Leaving the party

Orange hues spread through the horizon, indicating the approaching end of the day to welcome its fellow partner by embracing the other side with the night, and there shone a single star brightly shimmering across the deep blue sky, arriving early to twinkle already.

With every visit to the bathroom, Ivy paid attention to the outside view, observing its moves, and appalled from not being able to come up with a smart plan. A plan that could skillfully assist her in leaving this party early.

No matter how many times she could return to this private space, her brain failed to co-operate with her today.

Added to the passing time, Ivy outraged from her inadequacy.

**

Parker, who watched Ivy leave her seat for the fifteenth time, chose to follow her following a few seconds while glaring at Bethany's iniquitous remark. Bethany did not care to notice his dislike in her comment and continued to watch the movie.

Parker followed until he reached the bathroom door, waiting without a clue in anticipation.

What did he anticipate? No one knew, but he manages to idle for several seconds before eventually retiring from snooping on her.

Meanwhile, Ivy spent excessive time inside doing nothing but crying over her inescapable state of anxiety. Realizing her overstay, she decides to leave and opened the door to find no one suspecting her strange behavior.

She glanced outside to see the sunset soon disappearing to her sight. All the day lost in idling and with no concrete plan made her disconcerted. No longer could she indulge in wasting time. Slapping herself to face reality, Ivy walked out to the living room, sending a compelling beacon of her arrival.

Added with a couple of dry coughs, everyone turned their heads to notice.

"What is it now?" David burst out for disturbing him when it was the climax that was on-going.

Grinding her teeth nervously, and despite the dropping courage she gathered to use, Ivy, announced her wish to leave for the day.

All three eyes that watched her widened at once in unison.

"What?" David exploded first.

"I- I have to be somewhere later-" Ivy subtly states.

"Is it important?" Parker inquired.

Ivy nodded to depress their mood, and they all sulked together.

"Is it more important than this?" Bethany asked.

Another nod confirmed it, yet there was silence to follow. Everyone wished to celebrate together, and the sudden announcement of Ivy's departure destroyed their plan.

"Alright, go on," Bethany uttered to alarm the other two.

David joined her by agreeing to set aside the unwatched movies to watch together later. Ivy smiled lightly to their assent while Parker's dazed expression threw her off.

"Thanks."

Bethany and David smiled back to reassure her while the movie ended already.

Ivy stirred to retreat towards the bathroom, actually peeing this time before leaving the place. The amount of liquid she drank to her distress finally reached the place to get released in ease, and she ran back to use the bathroom. Meantime, David's eyes shifted to read the credits on the screen, and he screamed to rewind to the scene where they dropped before Ivy appeared. Bethany helped him, and Ivy presently returned to bid farewell to leave.

Parker excused himself to follow her yet again. Reaching downstairs to meet, he stopped her from leaving.

"What is it? I didn't know anything, is it work-related?" he asked, panting along from rushing.

"No."

"Then-" Parker stopped himself to realize that it is the personal call. He no longer held custody and let her free.

"Alright. Advance Happy Birthday, Ivy."

Ivy's face flipped from a moment of understanding. She instantly smiled to thank him for his wish, explaining how forgetful she is of remembering the occasion.

"You always remember it," she said.

"I have to, or else you wouldn't even know the day you were born," he replied snarkily.

"Plus, David is getting old, literally, and Bethany- she is a hopeless young woman still in her twenties, and I'm the only one in the middle. That's why we planned this initially. We wanted to celebrate together for once in a while," Parker added to his defeat.

"I'm sorry, but this is important."

"Yeah. Yeah. I can guess already."

Both stood idle to nod dumbly at each other, and Ivy checked the time to haste her leave. She said goodbye and took a few steps to stand on the road and signal for a cab.

Shortly arrived at her spot, she opened the cab door and heard a loud cry from Parker. Her gaze walked back to him.

"It's your birthday, which means, do you still remember your promise? You finally hit your thirties, and you've accomplished one of your goals."

