring, and as she glances down to see who the caller is, a loud groan escapes her lips.
"Sorry, guys. I have to take this," she says with an eye roll. As she holds the phone up to her ear, and her expression almost instantly transforms into one filled with annoyance.
"Hi, Mason," she says in a sickly sweet voice before walking out of my room and closing the door behind her. Rolling my eyes at Tori's unfailing ability to mess up relationships, I turn around to look at Naomi.
"I still feel so bad that she doesn't know, Nao,"
"You know that her knowing isn't a good idea so long as you don't want to be completely outed,"
"I know that, but it doesn't make me feel any better. She's my best friend too,"
"I get that. I really do. But you saw how easily she told us about Emma and Diesel today. She even acknowledged that she shouldn't have told us and did anyways,"
"That's different. I'm one of her best friends. I'd like to think that she would be more careful once she understood how much it meant to me," I reason, but Naomi just gives me a blank stare in response.
"Me being one of her best friends didn't stop her before. And I made sure to tell her how much it meant to me that she didn't say anything or meddle. Two days after I told her about my crush on Tyler, that I had to have had for about a year at that point, she had somehow fully convinced herself that he liked me back and thought that it was best to talk to him about that. She used the excuse that she noticed that he was always staring in my direction when she was with me. And that he seemed to increasingly want to talk to me. Little did she know that he actually liked her and was only trying to use me to get to her. He of course had to confront me the next day about it because hearing it from Tori wasn't painful enough," Naomi tells me, pain still laced into her voice over the situation. Shaking my head, I rub Naomi's back as she leans into my side.
I open my mouth to reply to Naomi, but I'm suddenly cut off by the door to my room swinging open followed by a loud exasperated groan from Tori.
"He will just not leave me alone," Tori says with a laugh. Naomi and I both shoot her wary smiles as she falls back onto my bed.
"You know what? I think I need to just forget about him," Tori says suddenly, sitting up to look at me with a smile on her face.
"And with that being said, we do know for sure that this party is going to have alcohol right?"
I nod my head slowly in response, causing Tori's entire face to light up.
"Then let's get wasted, bitches!" Tori exclaims, jumping off of my bed, however that excitement quickly dies down as she glances over at Naomi who is sending a glare in her direction.
"I mean.... let's party, besties," Tori offers. Naomi just rolls her eyes at our crazy friend before getting up and following Tori out of my room. I guess it's time.
————
"We're here!" Tori yells in excitement as Naomi parks, then jumping out of the automobile as quickly as possible. I chuckle at her craziness before I suddenly feel my phone go off in my pocket. Furrowing my eyebrows, I pull it out to see a text from the one person that I feel as though I continually await to get texts from.
Ivy: Hey
Ivy: Have fun tonight. Just remember what I told you last time about drinking
Her words echo through my head as the memory replays. No drinking. If only she knew that she was one of the reasons why I never want to abide by that rule. Any way I can forget about her and the effect that she has on me is worth taking.
"You coming, Aspen?" Naomi asks softly, breaking me out from my trance. I quickly nod in response as I turn off my phone and shove it back into my pocket.
I shoot Naomi a small smile before I jump out of the car and make my way into the party. I try to smile at everyone who greets me, but my target focus is on the alcohol. As I finally pour myself a drink, I let out a sigh of relief, then able to lean back on the kitchen counter and observe for a minute as the party just begins to unfold.
Taking a sip of the drink in my hand, Ivy's words suddenly echo around my mind and the guilt hits. I didn't even make it past a sip. If Ivy doesn't want me drinking, then I'm going to try my best to comply. As much pain as the thoughts that bring me down without it cause me, her disappointment is far worse.
After tossing the cup into the trash, I quickly turn around to suddenly run into something, or someone. I feel a cold liquid suddenly begin to seep through my shirt, but when I look up to see who it is, I can't help but to laugh.
"Are you trying to get me back for earlier?" I question the dark haired girl who is still looking at me in slight shock.
"Shit. I am so sorry," she says, completely ignoring my previous comment.
"I mean, if we have to keep meeting like this, then we better just stay out of each other's way," I joke awkwardly. The girl slowly looks up at me and, without any hesitation, sends a glare in my direction. I raise my hands up in surrender and shake my head with a small smile still etched onto my face before she lets out a sigh and grabs my hand, then pulling me into the direction of what I would assume to be the bathroom.
As soon as we enter the small room, she shuts the door and locks it behind us.
"I would hate for some drunken scumbag to come running in here to empty their guts out into the toilet. It just wouldn't be my ideal scene to watch play out on this lovely Friday night," she says with a shrug, explaining why she felt the need to lock the door after she noticed my eyebrow raised in question.
"Alright then...." I trail off as I glance around the small bathroom. The girl opens the closet door and begins rummaging through it for a minute before she finally grabs a towel and offers it over to me. I accept the towel and hold it to my chest, then looking back up at the cute dark skinned girl.
"I know that I don't know you well or anything, but you don't really peg me as the party type. Or at least, I don't recall seeing you at any parties before now," I say, trying to make a conversation out of the silence in the room.
"I actually came here with my friends, though they're probably off making out somewhere right now, because leave that to them. Then again, I wouldn't have shown up anyways if it wasn't for Michael being my cousin. The only way his parents would leave the house was if I agreed to 'babysit him',"
"Did you get anything in return, or do you just not care?"
"I mean, I get the experience that I've always dreamed of: attending an actual high school party," the girl says sarcastically.
