Who Are You \\ Laucy

Chapter 15

Well, I was fucked.

Across the room, Lucy sat on Emery's bed, legs swinging, gaze averted. Emery had disappeared to go on a run a while back, ensuring that I'd be alone with the very person that scared me to death. I made a mental note to kill Emery later for this, that is, if I wasn't already dead from sense of impending doom that flooded my brain.

"So how's the store doing?" I started, not wanting to delve into the real reason why she was in my dorm at 7:00 on a Monday night. I figured I could dance around the subject and pray that she had some prior commitment and had to go before we got to the gory details.

"Not great."

"Oh. What about your mom?"

"Why am I here?" No such luck.

She was looking directly at me now, those caramel eyes boring into my soul. Barely stifling the urge to scream, I produced a forced cough as I ripped my eyes away from hers.

"I... "

Eyebrows raised in encouragement, she motioned for me to continue. This was it. This was my opportunity to get everything out on the table, the feelings I couldn't admit for the latter part of our friendship, or whatever the hell we were. I could rip the band-aid off and just tell her how I felt. Right here, right now.

"I wanted to tell you that I, um, think we should join an a capella group," I finished hesitantly. What the fuck Jauregui. An a capella group? What's next, basket-weaving?

My internalized surprise matched the wide-eyed, shocked expression on her face. At least it kinda melted away the tension between us, though it wasn't exactly replaced by something positive. In hindsight, I should've practiced what I was going to say. There was always next time.

"You want to join a singing group?" She sounded skeptical, and I didn't blame her. It sounded pretty ridiculous to me too, but of course, I couldn't show that. No, I was so excited. I couldn't contain just how elated I was!

"Yes!" It was too late to back out. "Think about it, we aren't really involved in a lot of campus activities. Plus, it would be really fun; we'd meet a ton of new people. Remember when we were in choir? Those were some of our best memories."

Slowly nodding her head, she agreed. "I guess it would be pretty interesting, though singing's always been more your thing. I mean, don't you need to audition to get a spot in the group?"

"Sure, but we could both probably get in. And there's more than one group, there's gotta be one with low enough standards to take you," I told her playfully. The corners of her mouth turned upward ever so slightly.

"Well, when you put it that way..." her voice trailed off.

"I knew you'd agree! The meeting is this coming Saturday morning. It's at the student center, so it's not even that far. Emery said she'd also go, so it'll pretty much just be an excuse to hang out a lot if we all get in."

A forced smile made its way to her face. "Is that all you wanted to tell me?"

No, not at all.

"Yeah, why?" I'm so, so sorry Em. All your schematics and devious planning, thrown out the window. I'll tell her how I feel. Eventually.

"Oh, nothing. It just doesn't seem as important as you made it out to be in the text."

"Were you expecting something more dramatic, like a confession of my undying love?" Actually, that was the original plan, I wanted to say. Emery's gotta teach me how to speak without a filter, although I'm sure it has many, many drawbacks, it would be really useful right now. I guess I'll have to settle for mentally kicking myself.