If Normal Was a Thing

She has a sweet tooth

We stopped next to the locker, and I leaned against the warm metal, while Oakley silently got all of our stuff out of it. She handed me my clothes to slip on over the swim suit, and then a towel. I dried my hair as best as I could before passing her the towel again.

We finished up by the lockers and headed to where we left our blanket- back to where this wild day had begun. It occurred to me that we'd never even spent time on the blanket, that we'd been too busy running around kissing boys and doing what rides we could in between. The sun was near setting, and over the speakers that were spread out around the park, an employee announced the list of rides that were no longer taking any new people in line.

Oakley spoke up when the speaker crackled and shut off, "Sang, you know one stupid boy shouldn't mean anything to you. I mean, you've kissed nine guys today... that was one out of the nine you kissed, who even bothered to think about making you stop," she said, looking at me while we walked, "besides, he probably had a girlfriend or something and was just being a good person," she said.

At that thought my heavy feeling lifted, considerably. I chanced a glance at her and she grinned with a wink.

"Besides, we made a pact so it doesn't really matter anyways, right?" she said, her voice cheerful and light but I could see past it. I could see the worry laced deep in the depths of blue pools that made up her eyes. She was worried that maybe I would back out of the pact, which in my mind was complete crazyness, but I could see how she would think that after today.

Before we had left our old town, Oakley had made me swear to a pact that through whatever happened to us- nothing would ever drive a wedge in our friendship. It had come up mainly because she thought it was her fault she didn't notice my predicament sooner. She thought she had been a bad friend, and so she had decided to come up with a pact that sort of solved that.

I smiled reassuringly, throwing my shoulders back and crossing my arms, "Oakley, I don't think some cute guy who didn't welcome a stranger slobbering all over him is going to drive us apart," I said.

It made her laugh, and when I thought over it, I got the mental picture, in turn making me laugh right along side her. We were so oblivious to our surroundings that we barely noted that we were at our blanket, much less anything else.

She smiled at me, "tomorrow I think we steer clear of dares, and just binge watch netflix, and maybe eat junk food all day."

I grabbed our blanket, folding it while I answered, "Oh you know mom wouldn't let us do that... without her," I added thoughtfully, making Oakley crack another smile. "Besides we're supposed to be helping tomorrow, since we got to go out tonight, remember?"

I finished folding the blanket and Oakley began to respond but hesitated.

"Huh, she has a sweet tooth, sucks for you North," I heard a teasing voice behind me.

Normally I would have ignored it, I mean, who eavesdrops on people? But this voice was different, familiar. And I knew exactly why when I looked at Oakley to see if she recognized the voice too, or if it had just been me. Oakley stood in front of me, staring at something behind me with the palest face I had ever seen.

"Shut up," a gruff voice replied to the first one, "she can't be as bad as you if she chose the fruit smoothy bar over that greasy ass pizza place."

My heart started beating in my chest, so loud I could hear it echoing around in my ears. Oakley was still stunned, unable to talk with her eyes, so I took a deep breath and turned around to look with my own eyes. Nine guys were packing up their stuff from the spot next to the one Oakley and I had chosen. Well- they were. But now they were all focused on me, some of them glanced at Oakley but for the most part I was the object of their attention.. and I couldn't blame them.