[INDENT][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black]J O A N I E  P O R T E R[/color]
[color=Goldenrod] J O A N I E  P O R T E R[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/INDENT][sup]_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________[/sup][INDENT][INDENT][COLOR=SILVER][SUP][I]October 18[sup]th[/sup], 1985[/I][/SUP][/COLOR]
It was an hour since the party had been due to start, yet here Joanie was, sitting at the foot of her bed, frozen in thought. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUIuCuzdII]Music[/url] bellowed loudly around her room, emanating from a beat-up record player tucked away into the corner. Clothes and junk littered the floor around her. Contrary to this mess around her, she looked decent if she did say so herself; an old oversized jumper atop a cute pleated skirt. Despite her outward appearance, however, the mood was sombre as an empty cold ran through her, her mind racing back to exactly a week ago. All she could feel was regret as she replayed the kiss over and over in her mind.  It had been everything she had hoped it would be. As magical as it was described in the books she poured herself over. It felt perfect. It felt right. Yet she knew that it shouldn’t have. Vanessa wasn’t like her. Vanessa was normal. Better than normal in fact. 

Yet, a lone thought kept tugging at her heartstrings. What if it hadn’t been her imagination? What if that really was the feeling of Vanessa kissing back she had felt? What if?  

Joanie hadn’t spoken to her since that night. Throughout the last week, she had done her best to avoid encountering Vanessa. She kept her lingering eyes locked away from her during class, despite feeling Vanessa’s upon her constantly. In the halls she moved quickly, dodging any attempts she made to contact her. And there were a great many attempts too. Before all of this, such attention would’ve caused a fury of butterflies to stir within her, yet now it was merely a grim reminder that everything was about to change. 

She turned her head towards the two crudely wrapped presents on the bed beside her. 

The larger of the two was for Victor; a second-hand vinyl of the Star Wars Soundtrack that her father had managed to acquire from one of his friends at the college. Looking at it immediately caused a whole new wave of guilt to wash over her. While they hadn’t always been close, he’d been such a loyal friend to her over the last year. It was why she had felt comfortable to tell him everything that had happened. He seemed to understand and didn’t get mad as she had initially expected, but Joanie could only guess what he really thought. Had she only been friends with him to get to Vanessa? The more Joanie overthought, the more even she didn’t really know for sure. 

The smaller gift was for Vanessa. Even from a distance, you could see that more care had gone into wrapping it compared to the former. The sight of it only added to the well of guilt within her. Her fists clenched into fists as her anger swelled. It was currently her friend's birthday, yet here she was moping over something that was never allowed to happen. Tonight shouldn't be about her, nor the bullshit that was racking her brain. 

“[color=Goldenrod]Fuck it.[/color]” She announced to herself, before swinging her arm, swiping the smaller of the two packages from her bed and launching it onto the mess of her floor. Placing a look of determination onto her face, she swallowed her guilt, before rising to her feet. Scooping up both her bag and Vic’s album, she ventured into the night. 
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