Page 60 of Beyond The Break

Everything I’ve tried on so far either is not weather appropriate or shows my scar. I make a mental note to ask the girls if they want to go on a shopping date soon, so that I stop running into this problem.

“Eliana, where are you?” Kairi calls from Maliah’s room.

I walk to the end of the hall and pop my head into her room. Maliah is sitting in front of her vanity applying mascara to her lashes while Kairi is sitting on the floor in front of a large mirror, straightening her curls. She gives me a welcoming smile through the mirror reflection, which I return.

“I think I’m going to sit this one out,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest.

Maliah gasps and turns her head towards me mid mascara application, smearing it across her eyelid and cheekbone. Kairi also stops straightening her hair and turns to look at me, half her head still a mess of curls.

“What do you mean you’re sitting this one out?” Mal frowns at me.

“Yeah, we never get to have parties. You can’t miss this one.” Kairi pouts.

I sigh and enter the room, taking a seat on the edge of Mal’s bed. “I can’t find anything that I feel comfortable wearing to this thing.”

“You can wear something of mine,” Mal says, using a makeup remover wipe to clean up the mess of mascara from her face. “Come on, let’s take a look and see what we can find for you.”

I stand up and follow her to her closet, leaving Kairi to continue straightening her curly hair. My jaw hits the floor when Maliah opens the doors of her closet, revealing a massive walk-in closet.

“Wow,” I say, walking to the middle of the room and turning in a circle slowly.

“I know, I lucked out with this room,” she says, giggling.

“You really did,” I agree.

We spend the next thirty minutes going through her closet until we find a bubblegum pink summer dress with a neckline that’s just high enough to cover my scar.

“You don’t need to hide it all the time, you know?” She nods her head at my scar.

I force out a laugh. “I just find it easier than answering the questions that come with it.”

She nods in understanding. “I have a scar like that, thankfully it’s a spot that’s easy to hide but whenever people see it, they always ask what it’s from.” She rolls her eyes and I let a real laugh this time.

“It’s annoying, isn’t it?”

“Very. It gets embarrassing having to tell them it's from falling out of a tree when I was a kid and not from a shark attack.” She looks me over in her dress. “It looks so much better on you than it ever looked on me, Griffin is going to lose his mind around you.”

“Oh, shut up,” I say as she bursts out laughing. “What about you and Koa?”

That shuts her up instantly and she turns towards her clothes, pretending to search through the racks as if her outfit isn’t already picked out and laying on the bed back in her room.

“What about him?” she asks, her voice taking on a bitter edge.

“Well, I’m going to have to run some campaigns on you guys and want to know what the deal is, so I know if I can pair you two together or not.”

“Don’t,” she says, turning back to me with a pleading expression, “please, don’t pair me with him. I’m still not ready to talk about us and I can barely handle being on the same team as him as it is.”

I instantly feel guilty for asking her about him. I can see from her expression that it’s something she’s struggling with.

“Yeah, no problem. I’ll pair you up with Zale or Griffin then,” I say giving her a reassuring smile which she returns with a grateful one.

“Ladies!” Kairi calls from the room.

I pick up my sweats from Mal’s closet floor and we head back into the room together. Kairi, whose hair is now pin straight, has popped open a bottle of sparkling wine and is pouring it out between three red plastic cups.

“What’s this?” I ask.

“Booze, duh,” she replies, handing me my cup with a wide grin, before doing the same with Maliah, “we can’t show up to a party sober.”

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