The Clique Effect

Chapter Twenty-Three: "The Road Trip We've All Been Longing For..." (Part I)

Faye and I had talked about going on a trip—trip of a lifetime—since like we first became friends. But it was pushed back to the side due to everyone's conflicting schedules. Lily still tried to get everyone psyched by sending aesthetic tourist destination videos from other people who'd been there to the group chat. Though it only ended with everyone liking the post, not much engaging with it. When she showed up at my door and I invited her inside, we talked about a lot of things, the planned road trip was among many others.

"I brought your favorite." Faye waved a plastic bag over my face, dangling it in front of me while batting her eyelashes.

Taking off my coat and draping it over the couch, I opened the plastic bag given by Faye, revealing coconut-flavored green balls that she knew to be my sweet favorite dish when in time of need. "I hate how you know me." Pulling open the square-sized plastic container harshly, I took a bite from one of them as the dish melted into brown sugar flavor over my tongue.

The sticky watery brown flavor squirted out of Lily's hand and into the outer of my skirt, which I snared a glare in her direction, but was only given a sympathetic look in return. "I'm so sorry, didn't mean that." Lily grabbed a handful of tissue and leaned over to wipe the stains off the fabric of my clothes.

"Just leave it." I sighed and snatched the tissue out of Lily's grasp, dismissing Faye's groan about using the tissue too much that we wouldn't have any in case of emergencies.

Seth turned around from the steering wheel, his brows furrowed over the two of us. "Just don't dirty up the floorboards, otherwise they're going to charge me extra for the rent." He remarked. Since none of us had a car, well except for me, but this trip was planned without me seeing as I was occupied by the other group most of the time, so Seth took in initiative and rented a car in his name.

Though the destination still ended up being the beach house owned by my parents, which if Faye didn't come to my house that time, they probably would've needed to changed up plans.

"I didn't realize it was this bad." Faye leaned over the glass of ice cream with a smidge of wine pooling at the bottom. She out of everyone in the group was the only one who knew about that habit of mine whenever I'd hit rock bottom.

The glass was supposed to be rinse off by the maid this morning as it was leftover from the other night. "Oh that, yeah, I, um..." I trailed, mulling over a lie that Faye would find believable. "It's really not that big a deal. Everyone needs ice cream, right?" From my too cheery tone and Faye's scowl over her face, I knew she wasn't buying it.

"Seth's trying out for a trip again. You know the trip that we talked about once."

Curling up on the couch with my legs stretched out, I glanced over Faye. "This long? What changed your mind?"

"You know everyone gets busy." Faye fiddled with her fingers, propping open her mouth as she threw the snack into it. "But since it's already nearing the end of school year, I thought, why not? We've never had this kind of road trip in a while, maybe it'd be good, to catch up." She explained.

"Right." I noted. Leaning back in my seat with my head against the doorframe, I swiped at my phone and rummaged through my gallery, scrolling through a bunch of pictures that I used to take with Logan's crew. One picture was of Brook with her mouth agape, her eyes looking elsewhere, a perfect combination to Nellie looking the other way, pursing her lips.

The thought of Nellie irked me up, Faye's voice startled me out of my daze, her incessantly badgering to get her another water bottle in the back. So I clambered over Lily, reaching my hand out to the backseat where the box of water bottle sitting peacefully in the floorboards, my hoodie lifted and unknowingly showing Lily a glimpse over my not so bare stomach. Lily narrowed her eyes over me as I slumped back in my seat, handing over the water bottle in Faye's direction, and went back to my pity party.