𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖆𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖊𝖘 𝖒𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖋𝖆𝖍

"I can't believe ciders made you throw up."

I groaned into my pillow, "I told you it wasn't the ciders," I felt Cher sit down making the bed dip, "Some psycho spiked my drink yesterday."

"Yes, yes, I know, the Delilah chick in our literature class," she snorted, "If I'd known you were such a lightweight I wouldn't have left your side the whole night."

I reached out to throw one of my pillows at her, "You didn't leave my side the whole night, they had to drag you away from me," I reminded her before groaning again. "I feel like shit."

"Well, you can feel like shit at the temple of the God's c'mon."

And with that, my blankets were ripped off of me, reluctantly I flipped my body over so I could look at my best friend in the eye. I gave her the strongest pity-me eyes I could, but she resisted and instead scoffed and turned around, stalking off to the bathroom. "Don't make me drag you to the shower and bathe you," she warned, coming back into the room with a pair of my earrings, "And you know I will."

"Yeah, yeah," I huffed, sliding myself to the edge of the bed before sinking to the floor like a melted ice cream. "Can't I just go like this?" I whined, gesturing to my sports bra and low sweatpants I'd slept in.

She looked at me through the mirror, her eyes lingering on my exposed stomach, "Put on a shirt and I'll think about it."

"I'm not going to be seen anyway," I shivered at the idea of being anywhere near her parents. I took in her outfit she was drowning in; the sorry excuse for a dress they'd given her, something only she could pull off truly. She'd put up her hair to avoid it getting everywhere and had sleeked it down, leaving not even a single piece out of place.

To put it in perspective, I still had last month's braids in and had not yet scheduled a hair appointment for anytime soon. My face was still sticky from the champagne I'd let her pour in my mouth last night, and that's not even bringing in what I probably smelt like.

She was in my room getting ready, not shocking considering she'd slept here last night. I had my own dorm room, paid extra to ensure I didn't get any roommates, and I was practically counting down the days till I could move off campus to my parent's apartment. Cher had a room on the other side of the school with two roommates she hated and a bed she claimed was not as soft as mine.

I could admit her roommates didn't seem like they cared for her, but she was exaggerating about the bed, I think she used it as an excuse to sleep in here as much as possible. The house matron had caught her in here countless times and had pretty much given up on telling her to get out and Cher had bought her off with treats she'd bring whenever she was coming to spend the night so she pretty much lived in here shamelessly.

Both our clothes were bursting out of my closet and her hundreds of products decorated my bathroom from all four corners, hell it was her room more than it was mine. "Here," A shirt was tossed in my face and I wiggled in it, trying to get my head through the holes without using my arms, "Put that on and we can go to the car."

I fake sobbed, "You don't care about me or my happiness."

"Oh, really?" I heard some shuffling and then some footsteps towards me, with a giggle, she pulled my head out of the t-shirt and I blinked to adjust to the sudden change, "Then what's this?"

A warmth took over my body as I took in the small home-baked and decorated cupcake, my fingers trembled slightly as I took the treat from her, "It's your special day, I was supposed to get you something," I told her softly, smiling at the two numbers written with edible glitter on the top of the cupcake.

"Shut up," she laughed, sinking to the floor in front of me. "Happy birthday."

I don't know why I'd thought she'd forgotten, probably because I had. She brought out a small dollar store lighter and began to flick it with her finger, once the bright yellow flame came out she held it to the long sparkly candle and kept it there until it caught fire too.

"So what now?" I tilted my head at her, "Do I make a wish?"

"Nope," she leaned in closer to me. "I do." With that, she pursed her lips together and blew out the candle before pressing her eyes together tightly. "I wish my super cool best friend would still hang out with me after she's all famous and basically becomes a God herself."

I shoved her away from me, rolling my eyes, "Yeah I wish."

My cheek went cold as Cher pulled her lips away from it.

"I'll be watching you!" I called after her as she slid out of the limousine. 

Her silky hair flipped over her shoulder as she glanced back at me with a cheeky grin, "You better be."

