Chapter Two

The sound of clicking heels made Omile turn her head up from the book she was reading, The Mystery in the Woods, and smile slightly as she saw who was walking towards her. She placed her makeshift bookmark carefully in the crease of the pages and quietly closed the book as the female sat down in the plastic chair next to her own.

“Hello there dear, I saw you sitting by yourself and I have third lunch today so I decided to sit with you.” Victoria smiled. “I also have a gift for you.” Her voice danced as she pulled the bag off of her shoulder.

Omile delicately placed her book on the table next to her styrofoam tray barely covered in any form of trash, the bright colors from the cover of the book contrasting with the muted colors of the table and the tray, and crossed her arms, frowning a bit. “I’m not a big fan of gifts.”

“You’ll love this, I promise.” Victoria placed her bag on the fake wooden table and unzipped the front pocket of her bag and pulled out a long white ticket looking piece of paper. She handed it to Omile, who took it unwillingly, her face slightly flushed.

“Vi...I don’t re-”

“Oh c’mon, this is your Junior year! Please come to it with me? I already paid for your ticket so I can’t take it back.”

“Well, technically, this is my money.” Omile placed the ticket in one of the big pockets of her cardigan, it was finally cold enough to start wearing it to school again without being asked to leave it in her locker and she was taking full advantage of that.

“Oh hush. I still paid already so you gotta come, Salem wants to see you again~.” Victoria ran her fingers through her hair and moved her eyebrows up and down. “You know~? He really likes you~.” A faint smirk tugged at the corner of her lips.

“Please don’t remind me. Last thing I need is a gay guy being into me.” The girls laughed and Victoria pulled a small paper brown bag out of her brown shoulder bag.

“He’s not gay, he’s pan.” She said as she opened it up and placed all of her food onto the table.

“With a preference towards men.” Omile turned her head over to Victoria

“Still pan~.” Victoria smirked as she took a bite of an apple.

Omile picked her book up again, turning to the page she left off on, and placed the piece of paper on the table as Victoria ate silently while working on homework that she had received earlier that day, occasionally asking Omile for help on problems she couldn’t figure out on her own or exchanging very small smalltalk. The bell rang and both girls stood up to throw their trash away and gave each other a small hug then left to go to their class and finish up the rest of the day.

The next couple of weeks had gone by in a blur. Omile’s life was going as it normally would, school, work, then school, then work again, maybe some free time for her cat’s. Or friends. Mostly her plants. On some nights she would go out to a fancy dress store or to Penny’s and look for a dress for the dance she had been suckerd into; eventually she settled on a short strapless yellow dress that she got for five bucks at a thrift shop and took it home to alter and make it more suitable for her liking. She gave the dress thin straps made out of yellow ribbon and added some purple flowers to create a flowing effect that started off lightly at the waist and gradually took over the whole bottom of the dress. She had also bought a pair of black open-toed shoes from Payless that you strap around your ankle. Of course, being her, she attached a flower to both of the straps that went around her ankle and around the top of her feet. Actually, other than that, her week was rather boring and uneventful and her mind was focusing more and more on the upcoming dance. Suddenly homecoming was becoming much more appealing each and every passing day.

Omile’s phone beeped faintly from the her unmade bed and she awkwardly stumbled over dirty clothes and other random objects that had been thrown on to her floor and over to the mess that would be her bed. She felt around the the mattress with the palm of her hands, trying not to mess up her almost dried purple finger nails, and picked up her phone carefully. Omile tapped the message on her homescreen and waited for it to load to the messaging screen.

-Hey! I’m downstairs, come let me in!-

Omile responded quickly and set her phone down on her desk as she made her way towards her bedroom door. Quickly, Omile left her room and hopped down the metal stairs, emitting a clanking sound with each step, and clicked her heels on the tiled floor over to the front door to let the other girl in. Omile’s eyes lit up the second she saw Victoria. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail sitting on the top of her head and had been curled at the bottom giving it a nice wave effect to her usual stick straight hair, her bangs still hung straight below her brows but had small curly tendrils that hung down the side of her face and curled around her white rose pierced ears. She had on a very short dress, so short that Omile could see her butt if she moved the wrong way, that puffed out at the bottom of her breasts and started out white then blended into a dark red color with a black droopy bow tied loosely to the side. She wore tall black heels with an ankle strap that practically made her tower over Omile and had a red dripping effect on her nails that had a black base coat. Surprisingly though, she had little to no makeup on, apart from red lips and the slight cat eye eyeliner.

“Oh my god Omile! You look gorgeous!” Victoria beamed inside the door and took up Omiles hands. “And oh my god your nails are so cute! I love the little white flowers on them!” Victoria looked down at the ground. “And your toes too! I had no idea you could do nail art!”

Omile blushed faintly turned her head to the side. “I can only draw flowers.” Victoria looked her up and down and nodded approvingly. Omile had on her short yellow dress with the flowers she put on it and had the black heels with the flowers on the straps as well. Her hair was thrown into a messy braid that had flowers woven into the strands hanging over her shoulder and a flower crown on top of her head. She looked like a blossoming garden.

“You ready?” Victoria smiled.

“Almost, I just need to grab my bag. Wait right here.”

Victoria nodded as Omile turned around and swiftly made her way to the closet door. She clanked up the metal stairs and ran to her room. Once inside she rushed over to her desk and grabbed her phone then went over the the door knob on her bedroom door and pulled the bag off of it. Is everything in here? She quickly unzipped the bag and moved things around to make it so she saw everything she listed off. “Keys….wallet….anything extra that I might need….phone…? Phone? Where was her phone? Oh wait, that’s right. It was in her hand. Omile placed her phone into the bag and zipped it back up then placed it over her shoulder and left to go back downstairs.

Victoria was standing in front of a pot of flowers, her eyes closed and her body leaning in as she wafted in the soft fragrance of peonies. For a while Omile stood there, smiling faintly to herself, as she saw her closest friend admiring the beauty of flowers right in front of her. She looked amazing, no, beautiful. The way she was slightly bent forward, the way Omile could tell that her eyes were closed and she was faintly smiling even though the sun was making her face look hidden. It actually added to the beauty of her. It highlighted her frame-but in all the wrong ways when Omile turned her head to the side. Omile frowned as she continued staring at Victoria. The light was all the sudden hitting her in a way so that Victoria had an evil grin lining her lips instead of the soft smile Omile saw just a second ago. And before, where her eyes were closed and soft they were now open with a devious light to them, only her almost black colored eyes made them appear as if they were closed. Something about that didn’t feel right. For a couple of days Omile had been slightly on edge as she watched Victoria go about her days; each day adding a bit of worry and suspicion to the back of Omile’s head. ‘What is wrong with me?’ she would think to herself. ‘This isn’t how friends think about each other.’ Omile continued to stand there motionless, she didn’t want to be seen when thinking these thoughts about her friend-her best friend. But then Vitoria turned to face her, her face was bright and happy. “These smell wonderful.” Her voice melted off of her lips and fell out into the open room.

Omile forgot about what she was thinking and smiled while nodding. “They’re peonies. One of my favorites.” Omile then stepped off the stairs and walked out of the closet like room, closing the door behind her with a swoosh of her finger. “Are you ready?” Omile asked holding her hand out. Victoria nodded and took Omile’s hand and walked out of the shop with her.

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