The Story In His Picture

Chapter 9

Song – Weirdo by More Fatter

…/…

The two weeks pass in a blur and now I’m sitting in my room waiting for Henry and Chris to show up. Luke would’ve come over to keep me company but we decide to surprise ourselves at the party. So, no one knows what the other person is going as.

Even my twin brothers are unaware of what they’re going as. Jay called dibs for their room and Jace was forced to dress in one of the guest rooms.

Jay and Jace leave for the party with their dates before me. Henry suggested we be fashionably late, so, that’s what we’re doing. “Where are you guys? We’ve officially missed half of the party,” I say on the call.

“Oh! Stop being overdramatic, would you? We’re just going to be one-hour late plus, we’re getting drinks for the party,” Chris says.

I sigh before I cut the call. I go into the room in my room where I hang and edit all my pictures. I see my latest project staring at me, I’ve been putting off the project for a while now.

The knock on my room door causes me to snap out of my trance. “Who’s there?”. “Who else?” was Henry’s retort. “Finally, we can go now”

I open the door and glare at both of them. “Whoa, Grey,” Chris says. “Genny’s not playing,” Henry says. With both of them still staring at me, I walk through them and head downstairs. I stop in my tracks when I don’t hear footsteps behind me and I shout “Guys!”

They immediately snap out of whatever trance they were in and they mutter words. Chris and Henry get to the car before me “We would’ve taken a picture but we’re late” I say as I sit in the backseat.

Chris starts the car and I hear Weirdo by More Fatter play from the radio. I tell Henry to increase the volume, which he does, and soon enough, we’re all belting out lyrics. Mostly, screaming out the “I am a weirdo!” part.

By the time the song finishes, Chris parks the car in Van’s garage and we get out. We walk together, in sync as we head to the front of the house. People keep staring at us, well mostly because I paired with Henry and Chris, the two bad boys of Kinston. I’m definitely going to be the talk of the school for at least the next two weeks.

“Whoa! Guys, the ghostbusters are here” Luke says. Yes, we went as ghostbusters. I, on the other hand, skipped the whole trousers thing and went for bum shorts, with black boots. Okay, maybe that’s the reason they were staring, who cares?

Luke and Tami went as Cosmo and Wanda in the cartoon FairlyOdd Parents but unfortunately for them and fortunately for me, Jace and Elle wore that too, which means they’re out of the competition. Jay and Van went as Batman and Catwoman. Darian went as Black Panther and I must say, the outfit hugs all his biceps. He looks really good.

So far, I’m sure we have this competition in the bag. I checked other outfits for potential winners and the only competition we have is a couple that dressed as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. The girl does look cute in her Tinkerbell outfit.

“So many Wednesday Addams’ tonight, don’t you think?” I say to Van. “Yeah, it’s definitely too much,” she says after looking around and I laugh. “Nice house by the way,” I tell her and she says Thank you. “I hope you’re not trying to bribe me so I give you guys the prize”.

“Of course, not,” I say as I sip my drink. Her house was indeed beautiful. The sitting room should be able to fit three hundred people. It’s gold-themed with a soft feel of silver to it, it looks regal. They have a swimming pool at the back, which also has a spa area and a place for grilling barbecue chicken and making pizza. So far, I’ve lost count of how many rooms there are upstairs. There is a library and a music room too. Then, the most awesome part of it all is the theatre room.

It’s so big and it actually looks like a standard theatre room. Jay is so going to marry this girl; I’d make sure of it. I wonder why the house is this big since Van is an only child. I wondered if she also got lonely as a child but she says she has the help and butlers keep her company and now, she can hold her ground.

Tonight, the house is Halloween themed. Spooky stuff here and there with carved pumpkins at every corner of the house.

“Hey, you look bored,” Henry says from behind me. “Well, that’s because I am”. “We should dance, yup, we should totally dance”. He doesn’t wait for my response before he drags me to the dance floor. I smile throughout as we dance to several songs. Later, we decide to do the same dance steps and soon enough almost everyone joins in.

Well, everyone except Elle, who says she doesn’t know how to dance. Luke stays in front too with Henry, Chris, and me. Henry is a dancer! Boy’s got moves. After a while, we stop and clap for the DJ, he did pretty well.

Van announces that we’d play Truth or Dare before she announces the winners for the contest. I think to myself “Do I really wanna play Truth or Dare with a bunch of strangers?”.

Darian comes from behind me and carries to where they were about to play the game. I squeal and laugh throughout the ride, when he drops me, I yell “again, again, again” and he laughs at that.

We play for hours and guess what, the bottle doesn’t stop in my direction once, not once! I decide to leave the game when a girl gets dared to kiss Henry for thirty seconds and go to the small hut just beside the pool. Only to see a figure there, By the length of the dreads, I knew it was Chris.

No, I wasn’t jealous, it just seemed like the perfect timing.

“Aren’t you supposed to be playing Truth or Dare with them?” I say as I sit beside him. “Nah, I’m not in the mood”. 

“Oh okay”.

“You look beautiful by the way, didn’t have the chance to tell you because of Henry’s presence,” He says as he avoids eye contact. “Well, you could’ve said it with Henry being there, it’s not like we’re dating or anything, and thank you”. “You’re welcome,” he says.

“Well. It seems like he likes you”. “What!?” I say in shock. “No way, he doesn’t like me. Henry can’t stay with one girl. It’s like telling him to attend all the classes in a term” I add in a bit of a rush. I look at Chris to see his head hung low.

“At least, he can go out with any girl he wants, I have to be with Natasha,” Chris says a bit dejectedly. I look at him with pity. “Hey, it’s just for a while,” I say in a bid to reassure him that his dad would soon leave them alone.

I wrap my hands around him and lay my head on his shoulder and I don’t know when I drift off to dreamland.

“Hey, wake up Grey, Van is about to announce the winners”. “How long did I sleep for?” I ask. “Ten minutes,” he says as he gets up. I find that unbelievable, it seemed like I had been asleep for hours.

We head inside the house and gather around Van who is standing on the platform. “Well, if you dressed as Wednesday Addams, you can forget it,” she says and I laugh at that. A lot of groans here and there but she tells them to keep it down.

“Now, I organized the competition so the best dressed would solely be determined by my decision and mine only,” she says. “Now, the award for the best-dressed individual goes to, drum rolls please," "Darian!” Everyone starts clapping as drunk Darian makes his way to the platform.

I had a feeling he was going to win, he looked too good in his outfit. Someone would have to remind him tomorrow that he won.

“Now, the award for best couple which y’all told me to change to best group, goes to….”