chapter 3
“Marlene!”
“Sirius!”
“You’re coming to my party this weekend right?”
“Duh.”
“AYE!”
“AYE!” Marlene and Sirius get a weird look from a junior when they start dancing in the middle of the hallway.
“I’m about to get fucked up. James is bringing the alcohol and I’m bringing weed so we’ll be SET.”
“Well, you know I won’t be participating.”
“Yeah, I know, babe. You’ll have fun anyway.”
“Of course, I will.”
“See you there!”
“Bye, hun.”
~•~
cozy cuties 😘😘
james!!: are yall going to sirius’s party?
marlene!!: DUH OF COURSE
mary!!: i’m going!!
lily!!: yeah.
james!!: YAYAYAYAYYAYAY
james!!: don’t wear red!
marlene!!: i’ve already got the fit ready. yall know im gonna EAT.
mary!!: always!!
~•~
the girls 💅
mary!!: do you wanna get ready together??
lily!!: yeah. i don’t have anything to wear bc i don’t like the dress i picked.
mary!!: ok come over. i’m at my dads apartment.
lily!!: kk!
marlene!!: i’m already dressed but i haven’t done my makeup or hair yet.
mary!!: pull up!!
marlene!!: can you curl my hair?
mary!!: anything for you, marls.
Marlene runs down the stairs into the living room to find her abuelo. “Tito!”
“Hello, Marlene.” Tito’s thick Paraguayan accent slurs the english.
“Can you drive me to Mary’s dad’s house so we can get ready together?”
“Sure. Get your things. I’ll be in the car.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
Marlene runs back to her room and grabs her makeup bag and her heels and runs to the car.
When she arrives at Mary’s apartment building, Lily is already there. Lily is still in pajama pants and a crop top. Mary has a silk black dress on, unzipped.
“We’re raiding my closet trying to find a dress for Lils.”
“What about that little red one?”
“No red,” Lily reminds her.
“Right. The royal purple one? It’s got good shape.”
“It’s too big for her.”
“Damn.” Marlene throws her bag on Mary’s bed. A speaker is softly playing in the corner. Fleetwood Mac, of course. “Mary, I’m so jealous of your room. You have like 8 windows.”
“It’s only 3 very large windows but yeah I love it in here.”
Marlene walks over to the full body mirror hung on the closet door. Pulling out some eyeliner, she starts to put it on her waterline until the mirror starts moving. “Mary! How am I supposed to do my makeup with you moving the mirror all around?”
“Sorry! We have to get a dress for Lily!”
“Ugh. Go.”
Mary walks into the closet and comes back out with a beautiful cream-colored satin dress. It has a floral design and a flowy skirt. “Try this.”
Lily pulls off her pj pants and her crop top and throws the dress on. It’s perfect. It pulls in perfectly at the waist and sits just right on her hips.
“That’s the one.” Marlene claims.
“Really?” Lily asks.
“Definitely.” Mary confirms.
The girls go back to doing their own thing. Humming the songs playing from the speaker, applying eyeliner and lipstick, debating between different ribbons to tie around the waist. Marlene looks around Mary’s room taking in the comfortable and familiar sight. Marlene’s eyes land on a chalkboard hanging next to her. It reads ‘panda and mar 4ever’. Pandora and Mary have been best friends since freshman year. It’s a widely known fact. However, the words on the chalkboard have clearly been smudged. Like someone tried to erase them. Now there is a big X over the words. What the fuck?
“Mar,” Marlene pipes up to get Mary’s attention. Mary and Lily both look up from where they had been debating if Lily should wear a bra with the dress or not.
“Yeah?”
“First, no bra. They support themselves. Second, what the fuck is this about?” Marlene points to the scratched out words on the chalkboard above her head.
“Oh. That.”
“Mary?” Lily looks at her with concern.
“I thought I told you guys about that.”
“You most definitely did not.” Marlene raises her eyebrows, encouraging Mary to go on.
“Ok so basically,” Marlene went back to her makeup while listening to Mary. “A couple months ago I bought concert tickets for me and Xeno.”
“Ooh what concert?” Lily asked.
“SZA.”
“Nice.” Marlene nodded.
“I know. Anyway, we’ve had these tickets for months and I was really looking forward to it but Xeno forgot!”
“No!”
“Yes! He made plans with Pan! And when I was like bro what about our concert he was like,” Mary deepens her voice to mock Xenophilius’s male voice. “I don’t know, just sell them.” Lily giggles. “He blew me off! He canceled on me last minute to hang out with Pandora. Like I get that she’s your girlfriend but those tickets were expensive. What the fuck?!”
“That’s fucked.”
“I KNOW! Then Pandora obviously takes his side because she wants to hang out with him and it blew up and turned into a huge thing and now I’m mad at her and we’re not talking.”
“Shit. That sucks, Mar,” Lily pities.
“I know.”
“What does Fabian think?” Marlene turns away from the mirror with her concealer wand in hand.
“Well obviously he sided with me. I mean I’m his girlfriend. He did the same thing Pandora did. He’s not talking to Xeno right now either.”
“Really?” That’s surprising to Marlene. Fabian and Xeno have been friends longer than Mary and Pandora so even though Mary and Pandora aren’t talking right now it’s odd that Fabian and Xeno stopped talking too. This has to be about more than just concert tickets.
Marlene’s thoughts are interrupted. “Marls! Are you using your black honey lipstick?” Guess we’re done with that conversation.
“Yeah.” Marlene holds up the stick.
“Oh my gosh! I just bought that!”
“Wait, can I use yours then?”
“Yeah! Here you go, love.”
“Thanks.” Marlene takes the lipstick from Mary and applies it to her lips. “Here you go. Sorry mine’s literally almost gone. I’m gonna use it as eyeshadow.”
“Oh, wait! That eats.” Lily whips around, flaming red ponytail flying with her.
“Can we curl my hair now,” Marlene asks. “The fuck-ass bob doesn’t take long to curl.”
“Yessssss,” Lily cheers. “We plugged in the curling iron in the bathroom a while ago.”
The three girls walk to the bathroom across the hallway from Mary’s bedroom.
When Mary was about halfway done with Marlene’s hair and Lily was almost done with some ridiculous story about James, Mary’s dad walks in.
“What time does this party start?”
Mary, absentmindedly still curling, “Six.”
“It’s 6:15.”
“What?!” Marlene pulls her head away from the curling iron and looks at Mary’s dad.
Lily pulls her phone out of her pocket and confirms. “We lost track of time. We’re so late.”
“Ok, finish curling my hair really quick so we can go.”
Mary goes back to curling, now a little faster. Lily finishes her story.
“James is wondering where we are.” Lily shows Marlene her phone with the group chat pulled up and the 8 texts James sent.
“Ok, well I’m done. Let’s go.” Mary puts the curling iron down on the sink and unplugs it.
They girls rush back into Mary’s room to get all their stuff before getting in the car and speeding off to the party.