38: She Truly Looks Like A Wet Dog

The week goes by quickly. It’s as if life wants to torture me by speeding up the slow parts and drawing out the awful ones. The gala is getting closer, Avery’s party is nearly here. Having to tell Gretchen that I had to leave early because I’m having a forced guest over was the easiest out of everything so far.

A soft tap on the door signals easy task number two. I nearly run to the door, a large smile on my face as I swing it open. Avery and Avalos wait on the other side. Let the fun begin.

Avery takes a step forward, clearly eager to get our night started, but she comes to a crashing halt as she collides into the invisible barrier. She stumbles backwards completely startled. “What the hell?”

Avalos lets out a laugh oblivious of the hidden danger. He probably thinks Avery doesn’t know how to walk. But he soon finds out that it’s something much more than that. He too is forced to a stop after trying to step inside. They both look at me, a flash of anger and a tad confused.

“Sorry. A little concoction I whipped up. Hasn’t worn off yet.” I take a step back and curtsy, “Come in.”

Neither of them ask and I don’t explain. They expect it of me and I know they love the mystery. The secrets of magic and the hidden wonders of demizens.

Avalos decides to stay to the point of overstaying. Here Avery was supposed to be pawned off on me, but it seems that both of them are.

Then from out of nowhere he hops up on his feet, stretching, “well, it’s been fun, but I gotta go meet my girlfriend.”

“Your imaginary one?” Avery questions. “Because I haven’t seen this beautiful being that’s stupid enough to date you.”

“You’ll maybe see her tomorrow, birthday girl.” He quickly sneaks out with a creepy smile on his face. Weirdo.

Avery quickly turns to me as soon as the door shuts. “We both know that this party is more for him than me, right?”

“What party?” I wasn’t aware that Avery knew, but apparently I missed that text message. It would make sense that Avalos is putting so much attention into this because he wants it too. It all adds up to a party for himself, but he’s covering it by claiming it’s for his sister instead.

“Very funny.” She whines. “But I can see right through Avalos. Plus, he’s an awful liar, kinda like you.”

“Whoa. Ease up a bit. Insulting the homeowner doesn’t get you brownie points. Now, let’s change the subject to something we can agree on, because if you’re not supposed to know about this so-called party I would rather not get in trouble for it. Because, let’s face it, Avalos will instantly blame it on me.” I hold up the remotes, “movie, your choice...birthday girl.” I say it just as creepy as Avalos, which gets a laugh out of Avery.

She picks some scary movies, which I appreciate. Some with little to no romance, again, appreciated. We stay up until our eyelids get heavy. Avery ends up falling asleep on the couch and I quietly leave her to sneak into my bed.

***
We both wake up late clueless on what we’re going to do for the day. Avalos texted super late last night that I need to have Avery at Young & Restless by seven. So, that leaves just under nine hours to fill.

“We should go shopping.”Avery says as she bounces to her feet. She’s still wearing her clothes from yesterday and has terrible bedhead hair, or should I say couchhead hair. “I could use a new dress to wear tonight.”

“Absolutely.” I agree. I could use some fresh air. A little shopping never hurt anyone.

It takes longer to get ready than I thought. Avery had to shower, Avery had to dig through her overnight bag to find something unslept in to wear. She also had to wait until her hair dried and put some face cream on. Three hours later, we’re finally walking out the door.

We make a pit stop at a coffee shop, before we go window shopping. But window shopping with Avery is ‘we have to walk into every single store’ kind of shopping. The tally of stores grows. One, two, three, four. One bag with a shirt in it. Five, six, seven. Thankfully one more bag with four items in it, but nothing for tonight.

We break for lunch and quickly go back at it. Avery is on a mission to find a dress and I’m suddenly on a mission to get this over with. It’s only after shop number thirteen and almost five hours later she finds it. A short, gold sequin, skin tight strapless dress. I don’t argue. Instead, I say perfect, because we have to go.

By time we get back to my apartment, we have to get ready. Our day looks are completely different from our night looks meaning if it took Avery three hours to get ready to go shopping she’s definitely going to need that and maybe more to go dancing.

As I dig through my closet for something decent to wear, Avery comes in, eyeshadows in hand. “Which…” her words die off. “What is this?” She squeals. The eyeshadow clicks against the nightstand as she drops it.

I turn around to see her gravitate to the black bag, to the dress that Gabriel gave me from Phillip.

“Nothing.”

She unzips it a little more. “Sure.”

“It’s a dress I have to wear to the Demizen Gala tomorrow. It’s nothing.”

“This dress is anything, but nothing.” She slides her hands down the silky fabric, being extra careful to not snag the lace. “I wish I could go.” Her hands fall away from the bag and go back to retrieve the shadows.

