Sapphire

"Okay take a good look. This one or..."

I wait patiently while Amber goes back into the dressing room to try on the next costume. Halloween is just around the corner and—as always—Amber is doing some last-minute shopping.

The store barely has any costumes left. It's clear to see that all the good ones are gone. All that's left are cops—not the sexy ones—ancient vampire slayers, a variety of animal ears and tails and plenty of miscellaneous accessories.

Amber, the sharp-eyed one, somehow found a few gems in the pile of unwanted costumes. Only problem with that is that the girl who saw her pick out a sexy nun costume is watching the dressing room she's in with narrowed eyes. Apparently they both reached for it at the same time and had to argue for fourteen minutes and twenty seconds for it. Yes, I counted.

Amber only won because she lied, saying that her boyfriend is dressing as her priest. Still, the girl is following us around. Probably hoping she'll change her mind and leave it behind so she can snatch it for herself.

I'm just disappointed that I'm friends with someone who would want to be a sexy nun. Why is it even an option?

To my dismay, that's exactly the one she's wearing as she comes out of the dressing room.

"What do you think?" She asks with a twirl.

"You already know, I hate it."

She scoffs, looking down at herself. "What's so bad about it?"

"Everything."

The eye roll looks playful, but I can tell she's a little offended. "Hater."

"Well, I think it looks great on you." The girl decides to speak up, catching both of our attention. She's smiling weakly. "That's a good choice in my book." With a defeated sigh, she stands up from her seat and begins to walk away.

I give Amber a pointed look. "You know you don't have a priest boyfriend. Let the girl have it. I prefer the fallen angel one anyway. I'll even agree to match and dress as an angel."

"You'd do that?" She beams.

I sigh, nodding. "Yeah. Just please get rid of that thing."

"Deal."

I watch from my spot as she chases after the girl, telling her that she could have the costume once she takes it off. The girl grins, following her back towards the dressing room. She takes a seat next to me, smiling brightly as we wait for Amber to come back out.

Once she does, she hands the repackaged costume to the girl before dragging me towards the accessories section. I simply follow her as she works on getting everything necessary for our matching costumes.

So much for not dressing up this year...

Thirty minutes later, we're leaving the Halloween store with our costumes in four separate reusable bags that are noticeably old. Shopping with me means you're stuck with bags that are barely holding on. But I do intend on using them until they're completely useless.

"I can't wait to see how hot we look in these." Amber nudges me with her elbow, seeming proud of herself.

I, on the other hand, am already regretting agreeing to her idea.

* * * *

"Tell me why I agreed to this again."

"Well," Amber starts, curling the last strand of my hair. "You hated the nun costume so much, you ran through your options until you were stuck with this."

"I didn't think this through. I'm not sure this is any better than the nun... actually, I think it's worse."

She huffs in annoyance, rolling her eyes, but she's smiling. "How is this worse?"

After taking in an exaggerated deep breath, I prepare myself for my short-but-very-serious rant. "Well, for starters, I look like I work the corner. I mean, nothing wrong with that; your body, your choice. But I don't want to be mistaken and have a random dude pull up beside me to ask me how much I charge an hour."

"Shut the fuck up," she laughs while softly smacking the side of my head. "We look hot."

"Yeah, like that soothes my worries," I grumble, crossing my arms as if I were a bratty five-year-old who got denied a cheap toy. One that would be forgotten in an hour anyway.

"If this is you trying to back out, too fucking late, sister. You're stuck with us for the night."

I arch a brow, "Who's us, exactly?"

"Me and this hot-as-hell costume." The seriousness on her face makes me snort very unattractively.

"Pretty ironic that you said that, don't you think?"

Now she's the one who raises a confused brow. "Bitch, what?"

"We're angels," I say matter-of-factly. "Angels don't come from hell."

"Pfft, smartass."

"Let's just go to this party already."

She nods, fluffing up my curls while staring at me through the mirror with a very big and very proud smile. "Now you're talking. Let's go get fucked up!"

"Yeah... let's."

* * * *

My habit of biting my lip when I'm nervous has its obvious downside, yet I'm unable to stop doing it. I have no clue how many guys think I'm into them since Amber and I arrived at the party a little more than an hour ago. My best guess would be around six, and those are the ones who made it obvious by returning a wink. I probably made a couple others uncomfortable and got a few in trouble—some of their girlfriends are giving me judgmental looks. And I don't blame them.

