Whenever her siblings reminisced on their childhood, their stories always shared one aspect that hers didn’t; they detailed the livelihood of their home at every passing second—from the loud, laughing conversations that carried through walls to the fights that seemed to rock the home. These stories illustrated a house that was filled with life, and perhaps that’s what differentiated Dai’s childhood from her elder siblings. Born in the aftermath of her eldest sister’s death, the lively aspect of their home had been gone for months before. Her sisters moved out, her father died, and the sound dwindled until its presence entirely was a rarity.
The halls today were filled with music, various tunes blasting through speakers. Not only did the music drown out the silence, but the noise also helped her think better and aided her fingers to move deftly as she worked on this gown. The idea had been a floor-length gown with thousands of hand-embroidered butterflies adorning the skirt, the number of butterflies per inch of fabric diminishing as you neared the neckline. It had sounded gorgeous in theory, but wow she had not realized just how time consuming hand-embroidering all of those butterflies would be. It has been months—though, granted, this project had been very on/off for the duration of those months but still.
But after today’s sudden strike of motivation in the morning, she pretty much hadn’t stopped working on it since she’d started, and she’d managed to make a lot of progress. She’d probably be done if she spent maybe another four hours on it, adding to the oh six hours she’d been working. Six hours? Well. At least she’d had enough foresight to tell Reuben she couldn’t go over to his to get ready for the party that was starting—already started, as she noted from the cursory glance of the time on her phone. Nice.
Her phone was practically flooded with messages, a good majority of them belonging to one Reuben Pascual. She skimmed through most of them, tapping out a response to Reuben saying she was coming and lingering for a few moments on that text from Blue Royalty. So it begins… She tossed her phone on her bed after that moment of hesitation, trudging through the scattered fabrics and decals that were thrown haphazardly on the ground to get to her wardrobe to find clothes that were not sweatpants.
Around forty minutes later, her sleek uber pulled up in front of the Rockefeller Residence, a house that was clearly built to impress—and impress, it did. She stepped out of the car, a light smile gracing her lips as she walked through the entrance.
Manoeuvring through the crowd, she made her way to the DJ table, slipping him a couple hundred dollars to play a song of her sister, Andressa’s. The DJ seemed like they would have done it regardless, but she wasn’t looking to spend much time arguing about it and money was often a solution everyone liked.
She turned from the table to scan the crowd for Reuben, but her eyes landed instead on the backside of someone who looked a lot like Xavier—though in a setting she wouldn’t usually picture him in. Still, it looked a lot like him—well, as much as someone’s back can look like someone. It was too loud for her to call out his name and be effective, so she instead walked his way, arriving at his side. “Xavier?” She tapped his shoulder, a relieved smile spreading a across her lips when his face revealed him to, in fact, be Xavier. “Oh, so it is you! Hi!” Daiane pulled him into a warm but brief hug, still holding onto his arm as she pulled away. "I wasn’t sure if it really was you or not; trust, I would’ve given you a much better greeting if I was confident.” A gentle, teasing laugh fell from her lips. "Well, maybe more embarrassing to you but same difference.”
The bartender gestured towards her friend, presenting a drink that she presumed he had ordered. She picked it up from the counter and handed it over to him without a second thought. “Anyway, I didn’t think you were gonna come! I’m happy you’re here, Xay." She gave him an earnest smile, turning briefly to the bartender to request a rum and coke. “But so!” Her attention returned to Xavier. “What’s new with you friendo? Any daring tales to recount since the last time I saw you, what, a couple days ago-?”