trees + vine, a separate peace au

flo's september pt 2

"You have to go to bed! We have a quiz tomorrow, and I can't go to sleep unless you do!" I whisper-shout to my lab partner over FaceTime. 

It's almost 1am, and I'm boarded up in the bathroom so that I don't wake up Clara, on the phone with Evie. In our defense- the call started around 8:30, as a simple request from her to review for the quiz tomorrow, and we just got to talking and.. well now here we are. 

"Well I can't sleep! I don't know why. I try to close my eyes... and nothing!" She mimics her words as she says them.

"Maybe because you've been on the phone with me for so long? The 'blue screen' and all." I giggle. 

"You're so right, you know, I can feel one of my eyes starting to melt because I've been on the phone so long." 

"Yeah, I think I can actually see it drooping, you might want to get that checked out."

"You're totally right I should." She smiles. "Well, I should actually attempt to sleep, you know, sans blue screen."

"Yeah, me too. Sure Clara's halfway to killing me by now."

"OMG were we that loud? Sorry Clara!" She whispers- but in that Evie whisper that means that even though she's trying her hardest, you can probably still hear her from a mile away.

I check outside the bathroom door to see if Clara actually is awake and mad at me. Sure enough, she's dead asleep.

I flip over the camera to show Ev. "All good- Clare's out."

"Oh okay, good. Well, goodnight Flo."

"Goodnight Evie."

the next morning

"Florence Whitney. You need to get up, my love." Clara says, kneeling next to my ear.

"But what if I don't want to. It is a Friday, after all." I groan.

"Which is still technically a weekday, and you still technically have class."

"If I technically suffocate myself with this pillow, do I have to get up?"

Clara rolls her eyes. "Will you do it for me?"

"Fine.  But only for you." I roll over to look at her directly in the eyes. "And I'm not going to like it."

"Thank you." She kisses my forehead and goes to do her makeup at her desk. "But really Flo, what do you expect, on the phone with Evelyn Lepellier all night." She looks over at me.

"What? You- we- I thought you were sleeping." I say, fully awake and sitting up in my bed now.

"Yeah I know you did, doofus. But I wasn't!" She smiles, so I throw a pillow at her. "Hey! I didn't even ask you what you were on the phone that late for!"

"You're right I'm-" I start, only to get cut off.

"So why were you on the phone that long with her? What is she, your new girlfriend?" She teases.

"Clara no! She's straight, and dating one of our closest friends? We're just lab partners." I laugh, but can't help but wonder why she'd think that. We're just friends. Strictly platonic friends. 

"Just lab partners don't stay on the phone with each other until almost 1am." She looks over, pointing her mascara wand at me.

"Clara, we stay up until at least 1am with each other, and with all of our friends. You stayed up until 3am playing Minecraft with Lyla like two days ago and I wasn't going around asking if you two were getting back together!" To this, I get a death stare in return.