Autumn Flame (Seasons #2 )

Chapter 4: The Girlfriend Conundrum

Rain.

It drums on the windows in my bedroom loud enough to wake me. Through the closed door, I can barely hear Preston's video game in the living room over the sound of rain.

I throw an arm over my face and stare at the fabric of my shirt up close. The tiny threads, how they are all interwoven with each other. The different colors form a plaid pattern following their own path. They intersect but must stay on their own trajectory so the pattern makes sense. Red and white and black and beige.

I cannot remember my dreams, only the colors. Blue and red. Candlelight yellow and black.

I sigh and drag myself out of bed.

It's a gray day out, and I have a flash of memory; My mom telling me to take the nice rain boots she bought me cause I could use them in the coming days. Of course, I didn't listen.

NYC is only nice in the rain when you're indoors. Otherwise, it's just a slush and dirt cocktail.

I rub my eyes and go through the motions of getting ready for school.

I'm loitering on campus between classes when a coffee cup appears in my vision.

Pumpkin orange nails are wrapped around it. I look up to find the owner's hand looking at me with bright blue eyes the color of a clear, sunny day.

"Sydney," I say, surprised.

"Hello to you, too," she chuckles and sits next to me. Her rain boots have fall leaves painted on them, and she sets down a matching umbrella.

I feel the awkwardness in the air hanging around me like fog.

"Sydney, I'm sorry about yesterday," I say. "I wasn't the best dinner date."

Her eyes drop to the ground where she clicks her boots. "You weren't," she agrees softly. She looks up at me then with something like trepidation. "Is there... something I should know about?"

Oh, oh.

My mind is coming up with six different excuses and twenty different stories for every possible version of that question she might be asking, all while I say, casually, "What do you mean?"

She chews on her bottom lip. I can imagine what she looked like when she was younger, with those big eyes and that little lip working something out. "With you and Mel?"

I cock my head. "What do you mean?"

Sigh. I sound like a broken record.

"Well, it seemed like you don't like her, and you make her uncomfortable. I invited her to stuff, but, I swear, when I came back from the bathroom, the two of you looked like you'd gotten into an argument and..."

"And?" I prompt when she pauses.

"Well, it kind of looked like you hated each other." She laughs nervously. "Which is crazy, 'cause we just met her," she says, a note of hesitance at that last part. I feel her eyes studying me carefully.

I listen intently, my brows knotting at the insinuation. "That does sound a bit crazy," I say, a hint of a smile in my voice. "I don't hate her, I think we just got into a conversation about politics and she said something annoying European, s'all," I roll my eyes.

Sydney blinks. "Wait, that was it?" She exhales with a smile. "Oh, god. I thought I was going crazy. I had all these scenarios in my head that you might've known her from before when she lived here, or you might've dated."

Yeah, cause that would be far-fetched. I press my lips together and shake my head.

She grabs her forehead. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to accuse you of anything."