New Years Eve On 42nd Street
It was my first New Years Eve in the big apple, New York City. I had been planning this day for almost a year now, ever since I found out I would be attending the hottest New Years party of the year thanks to my best friend, Lucy, who knew one of the guests that got us in. New Years has always been my favorite time of the year and I could not think of a better way to spend it than in New York.

“Abby!” shouted Lucinda as she rushed into my apartment, slamming the door behind her. “Abby! Wake up! Wake up! Today’s the day! It’s New Years Eve! Lets gooo!!” Lucinda exclaimed, running into my bedroom to jump on me so I would get out of bed.
“Uggh Lucy, go away. I don’t want to get out of bed.”
“Oh common Abby, we have to go shopping for tonight! Ah I can’t wait! It’s going to be PERFECT!”

“Alright, alright. I’ll take a shower and I will be right out.”
Lucinda is my best friend. We have been friends for almost 1 year, ever since I moved to New York. I was a small town girl from Georgia who had never been to New York. I was halfway through my Junior year in high school when my dad got a job transfer and we moved to New York. It was my first day in this big school in this big city and I was so overwhelmed; Lucy was the only one who came up to talk to me. She claimed she knew how nervous I was, even though she had been living here her whole life.

After my shower, I found Lucy sprawled out on my couch watching a show about all the latest New Years looks. Lucinda was a fashionista. She bought all the magazines and followed all the blogs and watched all the TV shows that had anything to do with the latest fashions. She looked at me with the biggest smile on her face. The kind of smile that someone has when something BIG has just happened. Lucy explained that she just got a call from her friend that had got us into the party tonight saying that she found us both dates! This would be the kind of thing Lucy would get excited about. She was always looking for her perfect boy. As for me, well, I have only ever had one serious relationship before and as much as I wanted a boyfriend, I didn't tell Lucy. I knew she would try and set me up with every single guy she saw and I didn't want that, so I kept to myself a lot of the time.

As she obsessed over who our dates were and if they were hot or not, I was worrying about just having a date for tonight, but seeing how happy it made her that I might actually have a man in my life, I couldn’t turn him down in risk of disappointing Lucy.

“Abby?! Are you even listening to me?!”

“Yeah, yeah, of course I am!”

“Oh sure.. Okay well you need to hurry and get ready! We have shopping to do!”

Shopping was another thing that Lucinda loved that I was not exactly the biggest fan of. That was a con of being her best friend. She always wants to go shopping and get manicures and pedicures together and even if you didn’t want to. Somehow she drags you into it.

I got ready and we headed out. We called for a taxi that then took us to Times Square where all the best shopping was. Lucy was all about the name brands and the designer clothes while I was more into “the more you get for your money, the better” kind of shopping. We went into too many stores to count to find the perfect dresses for tonight because, of course, we had to look amazing for our mystery dates that we would be kissing at midnight. I saw one that I loved in the first store we went into but Lucy said it didn’t show enough skin and that my date would want me to look hot and not conservative but there’s where we disagreed. I have never really been comfortable with showing my skin. I’m not the skinniest girl but I’m also not the biggest, where on the other hand Lucy has a perfect body. One that every girl wants, yet she hates it. I told her I wanted to go back and try on the dress anyways, so I made her sit down and wait while I went in the dressing room.

“Hey Luce, I think I really like this dress!”
I walked out to Lucy giving me a face which meant she hated it.

“Alright, alright, I won’t get it, sheesh.” I said.

“Good!” she exclaimed.

“Because as we were walking back here we passed one of my absolute FAVORITE stores that had a dress that will be perfect for you!” said Lucy excitedly.

“And that would be?” I questioned wondering what designer store it was now.
“Well I’m not going to tell you because you will just turn me down now wouldn’t you?”
“Okay take that hideous thing off and let’s go get you a dress!”

I knew that wherever Lucy was taking me it would be way too expensive for me so I prepared myself, telling myself to not fall in love with anything because I would never be able to afford it.

We got to the outside of Tory Burch and stopped.
“Oh no Lucy. No no no no no.”

“Oh common! Don’t be a party pooper!” Lucy expressed in a pouty face.

“Are you kidding me?!” I snapped at her. “Do you know how expensive this store is Lucy?”
She replied back with a devious smile on her face like she was about to do something that we would make me hate her, “Yes, I do.”

“Now go on in there and put on that dress before I drag you in there myself Abby!”

