The Million Mile Hallway

Chapter 7 - Louise

I stood there looking at Jason and the expression that I hadn't seen on him before. Disbelief.

I was so annoyed that my dad interrupted whatever moment Jason and I were having. Jason couldn't leave quick enough afterwards and I was worried that I'd go ages without seeing him again. As it turned out, that wasn't the case. I saw him again the next day, asking my mom about a party he wanted to have. I found it so cute that he was asking us to tell him if he was being too noisy, and even cuter that he actually invited us. As usual, no one in my family was going to attend but I was still invited right? I thought of stopping by and asking him if I could still come but I never did. Instead, on the day of the party I was at school, having lunch with Lily and Mason once again.

"So last night I was reading different news stories from around the rest of the country and get this; over in Ohio there was this funeral and the gravediggers dug the wrong grave up! How crazy is that!?" Mason cackled.

"I woke up this morning with my covers sideways. How does that even happen?" Lily asked, continuing our trend of unanswered lunchtime topics.

"Mom was home before nine last night. I thought she'd been fired for a start. Turns out she was just bored" I finished off the rout before moving onto a topic that would actually interest my friends. "Jason would want me to go to his party tonight right? I mean technically he invited me and my parents didn't say that I couldn't go"

"Did they say you could?" Mason asked.

"No"

"Are you going to tell them if you do go?"

"No" I shook my head again.

"I think you should go" Lily said excitedly. "Even if he's not expecting you, imagine how good a surprise it would be for him!"

"I don't have any booze to take with me though. I mean, that's what people do, don't they? They bring their own stuff to parties. If I ask anyone in my family to buy me some then it'll seem pretty suss" I sighed.

"You could just steal from your parents? Your mom keeps loads of wine in the cupboard, right?" Lily asked as if my mom was an alcoholic.

"Umm . . . no" I laughed.

"Why not?" She asked.

"Because I'm not an evil witch"

"I don't think you should go" Mason announced. "Don't you think it's a little creepy if a twenty-five year old man wants to hang out with a sixteen year old girl anyway?"

"Come on" I laughed. "Jason is many things –"

Lily interrupted with a few examples. "Cute, friendly, good with his hands" She winked and nudged me after her last one.

"-But creepy isn't one of them" I finished.

"It'll be boring though. They're old! They'll probably just be talking about furniture and how their generation was better than ours" Mason sighed.

"He's hardly ninety years old, Mason" I said, rolling my eyes.

"Maybe Mason is just jealous that you've got the hots for someone else" Lily teased, causing both Mason and I to put our heads in our hands.

"Please not this again!" I yelled in frustration. Years ago, I was told that Mason had a crush on me, something which he later confirmed. I felt bad for not feeling the same way but I just saw him as too much of a good friend. Thankfully he took it well and it was quickly forgotten about when Sally, another girl at our school announced that she had feelings for him. That didn't go anywhere either. What luck we were all having.