Parker yelled to her ears and turned to leave as his words hanged in the middle without ever ending. He raised his hand to wave at her and nearly exited from her vision.

No one needs to explain it as Ivy understood what he meant, and the sound of the horns alarmed her to get to her seat. She said the address to the driver and thus began the ride.

***

Arriving at the location, Ivy noticed that the place was already swarming with people. She panicked from not being able to enter, paid the driver his fee, and ran outside to buy her a ticket before it gets sold out. The waiting line finally ended to her turn, and she purchased any available seat.

Pardoning along the way to reach the screen, Ivy entered to find the room packed with almost full audiences seated in delight. Her place is third from the back row, and she excused herself to get to her chair. Sitting down, she could get a panorama view of the theater with a raised level of arrangements for its audience's ultimate experience. Located far from the stage is suffering, but Ivy still smiled in gratitude for able to reach the place without missing the play.

Promptly, the lights went down to cease the rustles, and the screen raised to reveal the actors.

The prologue of the play, 'The Phantom of the Opera' commenced and everyone hushed to enjoy.

"Ah! There are still people whispering," the person who sat next to Ivy groaned in resentment. She shot a glance and found him to be a middle-aged man in his clean shaved face, hair so flawlessly set with probably much quantity of hair gel products. She couldn't read his feature much to the darkness, thus ignored to continue to watch the play.

Act 1 began with a colorful opening to the number of actors on the stage, performing a scene where they practice for the show, Hannibal.

Ivy closely followed to spot the person she came to visit tonight. Upon entering the stage with her striking vocals, the man sitting next to Ivy stirred in his seat to raise his head and observe.

***

The play is a huge success, and the audience left as it ends with a round of roaring applause that lasted several minutes.

The backstage is in an uproar as the actors moving back and forth, passing each other to their stations while some stayed to get their remarks.

Ivy left the theater to wait nearby in a coffee shop, and she sent in a text to remind the person where to meet. The play ended already late and having to endure another hour of waiting exhausted Ivy mentally. The expected figure finally arrived at the said location to release her from her dying impatience.

"Sorry, I'm late," the person panted for air while greeting.

Ivy lifted her downcast head to meet.

"Now, I understand what it feels like to be you!" the person exclaimed, still panting.

Ivy signaled to sit down and pushed her a glass of water first.

"What do you mean by that?" Ivy asked.

"The hair."

Ivy couldn't understand what's intended at her. She looked puzzled at her company.

"The red hair, dummy."

"Who are you calling dummy, you blondie."

"Can't you see that I'm not blond anymore?"

"I don't care."

The jolly tease went on until Ivy put an end to it.

"I'm starving. Let's eat dinner, and then we can catch up," Ivy said.

Proposing an idea to eat outside did not please her company.

"You are not planning to skip your meal, are you?" Ivy exclaimed worriedly.

Her company shook head to confirm.

"It's still early. Let's go home," the person said.

Ivy waited till she could agree, and when she did, she added a comment.

"You've changed, Bridgette."

Just like her friend, Bridgette, too, worked herself to chase after her dream. Grown herself into a fine woman, Bridgette was the company Ivy had to meet tonight. Unlike Ivy, she's matured elegant and artistic, maintaining a feminine figure. She dyed her hair red for her first major character in her performance, thus referring to her best friend, whose natural hair color is auburn.

Bridgette is no longer the gossip deviant from her high school, tormenting fellow kids to her amusing. Being independent and following her dream changed her over the years. Her face no longer looked out for captives to bully, but a fire in them that is ready to kill the audience with her acting.

When the two people who thought that they enjoyed life at best while being teenagers stepped out to face society while pursuing their ambition, no longer did their nasty tactics predominated.

Life taught them wisdom through experiences, through meeting different people, and learning from mistakes honed their humanity. Still true to their friendship, Ivy and Bridgette lived their life in absolute honor.

Looking at the time left before midnight, Ivy debated whether to go along with her idea or not. However, she agreed to Bridgette's invite, and the two followed to leave together.