Overtime (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 13

I should be over all the butterflies, but I'm into you. And baby even on our worst nights, I'm into you.

Trinity inhales a gasp as she peers at the screen.

“Jennifer Lawrence is just…perfection,” she comments, gaping at the beautiful blonde actress on the screen. Her silver dress wraps around her, hitting her curves in all the right places.

Kristen shakes her head, her hand digging away into her bag of Doritos, her newest guilty pleasure. “Life hates us, okay?”

We’re sitting in Trinity’s room, watching the Teen Choice Awards. The three of us get together for the Teen Choice, Oscars, Grammy, and Emmy award shows and watch them together, an ongoing tradition since eighth grade.

Trinity uses the celebrities for fashion and style inspiration, while Kristen is really just there to add funny commentary to the whole thing.

“What if she were to just, I don’t know, fall?” Kristen adds sarcastically, snickering.

“She’d own it,” Trinity replies cheerfully.

Sometimes I think Trinity and Kristen can be polar opposites. Maybe that’s how our group works. We all balance each other out pretty well.

“Aw, look at Austin Mahone. He’s my babe,” Kristen says as the camera pans over to Austin laughing at a cheeky joke the host just pulled.

I shake my head. “You can leave now,” I tell her jokingly.

She chucks a chip at me, but it dies down a few feet from my foot.

“Kristen, I’m gonna fucking murder you!” Trinity exclaims for the billionth time in the hour that we’ve been here.

Kristen snorts. “Come at me!”

Trinity laughs and rolls her eyes. “You’re such a pig!”

Kristen gasps. “Is that a fat joke?”

Seriously, why is it that my friends fight about the dumbest shit ever? Their incessant bickering continues about whether Trinity actually just called Kristen fat. I chuckle. They’re so immature sometimes I feel like a mom to them, and any time when I’m refereeing fights should be illegal by law.

My phone buzzes from underneath me as Kristen and Trinity shout at each other. I lift my body up to see the name on the screen belonging to none other than Tanner. His text asks me where I am and I instantly smile. Just a simple question from him can brighten my day.

“I’m at Trinity’s,” I type back. I attempt to watch as Selena Gomez accepts an award for favorite TV actress, but I can’t hear anything due to the blockheads beside me.

“Damn,” Tanner’s message reads. “Any chance I could see you anytime soon?”

I look over to see Trinity trying to calmly explain her point to Kristen. Their squabble has obviously evolved from Trinity’s so-called fat joke to something completely irrelevant.

“Like tonight?” I clarify.

“Yes.”

I think about my plans for tonight, but by the time I’m done at Trinity’s, I don’t necessarily think there would be time to fit in a chat with Tanner before I go home and to bed.

“No, I’m not going to have enough time,” I answer.

“What about tomorrow?”

I sigh and try to search for any recollection of tomorrow’s schedule. My grandparents are due over at nine am for breakfast. They live all the way up on the eastern side of Washington and are just coming in tonight. I’m technically supposed to be there to welcome them tonight, but I got my dad to let me slip out of it. They’re in town for my aunt’s art show at a newer gallery around Portland. With my dad giving me a rain check tonight, I know there’s no getting out of breakfast or the art show. It strikes me as a last minute thought, and a dumb one at that, but I consider inviting Tanner to swing by. If he’s only looking to talk to me, I could probably get away from my family for a few minutes. I go ahead and throw out the idea, thinking it can’t hurt to try.