𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇 𝐎𝐑 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐄? ; 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆𝗳𝗶𝗰

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞.

prologue.

I huffed, blowing a stray strand of hair away from my face. When it floated back to annoy me again, I pulled one of the hair-ties off my wrist and tied my long hair back into a low ponytail.

Stepping back to admire my work, I adjusted the angle of the frilly lace. The card was decked out in all manner of decorations: glitter, calligraphy... you name it. I just wanted this to be perfect. If all goes well, this'll be the first time all my friends will be together in two years!

I frowned, then face planted onto my desk, right into the still-drying glue. This wasn't working.

"Poppy? You okay?" my mom asked, standing in the doorway, rubbing her hands on a dishcloth and looking at me worriedly.

I turned my head to answer, my cheek squished against the paper. "Yeah," I said, my voice muffled.

But my mom knew me better than to trust me on that account and walked over, stepping past the pile of dirty clothes on the floor. "Ay, honey, you need to take a break. You've been working so hard."

"It needs to be perfect," I told her forcefully, picking my head up. I held up the card, which promptly flopped to the side, one of the doilies I'd pasted onto it falling off.

My face fell along with it, and my mom kissed the top of my head.

"Clean your room, then come on out; we're having tamales for dinner. And wash your hands," she instructed.

I looked guiltily at my hands — which were covered in marker stains and dried glue — and then around at my room — the pile of laundry, the ruffled bedsheets, and the papers strewn about my desk & floor. "Okay, Mamí."

She looked satisfied and left the bedroom to finish cooking. I got up to clean, nearly tripping over my little brother's toy truck in the hallway as I carried the laundry out.

—

After dinner, I abandoned the idea of a paper invitation. Instead, I pulled up the now-dead group chat on my phone. The last message sent on it from two years ago: an unanswered question.

I typed up the invitation. I reread it. Deleted it. I wrote another version and proofread it twice for spelling mistakes. Satisfied, I pressed send and immediately noticed a spelling mistake. Sleepover had become "sleepober," since I'd tried to type quickly (I should know better than that by now...). I stared at it for a second, then turned off my phone and began to get ready for bed. After all, these were my friends — they wouldn't judge me for something as simple as a spelling mistake. Right?

—

I woke up to exactly six notifications, one from every person in the group chat. I got up from my bed, pushing away the comforter and swinging my legs off the mattress.

Scrolling through the replies, my face lit up. Yes, yeah, sure, okay, yep!, ooh sounds fun... this was great! Everyone could come, and now, all I had to do was plan the perfect party.

"Poppy!" my mom screeched, rapping on the door. "You better be up right now — the bus will be here in five minutes!"

"Oh shit."

aster.

out already bc none
of the other OCs were
mentioned! <3