thin white lines | l. hemmings

02

The details of a party two days from then seemed to go in one ear and slide right out the other. Staring out the car window distracted her and directed her to her own thoughts, overpowering the voice of her best friend. 

Delaney was listening somewhat, but she instead cursed herself out for not exploring her very own town as much as she could. The small town still piqued the interest of those who lived there or even just passed through nonetheless. She couldn't take her eyes off the city she'd lived in for years as it whipped past the car window.

She could pick out things she had never seen before despite driving the same route twice a day for the last four years. She squinted at a surprisingly bright building and realized that Willow awaited her response. "Yeah, sure."

"You'll come?" Willow turned her body from the wheel to face the seat beside her, clearly not expecting Delaney to agree with whatever she had asked. It took her a minute to piece the conversation together and realize she may have said she'd attend the party. 

"I mean, why wouldn't I?" She said, choosing what she saw as the safest response, allowing an escape if she found a valid reason to. 

"I don't know." She turned her focus completely back to the road. "You're weird about things like this. Sometimes you're all for it and then the smallest inconvenience turns you off completely. Like the fact that Claire will be there." 

Delaney nodded with pursed lips at the mention of Claire and immediately understood why Willow would assume she wouldn't want to go. Neither of them liked Claire but Delaney was especially passionate about her dislike of the girl, and she handled her annoyance a lot worse than Willow. 

The girl had never done anything to hurt the pair of friends, but there was something about her fake blonde hair and the way she spoke to boys as if they thought that having the same amount of intelligence as a boulder was attractive that really drove them insane. Along with the way she flaunted brand names, bought using her parent's money that she did nothing to earn.  And she was hardly the only one at their school who could afford such things, but she was definitely the only one to not dare be seen in public without an outfit priced at least twelve hundred dollars. Twelve hundred US dollars, at that.

"Yeah, yeah. You're right," she sighed, poking out her bottom lip and facing her friend. "I'm sorry." 

"So, no then," she said as a statement more so than a question after hearing Delaney's response. As much as Willow understood why Delaney didn't want to attend, she had been waiting to unleash her feelings on Claire since she hit puberty and started her journey to being a total nightmare in the seventh grade. 

"I'm sorry," Delaney apologized again. Willow looked quickly to her friend who had been staring at her with wide, sorry eyes already. "Do you still want to shop with me tomorrow? We haven't been in so long." 

Willow nodded quickly, "Yeah sure." 

A wave of relief came over Delaney's body when she realized Willow wouldn't hold this against her. She rarely did hold things like this against her, or try to force her into doing things she didn't want to do. She never made her feel guilty for having boundaries. 

"Do you want to just come over tonight? And then we can drive together in the morning."

"Yeah, I just have to finish my thing for bio first so I'll drop you off and then text you when I'm on my way."

"I have to finish my law essay anyway so that works," she said, finishing off their conversation just as they pulled into Delaney's driveway. "I'll see you in a bit."

She swung the silver car door shut and waved at Willow through the window before approaching her front door. As she stepped up to it, she saw no movement in any of the windows that lined the front of her house. She then found herself hesitating and turning back to the detached garage. Pressing onto her toes, she tried to find her father's car through the window panel.