Party Boy

Pestering Pals

I met Lyn at our usual spot in the morning. We always had around 20 minutes before classes started, so we always hung out under the stairwell near Lila's locker. She wasn't there yet.

"Hey, girl!" Lyn's voice greeted me, along with her infectious smile. She had perfect teeth, but even without them I'm sure her smile would be just as dazzling. Seeing it always made me happy. I couldn't get enough of it.

"Hey," I replied. "What's up?"

"A lot, actually. But what's up with you? You were acting weird yesterday. Is something wrong?"

"No, not at all."

"So what happened yesterday? You never sit anywhere else for lunch, and you've never turned down a trip to the mall. It must have been something important."

I felt a little pang of sadness at how little she knew me. It was my own fault, but it still hurt. My closest friends had no idea who I really was.

"Well, I kind of met a new friend at that party."

"What? You think she's better than us or something? You could have just invited her to hang with us!" I heard the teasing tone of her voice, but that didn't stop me from worrying she actually thought I found Nico better than them. I mean, he was different than them. They were all fun and parties and drama; he was the opposite. If I ever needed to talk about boys or fashion advice or whether or not my hair looked awful I could go to my best friends. But anything deeper with more substance than that, I wouldn't feel comfortable telling them. They really wouldn't get it. Nico would.

"No, h-they're not better than you. They just don't like people, that's all." That wasn't why I didn't introduce him to my friends, but from the little I knew of Nico, a dislike of people isn't far from the truth. But in reality, I simply didn't want to experience their dubious efforts to get us together, which is exactly what they would do if they found out my new friend is a boy.

"But they like you?" her facial expression changed from skeptical to excited. "Wait, did you start to say he?"

"No!" I exclaimed, praying that my face didn't betray me.

"You're blushing!" It did. "You met a guy! Are you dating yet? What's he like? How old is he? Oh, Lila!" Evelyn looked past me. "Hurry! Get over here! Ava's got a boyfriend!"

I looked behind me and saw Lila practically run over, looking just as excited as Lyn. "Great! Now we all have one. Who is he?"

"Wait, you two both have boyfriends? Since when?"

Lyn answered, "Since Sunday! We met them at the party. We were going to tell you Monday, but someone was too busy for us. You're totally forgiven, though. It's about time you found someone. You haven't dated anyone since freshman year!"

"Why didn't you text me?" I wondered. "That's big news."

Lila hit me lightly on the arm. "Not as big as yours! It's been two years since you've been with anyone. You have to tell us everything about him."

I was beginning to get overwhelmed by all of the questions and demands. I was thankful for the ringing bell I heard overhead.

"Sorry, don't want to be late to class." I told them. "I'll fill you in on everything later. But he is not my boyfriend."

"You better sit at lunch with us today," Lyn warned.

"I will."

~~~

I tried to mentally prepare myself for the bombarding of questions I was about to face as I walked into the cafeteria. I went straight to the lunch line to grab a tray of food and then to my table.

Lila beamed at me. "Okay, first, what's his name?" she asked before I even sat down.

"Who's name?" I said, feigning ignorance as I sat down across from them.

Lyn replied, "Don't pretend. Who did you sit at lunch with yesterday and then turn down hanging out with us because of?"

I sighed, knowing there was no use in lying anymore. "His name is Nico."

"What does he look like?" Lila asked.

"I don't know; I'm not good at describing people. He has black curly hair?"

Lyn narrowed her eyes. "Hm. Is he cuter than Vince?"

My stomach churned at hearing my ex's name. "Um, kind of."

"So, no? You can't lower your standards!"

I felt strangely angry at that. "I'm not. He's better than Vince. Much better. I don't care about appearance. But it doesn't matter. I'm not interested in dating him."

Lila furrowed her eyebrows. "But if he's better than Vince then why don't you date him?"

"We just met three days ago!" I exclaimed. "Is there a problem with me wanting to just be friends with him?"

"Yes! You've been single forever!" Lila answered.

"I've been just fine without a relationship so far. I think I'll live."

Lyn spoke up, "Ava, hon, you need to move on."

"I have!" I said defensively.

She continued as if I didn't say anything. "The only way to do that completely is to date someone else," she said matter-of-factly. "So if you like this guy, even if he is ugly, you should go for it."

"He's not ugly. But I don't want to date him. I don't like him that way. He probably doesn't like me that way either."

"Yeah, right. If he's not as cute as Vince-"

"Can we please stop talking about him?" I blurted out.

"Sorry. But I'm saying, this Nick dude-"

"Nico."

"Nico. You're out of his league. There's no way he doesn't like someone as gorgeous as you."

I sighed at her misguided attempt at a compliment. "Thanks, Lyn, but I hope you're wrong. I honestly do not want to date him."

Lila grabbed my hand. "Ava, if you get to know him better, then you'll like him, right? So you can ditch us as much as you want to be with this guy."

"If that's what you want," Lyn added, "but I think you should let us meet him."

I shook my head in defeat. Trying to convince them that I was not interested in a relationship with Nico was futile. But at least there would be no hard feelings if I spent time with him rather than them.