Meet Me In The Meadow

Chapter Four

I wake up, and check my phone, 9:30. Eastern time it's 12:30, so I slept in late. I grab some clothes for the day, and head upstairs to take a shower.
I open the bathroom door, and get the water running. I get into the shower and wonder what the neighbor is like.
I must have been in the shower for a while, because I hear someone pounding on the door. "Hurry up Lizzy Fizzy!" I roll my eyes, and yell back,"Thats Ethan's thing Gray. Chill for a second, will ya?" I turn the water off and get out. I dry my body, and dampen my hair. I get out my blow drier, and dry my hair. I brush my teeth, put on deodorant, put on light makeup, and brush my hair. I get into my outfit.
"You can open the door, if you want Gray." I hear a muffled 'finally' and the door opens. "You took forever!" I plug in, and turn on my curling iron. He gives me a hug from behind, and whispers in my ear,"I'm going to miss you you know." I stop breathing for a minute and I get butterflies. Grayson, though? Do I like Grayson? No. No I can't. He's just a friend. And anyways, we live across the county from each other.
"I'm going to miss you too." I tilt my head back, and put my hand on his cheek. I smile sweetly, and bam! I slap his cheek. Not too hard, don't worry. Just a little slap. Grayson takes a step back, and holds his cheek. He smiles a little,"Good to know you haven't changed. A bit." I smile and roll my eyes,"Why would I want to?"
Grayson leaves to get dressed, and I start curling my hair. By the time I'm done, I hear talking in the kitchen and smell food. "Yum! What's for breakfast?" My mom turns around and hands me a plate with a few small pancakes with berries on it. I grab the plate, and put it on the table between Abbie and Grayson. My mom then hands me a glass of orange juice. "Thanks."
We all eat, and talk about stupid things. Then Ella walks in. "Good morning." She says rubbing her eyes. I tilt my head, and look at her,"What were you doing last night?! It's almost 12." She glares at me and sticks her tongue out.
~
"Elizabeth! We've got to go! It's 1 o'clock!" I say bye to my friends and hurry outside. "Okay mom." I walk into the garage and toward her car, outside. I sit in the front seat, and buckle up. "Where are we meeting them?" My mom starts pulling out of the driveway,"Starbucks." I smile,"Yum." My mom laughs,"I knew you'd enjoy that." We start driving to Starbucks, and it only take about 3 minutes. "By the way, Elizabeth, It's Mrs. Green to you. Okay?" I nod, and unbuckle my seat. "Yup." I say popping the 'p'.
That's going to be easy to remember. Green as in John Green who wrote TFIOS. Easy.
My mom walks me into Starbucks and looks around. "Theresa! Hi." Theresa, or Mrs. Green, started walking toward us. "Wendy!" (Yes my moms name is Wendy). I see a girl walking behind Mrs. Green.
"Wendy, this is my daughter Callie. Callie, this is Mrs. Jones." Callie shakes my moms hand, then stops at me, and is about to say something when my mom talks. "Theresa, this is my daughter Elizabeth." I shake Mrs. Greens hand and smile. I stop at Callie and smile, she smiles back at me.
"I guess we'll leave you guys to it." The two moms went outside and started talking. "So..." I sit down at a table, and she sits across from me. "I'm Callie. I mean, you must already know that." I smile,"Yeah. And I'm Elizabeth, but you can just call me Liz, or Lizzy. Either works." Callie smiles,"Which do you prefer?" I look at the table then back at her. "Hmm. I've actually never really thought of that." But Ethan and Gray call me Lizzy. "Liz. I prefer Liz."
~
Turns out Callie and I have a lot in common, for example: we both "haven't" dated anyone before, we both love the hunger games and harry potter, we both hate math, and ect. It also turns out, that our moms planned for me to sleep over at her house tonight.
I ended up having a fight via text with my mom when I found out. Here's what it looked like.
Me: I need to stay home. Abbie and the twins are only here for a short time. I need to see them as much as I can.
Mom: you also need to make new friends here.
Me: but I can make new friends as long as we are here
Mom: you're spending the night and that's final.
So that's how that went. When my mom says something is final, you don't argue with her. She was a lawyer, and knows what she's doing.
