None of It Was Accidental

Fro-woah-Why Are You Here?

"WHAT?! He did not say that!" Aria says practically deafening me.

I had been at her house for three hours and all we had talked about was Ezra, granted she was on the phone with some girl from the lunch group for a while.

One thing you don't do when you're hanging out with your friend: Call a different one.

"I wish he didn't." I say, pretending to throw up.

"I'm pretty sure all my friends have a raging crush on him. You know Maya right? She could definitely pull him, I mean, not that you couldn't. She's just... you know...literally a model."

"She's also kind of a bitch Riri. I still don't know why you're still friends with her. She literally made a whole snap story just to make fun of me."

"You have to admit those pictures of you were pretty funny Mae." She says. It's times like these when she really pisses me off. I know she would be sobbing if someone did that to her.

"Well anyways I don't wanna talk about school anymore, do you want to get froyo later? We still need to work on our concept for art."

***

                                                           
After going home to shower and get my chores done (my dad still hadn't returned from his drunken escapade), I texted Aria to check if she still wanted to get fro-yo as it was technically the evening, even though the Cali sun disagreed.

Confirming that the plan was still a go I walked the twenty minutes to the shops cursing the heat and profusely sweating. I waited in the shop for about ten minutes before I started getting pity stares and excused myself to the bathroom.

I freshened up and made sure all signs of my previous laboring in the sun were replaced with a more put together version of myself. Seeing that I had now been waiting for over fifteen minutes I decided to call Aria to check if she was okay.

"Hey Riri, are you on your way or..?" I ask, trying not to sound too stressed.

"Omg Mae-mae I am sooo sorry!!" She exclaimed, "I lost track of time hanging out with Maya, she invited me to a party later and I promise I would love to get fro-yo with you but we were invited to a party at Ezra's house!! I have to help wing- woman her. You understand why I have to go right?"

"Honestly it's kind of weird for you to ditch me Aria." I say, trying not to get too mad.

"Which I totally get, but Mae this is gonna be the party of the year. I really wanna go and we both know you aren't the party type." She reasoned.

"Seems you aren't the loyal type" I said, before hanging up.

'Ughhh I know I overreacted but really?? She keeps doing this shit.'

I exit the bathroom deciding to still get fro-yo as something to fuel me before my walk home.  I go up readying to order, asking for a caramel crunch fro-yo mix without toppings. I pull my card out and tap it waiting for the "remove card" signal to appear. However the word "declined" pops up instead.

'There's no way. my dad cut off my card?'

"Excuse me miss but if you have no other way to pay I'm going to have to ask you to leave." The person working the register says with a sympathetic face.

"Here, use mine instead carin." says a husky voice.

"What-no wait." I say, barely registering that man's card had been taken out of my frozen hand and already swiped.

"Here, lets get you a spoon" He says, trying to hide his laughter as he steers me to the spoons and napkins, my brain still refusing to work.

"What are you doing here? You didn't have to pay." I say, finally looking up to meet his gaze.

'Ezra?? what is he doing here?'

"Me and Drew wanted a little pre-party pick me up." He says, gesturing to the shops sign.

"Oh cool, well I gotta go. It's getting dark and I have to walk home. Really though, thank you so much that was so embarrassing" I say, walking backwards to the door.

"Wait, I don't want you to walk home in the dark. We can give you a ride. Actually you know what? You should just come to my party and we can go straight to mine." He suggests, raising his eyebrows in question.

"Apparently I'm not the "party" type, plus I've got work due on Monday. I'll take the ride home though." I reason, heading to what I assumed was his car, due to the loud football boy yelling from it.

"Yo Ez when you said you were getting me a snack I thought you meant a literal one, but hey I guess Maven's just as good. I was in your stats class last year remember?" Ezra's friend yells.

I make my way over to the car nodding at Drew before handing Ezra my ice cream to hold and hopping in the back, gesturing Ezra to give me back my sweet treat before it melts.

"Here ya go, also Maven you should always buckle." He says before leaning in to grab the seat belt and pulling it across me.

'Why is he so close? Why does he smell so good? Why am I noticing how he smells???' 

"Are you okay Mavy? You're blushing a lot." He said, glancing towards my lips.

"Okay you two we got a party to catch. As much as I'd love to third wheel you need to get behind it and start driving dude."