Stay Courageous

Chapter 32

The outfit is what Emily's wearing at the sleepover! Yes, I know, people don't wear that much makeup to sleep, I tried to find one that looked smudged like she'd been wearing black makeup all day and it got smeared but that's the closest think I could find. :)
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Zoe's POV

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"ZOE!" Everyone squealed when I attempted to just casually step into Emily's dark room. I'd arrived a little later because I had swim practice that afternoon. Since basketball was taking a Christmas break as well as school, I was taking the opportunity to swim with my travel team.

"Uh, hey," I joined them on the floor where they were playing Cards Against Humanity.

"Hey girlie! What's the haps?" Emily's black-lined eyes went wide as she made a silly face at me.

"Emily," I chuckled, "what's the haps?"

"It means what's happening, dingus," she playfully shoved me.

"Whatever. So who's turn is it? I love this game!" Just then, the door to Emily's room opened. I was confused at first because everyone who'd responded to the Kik chat was already here. But when I saw who walked in, I understood. "STELLA!" I jumped back up and almost tackled her with my giant hug.

"ZOE!" She dropped her bag right there and hugged me back. After so many days of no contact with her, it felt so good to know she was okay. We obviously hugged for longer than we realized.

"Uh, guy?" Kat started giggling. Stella and I looked up to find all the other girls looking at us. We started laughing too before joining the other girls in the circle on the floor. Just then, Kat got up to go turn on a lamp, lighting up Emily's dark room. The other girls started to put the game away.

"Hey, what's up? I wanted to play Cards Against Humanity!" I whined.

"Calm down ya big baby, we can play it later," Kat playfully shoved me as she sat back down. "It's just that... Emily sort of brought us all here for a reason," she gestured to Emily, who had now died her hair purple since the last time I saw her.

"Yeah," Emily squirmed. She usually didn't like talking to large groups of people like this, but since it was us, I knew she could handle whatever she was about to say. "Well, you see, all of y'all have been texting me lately about how sad everyone is! And before Christmas, I was talking to Zoe and we both agreed that all you guys needed some time to just chill with each other. You know, have some bonding time. Plus, I haven't seen any of you in ages!" She looked around at all of us and smiled at herself. "Gosh, I am not used to being serious with you people. Kat? Help me?" She giggled at her own awkwardness.

"I guess what Emily is trying to say is that we can't call ourselves close friends unless we're completely honest with one another," I guess everyone thought they were being inexplicable when they started eyeballing Stella and I. "From what I understand from the Kik messages, some of us have some things to explain?" Now Kat looked right at me, not even bothering trying to appear inconspicuous. I sighed heavily.

"Fine. I've done this once, it can't be any harder the second time around," I assumed a serious demeanor and began to tell them everything, just like I had with my parents. I explained how school was making me feel, all the drama with my friends, how hard Stella's moving to California hit me, and finished with my guilt for handling it the way I did, because I know lots of people have it worse than I do. Just like with my parents, everyone was quiet for a few minuets afterward.