Forevermore

Forty

Indi

"I know I signed up for the musical, but I wanted to do more than just...you know, singing and dancing," Layla says before taking a sip from her glass of Coke.

"What did you expect when you signed up for the ensemble?" Lihn asks from the opposite end of our semi-circle booth at Denny's.

"I don't know, but I really wanted to help design costumes or something."

Kiara lets out a small giggle, her eyes shining beneath her magenta-streaked bangs. "Then you should've signed up to be a costume designer."

Layla looks up from her drink as if she's only now considering the words as a possibility. "Oh, yeah."

The group breaks out in a large fit of laughter–me included. There gets to be a certain part of our hangouts where every single thing is funny. That's always my favorite.

Not long goes by before our waitress brings our food over. We all got pancakes with chocolate chips and bananas, and my mouth waters at the sight of the food.

For a few minutes, none of us speak as we dig into the pancakes.

"I have no idea why their food always tastes so good after ten," Kiara breaks the silence.

"Right," Layla replies. "My mother would absolutely kill me if she found out I was eating this, though. So much sugar."

"Who cares?" Lihn says, speaking my thoughts exactly. "It's not like we're eating these everyday. We deserve a sweet treat every once in a while."

I nod in agreement. "And if your mom tasted these, she'd totally get–"

My phone starts ringing, cutting my sentence off. I take it out of my pocket just to silence the call, but then I see the newly updated contact name–BOYFRIEND–only to be met with a pinprick of worry. He's in a part of California that he's never been to before. Something could be wrong.

"Sorry," I say, standing up. "It's Ezra, so I should probably take this. Is that okay?" My friends encouragingly nod. "Thanks."

Once I'm standing just outside of the Denny's, I answer the call, bringing it up to my ear. "Ezra? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," he whispers. "I'm sorry, I know you said you were with your friends, but I..." His voice trails off.

"Don't apologize. Why are you whispering?"

"I'm in the bathroom at a diner," he says. "And...fuck."

"Ezra? You're scaring me."

"Sorry, I'm fine," he says. "It's just...anxiety, I think."

My eyebrows raise and I hope he doesn't pick up on my surprise. He doesn't usually come to me about this stuff, but I'm glad he has this time. "What's going on?"

"I didn't know we were coming here until, well, until we got here." There's a quick pause. "It's the food, Indigo. I didn't plan for this, and my therapist said to call someone I trust if this happened."

My lips hang open. I have no idea if he just said what I think he said. "Your therapist?"

He's silent for another moment. "Oh, right. I, uh, started going to therapy after you started getting worried about me and then that whole thing with your mom." The way he says it, it sounds like he's trying to just brush it off.

A proud smile spreads across my lips. "You did? Ezra that's..." I try looking for a proper adjective to describe what I'm thinking, but I can't. "That's amazing."

"Sorry," he says. "I didn't mean to spring this upon you, but I'm hiding in this bathroom like a coward because I can't stand the idea of eating anything on that menu."