CHAPTER 7
1127 Words
ARIA POV
“There's a party this Friday at Dan's place, you should come."
I stared at the screen for a long moment, reading it three times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
Alexei was inviting me to a party.
Alexei, who barely tolerated my existence, who looked at me like I was a perpetual inconvenience, was inviting me to a party.
I typed back, "Why?"
Three dots appeared immediately.
"Because I'm inviting you."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one you're getting, are you coming or not?"
I looked at the message, then at Hanna who was still taking notes like nothing strange was happening.
"No, thanks, not interested."
"Suit yourself, I'll send you the details anyway in case you change your mind."
A second later, another message came through with an address, a time, and a very clear note that said INVITATION ONLY in all caps.
I put my phone face down on the desk and tried to focus on the lecture.
It didn't work.
After class, Hanna and I walked back to the dorm. She was talking about something the professor said but I was only half listening.
"Are you even hearing me?" she said eventually.
"Yeah, sorry, what were you saying?"
"I was saying that I heard people talking about this party on Friday."
"What party?"
"Apparently it's going to be the hottest party of the semester. Everyone's talking about it, but it's strictly by invitation only so obviously we're not going."
I stopped walking.
"What?" Hanna said.
"Nothing."
"Aria."
"Alexei invited me."
Hanna's mouth fell open. "What?"
"To the party, he texted me during class, I said no."
"You said no," she repeated slowly, "you said no to the hottest party of the semester."
"I'm not interested."
"Not interested, Aria, are you insane? Do you know how many people would kill for an invitation to one of Dan's parties?"
"Who's Dan?"
"One of Alexei's friends, his family, owns half the city, his parties are legendary."
"Good for him."
"Stop saying good to him," Hanna grabbed my arm, "We're going, you're texting him back right now and telling him you changed your mind."
"I'm not going to a party where I don't know anyone."
"You know me, you know Alexei apparently, that's enough."
"Hanna."
"Aria, listen to me," she stopped walking and turned to face me properly, "You've been stressed, you've been having nightmares, you've been seeing things, you need a distraction, you need one night where you just let go and have fun."
"A party isn't going to fix any of that."
"Maybe not, but it'll help. Please, just one night. If you hate it, we can leave."
I looked at her and I could see how much she wanted this, how much she wanted one normal college experience that didn't involve me having a breakdown or Celeste making our lives difficult.
"Fine," I said, "one night."
Hanna screamed so loudly, three people across the quad turned to look at us, "Yes, okay, we're going shopping tomorrow, you need an outfit."
"I have clothes."
"You have jeans and hoodies, this party requires something else entirely."
"What does it require?"
"Trust me, you'll see."
The next day, Hanna dragged me to approximately seventeen different stores before she found what she was looking for.
"This," she said, holding up a black dress that looked like it was missing most of its fabric, "This is perfect."
"That's not a dress, that's a suggestion."
"It's a party dress, now go try it on."
I tried it on, and honestly it looked better than I expected, short, fitted, the kind of thing that made you feel like maybe you knew what you were doing even when you didn't.
Hanna got herself something similar in dark red and by the time we left she looked so happy I almost forgot to be nervous about the whole thing.
Friday came faster than I expected.
Hanna spent three hours getting us ready, doing our hair, our makeup, making sure everything was perfect.
"Okay," she said, stepping back to look at us both in the mirror, "We look hot."
She was right, we did look hot and confident.
"Let's go before I change my mind," I said.
We took a taxi to the address Alexei sent, a massive house in the kind of neighborhood where every building looked like it cost more than my entire hometown.
Music was already pounding from inside, people spilling out onto the front steps, red cups everywhere.
"Okay, this is actually happening," Hanna said, gripping my arm.
"You're the one who wanted to come."
"I know, but now that we're here I'm nervous."
"You? Nervous? Since when?"
"Since I realized everyone here probably has more money in their wallet than I have in my entire bank account."
"Then don't think about it," I said, "we're here to have fun, remember?"
There were two guys at the door checking invitations, both of them looking bored and slightly aggressive about it.
"Invitation," one of them said when we reached the door.
I pulled out my phone and showed him the text from Alexei.
He looked at it, looked at me, looked at it again, "You're Aria?"
"Yeah."
He stepped aside immediately, "Go ahead."
We walked in, and the house was even more impressive on the inside; high ceilings, expensive everything, people everywhere.
"Oh my god," Hanna said in my ear, "This is insane."
"Yeah."
We moved through the crowd, Hanna's hand gripping mine tight so we wouldn't get separated.
"I'm going to get us drinks," she said, "wait here."
"Hanna, don't leave me."
"I'll be here for two minutes, stay right here."
She disappeared into the crowd before I could stop her.
I stood there trying to look like I belonged, like I went to parties like this all the time, like I wasn't completely out of my depth.
Two minutes became five.
Five became ten.
"Hanna, where are you," I muttered, pulling out my phone to text her.
No signal.
Of course there was no signal.
I started moving through the crowd, looking for her red dress, for her familiar face, but everyone looked the same in the dark with the lights flashing.
I needed a drink, needed something to do with my hands, so I didn't look so obviously lost.
I turned toward where I thought the kitchen was and almost walked straight into someone.
I caught myself just in time, one hand going out to steady myself against the wall.
When I looked up, Alexei was standing there, drink in hand, looking at me with his eyebrows raised.
"What are you doing here?" he said, "Besides, how did you even get an invitation into this place?"
I stared at him, completely confused.
"Excuse me?"
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