Meant To Be

Up All Night

nights like these

make me wanna lose my mind

nights like these

gonna remember for the rest of our lives

-Nights Like These, from FOUR's first album, Nights Like These

"Why have we been summoned?" Anya asks, practically bouncing in her chair. She loves surprises, and I guess she's already sniffed this out as being one.

"Yeah," Maggie says. "Are you okay? Are you pregnant?"

That's much more Maggie. She's a bit more worst case scenario.

"No, I'm not - I'm not pregnant," I say, lowering my voice. "Jesus Christ, Maggie. When would I even have slept with a guy?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "You never summon us to lunch."

"This wasn't a summon -" I start to protest, but Anya cuts me off.

"It was definitely a summoning," Anya says. "So. Spill."

My face splits into a grin. "Okay, yeah. I do have a surprise. You guys don't have any plans for tonight, right?"

"Nothing concrete, no," Maggie says slowly, squinting at me. "What is this about?"

I bite my lip and grin even wider, shoving my phone across the table at them. Holland had sent me the ticket info right as I was in my last class before lunch, prompting a run to the bathroom so I could hyperventilate in a stall. They're good tickets, to. I have no idea how he managed it, but then again, I have no idea how this sort of thing works.

It takes a moment for what they're seeing to kick in, but when it does, Maggie drops her water bottle and Anya screams "Shut up!" so loudly I see a couple of freshman across the courtyard flinch.

I mouth sorry at them and turn to Maggie and Anya.

"Seriously?" Maggie says, hands on her cheeks. "Seriously, seriously, seriously?"

"Seriously," I say, nodding. "I have some cousins in Vancouver who were gonna go but they got sick. So they offered me the tickets. I know it's a little last minute, but..."

Do I feel a little bit bad lying? Yes. But the looks on their faces make up for it. And I don't even know how I would begin to explain Holland to them.

"This is insane. THIS IS INSANE!!" Anya says, and yeah, I agree with what I thought earlier about Anya needing to be hospitalized if she had been the one to find Holland.

"I know!!" I say, feeling the excitement kick in. "So. What you say?"

"Are you KIDDING ME!?" Anya screeches, while Maggie just chants "yes, yes, yes."

"Obviously, yes," Anya says. "A million, a hundred times yes."

"Calm down," I laugh. "People are gonna think I just asked you to marry me."

"Honestly, at this point you could," Anya says. "I would say yes."

"Me too," Maggie says fervently. "Very much so, yes, thank you."

"Deep breaths," I say. "We still have a couple classes to get through, you need to try to unfry your brains a little bit."

"Impossible," Anya says. "No way."

"Yeah," Maggie says. "No. There's no way we're going to the rest of our classes."

"I - " I'm about to argue, but I take one look at their faces and decide against it. "I guess it is the first week," I say. "I can miss the classes I have in the afternoon today."