𝓛𝓾𝓬𝓲𝓵𝓵𝓮 𝓲𝓷 𝓢𝓽𝓪𝓻𝓼 𝓗𝓸𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀

9. Growing up

"Sorry about when I ran into you," Leo said as I sat down on a lawn chair.

"Oh it's fine, I should've been moving more carefully at night," I replied, fidgeting with my charm bracelet that Lisa had got me. It had charms like lips, hearts, and other cutesy items to put on the chain.

"Why were you playing football at night anyway?" I asked, to keep the conversation moving. I mean, we had only met a couple times. We didn't talk at school. We weren't friends.

"Um, my friends and I were kind of drunk that night. We actually got yelled at by Taylor when we were running around town talking loudly. He didn't get a good look at our faces....but when he turned on his light, I think he was wearing a long nightshirt," he snickered.

"Really?" I laughed. If only they had photographed it. That would be some good blackmail. Free food for life!

"Yeah," Leo sighed, reclining back in his chair. "My friend James yelled: 'Sorry ma'am!'" I started laughing again. Leo was funny. Leo was cute. Leo was nice. Leo was perfect for me.

"Oh!" He said, reaching into his pocket. "I brought a present for you." He took out a small box.

"Leo, you didn't have too...."

"I wanted to though. Also Lisa said that if I didn't get you anything, she would rip my head off, so...." I made a mental note to yell at Lisa when I get back for yet another reason.

Leo handed me the box. I took the lid off. Inside were four little charms to add to the bracelet. A cute cat, a pink flower, a sun, and a snowflake.

"Omg, I love you," I murmured, quickly clamping my mouth shut. But not quickly enough that he didn't hear it. At that moment, a cloud cover the moon and we were in darkness. Too dark to see his reaction. Too dark to see my face, as red as a tomato.

"U-um, I meant that—um...thanks. A lot. I really love them." The words felt dry in my mouth.

"Your welcome," Leo said, quietly. "Lisa said that she was getting you a bracelet and that I could add to it."

"Thanks, Leo....we should be heading back," I said, standing up.

"Yeah, I guess we should," Leo agreed. He went ahead of me as I put the charms on my bracelet. I loved them. I loved him.

                                                                                      ...

"Well? How was the epic party I threw last night?!" Lorelai yelled as she hopped into Rory's room, where I was still sleeping for the time being. It must have been six thirty.

I groaned and put a thumbs up. Rory mumbled something incoherent.

"What's wrong with you two?" Lorelai asked.

I quickly sat up. "Last night, after the party ended around midnight! And we went to sleep! You woke us up around three in the morning and said that you remembered the night we were born. And how you were swearing like a sailor and some other shit."

"You guys didn't like my reminiscing?" She asked, turning on all of the lights, which just made us shrink back more under the covers.

"It wasn't the reminiscing, even though you described the process of your birthing in extreme detail....it was waking us up!" Rory whined, getting up and locking Lorelai out of the room.

"Back to sleep?" Rory asked. I moaned. She switched off the lights and went back into her bed. In minutes, we were asleep.

                                                                                     ...

"You owe me a month of these chocolate things," I said to Lisa. This was the payment for inviting Leo. She giggled as I bit into the milk chocolate truffle full of unicorns and fluffy clouds and happiness and warmth. Well, I guess not literally, but it was creamy goodness.

"Fine, I guess it's the least I could do...but you have to admit, without me, you wouldn't know Leo liked you and you wouldn't be together!" Lisa said, flipping her hair. I had to admit she was right, even though she could never know it.

"We're not together!" I smiled as I shoved Lisa. She gave me a look.

"I mean, ok. Not now, but soon," she said skipping away. "I can feel it!"

                                                                                    ...

When we got home, we went to my room. My room. The day after the party, Lorelai and Rory helped me put in a bed and all my accessories and furniture. It was small, definitely smaller than Rory's, but it was nice.

"Can you hand me my vinyls?" I asked Lisa from the floor.

"Sure." The first one she handed me was Gracie Abrams's "The Secret of Us". Then it was a few Taylor Swift albums and then followed by Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter. 

Once we were done, I put some tater tots in the oven and Lisa and I sat down to do homework.

"What do you want to be when you're grown up?" Lisa asked staring into space.

"Hi, what are you two doing?" Rory interrupted, hanging up her coat. Lane, her best friend followed.

"Hi," I said to them. "Lisa was just asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up." I laughed.

"Fun. We're joining you," Lane said as she plopped her self down on the floor.

"Well, since you asked—," I started. Then, Lorelai came in. Clearly the universe did not want me answering the question.

"Hello," she sang. "How are my four favorite girls doing?" Then she went to Rory. "Don't tell Paris I said that."

"I won't." Rory put her hands up.

"Good, we were just talking about what we want to be when we're older," I explained. Lorelai sat down on the couch.

"Oh, oh, oh! I know! Call on me!" She said like a child. "I want to be a unicorn astronaut with dragon wings, who can speak all the languages in the world and um, um...I want to fart clouds and poop glitter! And throw up rainbows!" When she finished, my head was dizzy.

"Ok, ok," Lisa laughed. "I'm actually serious!"

"Oh, well, if you're actually serious," Lorelai groaned. "Rory, Lucy, tell me what's for dinner when you're done." Then she walked away.

"I want to be a reporter," Rory said, even though we all already knew this. "Or a writer, I guess."

"Trust me, you're going to be," Lane said. "Well, knowing my mom, she probably wants me to be a saint or something, but you know, that's not happening. Especially with someone who's as much as a sinner as me!" She smiled. "So I want to do something that's out of my mother's house."

"Oh you poor thing!" Rory said, hugging Lane.

"Ha!" I laughed. "What do you want to be, Lisa?"

She sighed, taking a bite of a pop tart. "A teacher," she said after a moment of thinking.

"Why?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, I get summer off." I had to admit that that was a good reason.

"What about you, Lucy?" Lisa asked. I hadn't thought about that. I didn't know what I wanted to be. After thinking for a while, I said, "I don't know." And we continued working on schoolwork.