I look like a hooker with fake wings.

With my lip still between my teeth, I scan the crowd of dancing bodies and release an irritated huff when I finally spot my drunk best friend. She's grinding on a random dude with another drink in hand.

I have yet to meet someone who gets drunk faster than she does. It's unbelievable. And sometimes embarrassing. So, while coming up with a good excuse to get her away from the guy, I make my way over and firmly but gently pull her toward me. The confusion coming from both of them is expected, but the way he tries to pull her back, quickly alerts me. Disregarding the good excuse, I simply force a smile as I take her away from him.

Once we're a good distance away from him, I hold her forearms and stare right into her eyes, which are already smeared with eyeliner. The eyeliner she spent more than ten minutes on. "Tell me why you always go for the assholes."

Her response is a slurred, "You're not my mom."

"No, I'm your fucking best friend, and I'm here to take care of your dumbass." It wasn't meant to come out so harsh, but she's unaffected by it anyway.

"Mm, take care or cockblock?" she accuses me wrongly, which annoys me a little, but her next words shock me. "It's not my fault Ian isn't here to give you a freaky-deaky night."

"Amber!"

"What? It's true and you know it."

Embarrassed, I can feel the blush taking over my face like a tidal wave as I lead her away from anyone's earshot. Because somehow, that's not the worse she could say. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I sit her down on a kitchen chair, making sure she doesn't fall forward. I'm not just here to protect her from creepy dudes, I'm also here to save her from humiliation.

"Stay here, okay? I'm gonna grab you a glass of water to try and sober you up enough for you to enjoy this party with me." When she opens her mouth to protest, I continue, "I didn't plan on babysitting you all night when I agreed to match costumes with you, missy."

She huffs, slouching on her seat and crossing both her arms and legs. "Fiiine."

"Great. I'll be right back." Before stepping away, I tap the top of her head, just to annoy her a little.

"I'll be here... against my will."

The last part was meant to be said under her breath, but I still heard her. I'm left shaking my head in pure amusement as I walk away from her to grab her that promised glass of water.

When I return, I pause momentarily when I see Ian talking to her while she plays with the watch on his wrist. She's giggling at something he probably said, and he's awkwardly playing with the black lanyard hanging from his left jean pocket. His eyes are scanning the party, which eventually land on me.

I have to hold back a happy dance when his face immediately replaces the awkward half-smile with a full on happy grin.

"Sapphire!" The relief in his voice isn't masked one bit as he pulls away from Amber and walks over to me. Leaning close to my ear, he whispers, "Your friend is a little too honest, don't you think?"

I scrunch up my face as I cringe at the endless possibilities of what she could've told him. Though a bit hesitant, I find myself asking anyway, "Oh god, what'd she say to you?"

"She said you have a um..." his cheeks redden a deep shade. I quickly realize she might have told him something way worse than I initially expected. It takes him a long moment before he can actually say it. "Did you... name a dildo after me?"

The furious blush comes in fast. And I mean fast. In less than a millisecond, my entire face is burning– flaming with embarrassment.

I'm probably glowing bright red. The brightest red in existence.

So what do I do next? Simple. I do what anyone in that situation would do.

I grab Amber and drag her out of the house. All while Ian tries to assure me that it's okay and I shouldn't be embarrassed. In fact, he says he's flattered.

As if that would make it any less embarrassing.

"I am going to kill you Amber Villanueva."

Author's Note

Hey! Long time, no read. I'm terribly sorry about the long wait, but I did need some time to grieve (for those who noticed my bio) and raising a child isn't easy.

Speaking of which, my little princess turns one on Wednesday! Time flew by so fast, I kind of want to cry haha.

Anyway, it's also very hard because I forgot my plan for this book and I can't find the ideas from my notes. Bare with me because it's not easy to come up with ideas when the book is already so far ahead. I did watch the trailer again so I got a few ideas back, but not much. I hope you still enjoy the book by the time it's done.

Okay, that's all! I love you all and appreciate you so much. Thank you for being so patient with me 🥺