Mix Tape, Chapter Two - Part One

Chapter 2

1996 – Meeting Gray

I had just turned 15 and reflected in my mother’s eyes is an emotion that can only be described as bittersweet.

“I’m just so proud of the woman you are becoming. Goodness, I can’t believe my little girl is in high school already!” She had told me when we were at my family birthday dinner. It was times like these that I wish I wasn’t the only girl in the family.

My mother and I are close, just not as close as we used to be, but that’s a part of growing up, right? I mean my mom can’t be my best friend forever. Unfortunately, it is worse with my dad. He isn’t as expressive as my mother, but I can see that he feels like he is losing his little girl to womanhood and there isn’t anything he can do to stop it.

My parents are amazing people. They have everything I want when I grow up. My father is a marketing manager at a major bank and my mother is a kindergarten teacher. They both work hard for their well-to-do life, but they also know how to play hard. Everyone comments that my parents look so young because they are still young at heart, which my dad credits to meeting his soul mate. My parents are so utterly in love and openly affectionate with each other, even after all these years, that my older twin brothers get completely embarrassed sometimes. But never me, I like that they take such joy in each other. It gives me something to look forward to when I find The One.

So anyway, I am totally excited because my birthday party is tonight and it is my first high school party! As it turns out, I am throwing the first party of the year in my class. You’d think that there’s a lot of pressure to throw the first party of the year, but really I am setting the precedent. I figure it doesn’t matter if it’s the best party of the year; at least I am the first. Oh, and did I mention that the parents are out of town? Daddy happens to have a business trip to take in Paris, and Mom couldn’t pass up the opportunity. They are taking a romantic trip together and I am hoping that Mom will bring back some kind of Paris couture for me.

Since their trip was so close to my birthday, I decided to have a sleepover birthday party the weekend before they left. My parents thought the sleepover was my big 15th birthday party when, in fact, my girlfriends and I started planning my real party. By no means am I bad kid or a troubled teenager; my thoughts are that all teenagers must throw a party when the parents are out of town. It is like a rite of passage or something. Plus, it was just so easy to plan, especially since my older twin brothers are partiers: Christian and Jaden (who is going through a phase of wanting to be called “J.Rey” – as in a nickname for Jaden Reyes – he is very specific on the spelling) are two years older than I am and we get along surprisingly well. They still tease me, but not like when we were kids. These days they tease me about boys and it drives me insane! This is the first time in two years that we are at the same school again, and I was worried about how they would be, but they were fine and mostly kept their distance. Sometimes they almost seemed happy to have me around. My best friend, Gigi, thinks that they like the fact that they can keep an eye out on me.

I pick up the phone and call Christian, the troublemaker of the family. “Hey, you didn’t invite too many people, right? I am thinking that if each of us only invites 10 to 15 people then that would put us at the limit. Well, since you and Jaden – ahem – I mean J.Rey share the same friends, maybe you can invite 20 or so and that leaves me with more options. I mean that’s only fair since it really is my party and –”

“Dude, Nori, stop talking for a sec.” My brother interrupts me, “First off, quit calling him J.Rey. His name is Jaden, he isn’t some rap star.”

“But he yells at me when I don’t call him that!” I whine.

“And I will yell at you if you keep it up. Who would you rather have yell at you?”

“Neither.” I say under my breath, knowing full well that Christian has the worse temper of the two.

“What was that?” He baits me.

“Whatever, if Jaden yells at me, I am telling him you are blackmailing me!” I concede.

“Like I care. So, what did you call me about?” He asks me, having been sidetracked.

“I am just wondering how many people you invited, I am a little nervous that too many people are coming.”

“Oh, you can bet your spoiled little behind that there will be tons of people there. Since you are new to this high school thing, let me explain it to you.” Christian puts on his serious voice.

“Yeah?” I ask in anticipation.

“Let’s say you invite five people to a party. Well, once they hear that there aren’t going to be any parents, then those five people will spread the word, and twenty more will come. People you don’t know, people your friends don’t even know, will probably show up.” Christian finishes with an all-knowing air.