I was not sure how I would pay for this dress but I put it on anyways.

While I was changing all I could hear was Lucy flirting with the manager who came out to see if everything was alright.

“How are we doing over here?” the manager said in his deep manly voice.

“Great now.” Lucy said.

I couldn’t help but giggle at this. Lucy was flirting with a 40 year old man who had full on facial hair. Gosh, she flirts with anything that breathes. The best part is the manager was flirting back! I mean, I wouldn’t blame him. Lucy is tall, thin, and blonde. Every angle of her is gorgeous. Her face is perfectly shaped, she has clear and radiant skin, and didn’t need makeup to look good, even though she wore it everyday. Lucy looked like she was twenty-one, not seventeen.
They kept talking and I just couldn’t help but wonder if this man knew he was flirting with a seventeen year old girl. Once it got to the point that it was creepy, I intervened, bursting through the curtain of the dressing room, twirling around asking how I looked.

“Oh dahling you look exceptionally beautiful.” Said the lady at the cash register with her elegant British accent, and just as I was about to reply, Lucy interrupted me.

“Abby. You. Look. Gorgeous. ” Lucy stated with her eyes wide open, her jaw dropped, and her hand on her chest.

“She’s right. That dress is stunning.” said the manager sitting next to Lucy.

I turned around and looked at myself in the mirror. They were right. It was beautiful. The dress was a light shade of coral pink decorated with diamonds and white lace. It was mermaid cut with a sweetheart neck line and I absolutely loved it. I felt how every girl should feel in a pretty dress. I felt beautiful.

“Hey Lucy, how am I supposed to pay for this?”

“With my credit card of course!”

“But, umm, Lucy. You don’t ha-” Lucy cut me off as to keep me from saying something.

“Here’s my card! Ring us up?” Lucy asked the British lady at the cash register.

“Oh yes! Of course!” she said.
At the last minute, Lucy saw a dress hanging in the back and decided to grab it, yelling to the cashier.

“Wait don’t forget this dress!” Said Lucy as she ran over the to cash register and threw the dress onto the counter.

“No problem! Thats a fabulous dress!” the cashier replied.
The dress Lucy picked was also a mermaid dress with a sweetheart neckline, but in a little bit lighter shade of coral pink with a light salmon colored beading. It was going to look amazing on her.

Once I was changed we headed out of the store with our dresses in fancy dress bags so the dresses wouldn’t get wrinkled. I was so excited that I had just found the perfect dress for tonight that the thought of asking Lucy how she got the money to pay for these or where she even got a credit card slipped my mind. Probably for the better that I didn’t ask her anyways.

After grabbing an early dinner, we got back to my apartment at around six o’clock which meant we had exactly two hours. The party was planned to start at eight, which in Lucy’s mind meant we left at eight so we could be fashionably late. We knew two hours was not going to be nearly enough time to look our best so we came up with a strategy to save time : While I was doing Lucy’s hair, she would do her own makeup and vise versa. This seemed to work out pretty well seeing that we still had fifteen minutes to spare.

It was now time to go to the party that I had been waiting all year to go to. It was only the hottest party to be at on New Years Eve in New York. As Lucy and I got in the cab she had called for us, my excitement was more than expected. I had butterflies in my stomach. The good kind of butterflies.

The fifteen minute cab ride over to 42nd Street felt like forever. Most likely because I was too excited to wait and wanted to be there right away. For the longest fifteen minutes of my life, Lucy and I started talking about our dates that we were supposed to be at this party with. The only thing we really wanted to know was if they were hot or not but the only thing we could really do about it was pray that they were hot and not, not.

We finally arrived to the party’s location, after what felt like the longest cab ride of my life. I was shocked that I was actually about to walk in to, what could end up being, the best night of my life. Lucy and I got out of the taxi and right away she noticed two hot guys standing right outside the door and immediately she jumped with excitement.

“Oh my gosh Abby! I think those are our dates!”

“Are you sure? They look a bit old for us.” I said to her in doubt.

“Oh relax I’m sure they are the same age! Okay quick! Look cute! They are coming over here!” Lucy shouted at me, grabbing her dress and giving them the flirtiest smile she could.

“You’re a freak Lucy.” I informed her, looking at her and laughing at the sensual faces she was trying to give them but failing at being the least bit sexual. The two guys walked right up to us and offered us their arms to walk us in. I still didn’t know whether they were our dates or not but I sure hoped so.