Then she was swallowed by a sea of paparazzi and camera flashes, the door couldn't have been closed soon enough. I looked back to see her in the arms of her parents who stared down at her with so much pride in their eyes, a pit formed in the centre of my stomach and I made sure to turn back around to miss her father leaning down to kiss her forehead.

Instead, I turned to look at the driver, whose eyes were staring up at me in the mirror. "You excited to watch?" He asked, the sunlight coming in from the windows making the brown of his eyes light up like honey.

I didn't hesitate to nod, "It's not every day you get to see a blessing from the Gods."

I wasn't very religious.

I never had been, and I always thought Cher and I were alike there. When she'd mentioned something about the Gods in front of her parents, her mother even snorted and retorted that it was all 'white nonsense' and we all had a laugh. I'd never been to any of the temples of the Gods and I had pretty much waved off everything to do with them once they were announced dead and the gold in the streets dimmed to a sticky black. The marvel of it all turned into a nuisance that refused to come off from underneath my shoes.

That was until Cher was chosen to receive the next blessing.

I read up on the ceremony, studied the last people chosen in the last fifty years, and how the blessing changed their lives forever. For one, all of them no matter what race or hair colour went blonde and not the natural wheat-colored blonde no. The unbelievable kind that looked like it was glowing no matter what time of day it was.

It was to show they were no longer one of us.

To ensure that no matter where they went, people would pick them out of a crowd and immediately know they were special and were to be treated as such.

The second part was their gift.

All of them were given a gift, something to be used to show off a fraction of the powers the Gods had. Most had used their gifts for unimaginable tasks that had statues built of them all over the world. The others, however...

I read the driver's name tag, "Reginald, right?" I asked, making him look back up at me, "Are you excited?"

He chuckled, "Aren't we all?" He turned into the alleyway beside the temple, much less glamorous than the front of it, but the only place I could use to get into the back entrance. "Are you guys close?"

"Very, " I answered with pride, "She deserves this more than anyone."

For a second I thought I saw his eyes glisten bright gold, but it faded as his lips split into a grin, "I'm sure she does."

As soon as the car pulled to a stop, I was curling my fingers around the door handle. I glanced up when it didn't open, "Thank you for the ride," I hinted, before trying to open the door again. This time, it swung open.

"My pleasure."

As promised, a person was waiting at the door for me. She had bright red hair with black streaks and popped her bubblegum in her mouth before chewing it obnoxiously. When I approached her, she gave me a once-over before putting her hands in her bra and pulling out a crumpled piece of paper.

"You," She frowned at the paper, "Versa-sae-say-

"Versailles," I corrected.

She scrunched up the paper in her fist and threw it behind her, "I do guides around the temple," I followed behind her as we entered through a dark door. "This place is ancient, so there's pretty much cracks and corners everywhere."

I reached out my fingertips to run my hands over the cold stone that we walked between. Incredible patterns and dainty designs were carved into the walls, so intricate that I pricked myself, running my flesh over a particularly thin area.

"You don't believe in this stuff, do you?"

Startled, I looked back at the redhead, who was looking at me like she was about to burst out laughing. I shrugged, moving my hand from touching it. "Don't we all?"

She shook her head as if unimpressed, "I don't know about the Gods out there, but I'm pretty sure," She raised her fingers to air quote, "Celestial beings," She rolled her eyes, "Don't die."

"If you aren't religious, why are you working in a temple?"

"Because I'm broke, smartass."

She led me to another door before pulling a rack of keys off her hip and flipping through them, "This staircase," She opened the door, "Should lead you to the roof," She flicked a light on the side and it lit up, "Things are a lot more fragile up there and there's stuff that's not available to the public too so you can nerd out and pray or whatever," Before I could walk past her she grabbed my arm to stop me, "Don't break anything."

"It's not real anyway," I retorted, "Why should it matter?"

Her lips curled up as if she were about to laugh but stopped herself, "You're right it's not real, but its price is," Her eyes ran over my crumpled school uniform, "And no offence curly but you don't look like you could pay up."

I raised an eyebrow, "My parents could."

She snorted and ruffled my hair with her fingers, "Sure they could, brat, I'm going to smoke but I might join you later," She started walking back where we came from, "You can thank me later, I've just given you the best seats in the house."