I inhale sharply, “Well, that can’t happen!” I start stammering, “M-maybe we should cancel. Or maybe w-w-we should just tell our c-c-closest friends! They wouldn’t invite unwanted guests or, maybe –”

“Right, Norielle,” Christian cuts me off. “The party is tonight. The word is already out. There is no canceling nothing.” Christian is so matter-of-fact that I know there is no use arguing with him anymore. “Man, this is going to be a rager! The Reyes Twins have added another to the party scene. The Three Reyes. Ha! I like it, this will be tiiight! Whoot Whoot!” He exclaims.

“Uh, yeah. Right, The Three Reyes. Party on, whoo hoo…” I trail off.

I hear Christian laugh on the other end. “Don’t worry little sister, it’ll be fun, you’ll see. I’ll get you over to the dark side soon enough. Muah ha ha ha!”

“Yeah, ok, bye.” I hang up the phone. I am really nervous now. I have never done anything this huge before. If my house gets trashed, my parents may never trust me again! Oh, why do I get myself into these situations?

RING!

The sound of my personal line jolts me back to reality. “Hello?” I ask, still a bit dazed.

“Norielle? Are you ok? You sound kind of out of it. Well, anyway, I am super excited about tonight! Derek Bryant is, like, totally coming and I heard he’s been asking if I was gonna be here! Can you believe it?! He is so wanting me to be there! Gosh, I still can’t believe you have the balls to throw a party like this with your parents out of town and all. I mean it sounds more like something I would do, but Miss Norielle Reyes? I mean, seriously, come on –”

“Gigi!” I interrupt her rant, “When are you coming over? I am in dire need of stress control right now! Are you still spending the night?”

“Now, ok, and yes!” I can always count on Gigi to keep up with my bouts of hysterical questioning. I hang up the phone and lay on my bed. I don’t even know what to do with myself. I look around and decide that maybe decorating will keep my mind off of the impending doom that a house full of wild teenagers are bound to cause.

I am pretty lucky that we have a great party house. We turned the basement into a huge rec room that has a pool table (which I never bother to use, unless it is to set my stuff down on) and an awesome entertainment center. My parents even had a bar installed for the Super Bowl parties that my dad likes to throw. The liquor cabinets, though, are always locked up, especially when they are out of town. If I haven’t made it clear yet, my brothers can’t really be trusted at home alone. They haven’t done any major damage, well, enough that we had to have the carpets replaced – twice. I am determined, though, that tonight won’t be like that. Tonight will be good, and my parents will still be able to trust the responsible one of the three of us – me!

I dump out the plastic bag from a local party store, and rolls of streamers in every color scatters onto the floor, along with tinsel and bags of balloons. I decide to start with the streamers, hanging them neatly over each window, the French double doors that lead to our backyard, the edge of the bar, and even on the floor length lamp. By the time I have gone through two thirds of my streamers, I have become so excited about the party that I forget about the unwanted guests showing up.

A knock at the door startles me out of my decorating trance. I walk towards the glass doors and Gigi is waving at me.

“Hey girlie. I rang the doorbell but no one answered. Wow, this place looks great! I hadn’t realized that we haven’t grown out of the streamers phase yet.” Gigi says when I open the door.

“Just because we are in high school doesn’t mean people won’t appreciate a festive atmosphere!”

“Oh it will be festive alright. Especially with your brothers and their friends! I can’t believe we will be at a party with juniors!”

“What about Derek? You have been crushing on him since 7th grade!”

“I know, I know. I am still keeping him as an option, but I think I need an older guy. What about you? Any new prospects in your classes? I still can’t believe we only have one class together!”

“I know, better one than none. As for boys, hmm…” I pause and start wracking my brain, going class by class.

“Ok, if you have to think that long about it, then we are obviously on a boy shortage! Maybe you will meet someone tonight. Come on, let’s go get hot!” Gigi pulls me off of the couch and we run upstairs to get ready.

An hour and a half later, I am just about as cute as I am going to get. At this point, Gigi and I have totally ransacked the bathroom with our huge collection of makeup, hair supplies and possible outfit choices. We survey the damage.

“Looks like two 15-year-old girls were getting ready in here,” Gigi giggles. “Ok, how do I look?”

