You Should've Listened

Christmas

The next two weeks go a lot better. By better I mean Dahlia doesn't get any more black eyes from that asshole. We've started coming to my house for lunch, I cook and she's my taste tester.

"What color is this?" I look over my shoulder and Dahlia is laying on my couch, holding up a pillow.

"Turquoise?" She shakes her head like she's disappointed in my answer.

"No." She sighs and sits up.

"Um, I'm pretty sure that's turquoise..."

"It's blue." I feel my eyes brows scrunch but the look in her eyes tell me she's about to talk about another one of her hot takes. Yesterday it was about how penguins shouldn't be called birds so I'm interested in what todays topic is going to be.

"Any other name they have for the shades of colors is so pointless to me."

"What?"

"You know," I stare at her, lost because I don't know. "Blue is just blue. What wannabe genius thought it was a good idea to go out of their way to name things turquoise or violet and lavender, lime green or sage green." She actually cringes at the last two.

"No. Blue is blue. Purple is purple. Green is unfortunately green." She says a bit more firmly and I chuckle at her hatred for green. "It's so dumb, why couldn't they keep it cute and simple?"

"Well that would be boring and you hate boring things." She shakes her head again and I feel myself smiling at how stubborn she is.

"It's pointless." I nod once in response.

"Your a nutcase." I turn back around but not even a full ten seconds go by before something hits my back. When I look down there's a pen at my feet. "Did you just throw a pen at me?"

"No." I turn to the liar on my couch. "Don't call me crazy." She shrugs then looks down at her notebook and I fight back a laugh.

"What are you always writing in there?" She smiles to herself but doesn't look up from whatever she's writing down.

"It's for the project." She lies but I find myself smiling at how bad of a liar she is. She chews on her bottom lip and her eyes dart between the paper and me like she's checking if I believe her or not.

"You haven't even asked me any questions yet." Now that I notice it, the last few days we haven't been asking each other any of the project questions. Not on the drives to school or during lunch, it's just been us hanging out.

"Well maybe I'm on the observation part and I'm writing about your habits as you cook." She's lying again and I chuckle softly before turning back to the potatoes and continue to peel them.

"And what habits have you noticed?" I tease. I hear her walking towards me but I keep my focus on the food in front of me.

"You push your tongue against your cheek when you're trying to focus." My brows scrunch and I turn to her. She hops onto the counter beside me and I feel a smile growing as I notice how comfortable she's getting here. I like it.

"You're lying." She puts her hand on her chest dramatically and leans back a bit.

"Me? Lying? Now why would I lie to you?" I roll my eyes and go back to peeling the potatoes. A few seconds pass and she pokes my cheek. "See. You're doing it right now."

"No, I wasn't." I was. She throws her head back with a laugh and I just let my eyes focus on her.

"You're the lair."