“No, you don’t. It’s just a bunch of power hungry non-human morons showing off. Total bullshit.”

She gives me a weak smile at my awful attempt in making her feel better. “Which color?”

I examine them both. Jet black and a smokey gray. “The gray one.”

As we finish up, I get a text from Avalos. *any day now*

A groan of annoyance rumbles up my throat. *yeah yeah yeah*, I reply back even though we’re late. “Time to go.” I shout to Avery who still fusses with her makeup or her dress, I don’t know.

My nerves are becoming more frazzled by the second and this party isn’t even for me.

The Uber to the club is short, which is great because the driver seemed a little too interested. He bids us farewell and good luck tonight before he drives away leaving us on the packed sidewalk. For a Saturday night it’s busier than usual.

Once again we approach Icky who mans the door. He lets us pass and I debate about stopping and asking him about Gretchen. I don’t though, because Avery has her hand tightly clenched around mine and she drags me along in search of Avalos. Plus, I have a feeling he’s more secretive than Gretchen and wouldn’t give me one juicy inkling of info.

We come to a stop fairly quickly. One of the best sitting areas has a red rope encircling it. It’s the perfect distance to the bar, not too long, but not right on top of it. It has the best view of the main dancing floor and the front entrance.

We approach with slack jaws. Avalos quickly meeting us at the barrier. “Girls. Welcome,” he turns to Avery, “and happy birthday sis.” He lifts the red velvet rope to let us in, but we quickly come to a stop when a tall, curvy girl blocks our way. “Guys, this is Quinn.” Avalos says in the mose sauve, sultry voice I’ve ever heard from him.
“Hey.” Avery and I both mutter, shocked that this actual beautiful woman is attracted to weirdo Avalos.

“Nice to finally meet you.” Her eyes meet both of us, but they stop on Avery. “Happy birthday!” She shouts. “I got you free drinks all night.” She gives Avery a wink, clearly impressed with her ability to provide fantastic things. She got us a perfect private corner, she got Avery free drinks.

If Avalos wasn’t dating her, this would’ve never been possible. I wanted to not like her, but damn she is amazing. It’s only after six, seven songs that I realize she has some pull the DJ too. Avery takes advantage of all it and I don’t blame her.

Hours go by with dancing and drinks. We even have to turn people away from trying to intrude on the party. Young & Restless may be the club to be at, but our little roped off section is the spot to be.

Avery’s other friends, human friends all ooh and ahh over how amazing the club is. She yaps nonstop about how she can just walk in without waiting in line because she’s friends with me. All their eyes gradually scan me over silently thinking about how I could gain access to this place so easily. I thank Avery for the compliment, but my hassle free entrance is nothing compared to what Quinn can pull off.

Avery is deep in the middle of the square, tipsy and dancing while I linger by the edge debating about whether or not anyone will notice my absence.

And then a face pops into my view and my night is about to change. “You.” Gloria pounces up to me, anger in her eyes. She gets as close as she can without tipping the stands holding the rop over. “You, bitch.” She aggressively puts her finger in my face.

“Excuse me? But who’s the female dog in this conversation?”

She jumps at me, but her friend holds her back. The metal stands holding the rop scratch against the floor from her charging into the barrier. “Caleb started a huge, stupid fight between us all because of you and Marcus is about to disown him. He deserves better then a hateful witch.”

I play into her antics against better judgement. “Bravo, at least you got one this in that sentence right.”

It happens so fast. She thrusts her open cup in my face, the liquid quickly spilling out, it’s trajectory leading straight in my face. My reflexes aren’t even fast enough to duck and cover, but inches, centimeters before the first drop touches me it stops. The liquid magically stops in midair, hovering in the form of a misshaped bubble. We both stare at each other and it’s there in her shock that I hear a whisper from behind me.

“Reverse.”

The liquid backtracks, defying all gravity and splashes in Gloria’s face instead of mine. She stands there speechless, motionless taking in what happened. The clear liquid drips off her face, cakes her hair to her cheeks and soaks through her clothes. She truly looks like a wet dog.

“This is a closed party, wolf. So back off.”

A smile reaches my face from Quinn coming to my defense. I’m more than thankful that her feisty attitude is on someone else. For the first time in forever, I actually like Avalos’s choice of girlfriend. And unlike some of his exes, Quinn must genuinely likes him if she cares enough about his friends.

The shock on Gloria’s face is priceless, confused on what happened and how. There’s a flash of fight in eyes, but Quinn is bigger than her and has some impressive magic skills. She retreats, but not without a glare of hatred for the both of us. I’m sure she’s going to go cry wolf to Marcus, maybe even Caleb. But for once I didn’t do anything.

