Surface

Chapter 1 - Eye of the Hurricane

Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart and my heart will go on and on

The radio sang as I applied my eyeliner. I was shading in the wing and could see Hannah smiling behind me through the mirror reflection. Her brown hair was newly cut and curled. The top half was neatly pulled back and pinned by a diamond studded hair pin. Her dress was green and while the top half clinged to her the skirt flowed outwards. She looked perfect as always.

"Why are you smiling, Hannah? We're getting ready for Tori's funeral." I tried to contain my frustration and before long it melted into sadness and my eyes filled with water.

Hannah groaned and switched the radio off. She took the seat next to me and caught my arm. "Don't you dare start crying again, Ari. You'll ruin your makeup and Zac will be there."

Zachary had been my crush for the longest time and during those last few days before Victoria's death, we were getting close. But I could have cared less about Zac at that moment. I didn't have to put on perfume to make Tori like me. We were bounded by sisterhood.

"I miss her, too," Hannah confessed with pity shining in her forest green eyes. "But she wouldn't want us to mope around forever. Tori would want us to smile, just like she did."

My mind wandered back to the time where Tori had come to my house one stormy night by surprise. The doorbell rang at 11 in the night. I found her standing on my porch, drenched from the rain. The look of despair in her eyes is one I can remember perfectly.

I let her in and she told me about how she thought her parents were getting a divorce. Ever since her brother passed in Afghanistan, they'd spend all their time fighting. Even then, she smiled at me as if to say she would be fine and not to worry. She smiled at me, her parents, the girls. She smiled at everyone even though she was breaking inside.

"Okay," I agreed, politely.

A few minutes later, a knock on my bedroom door startled me. Helen poked her head inside. Her jet black hair was straight as always and hung all the way down to her waist. Hannah was always trying to get her to cut it, she thought it would look better at shoulder length like her's. Somehow, Helen managed to swiftly avoid the situation.

"Hey girls," she greeted, her voice not as light as it usually was. We turned to meet her black jumpsuit and matching pearl necklace.

Everyone in the group had a pearl necklace. Hannah got them for us. We all marveled at how much it must have cost but she told us not to worry. I guess that's one of the reasons why we felt so obligated to listen to her. She'd give us costly gifts all the time and not all of them were material items.

"Are you going to a funeral or a club?" Hannah snapped while giving Helen a dirty look. "You should be ashamed."

She glanced down at her outfit and then back at us with a guilty gaze. "It's the only black clothing I own."

"Well, it wouldn't have killed you to do a little shopping for Tori, would it?" Hannah turned from Helen and grabbed her black purse from the vanity. "Lets just go."

She stomped out of the room leaving us to go follow behind. I gave Helen a sympathetic look and looped my arm through her's. All I knew was that in order to survive the funeral, I was going to need someone to hold on to.

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Before I was friends with Hannah, there was something else that made me stand out. It was my red hair. It wasn't red like orangy red. It was actually red, the shade of blood.