"are you serious?" I groan. it's been 2 days since we've got here and my mom already made a friend, and right now she's forcing me to go out to lunch with her and her daughter.
"sweetie it'll be fun! and you can make a friend before the school year starts. it'll work out great." she tries reasoning.
"mom there's 2 months until school starts. i think i can make friends by then, and on my own." I roll my eyes.
"you know what, you can stop with the attitude. you're going with me. end of story." she snaps before walking up the stairs.
"be ready in 10 minutes because that's when we're leaving!" she shouts followed by a slammed door. I sigh and walk to my room. i change into a loose off-white flowy tank top and some light wash jean shorts. I brush my hair and put it in two French braids.
"let's go alauna," my mom coldly says standing in my door way. I nod and stand up, grabbing my black flip flops and jogging down the stairs after her.
we get in the car and silently drive to the small restaurant, named 'chances'. when we arrive we step out of our black forerunner and walk in.
"karen!" my mom smiles and walks up, hugging her. the woman is rather tall compared to my mother, who's shorter than pretty much everyone. 'karen' has dark hair, brown eyes, and glasses. she's the opposite of my mom, whos a short blonde with bright blue eyes, just like me. except I'm taller than her, everyone is.
standing next to karen is a girl who looks my age. she has darker hair and she's shorter, she also looks like she's wearing makeup; to tie together her outfit, which I won't lie is pretty cute, it's a black romper with white lace overlapping in a design on the top.
she looks at me and smiles.
"hi, I'm Brianna. you must be alauna." she says putting her hand out. I hesitantly take it and shake it nodding.
"nice to meet you." she smiles.
"you too." i say. there's an awkward silence that follows after. im not really in the mood to even be in this state, let alone start my life over. a server walks over and seats us; me across from Brianna and next to my mom & our moms across from each other.
our moms immediately carry on their conversation and we sit quietly for a while before our orders are taken.
"so do you do any sports?" Brianna says trying to start a conversation.
"nah. I'm not into it." I shrug.
"well then what do you do for fun?" she asks.
"is this a getting to know you survey for teachers on the first day of school or something?" I roll my eyes. she quietly sits back almost looking scared and i realize what i just said feeling a little bad.
about 10 awkward minutes later our waitress appears with our food. my face probably displayed the heart eye emoji at the smell of the French fries and cheeseburger in front of me. we all started eating right away and still no conversation happened between me and Brianna.
"this is so good, isn't it?" she groans while stuffing her small face. I just nod and eat another fry. when our meals are finished karen stands up.
"I need to go wash my hands, how about you Barbra?" my mom nods and stands up, walking with karen to the ladies room and laughing at stories the way there.
"alright can you cut the bad mood?" Brianna says, looking far too frustrated.
"you don't know me, I might act like this all the time." I say folding my arms.
"i know you probably aren't the happiest about moving here but you could be a little nicer, I'm trying to make you feel welcome." she continues completely ignoring what I said. I sit silently and look at my hands that are resting on the table, ignoring what she said. I hear her sigh before our moms come back.
"ready to go?" my mom asks. I nod and we all stand up.
"by the way, you can call me bri." Brianna smiles walking up by me. this time I give her a soft smile and nod.
"you can call me launa, but it's not that much shorter." I say trying to be nicer. she giggles lightly and nods. as we all walk towards the entrance I look up and see a long line of people waiting to be seated but one catches my eye; I'm pretty sure it's the boy from the mall yesterday. haynes I think was his name? yeah it was Haynes. I can't seem to move my eyes away until he turns and sees me, and bri. but when he sees her his eyes go wide. I turn to her and see she doesn't notice. I shrug it off and open the door, holding it for bri and our moms. I take one last glimpse of Haynes before letting go of the door and walking to my moms car, making sure to wave goodbye to bri and karen.
***
when we get home I slip off my flip flops and go up to my room, jumping in bed.
I lay under the blanket staring at the ceiling and thinking, but finally drifting off into a nap.