~
When I spent the night at Callie's we ended up playing board games, and watch the movie like Red Dawn. She had an Instagram and said I should get one. I know I should, but I've been putting it off. So last night, I got an Instagram. I was honestly terrified.
~
And now I'm on my way home. It's 10:30 in the morning, and I got about 3 hours of sleep. Fun.
~
I slowly walked up the front steps to the front door. I opened the door, and trudged up the stairs. I went upstairs and grabbed a pillow. I laid down, and took a nap.
~
"Liz?" I groan, and roll over. "Fizzy Lizzy?" I tightened my closed eyes. "Fuzzy Fizzy Lizzy?" I sit up. "What?!" Abbie smirks. "Told you she'd freak." Ethan makes a face. Grayson helps me up,"It's 3:30 Liz." I glare at them,"Great. That's when I went to bed last night." Abbie favs my hand and leads me downstairs. "Walk faster." I groan,"Why?" Abbie stops abruptly, and looks at me,"Because I said so." I roll my eyes as a smile creeps on to my face. "Fine."
Abbie leads me downstairs and stops out side my door , with her hand on the doorknob. "Close your eyes." I glare at her,"Why?" Grayson and Ethan come up behind me and at the same time say,"Because she said so." Then Grayson puts his hands over my eyes. I hear the door open, and I know Ethan and Abbie went in before me.
"Walk forward." Grayson whispers. I laugh,"Shut up Gray." I can hear him smile. I walk forward with his hands still over my eyes. "Close your eyes." I exhale,"They are." I say stubbornly. Grayson's hands start lifting off my eyes, then stop. "You promise?" I laugh,"I promise." He exhales and quietly says,"Okay."
My eyes are closed, but I can hear Grayson walk in front of me. I hear Abbie whisper,"One... Two... Three..." And all three of them go,"Surprise!" I open my eyes and gasp. They did my room, and it looks beautiful.
I jump on my bed, and look at the pictures they put up. There's pictures of Grayson and I and Ethan at the beach. Abbie and I too. There's a picture of when the twins and I had our first 'play date' in kindergarten. There's one of Abbie and I on Halloween when we were six.
I start crying from joy, sadness, and an unknown emotion. I turn around and give Abbie a hug. "I'm going to miss you so much." Abbie hugs me back. We stand there rocking back and forth for a few minutes. I feel someone touch my shoulder, and I turn around to hug them too. It was Ethan, we just hugged for a minute. I let go first, and ran to Grayson. Grayson was always my best friend. And always will be. I give him a big hug, and dig my head into his chest. "I'm going to miss you most of all." I whisper into his chest. He puts his head on top of my head,"Me too. So much."
We stay like that for a while. And when we let go, I take a deep breathe. "I'm going to miss you guys so much." And then we have a group hug.
~
I took a shower after dinner and made a difficult decision. One I've been ignoring since the beginning of eighth grade.
Gosh, I'm scared.
I get into my pajamas, and put my hair into a messy bun. I sigh,and I head downstairs to grab my phone. I close my door behind me.
I still have his number. My hands shake as I hover my finger over the FaceTime icon. I take a deep breathe and press it.
It rings a few times then it answers.
"Liz?" I gasp. I cover my mouth with my hand. "Liz? Are you there?" I take my hand off my mouth and take a deep breath. "Yeah. Yeah. Um... hi." I hold the camera up to my face. My eyes are glossy with the beginning of tears.
"Hey. You okay?" I nod,"Yeah. Yeah. Uh... hi Isaac." He does his half smile, and I can't fight the urge to smile too.
~
You see, Isaac and I were secretly dating through seventh grade (because I'm not allowed to date till high school). Then he got up and left at the beginning of eighth. He broke up with me via text, and I couldn't bear to talk to him. It's almost been a year since that happened, and I've just come up with the 'courage' to talk to him.
It's was fun catching up with him. He told me he lives in Florida now, no wonder he looks so tan, and that he hasn't had a girlfriend since. I told him I just moved to Spokane, Washington. We talked about nonsense like that for a while, till I said I was tired and had to go. He said it was great talking to me and said that we should talk more.
Honestly I don't think I like him like I did before, or if I will ever be able to. But it was nice getting things sorted out.