I survey her outfit. She has on a bright yellow, fitted T-shirt with a denim cut-off skirt. She is totally one who could pull off that mini. If I could have anything of Gigi’s it would be her amazing legs! Of the two of us, Gigi has always been the more outrageous, exciting, and sexier one. I was always called cute, even pretty on a good day; but Gigi, well, she was never described anything short of hot. This never bothered me because our looks reflected our personalities. Gigi is tall at 5’7” and growing everyday. She has green eyes and bleach blonde hair that she is currently trying to grow out from “The Rachel” haircut she had gotten last year. She is slender, but never boney; curvy, but without an ounce of fat. Gigi had a rockin’ bod and she knew how to clothe it, much to her parents’ annoyance.

I always felt like my parents had it easy when it came to me. I am almost the polar opposite of Gigi. I am a mere 5’4” (always hoping for just one more inch!) and am heavier than Gigi, but I had more distinct curves on my hips and bust than she did. Thanks to my dad’s Spanish background, I had dark features: olive skin, brown hair and eyes. My hair is long, and always has been. When I was little, Mom always kept my hair long, but it was fine because I liked my hair; it is thick, shiny and has waves that are easy to style or tame.

Although Gigi and I were completely opposite in appearance, we compliment each other’s personality so well. She is wild but more realistic, while I am more responsible but dramatic. Gigi always appreciated our differences also. She once told me, “You keep me tame and I bring the excitement out of you. You keep me classy and I keep you down to earth. We fit.”

So, after I give her the ok on her the outfit, I survey her face next, which is an entirely different story. She is wearing at least an entire bottle of mascara and liquid liner, and the worst possible shade of eyeshadow for her green eyes. Being that Gigi and I have always been brutally honest with each other, I say, “The outfit is fab! But your makeup is hideous!”

“What?! But I followed the instructions from your stupid makeup book!” She shoves my “bible” over to me. I look at the picture and her work looks nothing like that of the girl in the book. On top of that…

“Gigi, are you totally retarded? You are in the costume portion of the book!” I almost die with laughter!

“Oh…” Gigi’s face turns beet red.

“Unless we are having a hippie party tonight, you better let me redo your face!” I slather a huge glob of crème cleanser on her face and start taking off her makeup. I use almost an entire box of Kleenex to get all the makeup off. It is a good thing that Gigi is naturally beautiful because she doesn’t know how to do her makeup well. I start reapplying her makeup with a much lighter hand and opt for a more suiting shade of aubergine eyeshadow. “All done!”

She looks in the mirror, “Holy smokes! You are so good at this! I really hope you do this for a living when you grow up. Ooh! Maybe you will do makeup for Hollywood and I will finally marry Jordan Catalano!” I giggle at the seriousness in her voice then we start cleaning up our mess.

Our favorite show was My So-Called Life and we were devastated when it got cancelled last year. Gigi more so than I, though, as she had her sights set on the brooding lead character.

“By the way, I love your dress! Is that the one that your parents gave you for your birthday?”

“Yes, it is!” I bask in the compliment that Gigi gives me because I feel fabulous in my new dress. I was shocked when I had opened my presents from my parents and found a pink lace dress that was both classy and sexy at the same time. The dress is a halter top that is lace over a solid, silk slip. The back of the dress is where the sexy part came in. The back was, well, non-existent! Although I am completely covered in front, everything from the waist up in the back is bare.

“I can’t believe that your parents got you that dress!”

“I know! My mom said, ‘See honey, we are hip parents, we know how to be down.’ Really, though, I think my mom got it without showing my dad.”

“Your mom does have great taste!”

“Yeah, I’m glad she isn’t too uptight. Hey, can you see panty line?” I turn around to give Gigi a view of my backside. It had been laundry day and I had a choice of boy shorts or the underwear I ultimately picked, which had a huge winking daisy sprawled across my behind.

“All clear in the rear!” Gigi gives me the ok. “Come on, let’s get back to decorating.” Gigi grabs my hand and leads the way out.

As we are coming out of the bathroom, my brothers come home with a couple of their friends in tow and they appear to be struggling with something.

“Hey, Nori. Hey, Gi.” Christian says as he passes us and heads towards the sliding glass door leading to the balcony.

“Hey sis.” Jaden yells. I look around him at the other boys and they appear to be carrying something huge in. I catch a glimpse of silver. “What is that?” I ask with trepidation.

“Just some party essentials. No biggie.”

“Wait, is that a – what! No way, a –”

Gigi looks around me and exclaims, “A KEG!”