They walked us to the door and out came two even more handsome young gentlemen who were obviously brothers, then introduced themselves to us as “Derrick and Damon. Our incredibly charming dates for the night.” They seemed very mature and polite which was something I loved in a man. Derrick was my date. Derrick was tall but not too tall that the height difference was awkward. He had a lean muscular body with a sculpted face and the most gorgeous blue eyes I had ever seen. Derrick grabbed my hand and escorted me to the dance floor.

“Just so you know, I have two left feet.” I informed him, as I thought he should know that his date was not the best dancer.

Derrick laughed, “So where are you from?”
“Georgia.” I softly replied.

“Damn. Thats far away! Why are you in New York?” He asked.

“My dad’s job transferred him out here almost a year ago.”

“Well, please accept my late welcome to the Big Apple!” Derrick responded.

“Thanks!”

“Do you want a drink? I’ll go get us some.”

“Yeah that’d be great! Thank you Derrick!” I replied.

When Derrick left I heard someone shout out my name. “Abby!” I heard from a distance. “Abby is that you?” I couldn’t quite make out where this was coming from or who was saying but before I knew it I had a body smashed up against mine, hugging me really tight. I still didn’t know who it was so I didn’t hug back and waited for them to stop. When I saw his face I screamed a little bit and jumped right into his arms.

“Luke! Luke! Luke! Oh my gosh is this real!? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in Georgia celebrating with your family?” I asked him.
Luke was one of my childhood best friends. We have been friends from the start but ever since the move we haven’t really talked much. It was sad really. It’s hard to move away
from your best friend who now lived one thousand miles away.

“Abby I’ve missed you so much! I’m here for a writing camp and met a buddy whose uncle is the host! Crazy right?”

“Yeah! I’ve missed you so much Luke! Care to join me and my two left feet on the dance floor?” I questioned Luke.

“Of Course!”

I ended up spending a whole 3 hours talking and dancing with Luke. I looked at the clock on the wall and saw the time, I realized that time had flown by and Derrick had not returned yet. Worried, I went to his brother to ask where he was and he said he had no clue. I went to the bathrooms to see if he might be there. Not caring at all, I went straight into the guys bathroom, only to find Derrick’s jacket sitting on the bathroom counter. I could not believe it. My date had just ran away from me. I stormed out of the bathroom to go find Lucy to tell her that my date had ditched me. She said she felt terrible but she was too into Damon that she didn’t really seem to care. What did I do to make him run away from me? I looked everywhere for Luke. Only to find him outside on the venue steps watching the celebration happen live. I sat with him, snuggling up against him as we talked about my new life here in New York and everything I missed back home. There was a certain spark between us that I could not describe as we sat there looking back at old memories and laughing until we started crying. Before we knew it, it was 11:59 and time to start the countdown for the ball drop. I was still snuggled up against him with my head on his shoulder and he just sat there looking at me. He looked at me with the most protecting and heartwarming look. He didn’t even speak. His eyes said everything for him. I felt safe. All I could hear was people screaming “10, 9, 8!” as the ball was close to dropping, Luke and I still held our gaze at each other. “5, 4!” I felt Luke’s hand touch my
face. I looked up at him and closed my eyes as I knew what was about to happen was the moment I had been planning for almost a year. It may not have been with the perfect date I wanted but that didn’t matter to be because I would finally get my kiss at midnight on my favorite night of the year; and even better, I was in New York City. “3, 2, 1! Happy New Year!!!” I felt Luke’s lips touch mine and all of the sudden I felt like the luckiest girl in the world. We had this amazing connection between us that I had never had with anyone else before. Was I in love with Luke? Is this what true love feels like? I had no idea how to explain the way I felt.

Luke told me to keep my eyes close and count to 10. I felt his forehead touch mine and then nothing else. I counted to 10 and opened my eyes, only to find that he was gone and nowhere to be found. I had trouble processing that the one whom I thought I was in love with had just left me. But why? Was he trying to spare me the pain of seeing him leave? Why would he possibly leave me right after what we had just shared. Was he scared of the fact that he had just fallen for his best friend? Even though I probably would, the thought of never seeing him again killed me on the inside and it brought me to tears. Lucy found me on the steps and took me back to my apartment while she lied there with me helping me process what just happened. I didn’t know if I would ever see Luke again, but I did know that I would never know love for anyone else but him.