"Ha, I win." I bent down and kissed her on the lips briefly.
I pulled back and gazed into her eyes. I couldn't hold back a grin while my eyes were locked onto those emerald ones. Whether we choose this life or not, we were learning to live with each other. Part of life is to learn who you are based on how you react to certain situations. I leaned over again to nuzzle my nose along with hers tenderly, before pressing my lips against hers once again. Living with Rachel was not something that I had planned, but I was enjoying every unexpected moment of it.
I was standing outside of Rachel's room feeling fidgety in my dress clothes. My fingers were pulling at the tie that felt tight around my neck. It took me an hour to figure out how to knot the stupid thing. I hadn't worn a tie since Easter for church and my dad had helped me with it. Now I was pacing in the small hall between my room and Rachel's.
"Rachel, come out now. We've got to go to the stupid party."
I don't care for school dances. Being in a crowded room with most of my class, there was always some form of dumb drama. Someone chooses to break up during the dance, so all the girls vanish to go help the girl in the bathroom as she cries. Some guy hits on another person's date so there is an argument. The food usually sucks and I could be doing something else with my time. I didn't care for dancing either.
"There's no way in hell I'm coming out," Rachel's irritated voice came through the door.
"Rachel, come out of there now," I spoke loudly outside her door with my arms crossed over my chest, even though my suit jacket fit me I felt so restricted as I rolled my shoulders. "I thought you went over your friends' house earlier when I wasn't home so that you would take less time getting ready."
"I did, but I'm in a dress."
I rolled my eyes with a loud sigh. My eyes landed on the wall and I was seriously tempted to bang my head against the smooth surface.
"You're a girl, get used to it. Come on, I bet you don't look that bad so come on." I wanted to get this dressing up thing over with.
Rachel was not the only one out of her element. I was ready to just get the dance over with so I could change out of the stupid get up I was in. I moved my shoulders around, as I restrained myself from trying to pull the tie off and stomp all over it. I completely understood at that moment why some people chose to be nudists.
"Thanks."
I rolled my eyes again before leaning my back against the wall. I lightly banged the back of my head against the wall. This was just a waste of time. Why was she freaking out? Girls, dresses, and parties; weren't they supposed to go all together? I was going to need a lot of aspirin with this girl. I could just see it now. Breathe…
Taking a deep breath, I thought back to her birthday as we fought over who was on top leading me to defeating her in the tickle fight. Her lips were so soft against mine. Both of our mouths were still in smiles when the kiss started. I just had to hold onto those moments at times like these…
"I didn't mean it like that. Come on, Rachel, if you don't come out soon I will break down your door," I snapped, starting to lose my patience. I will blame the tie for the shorter fuse. Whoever invented the damn thing, I hoped he was suffering in hell.
"Even if you could break down my door you wouldn't dare," she shouted back, pretty confident for a girl with a door between us.
"You want to bet," I grumbled eyeing her door wondering if I really could bust down her door or not.
Turning my hand into a fist, I banged on her door. I guess I lost my patience, come on, she was being ridiculous. She really was overreacting. How bad could she look if she didn't want to come out? Rachel was already beautiful. She really didn't need to worry, she just had to build up her self confidence.
"That isn't going to work." Rachel snorted.
"Fine." If she was going to test me, I was going to do the same to her. "One. Two."
"Why are you counting?"
"Three," I shouted as I heard a clicking of a lock.
Rachel finally opened the door.
"Four," by the time I said it I had lost all of my anger and my voice came out as a whisper instead of yelling.
Rachel was stunning. I tried to think of all the years I had known her to remember if I had ever seen her in a dress before. I guess looking bad wasn't her reason for not coming out. She was wearing a short dress that came down to her knees. Had I seen her in anything before that would have shown her legs? It was all black to contrast with her pale skin. The dress was sleeveless with a V front so her wing necklace was resting against her chest. Her blond hair was in a different fashion than how she usually wore it; the style was half up and half down. Her appearance gave her a different look, it wasn't Rachel in front of me, but it was. She seemed smaller since she wasn't wearing her usual loose clothes, but the dress didn't cling to her for dear life like Amanda's clothes. Rachel still appeared fun and cute like she normally did, well, cute and sexy.
"Wow." My eyes were wide. I knew it as the