"So, you really just don't care,"
"No fucks at all,"
Pulling the towel away, I glance down at my chest to see my shirt still clinging tightly to my chest, noticeably stained.
"Here," the girl says abruptly. Raising an eyebrow, I look over at her to see her pulling off the sweatshirt she was wearing. Using one hand to fix her hair, she holds the shirt out to me. With a small smile, I take it from her and can't help but to be reminded yet again of my first run in with the girl.
"Well, you seem to be alright now, so I'm going to head out. If you need anything else, please ask anyone else first, and yeah. I'll see you around,"
And with that, the girl turns around and walks out of the bathroom.
This then leaves me alone in the small bathroom with a sweatshirt on my body that doesn't belong to me, but instead a beautiful girl that I just met. If only I hadn't fallen so hard for Ivy.
Taking a deep breath, I step out of the bathroom and begin to search the house for my friends.
"There you are, Cap!" Tori exclaims loudly as I enter the kitchen. I pour myself a quick drink before I turn back to my friend.
"We were just about to play a game of truth or dare!" Tori yells excitedly at me. Letting out a sigh, I glance down at the alcohol in my hand. Chugging it down in one take, I grimace at the taste as I set the cup back down on the counter and I turn to look at Tori.
"How about dare or dare?" I offer with a smug smile to which I'm met with a round of cheers. While this is worlds better than truth or dare, I'm going to have to get way more drunk for this to actually work.
————
"Don't even think about doing that, Aspen," Naomi warns, knowing full well that I won't listen to her.
"Why not, Nao. It's a dare," I say, slurring my speech slightly.
"Seriously, Aspen,"
"I'm sorry, Naomi. But this is why Tori and I don't always bring you along to parties. We love you, but we gotta do what we gotta do," I say, vaguely aware of what's coming out of my mouth.
"Don't make my call Ivy," she threatens. My eyes widen at the prospect. Maybe I shouldn't have said whatever it is I just said.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't do that. Please,"
"Ok. Then don't do a tumbling pass down the street while you're this intoxicated!"
"Come on, Nao. I could do a round off, back handspring, back handspring, back tuck, back handspring....  what was the next one, Tori?"
"Back handspring, then a lay out," Tori responds.
"Yes. That. I could do those in my sleep. They aren't even asking for like....  a full or anything," I say with a laugh.
Naomi lets out a loud sigh as she rolls her eyes at me.
"Ok. But you're not sleeping right now. You're drunk. I think it's time that we call Ivy,"
"No! I don't wanna fucking leave right now, Nao,"
"Too bad. I'm calling her because you keep doing stupid shit and she's the only person that I know who can stop you,"
I glare daggers at Naomi as she pulls her phone from her back pocket and calls up the one person that I don't want to face right now. I don't even care that she'll be mad at me because her disappointment will feel so much worse.
"Hey, Ivy?.... yeah.... yeah, Aspen is pretty drunk right now and I don't think it's really safe for her to stay here right now. I would drive her home, but I had a couple drinks and I think I'm going to spend the night here with Tori and I know we're both aware that the two of them can never make rational decisions when they're together... oh, yes especially when drunk.... yeah, watching both of them would be a lot to handle.... I'm sorry to be.... oh, thank you so much.... I get that but even best friends sometimes have their limits.... well yeah, she's mad right now but she'll be grateful in the morning when she isn't dead.... thank you again.... alright, bye,"
As Naomi tucks her phone back into her pocket, I give her yet another glare.
"If you didn't want this to happen, then you shouldn't have drank in the first place," she says with a shrug before walking away from me, leaving me now alone and waiting by the front door for my knight in shining armor.
About ten minutes later, the headlights of a car light up the street and Ivy pulls up in front of the house. Begrudgingly, I walk out of the front door and get into the passenger seat of Ivy's car. We say nothing as we pull away from the house and Ivy begins to drive me back home.
"I-"
"Aspen, stop. Just let me drive,"
Trying to hold back my tears, I look out of the window and try to think about anything else besides her as I'm beginning to sober up. Not that it works. She's my comfort in a way. She's been my best friend as long as I can remember. She'll always be there for me even when she doesn't want to be. It hurts knowing that she'll probably never like me in the way that I want her to, no matter what Naomi says, but that's not her fault. I just keep holding onto hope, and it's hurting me. Still, I can't stop until I know for 100% that I have no chance. Yet I'm too scared to say anything so it's an unending cycle that fear and hope work together to keep in place.
"We're here," Ivy says abruptly as the car suddenly comes to a stop. Sniffling softly, I try and discreetly wipe the tears from my face as I glance over at her.
"We're at your house," I say quietly.
"You may be sobering up, but I still don't trust you to be home alone right now. You're going to sleep over," Ivy explains.
"Thanks, Ivy," I mumble quietly as I open the car door and begin to get out.
"You really didn't have to do this. I know you had other things that were probably more important," I ramble on as we reach her front porch.
"Aspen, you're my best friend. You know I'd drop everything if you needed me to," she tries to reassure me as she unlocks the door and motions for me to go inside.
"Yeah, I know," I say quietly. And that's one reason why I'm so fucking in love with you.
"You can head up to my room. I'm just going to check on my siblings real quick,"
I nod and begin to ascend the stairs to get to her room as she walks away. As I reach the landing, I glance back at her one last time before she disappears around a corner.
If only falling out of love were easier.