Arbor Hills High

JESS

"You know my friend, do you know Mikey?", Blake asked

"Yeah , yeah I know who you're talking about"

"His parents are out of town and he has this massive house, he's gonna throw a house party tomorrow, you should pull up"

"Alright".

That's when we were interrupted by Grace.

"Jess, i'm heading out if you wanted a ride..."

"Yeah of course i'm coming"

I got up and noticed the streaks of mascara running down Grace's face. Her eyes were puffy.

I put my hand on her back. "Let's go" I said in a low voice. I turned and gave Blake a final smile before Grace started towards the door.

"Grace, wait!" Blake called behind us but Grace wouldn't turn around, in fact she wouldn't stop walking.

We'd reached the door when finally Blake pushed past me and grabbed onto Grace's arm. "You can talk to me about whatever's going on."

Grace turned to me and nodded so I continued on into to parking lot alone.

Sitting in the passenger seat I couldn't see much of the interaction but when Grace returned she was wiping tears.

She drove in silence until we finally pulled in front of my house.

Grace brushed her curls out of her face "So I was thinking now that we've planned the project..." her voice broke "maybe we could start the powerpoint..." She sniffled "I'll email you the..."

"Grace-" I started

"Look I know you're probably concerned... but the truth is you really don't know me that well. You might think a lot is going on but everything is just fine, friends fight sometimes, people have to understand that. But Violet and Blake they're both just my friends. And although Violet can be insensitive that's no reason for me to be jealous and bitchy and-"

"Grace."

"What?" The tears had started to fall again.

"I just wanted to say that my laptop is broken, so I might ot be able to access the powerpoint immediately"

"oh"