before the pain | luke (JATP)

V

The Saturday morning sun shined brightly into the darkroom. Mila slowly opened her eyes as she yawned. She had gone to bed early Friday, having fallen asleep after making history homework. Her notes were now on the floor with her book, she sighed and sat up. She looked around her room, on the first weekend of the school year.

This year had already been different. Normally Mila could go a whole semester without talking to anyone else than her best friend Aera, but that Saturday morning, she knew she was going to be at the first big party and she had only gotten one warning, which was a new record. Therefore when Mila went out of the bed that morning, a brighter smile had never been seen on her lips. She bit her lip as she put her favorite cd into her player and the music of Green Day began blasting out her speakers, making her smile more, as she sang along to Basket Case, finding the clothes she would wear for her first party since freshman year. She looked up at Elijah, smiling brightly. "Will this be okay sir?" She giggled talking to him. She imagined him answering with a smile as well. "You will look stunning Milliana". "Well thank you, Elijah"

Mila went downstairs seeing her dad already up, reading the newspaper by the dinner table. "Good morning love, slept well?"  He asked smiling at his daughter, who nodded with a gentle smile. "I slept amazing, felt like I hadn't slept all week with the stress of homework" She laughed as she made her cereal and sat down beside him.

"Your mother called this morning" Mila began coughing as the words made her choke on her cereal. "R-really? what did she say?" Mila asked, feeling her face get red trying to make a good excuse. Something along the lines with: 'but that, it's my dream and you always told me to follow my dreams' or 'how can I not dream of becoming a writer when I have you as a dad'.

"Yeah, she wanted to ask if you wanted to eat with her on Monday, you could even take Aera with you" Mila breathed out laughing awkwardly. "Sure, I'll call Aera and see if she has time" Mila answered, feeling how the weight on her shoulders lifted a little. "Talking about Aera, is she still with that Oliver guy?" Mila's head dropped by the sound of Oliver's name, it even sounded perfect in her ears, she nodded as she ate her breakfast. "Wow, how long has it been? two years? " Her dad asked, taking a sip from his coffee. "Three..." Mila answered quietly.

"I began working with his dad on this new project, we're flipping a house some blocks away, the owners want the house to be renovated for some reason and the company thought him and I would be a good team" Mila didn't know what to say, so she simply smiled and answered: "That sounds great dad" before finishing her cereal and washing it up. "I think I'll call Aera, and ask if she is coming tonight" her dad nodded slowly as Mila walked into her room, she took the home-phone, she wasn't allowed any cell phone, her dad and mom thinking it would be just another discretion. She entered Aera's home phone number and waited for her to pick up. Luckily she did.

"Hello?" The sound of Aera's tired voice made Mila smile brightly. "Morning sleepy head!" Mila giggled, as a quiet good morning was heard on the other end.

"Are you coming tonight?" Mila asked, hearing Aera sigh. "I'm not sure, I mean I don't even think Caroline actually wants me there," Aera said as you could hear her making fun of Caroline's name when she said it.

"If she didn't want you there, why would she give you an invitation, besides Alex for some reason wanted me to come which is freaking me out so please come" Mila begged which made her best friend sigh even more.

"Fine...wanna come over and get ready, I can drive us?" Aera asked, making Mila bite her lip. "You can come here? My dad is driving me..." Mila answered. "Sure I'll be there in a couple of hours..."

A couple of hours later, they were both getting ready. "How do I look?" Mila asked looking into the mirror, her curly hair was in a ponytail and she was wearing a light blue sweater with a shirt inside and her favorite mom jeans which she had painted sunflowers on. Aera nodded with a smile.

"You look like your dorky and beautiful self, but... here my earrings would look really cute with that outfit" Aera took out her hoop earrings and put them in Mila's ears. Mila smiled looking in the mirror.

"Gosh, why am I so nervous" Mila giggled as Aera looked at her best friend in the mirror. "Because it's the first party you have been to since what start of freshman year?" Aera smiled and looked at herself in the mirror, she was wearing a beautiful tight red dress, she had a million of the same dresses in different colors, yet she seemed to always go back to the red one, she seemed to think it made her look like a sexy devil.

A knock on the door was made, which let the girls know it was time. They smiled at each other before taking each other's hands. "You ready?" Aera asked as she opened the bedroom door. "No" Mila laughed.

The drive to Caroline's house was definitely something. Mila's dad kept talking about the new assignment and how excited he was to be working with Oliver's dad, as they had been friends back in high school, while the only think Mila could think about, was how the night might had been, if Aera and Oliver weren't together, if Oliver would look her way, say she looked pretty and kiss her. Kissing... that was her thought. She even remembered that spin the bottle kiss, it was her first so of course, she remembered it like it was yesterday. Back then his hair was shorter but his eyes still beautiful, his glasses were a little rounder and he seemed more nervous than anyone when he span that bottle, and how lucky was she when it landed on her. She thanked God 27 times that night before bed.

Yet God must have heard her wrong, cause simply a couple of years later, Aera had run to Mila's house freaking out, cause when Mila was waiting for Oliver to ask her out, he had chosen Aera.

And even though Aera was her best friend and she faked that happy smile when Aera told her. Somehow she felt betrayed by both of them. As she felt her heartbreak into a million pieces when her freshman year, her best friend told her, Mila's love of her life was deeply and utterly in love with someone else. Maybe it would have hurt less, if it wasn't Aera, maybe then Mila could have hated Oliver's girlfriend, but no matter how hard she tried to get over him, she couldn't, and no matter how hard she tried to forget him, just the smell of his cologne, made her knees weak and herself daydream.

"Mila?!" The voice of Aera made Mila snap out of her thoughts, she looked at her best friend who looked worried at her. "Are you okay? Were you daydreaming again?" Aera asked, trying not to smile at her best friends imagining. "Yea daydreaming..."

Mila never believed lying was something good, but when it came to her feelings for Oliver,  that was the one thing Aera could never know, that was the one thing Mila lied about. Cause Mila knew, if Aera ever found out, their friendship would never be the same and Aera was the only friend Mila had, Aera was her number one and had been since kindergarten. Nothing could separate them, nothing in the whole world, especially not a boy.

.... or at least so she thought.