And I did exactly that. I asked his parents if I could go to Nathalie's party just like Philip wanted. At first I wasn't sure why he wanted me to ask. But soon I found out that they really, really liked her and, more importantly, trusted her. Additionally, they wanted me to make more friendly connections. Which led them to make a decision, a decision that made me believe Philip was a master manipulator…

On Halloween night I found myself in front of Nathalie's lake house with none other than Philip. I didn't even want to go to that party that badly but it felt like I had to make it up to Philip for what he did. It was the least I could do. The music could be heard from outside, surprisingly, it wasn't classical music but sounded like normal popular party music. That was the second thing that surprised me, the first was how huge her lake house was, if you could even call it that. It was bigger than Philip's house and although made out of wood it looked modern with its big glass windows and shape. When we walked in I had my third surprise, the room we walked into had a very tall ceiling, a modern chandelier hanging from it and absolutely massive windows from floor to ceiling which looked out onto the lake. It looked like something out of a movie. If her lake house looked like that, how did her main house look?

People were all around the room, some in the big conversation pit, some in the open kitchen, some outside on the porch. Most were dancing or talking, but some were playing table tennis. Philip made a Beeline to the kitchen and I quickly followed him, not really knowing where else to go.

Suddenly Rudoslav jumped out, with a pizza slice in hand and smiled at us.

"City girl!", he took a bite out of his pizza, stumbling as he leaned on the kitchen counter.

"Are you drunk?", I asked while already knowing the answer.

He stayed silent for a while before murmuring under his breath: "No."

Philip just looked at him, a bit confused: "There's alcohol at Nellie's party?"

Another moment of silence, this time Rudoslav mumbling quicker and higher pitched: "There isn't."

Before we could ask any more questions my eyes immediately drifted away to someone walking from the porch to the inside. Her sparkling earrings dangling from her ears, which seemed like for the first time, were fully exposed since her blonde locks were tied in a high bun. The only hair on her face being her bangs. Perfect and flawless. Her short dark blue dress had just a hint of sparkle.

Philip followed where I was looking and quickly called her over. How a guy that is supposedly in love with her could just so nonchalantly talk to her when she looked like that was beyond me.

"Hi, you made it.", she smiled.

"Indeed he did.", I mumbled, hoping the conversation wouldn't end up with Nathalie just being amazed that Philip gave her his time. But the conversation didn't go there, it actually went another way, no, like, literally. They both walked away from us to talk somewhere else. I turned to Rudoslav to see his reaction but he seemed totally out of it. Just eating pizza, not caring about anything else.

"Lola's looking at you.", he mumbled.

I looked where he was looking and he was right. She was staring at me, almost like she was checking she was seeing right. I turned to Rudoslav again, not too pleased to see her. He noticed.

"Looking for a weirdo.", I joked.

"Weirdo?"

"Yeah, she told her friends I was a weirdo."

He sighed and continued eating his pizza as Lola's voice annoyingly called out from across the room, almost like she wanted the attention: "There she is! I told you she's here."

I turned again to not only see her approaching me but also another person that I didn't really want to see, Bruce. He smiled my way like I was the only thing he could see. I tried my best to keep from running.

He smiled: "Look who got invited." I bit my tongue: "Yay."

"Bruce wanted to ask you something.", she jumped up, like he couldn't have told me that himself.

His smile now a bit nervous, which made me nervous. What could this new Bruce be nervous about? Before it was when I even glanced in his direction, but now? He scratched the back of his neck before clearing it up for me: "I was wondering if you were going to the winter ball with anyone already."

Didn't realise it was that kind of ball, you know, the one people were going to get asked to.

"I'm not really planning on going.", I crossed my arms.

He tilted his head, his eyes filled with curiosity: "Really? I thought you would since... you know, Nathalie will be making a speech and you're her friend, for moral support and all that."

"Um..."

Lola couldn't stop herself from jumping into our conversation: "You know what? How about we settle this the old fashioned way." She ran to the table tennis table and picked up the pallets: "Ping pong match!"

The rules were simple, he wins, I'm going with him. I win, I'm not. I didn't mind playing against him since I was pretty confident I was going to win. I played table tennis with my father all the time at home. But that confidence got quickly shattered. His reflexes were perfect, which made me instantly regret our bet. We were only a few minutes in and it was already 0-2 for him. A strategy change was a must at that point.

"Would you change your mind if I said I swing the other way?", I asked while tossing the table tennis ball. It quickly bounced off the table on his side, the shock from my question froze him in place.

"Do you?", he quickly responded, the worry on his face was amusing.

I simply shrugged and kept playing with him, hoping I could catch him off guard like that one more time. As much as I wanted that to happen again, it didn't. The game has finished and he demolished me with a score of 1-6, almost as bad as that one football match. Bruce seemed so happy with himself as he happily walked over to me. I already knew the next words that would come out of his mouth, and I really didn't want to hear it.

"I have to go to the bathroom!", I grinned and basically ran in the opposite direction. 

Surprisingly, Bruce followed me, I panicked a bit and started walking up the stairs. He called out: "Do you want me to show you where it is?"

I quickly walked up the stairs, feeling him getting closer with every step. I jumped off the stairs and into the hallway. Looking back I didn't see him anymore.

"No, thanks. I actually know the way!", I called out.

"Really? Because the bathroom is-"

As his voice got closer it was only a matter of time before he reached me, so I made a quick decision. I swung a random door open and closed it behind me, not really caring what room I was going to walk into. Bruce's voice seemed to disappear behind it. For some reason, after realising where I was, a sudden feeling of relief came onto me. It was Nathalie's room, and I knew because she was sitting there, at the dressing table. With the lit up mirror illuminating her soft face, showcasing the slight reddish colour on her cheeks and in her eyes. Has she been crying?

