Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Four

The rest of the day passed quickly and soon Stacy and I were walking out to the parking lot. "Gym was still the worst thing that happened to me all day." I told her as we stepped out into the sprinkling afternoon, ten bucks said in a hour it would turn into a full blown storm.

"You are way too negative," Stacy told me.

"And yet you still love me." I remarked pulling on my mustard yellow coat and for I was thankful I had it. The birthday jacket was amazing and I did not want water damage on it when I'd barely owned it for a day. "So where do you want to hang out today? My place or yours? Be warned I don't have much food so I need to stop at Publix first but I promise I won't take too long."

She smiled and shrugged at me. Tossing up her hoodie she yanked on the strings and it tightened around her face. She looked up at the grey, cloudy sky and made a distressed noise. "My makeup isn't water proof!"

"Why does that matter?" I asked and then I gave myself the answer. "You're going to hang out with Travis aren't you?"

"Yeah," Stacy admitted, apologetic smile on her face. "You aren't mad are you? I know I said we could hang out after school but then Travis texted me and I remembered that he was coming over for dinner tonight and-."

"Hey," I held up my hands. "It's okay, you can't just cancel last minute on him, it's kind of rude. We can do something later, okay?" It was okay, but I couldn't help feel a little hurt. I knew Stacy hadn't tried to set things up with me and then cancel, she truly had forgotten. She was a hundred things, but a liar wasn't one. If she said she forgot, she was telling the truth about it. Still, ever since she and Travis started dating I did feel left out sometimes and right now this was one of those times. I had really been looking forward to spending some one on one time with Stacy today that was longer than our thirty minute lunch break.

Clearly it must have shown on my face because Stacy frowned at me. "Ember, talk."

"I just feel left out sometimes," I mumbled, not able to look at her. I didn't want Stacy to feel bad for having a boyfriend. It wasn't her fault my skin wasn't thick enough to deal with it. It wasn't like she ignored me for Travis all of the time, I was just still getting used to sharing her like this.

Stacy's voice got soft. "Em," she began but I held up my hands again.

"Stac don't, you're not at fault here, I am. You're not being a bad friend because you're hanging out with your boyfriend, I'm just being selfish and I'm sorry."

I gave her a smile which she returned but I had a feeling she wanted to say more to me. I spoke again before she had the chance. "Please, just leave it alone, I'm probably just PMSing right now. I'm okay." I gave her another smile. "See you later Stac, call me later?"

She smiled at me. "Sure thing babe." We stepped off the sidewalk into the parking lot and I pulled my little Mickey Mouse key chain from my pocket. It was old, paint peeling off the charm in some places and though I was legally an adult I knew it might be a good idea to get a more age-appropriate key chain, but I was too fond of it. It was the first and only real vacation my mom had taken with me. I'd been ten then and I had opted for a key chain because I thought I'd have more use of it. As soon as I'd gotten home, I'd stuck my house key onto it and six years later, my car keys.

A horn blasted behind me and I jumped into the air screaming. I spun around, heart thundering and saw the cherry red Toyota truck that belonged to Travis. He was grinning at me and laughing hard. "Travis!" I screeched as Stacy climbed into his truck, shoulders shaking. "Are  you going to do that every time we cross paths in the parking lot?"

Travis laughed again. "Yes, just until it's no longer funny."

"Gah," I made a few more sounds that were closer to that of an angry cat than a human and I'm sure Travis got the message.