Jaden looks at Gigi and does an exaggerated wolf whistle. “Well, well, are we trying to snag our first boyfriend tonight there Miss Williams? Lookin’ good!” Jaden loves to tease Gigi mercilessly and watch her face turn colors. Other people call him charming, Gigi and I call him obnoxious.

“Whatever, I have had boyfriends before you know!” Gigi retorts.

“Well, aren’t we all grown? So you have the boys lined up huh? I bet Derek Bryant is in that line? Oh, and it’s J.Rey now.” Jaden gives her his most charmingly obnoxious smile. Last summer, Christian and Jaden thought it would be funny to read my diary and it happened to have parts in it about Gigi’s undying love for Derek. Gigi was so furious when she heard my brothers knew.

Gigi glares at Jaden. “So, is Melora gonna be here tonight, Jaden?” Gigi asks, ignoring Jaden’s request to call him by his new nickname. I love Gigi, she can totally dish it out too.

“Please, I am done with that girl.” Melora is, well was, Jaden’s last girlfriend. “I am lookin’ for some new hotties tonight!” Jaden inches closer and suggestively says to Gigi, “You interested, Gi?”

Sometimes, Jaden’s teasing is more on the flirtatious side than it is a joke. But I always brush that thought aside.

Gigi comes around me and sashays towards Jaden. I know something good is about to come out of her mouth. From the look on Jaden’s face, he knows it too and can’t wait to hear it. “Someday, Jaden, I am going to walk by you and you are going to see that I have grown into the most beautiful girl you have ever seen. And you will only be able to wish you had the chance to be my guy.” Gigi blows him a kiss and walks down the stairs.

All the boys start laughing and start ribbing my brother. Jaden is nothing but smiles. I follow in Gigi’s path, wishing I could leave a lasting impression as she is always able to do.

A few hours later, my closest girlfriends are already over. Everyone is having a good time playing pool and even a few people goofing off dancing. We had moved the coffee table to the side to make more room and people are using the table as extra seating and the extra floor space as a dance floor. So far, everyone at my party is someone I know or at least recognize. Christian must have been trying to freak me out or something earlier; except, I can’t help but notice that there is a lot of commotion going on upstairs. I know my brothers and their friends are a rowdy bunch, but still.

“So, great turnout, don’t ya think? And it is still early yet!” Gigi comes up to me with two open bottles of beer in her hand and I take one. Ok, I know this is wrong, seeing as how I am only 15 and all, but I take it anyway. I wouldn’t be a regular 15-year-old if I didn’t give in to peer pressure, although I do recognize the lack of pressure involved.

“Look at all presents you got!” Gigi ogles my stack of underneath the pool table. Most of the friends that didn’t come to my sleepover had brought presents tonight. “I bet it is all makeup. You are totally gonna be in front of the mirror with that stuff for months, I can already tell –” Gigi suddenly cuts off as a loud crash comes from upstairs.

The entire downstairs becomes quiet and we hear a muffled uproar of applause with a resounding “PARTY FOUL!!!”

Gigi and I look at each other then bolt up the stairs. When we get to the top I begin to push open the door, but then I hear Gigi swear behind me. I turn around with just enough time to see the look of terror on Gigi’s face as she comes hurling towards me!

“Watch out!” Gigi yells right before she slams into me. The impact of Gigi landing on me just about knocks the wind out of me, and forces me through the partially open door. The next thing I know, I am lying on my back in the middle of the living room floor with Gigi on top of me, straddling my waist. We both look at each other and start cracking up.

“Holy shit, J.Rey and Christian got lesbian strippers!!!” A loud cheer of male voices drowns out the music. Gigi and I look up and see that we have landed in the middle of a huge group of people staring at us.

“Your brothers got strippers?” Gigi asks innocently. She is still on top of me, straddling my hips.

“Gigi, get off of me, they’re talking about us!” When she hears my explanation, she practically defies gravity as she leaps to her feet. “This is so embarrassing! What happened? Why did you push me?” I ask her.

“Sorry! I tripped.” Gigi explains as she grabs my hands to help me up.

As we stand up and straighten our clothes, there is a loud whoop and more clapping. I turn around and see all eyes on me. A flash of unusually gray eyes catch my attention for a quick second before I turn my head to look behind me at Gigi.

