"There's no way you can change my mind about this, Mandy. I'm not coming with you, period!"
Daniella said decisively and then left where she was standing to sit on her bed.
Mandy sough and turned properly to look at her friend, who had already grabbed a book and flipped through the pages.
"It's all in the past now, Ella. Please just forget it and let's attend the frat party together," she said cogently; her eyes were full of longing as she moved closer to meet her on the bed.
Daniella lifted her head from her book and stared at Mandy faintly, "Are you asking me to hang around with someone who had flirted with my daddy before?" the corner of her eyes crinkled as she asked this question.
"Lilly will never do that again, Ella. Moreover, you already taught her a lesson. Now I'm sure she will never think of being alone with Uncle Liam ever again,"
"I might just murder her if I ever see her anywhere close to my dad again. So you better warn her," Daniella threatened with an eye roll, bringing a wide smile to Mandy's face.
"I'll do that, your highness. Can we start getting ready now? Huh," she said with puppy eyes, reaching over and grabbing Daniella's hand.
"Leave me alone, Mandy. I already told you I'm not going," Daniella moaned and endeavored to free her hand from Mandy's clutch.
However, Mandy had succeeded in bringing her to her feet and then begin to haul her toward the closet.
"Okay, fine. I'll come with you, now let go," Daniella submitted and pulled her hand from Mandy's grasp onetime.
A smug smile appeared at the corner of Mandy's smile.
"You can never say no to your best friend, you know," she grinned while opening Daniella's closet and behold varieties of clothes.
She skimmed through the dresses and pulled out a black short dress from its hanger.
"Here you go, Ella," she turned around and tossed the dress at Daniella who caught it right in time with a tired sigh.
Mandy turned back to the closet and brought out a red dress which has little shining stones around the neckline.
Beaming, she positioned the red dress to her body, "This will look good on me, isn't it?"
"Yes, Mandy. Now let's start preparing before I change my mind," Daniella noted and then turned around to start changing her dress.
"Whoa, whoa, this is a blast," Mandy yelled through the loud music the moment she and Daniella set their feet into the blue room.
Daniella peeked around the place; the ceiling glows with hundreds of glass bulbs, veiled as a night sky.
On the dance floor, guys and ladies were dancing recklessly around in the blue, red, and green lights.
Soon, they seated themselves on a velveteen chaise and Mandy whispered something into Daniella's ear.
"I'm okay. Moreover, I don't intend to get drunk tonight, so you can go ahead and have all the fun," Daniella also leaned over and told Mandy in her ear.
Mandy made a face and said something Daniella couldn't quite catch. She thereafter grabbed her cellphone and then walked off with slow steps.
Daniella sighed in boredom and looked down at her phone in her hand.
She accidentally unlocked it and a slow smile crawled onto her lips immediately, upon seeing her father's wide smile on the screen.
"Don't worry, Dad. Once I fall in love with Matthew, I'll definitely stop dreaming about you. Just wait and see," she said firmly while she trailed a finger over Liam's face on the screen absentmindedly.
"Oh my, look who we have here,"
Daniella heaved her head up and the person she saw caused the little smile on her face to disappear in an instant and a trace of gleam could now be seen flitting behind her beautiful eyes.
It was Lilly.
She came to sit right next to Daniella and enunciated, "Mr. Liam Brandon's overprotective daughter; Daniella,"
Daniella acted oblivious to her presence and just kept her head straight, without sparing her a glance.
"Anyway, where is Mandy? I haven't seen her around," she inquired patiently; yet Daniella didn't pay any heed to her.
"I can see you are still not cool with me. But I don't care, I won't stop until I have a taste of Mr. Liam," Lilly blurted out to Daniella's hearing and she was forced to turn her frown on her.
"You really want to fuck my dad, isn't it?" she asked with raised brows.
"Yes, Daniella. It's not my fault your dad is so good-looking," Lilly persisted as a matter of fact.
