The Party, The Players, and The Price of Desire

A transparent crop top, a red rope thong and a white mini skirt. She planned to splash water on herself that day so her red panties would be visible through the white skirt.

But he did not even look at her once despite all their efforts. So she went home, feeling sad.

On reaching home, she saw Tricia and Rachel excited about something. They suddenly announced that she wanted to throw a party.

“Let's throw a party!” Tricia said as she put on makeup.

Isabella was not really in a good mood but she supposed a good party would lift her spirits.

It was 6:00pm

Here Isabella was, in their dressing room, dressing up and preparing for the party while, Rachel, Tricia and their three friends, Flora, Esther and Denise chatted away.

They were all dressing, applying make-up, and Rachel was chatting about boys in the room with her girlfriends.

“Hope you didn’t forget to invite Dandy,” Flora, one of Rachel's friends, asked as she combed her hair.

Dandy was Flora's crush. Isabella knew because she wouldn’t stop talking about him since she entered the room.

“Of course, I invited the whole class, except, of course, the witch, Mitchell. So, if he doesn’t come, it will be because he is busy or doesn’t want to come,” Rachel said, applying foundation to her face.

Mitchell was some popular girl in school Rachel didn’t like. Though Rachel was not sure why.

“You're not doing it right!” said Denise, snatching the foundation brush from Isabella's hand.

Isabella stared at her in confusion. She had been applying the foundation Tricia had handed her on her face and had believed she was doing it right.

Isabella had never applied makeup before.

“Let me do it for you,” she said, holding her face and applying the foundation more lightly.

“Dandy will come. I’m sure he will. He won’t leave me alone at this party, will he?” said Flora.

“He has a girlfriend, Flora,” Esther commented; she was the quiet and sensible one in their group.

Rachel and Tricia burst out laughing.

“It doesn’t matter! After all, Dandy was dating Salome before he broke up with her to be with Georgina. He can do the same and be with me,” said Flora.

“And if you eventually get together with him, he would do the same thing. He will break up with you and get together with another chick. He’s a playboy; that’s what they do. Is that the type of guy you want to date?” asked Tricia.

“Let her do whatever she wants. Love is, after all, blind,” said Denise .

They soon got ready and went to the party.

The party was in full swing.  Tricia and her “friends” were having the fun of their lives. Almost everyone in their college department was present at the party.

Isabella stood at one corner of the party, slowly sipping my orange juice. She was not used to attending parties and didn’t know what to do.

It didn’t help that Tricia and Rachel were busy with their other friends and had left her alone in this huge party where she felt small.

She decided to watch Rachel instead.

She seemed to be enjoying the attention.  She got wishes and compliments from everyone, both friends and enemies.

“Hey!”

Isabella blinked at a voice, and the snap of fingers in front of her eyes brought her back to reality.  She looked up to see who it was and was bewildered to see the class representative staring at her. He was Arnold Burns, another popular kid in college.

“What are you thinking about?  Your boyfriend?” Arnold said and chuckled.

Isabella made no response to that.

Alex was not present after all. He said he needed to run an errand and couldn’t attend the party. It annoyed her.

Kelly, her school friend, was also not around and it irked her as she felt lonely at the party.

“You don't seem happy to be here.”

“Yeah, I do not like parties like that.”

“I understand. You haven’t attended a lot of parties, have you?”

“This is my first party,” Isabella replied and wished immediately that she didn’t say that.

He would wonder why no one invited her to their parties now and think she is a freak! Why hadn’t she kept her mouth shut?

“Woah, that's crazy. Your first? I guess you do not like parties then. I was like this before. But with time, I got used to it. It gets better, I promise,” he said and smiled.

She smiled, too. She was sure I was blushing.  He was handsome anyway.

Today, he looked even more handsome than usual.  He looked much more mature in his party clothes than in his casual clothes to school. He was dressed in more fancier clothes and had styled his hair. His mature look made him look more attractive and… sexy.   His slightly thicker hair accentuated the soft skin around his face and neck, and his eyes had grown darker and more mysterious or maybe that was all her imagination.

Wait a minute. She had a boyfriend!

What was wrong with her these days? Why was she looking at other men when she had a man? She was not like this before. Was it because she was in college now? Was it hormones?

She was lost in thought and did not hear Arnold call her.

It wasn't until he slightly shook me on my shoulder that I returned to reality.

“Oh, sorry.”

“What were you thinking so deeply about?” he asked, his eyes boring into her.

“I wasn’t thinking about anything,” she replied.

“Really?  And yet I called your name twice, and you didn’t reply,” he replied, raising his eyebrows.

“Sorry about that, it isn’t anything important.”

“Alright then. So how have you been?” he asked.

“I’ve been good.”

“How's school and friends?”

“School’s fine and well. I've only got a few friends, but even they are too busy to keep me company,” she said.

Suddenly, they heard a commotion, and they both looked at the direction it was coming from.

Isabella was stunned to see Flora, one of Rachel's friends, throwing herself at Dandy, who was rebuffing her advances as politely as he could.  But his girlfriend was not so polite.  She grabbed Flora's hand and pushed her to the ground while the others laughed. Flora easily fell, probably because she was drunk as hell. Who lets such an airhead drink at a birthday party?!

Isabella looked across the room and noticed her friends staring at her indifferently. None tried to help the poor girl who was making a fool of herself at the party.

None of her friends, not even Tricia or Rachel, whose party it was, tried to help Flora.

Flora sat on the floor and grabbed Dandy's leg, shouting and crying profusely.

Isabella's college mates were all laughing and making fun of her. Some even brought their phone out to record her.