“What is going on?” I ask her.

Gigi looks up and opens her mouth to say something, but her eyes become huge and she throws her body up against my back. I immediately try to shake her off. “Gigi, I am really not trying to be the lesbian stripper here! Get off!” I hiss at her as the crowd gets louder at the fact that Gigi is all over me.

“Oh poor sweet innocent Nori, you don’t want me to get off of you. Your dress!”

“What about it?” Suddenly I realize that my back is wet. Weird. I look down at the ground in front of me and understand now what the loud crashing sound had come from earlier. The noise was the result of one of my mom’s gigantic vases falling from its stand and crashing to the floor. There are gladiolas all over the floor, swimming in the water from its vase, right where I landed.

With fool’s hope, I ask Gigi, “How much can you see?”

Gigi hesitates.

“How much?!” I repeat.

Before Gigi can answer, some asshole in the crowd says, “Dude, her ass was winking at me!”

“Ugh!” I groan in horror. Apparently, my choice of underwear is now visible through my wet dress.

I decide that I can’t stand here, the center of attention with Gigi stuck to my backside. To solidify my mortification, that same asshole in the crowd yells, “Come on Daisy, do a little dance!”

Everyone laughs at the joke and Gigi yells back, “Yeah, yeah. Shows over folks.” With that Gigi and I do an awkward shuffle towards my room as everyone goes back to drinking and partying.

When we get to my room, Gigi lets go of me and I immediately plop on my bed face down. “I’m never leaving this room!” I roll over onto my back. “If I could die of humiliation, it would be right this very moment.”

“Oh, don’t do that. If you die now, then people will bring bouquets of daisies to your funeral.”

I put a pillow over my head and pretend to sob into it.

“Come on, don’t be such a drama queen.” Gigi says. She decides to pour more salt in my wound when she adds, “Besides, ‘Daisy’ is a cute nickname.”

I throw my pillow at her and she catches it right before it hits her in the face. “Ok, truce!” She says then goes to my closet. “I need to borrow a top.” Gigi’s skirt is wet too, but she dries it with a blow drier then changes into a light green tank top from my closet. “Do you need me to help you find something to change into?”

“No thanks,” I reply. “I need a moment, can you check on everyone downstairs? I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Sure, but if you aren’t back in 20 minutes, then I am coming to look for you. Need to make sure you don’t jump out the window or something.” Gigi walks out of my room and closes the door.

I walk over to my full length mirror, and turn my back to look at the damage. The water made my silk slip completely see-through and, sure enough, the winking daisy is fully visible. I groan again in horror and take my dress off. I walk to my closet and try to pick something out.

Part of me wants to stay in my room and die of horror, but the other part doesn’t want to stay locked away while everyone has a good time. Finally, I accept that there wasn’t too much damage done as all of my friends were downstairs and missed my big debut. I pick out a new outfit and go back to my mirror to examine myself. I look at my hair in the reflection and try to figure out what I can salvage of my wet hair. I decide to just brush it out and blow dry it a little, noting that Gigi will be back any minute. Once my hair looks decent, I turn half of my body back towards the mirror and look at my butt.

As I had expected, my door opens and I say to Gigi, “You know if I had Halle Berry’s ass, maybe I wouldn’t be so mortified of everyone being able to see through my dress! But I guess Halle wouldn’t have worn daisy undies either. Oh well. So I picked out what to wear, but I don’t think there is any hope for my hair. Do you have any quick fix ideas, Gigi?”

“No, ah, sorry, I thought this was the door to the bathroom” A very male, very non-Gigi voice says to me.

I jump around to face my door and my cheeks start to burn because a complete stranger found me staring at my own rear end. What other awful ass stories will come of tonight? Tonight will be forever locked in my brain as The Night of the Ass. Whether that Ass is me or my rear end is open to interpretation.

I bury my face in my hands and give a muffled instruction, “Oh, you want the next door over.”

“I’m sorry, what was that?” He asks me.

I lift my burning face and tell him, “You want to go down one more door.”

“Thanks, sorry about the intrusion.” He starts to back out of my room, pauses, and opens the door again, “by the way, I would say that you come to a close second to Halle.” He winks and closes the door behind him.

Oh yeah, definitely The Night of the Ass.