Atlas

Thirty

Grace 

"Stop pretending you're okay."

I squinted one eye open. "Deep down, I know you want the last slice of blueberry pie."

I laughed out loud. "You can have it, Dimi."

Dimi bent down and pressed a kiss to my cheek. Her gigantic sunglasses that were perched low on the bridge of her nose and grazed mine. I was laying on the picnic blanket with my head on her lap, and next to us, Reece was stuffing his face with grapes.

The sun beamed down on what was a rare few hours of sunlight. It was still cold – we were all wearing puffy jackets – but the sun brought a smile to my face.

"Who knew this place existed?" Dimi said in awe. Her head turned towards the hills as she stared into the moors. We were thirty minutes and a small hike away from town on what seemed to be a popular picnic spot. Only today, hardly anyone was there.

It had been a week since I had got sick. While my nose was still a bit stuffy and my throat hurt every morning, the worst was it was over without me even needing to go to the doctor. Atlas, for one, was relieved.

As if reading my thoughts, Dimia frowned. "How are you and Atlas?"

"Okay, I guess." I shrugged. "To be fair, I've been quite sick since I came back. Haven't had much time to sit and think reasonably about it."

"But it's not like, awkward or anything?"

"I don't know. Atlas has been respecting my boundaries. It's hard – because the lines are blurry, but we're working on it." I hadn't told them the part where I had told him I loved him when I was sick. I don't regret it, not at all, but it was just making things harder.

"I don't know how you do it." She said. She swooped the frosting off the pie with her finger and licked it. "I could never be friends with Reece if we broke up."

Reece raised an eyebrow. "We started off being friends. Why cant we end it that way – if things ever do end?"

"Impossible." She announced. The subject moved on to Dimi's dance class rehearsal, and I found myself wondering for the first time just exactly how hard it would actually be to start being friends with Atlas. Just friends. Guess I hadn't really thought it through when I had made the decision.

Reece, too, seemed to be thinking about other things when Dimia nudged the both of us and handed us a biscuit each.

Shoving it into my mouth, I realized my phone was ringing.

"Hello?"

"Hey." Damn it, his voice still had an effect on me. "You still by Rampton hills?"

"Yup."

"I'm done with therapy, I was going to go back home. Want me to pick you up?"

"Hang on one sec."

I muted him and turned to Dimia and Reece. "Atlas wants to pick me up. You guys wanna come along?"

Dimia shrugged, but Reece shook his head. "I already told Freddie to come pick us up. And besides, I want to talk to Dimi alone."

I nodded and unmuted the call. "Yeah, sure."

Twenty minutes later, I had waved goodbye to my two best friends, climbed down the hill where Atlas was waiting in his car – and had only stopped for five minutes in the middle to admire the wild flowers.

I strapped on my seatbelt, leaned over to him and shoved a biscuit into his mouth. "How is it? Dimia made them. She saved you like four, but Reece ate them."