:)
Change.
Derek walked around at the award show, following Mark to their seats. He jumbled past all the people, not being able to get by. He sat in his seat, immediately turning when Mark let out a gasp. He looked at Mark with a confused look on his face. Mark simply smiled wide at him, "You just wait." He said. Derek rolled his eyes at his ridiculous best friend, not expecting much, until he understood what he meant.
Walking towards him was no other than Bethany Noel Mota. She was walking cautiously in her high heels, trying not to trip over her long gown. She followed her manager and sat right in the seat next to Mark not saying a word. Either she didn't see him or she was simply choosing to ignore them.
Derek felt a huge smile erupt on his face, immediately standing up, "Beth!" He yelled out, his arms outstretched waiting for her to jump into them like she usually did. He was waiting to pick her up off the ground like he usually did, but that didn't happen. Bethany raised her head and gave him a small smile and stood up to give him a quick hug, but she never once said a word to him. She released the hug way too soon, not even giving Derek a chance to lift her one centimeter off the ground.
Derek frowned at Mark over Bethany's shoulder, giving him a confused look, Mark shrugged his hands, trying to say that he didn't know what was up. Bethany would appear perfectly fine to anybody else, except for Derek. Derek knew something wasn't okay, and it probably hadn't been for a while. She sat down and looked around her; like she was scared somebody had seen something.
Derek was about to ask her what had happened, when he saw a blond guy heading their direction. He leaned down to kiss Beth on the cheek, almost knocking Derek down when he tried to get past him. He balanced himself quickly enough that he could see the slightest flinch when the guy got closer to her face. He could see the slightest bit of anger in the guy's eyes, and a slightest bit of fear in Bethany's. A red flag already. He made no attempt to ask what was wrong, he had learned not to talk about personal issues at award shows the hard way, especially since they were all sitting so close.
Mark looked at Derek with confusion and worry in his eyes. It seemed that Mark had noticed the change in Beth, and the way she reacted to the guy too.
There was no trace of the bubbly nineteen year old they had both met a year ago, in the mature twenty-one year old woman that sat next to them. She had gotten much slimmer. Her arms were the size of straws, her tiny waist- tinier than ever before. Her collarbone was frighteningly visible in her V-neck dress; yet another thing that had changed. Bethany was parading around in a long white gown, that just barely covered her chest and her butt since the dress swooped dangerously low on her lower back, something that she would never dare wearing before. The bright smile that was constantly on her face just about every minute of every day, looked out of place and foreign on her face, like it had been a while since she genuinely smiled.
Derek sat in his chair, basically forcing himself to pay attention to the award show host and not Bethany, who looked ready to bolt from the entire situation at any time. Derek decided he didn't really like the new Beth. He hated doing that- referring to people as 'New' and 'Old', like there was a difference even though they were the same person, but this time it was necessary. Beth had gone through a rebirth, or a reinvention- that just wasn't her.
Mark looked at him with a blatant; 'Are you drunk?' face the entire award show. But Derek was ready to blow, the guy had put his hand on her thigh and it was traveling dangerously up, and Beth looked less than pleased. He was ecstatic when the award show ended and the guy had kissed Beth goodbye, Beth looked pretty excited too. The moment he was out of sight she turned to Mark and Derek, letting out a huge smile.
