In And Out Of Love

I had no problem getting up the next morning as it was Friday. The last day before Easter holiday! I took a quick shower, dried my hair, brushed my teeth and applied light make-up. I put on a nice white lace-top and a black loose cardigan and left it open. I searched for my blue jeans in my closet and paired them with black booties, that had a small chunky heel to them. I was lucky to be in a private school that didn't have school uniforms.

I put on my regular bracelets and a Tommy Hilfiger watch I had gotten last Christmas from my mom. I heard noise from downstairs and headed there after grabbing my bag from the bed.

"That is so true Miss Cooper!" Naomi said and laughed.

"Please Naomi, how many times I have to tell you to call me Edith!" Mom laughed and her eyes grew big.

"Right, I always forget. Sorry about that!" Naomi kept laughing with her. They noticed me coming downstairs. Mom held out her arms and I went in to give her a hug.

"Have a good day, honey. I'll see you in the evening. Do you girls have plans for tonight?" Mom asked the both of us. I looked at Naomi, hoping she would say yes.

"Actually, there is this party tonight. At Zayn's place. We are probably going." Naomi responded carefully.

"Probably? I bet you are going there. I suppose his parents won't be home?" Mom continued the questioning.

"Mom! No one has a party, while their parents are home! But we'll be good like always." I smiled at her. I had never lost the trust I had with her, so it was never a problem for me to go out with friends. Besides, mom had met basically all of them and approved.

"I know you girls will be good. Now, get going! Nice seeing you Naomi!"

I opened the passenger door and sat inside the car. Naomi drove an old black Mustang, which was like the coolest car ever in my opinion. She was listening to Aerosmith and started singing along after starting the car. I turned the music down a bit and she gave me a silly look.

"I saw a boy last night, while I was jogging." I started.

"You saw who? What do you mean?" She got excited and almost shouted.

"Calm down! I went for a run last night and you know that house that was on sale close to us?" I asked and Naomi nodded. "Well, I saw a girl and a boy in the front yard carrying a moving box. They looked like siblings. The guy was quite tall and I could swear he smiled at me as our eyes met!"

"Oh my, Gracie! Was he hot?" Naomi asked the next obvious question.

"I think he had dimples, when he smiled. They are always cute. And he was tall, like I said. But it was too dark to really tell and the whole situation went by so fast as I was running. He might be older than us. But yeah, will be interesting to see who they are."

"You are so nosy!" Naomi laughed and I joined her.

"I know!"

We had music education in the morning, which was one of my favourite classes. We had some pretty amazing singers in the class and it was always so much fun. Our best guy friends - Zayn, Liam, Louis and Niall - even had a band together. It was kind of insane how great they were. They even did their own songs and our teacher loved them. So did the rest of the class as they were always performing everywhere. I had started to learn to play the piano a few years ago, so I sometimes helped the boys out and accompanied them.

"Girls, are you ready or ready for the party tonight?" Theo came up during lunch break and sat down next to me.

"You bet! Is everyone coming?" I smiled.

"Of course, all of the lads are coming. Perrie, Claudia, Eleanor and Elizabeth too. And a bunch of others."

Going to parties was always a lot of fun. We had such a great group of friends that they were almost like a second family to me, or like an extended family anyways. I loved picking up clothes, struggling to decide what to wear, what to do with my hair and what perfume to spray myself with. Such a girly-thing to do, but that was me.

"Naomi, can you come to my place before tonight and help me with my hair?" I asked her and made my best begging-face.

"You girls are weird. You look beautiful the way you are." Theo suddenly said and made me and Naomi look at him surprised. I could feel my cheeks blushing a bit. He had never said anything like that to me, it was not usual from him. He had probably never called any girl other than 'fit' or 'hot' to their face.

"Wow, Theo! Quite the compliment right there!" Naomi teased him. I laughed and told her to shut it. Theo just laughed, got up and left.

We stayed for a bit longer and wondered what the hell had that comment been all about. Sure, Theo showed some interest towards me when we were at parties and drunk. But never like this, I never thought it would be real. Well, he definitely made my day after that. I had to thank him later tonight. He was a good-looking guy, he worked out, had a cute smile and nice style. But he was my friend and I had never thought anything more of it.

Not long after, school was finally finished for a little while and freedom was all ours. Naomi wanted to pick up new heels for the party tonight, so we went to a shopping center nearby our neighbourhood after school. She got some black pumps that had insane spikes attached to the back of the shoe and heel. They looked fierce on her.

"Come around like in an hour or so, ok?" I said as I got up from my seat and out of the car.