She immediately turned as she saw me in the mirror's reflection. Not in the slightest amused about my sudden presence: "What are you doing?"

I probably just caught her in a moment that I shouldn't have. I desperately tried to sound as nonchalant as I possibly could, trying to make the situation less tense: "Sorry Bats, but I need to chill."

I fell down on the small white sofa in the room. "You came to my room to chill?", her voice squeaked slightly.

"I need a break from Bruce. He's been hitting on me all night.", I sighed.

She just smiled and responded: "That's a bad thing? I think he's cute."

"I wonder what Philip would think about that.", I sang.

There was a pause as her cheeks became even more red, if they weren't already red enough from her crying session. "We aren't dating."

"Yet.", I sang again, desperately trying to get a reaction out of her.

She didn't react, well not in the way I wanted her to. She just looked back into the mirror, her face and shiney eyes suggested I crossed a line, which made me even more curious: "What do you even like about him?"

In the mirror I saw her expression shift, now more dreamy in a way. Her voice was gentle, like she was recounting old memories: "Well, we used to talk a lot and he was the only person to not take me seriously. It felt like I could finally breathe when I was with him." Suddenly her face dropped, looking down her eyes seemed to swell up:  "But... I guess that doesn't matter now."

Right, he did say he distanced himself from her once he found out about her crush.

"How did he even find out? Did you tell him?"

She shook her head before sighing. I gave her a moment to compose herself and after she did, she managed to whisper: "Lola told him."

"What?" I blinked a few times, it took me a moment to process what she was saying. "Lola told him?", I gasped and added, a bit irritated: "How did she know?"

"She caught on and asked me. I panicked and I told her. A few days later Philip started acting differently and she explained what she did."

Now she was completely red out of embarrassment. I tried to say something but she quickly hushed me: "I don't know what I was thinking anyway."

I quickly remarked: "You trusted her."

She shook her head and gave me a sad smile: "I mean, I shouldn't have even started having feelings for him. It was foolish to think he would ever-"

She cut herself short, almost like she didn't even want to hear the words come out of her own mouth. To be honest I had no idea what she was talking about. She was smart, confident and all the adjectives I could think of, it was definitely easy to have a crush on her.

"How do you know? Maybe he does like you back."

She gave me an unimpressed look. I in response gave her a smug look, one that just screamed "Come on, you know he does."

She chuckled before covering her face with her hand, it was definitely too late to cover that blush of hers.

Suddenly Lola's voice yelled from the other side of the door. We looked at each other before quickly leaving the room. Lola was yelling at the top of the stairs at Philip and Rudoslav, both looked equally shocked. As Philip noticed me his look told me everything, she was yelling about me. She swung around and the moment our eyes locked she stumped towards me.

"Why would I say you're a weirdo?! You seriously believe that?!", she yelled. Maybe I wouldn't have, but after hearing what Nathalie told me there was no doubt in my mind she did, indeed, do that. I looked over at Rudsolav, he quickly made his way out, fully knowing he caused this. He told her.

"Really?! If I'm going to insult someone I do it to their face!"

We all looked at each other, yeah she was getting out of control, and that was coming from me. Nathalie seemed to catch on and quickly tried to take control.

"Lola, it's getting late I think you should-"

Lola swiftly cut her off: "You're kicking me out, really?!"

Immediately as the prospect of her getting kicked out was revealed she seemed to snap, and snap she did. She was throwing insults at her like it was nothing, and it was probably nothing to Nathalie. She just stood there with her head up high like she was telling her compliments or something.

"You're ugly too! I have no idea what guys see in you!", she yelled.

Nathalie just asked: "Can you get home on your own?"

Lola huffed for a moment, her face now fully red. I never related to someone more than in that moment, it was clear she was angry and she couldn't control herself anymore. Maybe that's why she tried to throw a final blow, this time not at Nathalie but at me: "This is why your parents don't love you! You freak!"

Everyone looked over at me. From Nathalie's look I could tell she was just as shocked as me. Philip seemed more pissed though.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!", he yelled and got right in front of her.

My skin almost crawled inside of me as I felt Nathalie's big blue eyes staring at me. I didn't want to stand there long enough to hear all the yelling between Lola and Philip and I certainly didn't want to stay long enough to make the realisation that Nathalie might have pitied me, the thought of her doing it was enough for me to start my escape. Nathalie was obviously the first one to notice.

"Fifi, where are you going?", she asked, her voice, like alway, demanding.

"I'm leaving."

I walked across the hallway, somehow it felt longer than before. The wooden stars just peaked out in my vision as somewhat surprising words came out of her mouth: "Well, I'm not letting you."

I stopped: "Who says you can do that? I'm going if you want me to or not."

I kept walking, now a bit quicker, all I cared about at that moment was to get to that door and leave. I embarrassed myself enough in front of her.

"Fifi! I'm serious don't-"

"I don't care!", I cut her off.

I was about to reach the front door when I heard her now running after me. She was clearly becoming more and more desperate within seconds.

"Fifi! Stop!", she yelled and as I reached the front door and put my hand on the handle she repeated, now her voice cracking: "Fifi!"

She suddenly grabbed my wrist before I could open the door and yelled: 

"Josephine! Damn it! Do you always have to make things difficult?!"

I clutched the handle as she tried to pull my hand off it. It felt like the whole room was staring at us. I could feel my cheeks become red as my heart raced.

"What?"

She looked at me really confused, like the words that just came out of her damn mouth weren't hers. Like she expected me to play into one of her stupid games again. I clutched the handle even tighter.

"What did you just call me?"