AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The sun has fully set before more people arrive. I’m immensely relieved to see Camila and Lara stroll up. They’re two sisters from Florida who started working here about the same time I did a year ago. They’re slightly older than me, and a packaged duo, but they’re always nice about letting me tag along with them when they go out to clubs and bars.
They’re stunning, like stun-ning. They have long dark hair and sultry eyes. We could not be more polar opposite. My big blue eyes don’t screamsex; they eagerly shout,Hi there! Lookin’ for a friend?
They always modify their work uniforms to somehow make them less cheesy, and their after-work clothes are always edgy and cool, the types of outfits I wouldn’t evenbeginto know how to put together. Like, is that a shirt or a dress? Shorts or Spanx? Also, ARE WE STILL WEARING HIGH-RISE JEANS OR NOT?Someone help!
I’m shocked they have anything to do with me, what with my hiking gear, workout clothes, and sports bras. What few dresses I own are hand-me-downs from them. When I first arrived here, they took one look at my closet and gasped in horror.
“Where are the clothes for when you go out?” Lara asked with thinly veiled disdain as she frantically leafed through my sensible moisture-wicking workout shirts.
I pointed to some jean shorts and then belatedly remembered that I also had a simple black tank top buried in my bag somewhere, yet to be unpacked. I held it up, proud. Lara signed the cross over her chest and shot up a silent prayer on my behalf.
Since then, Camila and Lara have decided that it’s their sole mission in life to dress me up like I’m their own personal Barbie. It’s, in their words, “a travesty” to let my body go to waste.
“Your legs! That waist! These breasts!”
I mostly let them play dress-up with me because it’s fun and secretly I love that they’re willing to help me out. They’re sexy, and they make me feel like I can be sexy too. So I’m extra glad when they decide to lay their beach blanket out near me.
Tonight, to appease them and,okay... to step a little out of my comfort zone, I wore one of their old dresses to the bonfire. It’s this tight lavender minidress with a thin tie that knots behind my neck. I felt a little silly when I first put it on—what withsomuch skin showing—so before I left my dorm, I threw on a denim jacket over it.
“Off,” Lara says as soon as she sees me wearing the jacket over the dress. The order is accompanied by an impatient snap.
I laugh. “What? Why? I’ll get chilly!”
Her eyebrows drop like she’s not buying it. Her patience with me dwindles by the day. “We’re in the tropics. It’s never cold here, especially not inAugust.”
Camila chimes in, taking up the cause on her sister’s behalf. “You have a great rack, Paige, and it pains me, truly. It hurts my heart that you insist on hiding it away from everyone.”
“But—”
“No.”
“I—”
“Nuh-uh,” Lara says, slicing her hand through the air like she’s done negotiating.
They succeed in convincing me to slide off my jacket, and, as I expected, there’s a moment of awkwardness where it seems like every person sitting around the bonfire is looking at me, blinking slowly, thinking the same thought.Damn, hold up. Paige was a girl this whole time?!Théo and Oscar aren’t shy about whistling and teasing me, but I forgive them for it because I know they’re just trying to make me laugh. Everyone else thankfully keeps their comments to themselves.
I know that I’m not homely. I look just like my mom, and I think my mom is drop-dead gorgeous. So why isn’t Blaze proposing to me this very minute?
He’s here now. I watched him walk up with his friends a second ago, just as I finished sliding off my jacket, but he hasn’t looked this way.
Lara understands my predicament, and she wants to help. “Arch your back more. Yeah, like that.”
Lara takes my shoulders in her hands and forcibly thrusts my chest forward. It looks like I have an extreme case of scoliosis, but it gets the job done. Blaze glances over, and his eyes widen in obvious appreciation at the sight of me (thank you, genetics), and then he gives me a little wave and a smile.
“Good, now look away.Look away!” Camila hisses frantically.
I look down at the sand, up at the night sky, to Camila, to Lara, then back to Blaze because I just can’t help it. I’m flailing.
Lara laughs and shakes her head. “Girl, you’re hopeless.”
I sigh and shift so I’m facing away from him. Totally unbothered by his presence.
“Is he still looking over here?” I hiss out of the corner of my mouth, as if he could possibly hear me from way over here.
“No. He’s talking to Cole now.”
What?!