"Okay, Lilly. Good luck on your goal," Daniella said with a tight smile but suddenly leaned closer that her lips were almost touching Lilly's ear.
"But just so you know, if I should ever catch a glimpse of you and my dad together, then you are a dead meat," she threatened through clenched teeth and Lilly couldn't help but shrink back in fear.
"Damn it! Why has she chosen to call now out of all the times?" Mandy grumbled impatiently while she squeezed herself out of the crowd and pressed her phone to her ear.
"Hello, mamma. Can you hear me?" she spoke into the phone but it seemed there was no signal and she was getting more impatient.
"Damn it, damn it! Not when I'm starting to enjoy the party, mamma. Why are you calling me now?" she bounced from foot to foot while redialing the number.
Suddenly, she lose her footing and yelped, expecting her face to be kissing the floor at the moment but instead she felt a huge hand holding her waist.
"Oh my," she breathed out in relief and opened her eyes but closed them almost immediately.
Am I imagining things now? She mentally asked herself.
"I know your face," her savior leaned his face even closer, causing his breath to linger around the tip of her nose.
Mandy got goosebumps from his breath and immediately retracted herself from his clamp, and raised her chin with a deep smile.
"No, dude. Perhaps you're mistaken. Anyway, thanks for saving my face," she turned around to walk away as soon as she finished her words.
"I'm sure I'm not mistaken right now, lady. Aren't you the sick girl who ruined my number plate yesterday?"
Hearing this, Mandy's pace came to an abrupt halt and she bit down on her lower lip in defeat.
She thought there was no way to escape from him now so she slowly spun in his direction, looking quite remorseful.
"Oh, I remember your face now. I'm sorry for crumbling your number plate and thank you so much for your help," she said with a slight bow and attempted to walk away again.
"Wait a sec," the guy said after her, closing up the distance between them.
"Are you trying to avoid me? Don't I at least get to know the name of..."
"Mandy," Mandy swiftly looked up at his face and interrupted his sentence.
"And why would I avoid you? You saved my life after all, ha ha," she avoided his gaze and said with a small laugh.
The guy smiled in amusement and stretched forth his hand for a handshake, "My name is Michael and I really wish we could be friends," he voiced out his earnest wish.
Mandy stared at this guy who had helped her in a time of quandary twice.
His eyes were tender and his masculine jaw had the most perfect contours.
In the past, she would have eagerly requested such a gorgeous guy's contact and even asked him out first but things have changed now, things have really changed.
She had learned her own lesson and wouldn't like to engage with any guy, maybe for now.
However, wouldn't it be outright rude if she turned down her savior request?
"Oh, yeah. It's fine, no problem," she put on a self-mockery smile and itched her hair.
The smile playing around Michael's lip only grew wider, "In that case, can you please share your contact with me?" he requested politely.
Mandy smiled genuinely this time as she couldn't help but alleged that Michael was adorable and she wouldn't forgive herself if she refused to give her digit to this kindhearted gentleman.
"Sure,"
She collected Michael's phone and punched in her digit without any resistance and just as she handed out his phone back to him.
"Hey, Michael," the loud voice came from behind them and they both tilted their head in the direction of the source of the voice.
And there stood two guys, Michael's friends actually.
"You will never change, Michael. You kept us waiting in the car and you are here flirting? " one of them said with a mocking and sarcastic smile.
"Come on, Joshua. Do you remember the girl I was telling you guys about earlier? The
ill lady I brought to her house yesterday?"
Michael jogged their memory, while they walked a few steps over to where he was standing.
"The hot girl with a nice curve?" his other friend articulated with a seductive smile.
Michael sent him a deadly glare and gave them a pleading look, "Please corporate," he mouthed.
He then turned back to Mandy with a sweet smile on his face, "Meet my friends, Mandy. Nathan and Joshua,"
Mandy's expression froze and she felt like invisible knives were wrenching her heart again and again.
Nathan and Joshua too seemed to be damn surprised.
"Mandy?" they both called out in unison.