Between Friends and Lovers

(23) Alexandria

“You can just drop me off,” Lily suggested, desperate.

“Mhm,” I smirked, sitting back on the hard cafeteria chair. “And you’ll walk back?”

The pout on Lily’s face almost made me laugh. My sister hadn’t driven her car to school today, which turned out to be a huge mistake when she checked her emails and realised that she had an interview at the library. Once she saw the email, she sought me out at the cafeteria to ask her if I’d drive her to the library.

I was going to drive her, I was just messing with her. I wasn’t going to let her walk to the library. It was on the other side of town, and that would be a long walk.

But the joke was more to distract her and me from what happened the second she sat down. I didn’t know what was going on between Lily and Cece, but the second Lily took a seat, Cece grabbed her things and walked away, making an excuse about having to do some club work.

“Oh, enough. Put her out of her misery, will you.” Jackie grabbed my apple before turning to my sister. “Don’t worry, Lily. Alex will drive you to the library and wait for you. You know how protective your sister is.”

Lily beamed. “Really?”

“Of course.” I shrugged.

I wasn’t sure if Lily assumed that I’d leave her high and dry just like that. But I’d never do that to her. Jackie said I was protective, and maybe I was. I knew that my sister had gone through her stuff and trauma, so whenever I could do something to stop her from getting hurt, I’d do it willingly.

“And hey, maybe we can make Wednesday our date day,” I pointed out, eyeing Jackie as she took a bite of my apple. “While you work, I’ll do my schoolwork.”

“Assuming that I get the job.” She fiddled with her locket, which was similar to mine.

“You’ll get it,” I assured her. “No one wants to work at the library.”

“That’s not true!” Lily exclaimed. “I want to work there.”

“Only you, babe.” Jackie playfully bumped her shoulder on Lily’s. “You’re the only person I know that would want to work there.”

Lily rolled her eyes and stood up. “I’ll wait for you by your car.”

“And you’ll see us in the hallway between classes.” Jackie winked at her.

Today the cafeteria wasn’t full as usual, which was to be expected. It was the second week of school, and most clubs were open for new members. Why they decided to do it during lunch, I didn’t know.

Even at our table, it was only me and Jackie after Cece left when she saw Lily.

“Alex,” Jackie began, bringing my attention to her. “This might be a stretch, but do you have an idea what’s going on with Cece and Lily? Did they argue?”

“No.” I shrugged and grabbed her fries. “None that I know of.”

Jackie’s attention was focused on the fries that were now on my tray. Her burger now looked lonely without the accompanying fries, but since she took my apple, my chicken salad was also lonely.

“Are you sure?” she asked, snapping out of it. “There’s no way Cece could do that if they didn’t argue.”

I sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe something happened at the party.”

“Have you tried talking to them?” She took a bite of the apple. “Separately?”

“No.” I looked around the cafeteria, hoping to see Cece. “You know how Cece gets, and she has been annoying me lately. Maybe you can talk to her.”