Petals on The Moon || Reyna Ramirez-Arellano x Fem!OC

LXI

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Hello again.

"He lied to me," I told Claire. "He said it was just juice."

"To be fair, I didn't know he was gonna do that," she said. "And I am so sorry-"

"I'm not going to anymore parties," I decided, rubbing my arm. She stared at me, bewildered, like this was the most crazy thing I could have possibly decided for myself. "I- I wanted to go, because I know you really like them and I thought that was fair, but-"

"But what? It was just an accident. Next time, just don't get any drinks from anyone," she said simply. "You said you wanted to be more social, right?"

"I meant- I meant, like, a board game night, or big sleepovers," I said, my heart racing. She frowned. "Not parties."

"Sebastian throws parties," she retorted.

I rubbed my arm. "Yeah, but... Sebastian doesn't make me be part of the party except as his wingwoman. I just stay in my room." I stay in my room with Reyna. She also hates parties. And we read or research or play games.

"I don't think it's a big deal," Claire said. "Again, I'm sorry that happened to you. I dunno what Mikey was thinking. But it won't happen again."

There was this strange knot in my stomach. I wasn't really sure why. I just decided to drop the conversation. Next time, I will probably just lie to her and say I have other things to do. Which, not exactly a lie, I don't think. I can often find other things to do, like read or practice music or write or something like that.

"I'm going shopping with my friends today," I said, struggling to eat my salad.

She hesitated. "I thought we were gonna go to the park with Mikey and Anya."

"You didn't tell me about that, though," I said gently. "And Sebastian asked all of us yesterday. We're gonna get some new clothes, and Reyna and I will probably get ice cream."

"We've barely hung out this week!"

"Wha-" I froze. "We've seen each other every day..."

"That's not the same as hanging out," she muttered, stirring her tea. "I feel like we've been drifting."

That made me sad. I don't want her to feel like I don't care about her. I've really been trying to be more of a girlfriend. I usually require a lot of quiet time or alone time, but Claire doesn't, which is pretty normal for a lot of people. I mean, I've already gone to two parties, one of which somehow got me drunk which was the most terrifying thing I have experienced since my leg got chopped off, and I seem to meet more of her friends every single day. "Well... how?"

"Like you hate everything I want us to do," she said quietly, staring at her food.

"I don't," I promised. "I just- I have other friends, and it's hard for me. I could barely get home because of-"

"I get it. It's fine." She shoved her plate forward and grabbed her purse, and began to storm off. "I just need a minute to cool down."

So, my brunch with Claire went pretty awful. I went back home after having to beg the waitress to let me go get money, since Claire told me she was going to pay as an apology and that fell through. Sebastian took me back to the restaurant, and I gave my waitress an extra big tip for probably scaring her.