Chapter 9
The day of the party had finally arrived. Rachel was nervous but excited, and
couldn't
wait to have everyone over. They had invited the neighbors (so they wouldn't
complain
about the noise) as well as a few others in the building who she had become
friendly
with.
She put on the little black dress she had bought the day before, as
well as the
strappy shoes she had purchased to go with it. She then pulled her hair up into
a cool
looking French twist and put tiny silver butterfly clips near the back to hold
up the pesky
hairs that didn't want to stay in. She touched up my makeup and sprayed a mist
of
perfume to finish it off.
Katie finished putting on her light blue shirt. She smoothed down her
silvery-gray coin
pockets, and ran her fingers through her hair. She had left it down, but had
curled it
slightly at the bottom.
She was letting Rachel do her makeup that night,
since she
loved it so much. Rachel of course had promised to only put a little bit of
mascara and
lipgloss on, and Kaite trusted her.
She was also excited about the party. She
had
missed going to the first one, and had been thrilled when Lauren had called her
and
suggested they have one in Orlando. The fact that celebrities would be there was
unbelievable, but she decided with herself that she would no fuss over them when
they
came. Rachel had told her to try and act as normal around them as humanly
possible,
which she was planning on doing. She took one last look in the mirror before
heading
into Rachel's bathroom, for her "make-over"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A.J had decided to go over Howie's parents house before the party. He needed to
sort
through his thoughts about Rachel, and knew Howie would help.
"Alex, its so
nice to
see you! It's been a while!"
"Hey Mrs.D" he said as Howie's mom's plump face
peered around the door.
He gave her a hug, and proceeded into the living
room.
"Is Howie here?"
"Yeah, he's upstairs in his room, why don't you go
up
there, I'm sure he won't mind"
"Great, thanks"
He climbed the stairs two at a time, and walked into Howie's room without
knocking. He
regretted this as soon as he entered, finding Howie sitting on his bed with a
blow up man
doll.
"Dude Howie, that's sick" he said, shielding his eyes.
"A.J its not
mine" he
said exasperated. "Bryan called and thought it would be funny if we gave this to
her as a
joke for her birthday. And if you would have knocked first you probably would
have been
more prepared."
" Well why are you sitting on your bed with it then?"
"Cuz
I'm
trying to think of what to dress it in. Here you do it"He threw the doll at AJ
who caught it
and brought it over to the closet.
"What about this" he asked, holding up a
blue shirt
that said Hilfiger on it.
"No way, that's a good shirt"
"Well the man's
gotta look
good you know"
"Pick something ugly, to make it more funny"
"Ugly..well
that
won't be hard to find in here" he said sorting through the huge amount of
clothes.
"Screw you" Howie said, laughing and throwing a pillow at A.J's
head.
Finally he found "the checkered suit" Howie refused to wear, much to
the
dismay of his mother.
"Yes, that's perfect. And if Rachel keeps it, I won't
have to
worry about it anymore"
"Howard, your supper's on the table" Mrs. Dorough
called
from the bottom of the stairs.
"I'm not hungry ma, sorry!"
A.J gave Howie a pathetic look.
"Howard its time for dinner" A.J said, in a
high pitch
voice, while ringing the little captain's bell on the wall that Howie refused to
remove.
"Man, D, you gotta get your own place buddy" he said, his voice
normal
again. Howie didn't respond, just rolled his eyes and closed the door.
"Are
you just
here to insult me, or did you want something, cuz I thought we were all gonna
meet at
Kev's?"
"I came over to talk about a girl actually"
"Oh. Well what's the
problem?"
"Well there's this women. And she's beautiful, and smart, and I
can't stop
thinking about her, D."
"But....."
"But I've already slept with her. I've
only known
her for two days, and I already slept with her"
"Ehh, bad choice I'm
guessing"
"That's just it, I'm normally not like that you know, I always
wait. But with
her, I just couldn't help it. Its like I've known her for months already, and it
just felt right.
Anf her eyes, god her eyes are amazing. And you know eyes are the one thing that
gets
me about a woman."
"Do you trust her?"
"No doubt"
"Well then you made
the right decision. If all the right feelings have developed in only a day or so
than you got
something special with the girl. So who is it?"
A.J wasn't sure if he wanted
to tell
him yet that it was Rachel. He knew he could trust him, but it may create
weirdness
between Howie and her that night.
"Well...."
"Who is it....?"
"Rachel"
he
blurted out
"You mean Rachel Andrews the new makeup
person?"
"Yeah"
"Wow"
A.J looked at him with pleading eyes, hoping
Howie would reassure him that he did the right thing.
"She defiantly is
beautiful,
man, and seems really nice, but I wouldn't tell Nina yet."
"Will Nina be
there
tonight?"
"With all the drinking that will be going on? No
way"
"Good"
"Well we better head over to Train's if we wanna get to the
party
on time"
"Yeah, hold on a sec" Howie grabbed the blow up man and his wallet,
before turning out the light and following A.J downstairs.
Mrs. Dorough came
out to
say good-bye, but seeing the doll wearing her favorite checkered suit, she went
into mom
mode.
"Howard! Why is that hideous doll wearing that good suit of
yours?"
"Mom, its not my good suit, I don't even like it"
She gave him the
evil
eye and crossed her arms.
"Take it off him
Howard"
"Mom!"
"No"
Howie knew this was a battle he wasn't going to
win,
so he removed the suit and handed it to his mom.
"Howie I told you to put him
in
something else!" A.J said smiling.
Howie shot a look at A.J as his mom looked
at
him with a smile.
"Oh Howie, A.J is such a good influence on you, have him
over for
dinner sometime"
"K, mom" he responded, while thinking of all the bad
situations
he had had to bail A.J out of in the past.
"Well we gotta go Mrs.D. We can
find
something at Kev's for your boyfriend to wear Howie."
"Shut up" Howie said
pushing
A.J out the door.
"Bye dear, don't be back too late"
"Ok mom, bye"
Chapter 10
INDEX