Magic Lives Here

The Lie

"Thanks Mike." Alisha told her best friend as she got out of his car.

"Yeah, no prob." Mike told her. "Just uhm..."

He looked up at the Gilbert house. "Good luck in there."

Alisha took in a deep breath. She was shaking with nerves on what she was about to do. "Thanks."

"Do you need a ride for the party tonight?" Mike asked.

"I already asked Bonnie if I could hitch a ride with her."

"Cool." Mike spoke. "See you tonight?"

"Yeah, ofcourse."

"Okay." Mike started his car. Before driving away, he looked at her. "You've got this, Ali."

Alisha nodded and forced a smile even though she didn't believe Mike's words herself.

Alisha walked up the familiar Gilbert doorway.

She rung the doorbell.

A few seconds later, the door quickly swung open.

Jeremy came into view. His face dropped as if she wasn't the one he had been expecting.

"Oh... hey Ali." He forced a smile onto his lips.

"Hey, can we talk?" Alisha asked getting straight to the point.

She fiddled with her fingers. "Uhm, okay, sure come in."

Alisha couldn't believe what she was about to do, she felt sick to her stomach with nerves.

"I hope I didn't come at a bad time." Alisha spoke.

At this point, she was okay with any excuse to run out that door.

"Uhm, no." Jeremy spoke as he walked to the kitchen. Alisha sat at the island while he stood.

"I was just leaving a voicemail for Vicki. Still haven't heard from her."

Alisha saw how worried Jeremy looked.

She didn't want to add to his stress but she just had to get this off her chest.

"I'm sorry Jer." Alisha spoke genuinely.

Jeremy sighed. "I'm just so worried about her."

There was a look of distress on his face.

"And I'm sorry all this had kind of got in between us." He apologised.

Yep, him kissing another girl definitely was a problem.

"That's what I wanted to talk about actually... us."

Jeremy scrunched his eyebrows. He looked like he was about to ask a question but another voice was heard instead.

"Hey guys." It was Elena. "I didn't hear you come in, Ali."

The brunette walked over to give the younger girl a hug.

"Oh I just got here." She announced.

"Well that's perfect because, um, I wanted to know if you guys wanted hang out tonight? We could go to the, uh, Halloween thing at school. Could be fun!" Elena spoke. "I know you're already going, Ali."

Jeremy looked at Ali. "Oh you are?"

Alisha nodded.

He would know that if he actually spoke to her.

Jeremy nodded slowly. "Then it's cool. Sure. Sounds uh...sounds like it could be fun. Can't wait."

Elena knew Jeremy was only agreeing to go because of Ali but that was good enough for her.