“You all good?” Quinn asks as she looks me over. “No stray drops?”

“I’m good. Thanks.”

“Well, we are sister witches. Plus, I also couldn’t help myself.”

Just then a hand grabs my elbow pulling me away from Quinn. I spin around to see Avery slightly sweaty. “Let’s dance,” she begs even though she’s a bit lethargic.
“Fine.” I groan. I flash a quick smile of thanks to Quinn before I get too far away.

I’m not sure how long my own legs comfortably keep me on my feet, but I’m quickly becoming tired and sore. Avery already ditched her heels and is completely barefoot, but I don’t follow suit. No matter how upbeat the music is, no matter how loud it is, it seems as if there’s nothing that could make me keep moving.

“Bathroom.” I shout in Avery’s ear.

She nods to let me know that she heard me, but she doesn’t follow after I take a couple steps away. She’s far too excited and tipsy to miss a single second of dancing, to miss a single second of attention. At least she’s going to have a good night’s sleep once she gets home.

I weave my way through bodies to get to the bathrooms in the far back. I didn’t really need to go, I just needed to get away. It has to have less people than the crowded dance floor. Just about there I come up on more secluded seating, darker, if that’s possible, than the rest of the club. Black lights cause everything to glow and several vampires light up. A section for non-witch demizens to cohort privately.

My eyes briefly glance into the crowd. It’s easy to just graze over the faces until I recognize one. His blonde hair is stark white against his deep roots under the lighting. His white t-shirt is the usual tightness, so tight that the girl who he’s making out with can’t even get her hands underneath it without the fabric pulling it up to reveal more pale skin.

I’m stuck in place observing something that I should run from, something that makes my stomach turn to the point of vomiting. I stare and stare and when their bodies shift against each other, when Gabriel nuzzles his face in the crook of her neck, I see the girl. I see witch-face Medusa herself and I’m frozen yet again.

She doesn’t see me, but I see her. I see him. I see the dark smear of blood on her neck from a fresh bite.

I suddenly become mobile again and I take off, not in the direction of the bathroom, but the door. I’ll text Avery later, but right now I have to get out, to get as far away from Gabriel as possible.

I’m not good enough to bite. I’m not ready to get bit. The sad excuses all run through my head, but I’m more than grateful that he didn't bite me, because I would just be even sicker than I am at the moment. Who needs to drink from me when they already have a tap?

“Hazel? Where are you going?” Avery shouts as she sneaks up on me. I hadn’t realized that I stormed right past our roped off section. When I turn around to meet her eyes, I see her cringe. “What happened?” She asks.

It’s then I realize that I have tears streaming down my cheeks. I swat then dry. “Nothing. Nothing.” I repeat feeling stupid for such foolishness.

“Do you want to go? You can sleepover at my house tonight?”

“I don’t want to cut your night short. Go have fun. I’ll-”

“Don’t be a mean girl.” She teases. She already has her phone out, a quick peek I see a text message being tapped out. “Done.” She quickly closes her phone, loops her arm through mine and guides me out.

Apparently, she’s not as drunk as I thought she was and a better friend that I ever could ask for.

We walk out into the cool night air and I suddenly feel like a complete idiot. What did I expect with Gabriel? Obviously, he’s doing this, all this teasing and wooing for Phillip. I’m sure Phillip even told him to gain my affections, because a willing witch is the best kind of witch.

“Shit.” Avery cusses into the still packed sidewalk. “I need to get us a ride.” She pulls out her phone and orders up another Uber. “They’ll pick us up two blocks down.” She guides me in the direction of where the ride is going to get us. “I figured you would want as much distance as fast as you get it.”

“Thanks.” My eyes are plastered on the sidewalk and it’s only now that I notice Avery’s unshoed feet. “Are you forgetting something?”

“Nah. I’m sure Avalos will have them.”

I give a short, abrupt laugh at her nonchalance.

“I just have to make sure you get home in time to get ready for the gala tomorrow.” She waves her hands in the air overdramatically.

“Actually. How about,” an idea popping into my head, “we have our mystery driver stop by my apartment and I grab everything I need and I get ready at your house.”

“That sounds like a awesome idea.” She squeals. “I have tons of accessories you can choose from. Earrings and bracelets and necklaces and-”

“Wonderful.” I’m quickly becoming overwhelmed again by fashionista Avery.

“It is isn’t it?” She says with a contagious smile.

And even in the midst of everything, it is wonderful. I’m going to wear that dress with a vengeance. If Gabriel wants witch-face, he can have her, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t make him regret it.

My mind has never been more clear than it is now and I know exactly what I have to do. Something I should’ve done a long time ago. I’m gonna hand Tessa over and negotiate for my survival after the rise.