"Sure thing babe! I'm going to get wasted tonight, just warning you beforehand!" She laughed loudly.

"Just as long as I don't have to carry you home later!" I said and rolled my eyes a bit. It had happened once or twice before. I liked to party and have a good time but Naomi was a total party animal and sometimes I had to worry a bit too much about her.

"Haha, but you would still do that for me if you had to. I promise to behave! See you soon!" She responded still laughing and drove off.

I went inside our house and of course, mom was still at work. She wouldn't probably even get home before I would leave for the party. My tummy was making crazy noise and letting me know that it needed some nutrition. We had a huge fruit bowl in the kitchen as mom was always preaching about the importance of vitamins and other good stuff you get from eating fruit. I grabbed a red apple, rinsed it under the tap for a bit and took a bite. I absolutely loved red apples, my favourite snack ever.

I left my bag in the kitchen counter and continued my way to our living room. We had lived in this house for my whole life. First, it was me, mom and dad. After they divorced, dad officially moved out. Actually, he moved all the way to London. Our living room was cosy and nicely decorated. It had a big grey sofa with lots of pillows on it, a light carpet and a dark wooden floor. The sofa was definitely the centre-piece of the whole room. There was an old trunk that we used as a coffee table in front of the sofa. It used to belong to my gran and after she passed away, mom rescued the trunk from getting thrown away.

Mom had a crazy thing for pictures and we had loads of them hanging everywhere in the house. She was a pretty good photographer and most of the pictures were actually taken by her. They weren't boring studio portraits, but actual happenings from our lives. I kind of liked the pictures a lot. There was one picture of me and my dad, Thomas, when I was 9-years old. I took the picture-frame to my hands from the bookshelf and looked at it more carefully. The apple tasted a little bitter in my mouth.

Dad used to be in my life a lot more than he was now, but we somehow lost contact when I turned 13 and he found a new wife. I didn't hate Caitlyn or anything, I just didn't want to know her. I knew it was kind of my fault for being so stubborn about the whole thing and not even giving a chance to her. That was definitely one of the biggest things I regretted doing in my short life so far. I just wanted to get to a point, where I was ready to take the blame and try to fix the situation. I put the picture down and went to sit sideways on the sofa.

I looked outside to our backyard, which was equally inviting and cosy, just like the living room. There were tons of plants and bushes, lanterns with candles, a big table and chairs. The sun was still shining and the sky was completely blue. It was such a beautiful spring day. I took the last bite of the apple, got up and took the core of the apple to the trash bin in the kitchen.

I put my hair up inside my towel after I had showered in my bathroom upstairs. I considered myself very lucky for having my very own bathroom and floor in our house. Mom's bedroom and workroom were downstairs, where she had her own bathroom too. I had two bedrooms upstairs and used the other one for clothes, make-up and accessories. It was every girls' dream room.

I went to my clothing room and picked out a few outfits for the night and took my time deciding what to wear. I didn't feel like wearing a dress, so I chose my black skinny jeans that had some leather detailing to them and paired them with a red silky tube-top and a light biker jacket. I felt a bit edgy tonight, so I just decided to wear my black leather booties with the outfit. All done, I thought to myself and heard the doorbell soon after. I skipped the stairs down and opened the door to Naomi.

"You look amazing! Is that a new dress?" I gasped as I saw Naomi and her grey skintight bandage dress.

"Thanks hun, I got it last week from that little boutique I told you about." She smiled and was pleased at my reaction.

"Right! Well, you look stunning." We went back to my bathroom and I got some hair supplies from my drawers. Naomi started working with my long hair and did a cute half-up half-down look with loose curls and some braids. I put my clothes on and did a twirl for Naomi when I was ready.

"You look so rocker-chic! I wish I could pull off that kind of style. But you can rock just about anything."

"Haha, thanks love." I smiled at her and glanced at my clock on the wall. "Gosh, it's almost 6.30pm, we should get going."

"We are always fashionably late, nothing wrong with that. Dad was supposed to take us, but I decided to drive and get my car from there tomorrow." Naomi explained.

"All righty. Let me grab a bottle of wine and I'm ready!" I had a few secret bottles in my closet for parties like these. I didn't really like drinking anything stronger than that most of the time.

We parked the car in front of Zayn's house and the noise coming from inside blasted all the way to the front yard. This was going to be one sick party.

Notes

Another chapter, yeeeaaaahhhhh! Bare with me for a little, it's going to get more interesting.

Still waiting for some comments and subscriptions though :( would mean a lot!

Have a a good evening everyone!