There's Always A Plot Twist | Wattys 2023 ✓

43| The Butterfly

The next day Riley Mitchell sits in the front seat of the stationary car, listening to the low hum of music playing on the radio, feeling a sudden wave of deja vu.

She strains her eyes as she wraps her hair up with a blue bandanna before glancing down at the phone in her lap to check the time, feeling uneasy being ready for a night out with the sun still beaming down on them.

"What the heck are you doing?" Amara asks, leaning forward from the backseat, wearing mom jeans and an oversized black shirt. "That's the third time you've changed your hair."

"Okay, and?"

Kenna shuts the mirror on Riley, sporting a blue iridescent track jacket and matching bottoms with a black crop top. "What I think Amara is trying to say is that you already look beautiful, stop messing and just have fun."

"That's not what I'm saying at all but go off sis."

"If it wasn't, why didn't you stop me?"

"Because I like crushing all your hopes and dreams." Amara retorts, playfully winking as she leans back in her seat. "Can we go already?"

"We're still waiting on Amber, even when early that girl will always be late." Riley explains, hitting the steering wheel only moments before Amber comes running with her entire makeup kit in hand.

A second wave of deja vu makes Riley's head spin as Amber stumbles into the backseat.

"I know, I know, I lost track of time." she mutters, struggling to climb into the car whilst performing her juggling act. "Let's just go already, I'm hungry and haven't eaten anything all day."

When Riley makes eye contact with Amber in the rear-view mirror, the guilt that she carries around no longer feels as heavy as it once did and whilst they may not be best of friends just yet, the rift between them no longer feels like a gaping whole.

It will take time to heal all wounds, but that doesn't mean that they can't make great memories in the meantime.

"All set?" Kenna asks no one in particular, getting unanimous yeses as she adjusts her mirrors. "Then let's go eat!"

The girls meet up with the rest of the gang, occupying their usual pair of booths at the best crappy diner on campus.

The final tradition for all those who participate varies from person to person.

Most continue to party, some spend the final sunday of freedom to sleep the week off, there are also those who even decided to hit the library for some much needed catch-up time.

However, before Riley transferred to Preston, her friends decided that their tradition would be to share a meal together, drama free, listening to ancient music from a jukebox and gulping down enough milkshake to kill a mule.

The first time she heard about it she honestly though it sounded a little soppy but after the week she just had, having a moment just to sit and fade into the background of laughter and cheers sounds wonderful.

Nothing could make her happier.

Well...almost nothing.

Ending the progression of two situationships sounds easy on paper, but the culmination of the feelings spent don't just disappear overnight; there's always a penalty to pay when it comes to matters of the heart.

So whilst her mind is free to roam, it is her heart that must slowly unwind the grappling emotions inside her.

It would be a lie if she said that just looking across the table into Arlo's eyes doesn't make her chest ache, or that the thought of Lain's cheeky smile hasn't made her smile until she reminds herself of the pain that came with it.

But isn't that just another layer of love?

The bittersweet aftertaste of the sweetest drug on earth, only earned when forced to give it up.

To Riley, the biggest lie ever told about love is that it is ever unconditional.

Loving someone is a choice, no matter how big or small, no matter how insignificant or world shattering, it is always a choice.

Perhaps lie is the wrong word to use, but it's simply the only one that comes to Riley's mind.

Sometimes the most loving thing you can do is fight to the ends of the earth, ride out every battle until you're left bloodied and battered by external and internal forces.

And other times, the most loving thing a person can do, is to know when it's time to let go.