Missed Me, Missed Me, Now You Gotta Kiss Me

Lulu; the Drama Queen

   “Oh, fudge muffins!”

  I looked up. “What?”

  Lulu stared at her hand of cards, a look of concentration on her face. “I thought I had my set…but I don’t.”

  “What d’you need?”

  “Um….like…two cards; an eight an a six.”

  I discarded an extra six I had. “There.”

  Lulu squealed. “Yes! Thank you!”

  I was chilling at her house after school, bitching about Liam once more while playing Phase 10. We were on the sixth phase, but I was beating Lulu by a landslide. My worst points were a fifty and a ten, while the rest were perfect zeros.

  The door suddenly creeped open and Kyle stuck walked in, just staring.

  Lulu groaned without looking up. “What?” she snapped, discarding a twelve.

  “Nothin’,” he replied lazily, hands in his pockets. “Is it a crime to wanna chill with my girlfriend?”

  Lulu raised her eyes to meet mine; a silent mockery.

  I snorted. “I’m not your girlfriend.”

  “Then what are you, exactly?” Kyle asked, sounding almost serious.

  Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I couldn’t tell him that, though; not yet, anyway. I looked up at him, my face a blank slate. “Figure it out.” I looked at Lulu then, giving her the go.

  “Now get your butt-scratchers outta here!” she yelled, slapping at his calves.

  He gave me a dazed look before easily complying, even shutting the door on his way out.

  Lulu looked at me with a small grin. “That boy is smitten with you. Damn, you must kiss good.”

  I rolled my eyes, though blushing a little bit. “Shut up and draw already.”

  “Your turn,” she pointed out.

  I moodily picked up a card from the deck. Seeing it was an eleven, not a seven, like I needed, I slammed it on the discard pile.

  “Oh, an I hope you don’t mind,” Lulu said with a little wince. “but I invited some of my drama friends over, too.”

  I looked at her. “Drama friends? Lulu. I thought you hated dramatic girls.”

  “I like you,” she said teasingly.

  I frowned. “Thanks.”

  “Jay kay! Jay kay! Sheesh. And anyway, they’re not dramatic. They’re in my drama class.”

  I blinked. “You’re in drama class?”

  Lulu nodded, her cheeks turning a bright pink. “Oh, yes. I am the supporting role of Auntie Em in the Wizard of Oz.”

  “You’re in the Wizard of Oz?!” I gasped. “I played Glinda in third grade when we performed that play!”

  Lulu laughed. “That’s a lot better than playing an old lady who just goes ‘Dorothy? Dorothy?’ all the time.”

  “Oh, c’mon! It can’t be that bad!”

  Lulu gave me this look. “You wanna bet?”

  “You made friends,” I offered.

  She nodded. “True. I did.”

  “So, uh….how many are coming over?”

  “Just a few,” she answered, drawing. “Kassandra, Maddison, and Adrianne.” She pondered over the drawn card a moment before plucking another—a two—from her hand and discarded it.