Her parents house was filled to the brim with party goers. They were all here to celebrate her but she barely recognized any of them. Sure one looked vaguely familiar, she had seen another one’s picture in one of the family albums, and wasn’t that the prom queen? But she didn’t know any of them, they were all people her parents had invited, people from the past that Cassandra had tried to put behind her, that she no longer had a connection too and no longer knew her. They all remembered the quiet girl who hid behind long brown hair and large unbecoming glasses, who spent ever Friday night on the couch watching TV with her parents while her classmates were out partying. They all remembered the girl who had lost a sister.
She wasn’t that girl anymore, that girl was a stranger, Cassandra had left her behind with all these people. College had changed her, gone was the long hair and glasses, replaced by a chic hairstyle and black eyeliner, she wore slinky dresses, drank red wine, and spoke Italian. She had started taking a shot every time someone exclaimed “My, you’ve changed!” tonight, and she was starting to wobble on her heels a bit.
Of course there was one person she remembered at the party, one person that she could never manage to forget. Rowan Lane. Her brothers best friend, the boy she pined over for years but never said more than a few words too at a time. She had hoped that he would be here tonight, had even worn her favorite little black dress just in case. It had paid off, he had been looking at her the whole night, he never looked at the old Cassandra like that.
She watched him as he made his way to the open bar, her brother finally missing from the picture. She followed suit, making her way to the bar to stand besides him. “Are you enjoying the party?” She asked, giving him a sly smile.