Lie Until You Laugh

7- Attacks

“Do you ever get tired of eating pizza?” Stella wonders with a laugh on Thursday night as we sit at our table for dinner. My muscles ache after a long day of practice under the eye of Penn the Petrifying, but at least I’m free for the rest of the night to do whatever I want, which only includes sleep, but that’s still very exciting for me.

“No,” I assure her, biting into my pizza. The same type of pizza that I’ve had for lunch and dinner all four days that I’ve been here. “I will never tire of this stuff. But if I do, I’ll move on to hamburgers or spaghetti or something maybe.”

“You’re probably the only girl here who isn’t on a lettuce diet,” Brian tells me. “That’s very admirable.”

“Wow,” I laugh. “I’m admirable.”

“Don’t let it go to your head,” Mason giggles. “He ‘admires’ somebody whenever they let him copy their homework. Brian’s admirable pin isn’t hard to achieve.”

He rolls his eyes at her and shakes his head. “Untrue.”

“True,” She argues.

“They’re not going to stop anytime soon,” Stella tells me in a whisper as she munches on her Hawaiian salad and I finish my pizza. I’m too full to go up for more, so I don’t go get more even though the pizza is just so good.

“I think I’m going to head back to the room,” I tell her, seeing as she’s right and Mason and Brian are still having their argument across the table.

“Good idea,” Stella chirps. “I’ll come with you.”

Mason and Brian are so engrossed in their argument that they don’t notice us get up and leave, but we say goodbye anyway, although they ignore it.

“Aren’t they cute together?” Stella coos when we leave the food court and enter the sunset air.

I nod. “I didn’t know that they’re dating.”

“They’re not,” She sighs sadly. “But they want to. It’s complicated.”

“Oh,” I mumble. “Okay then.”

“She thinks that I like him,” Stella elaborates. “Because we dated for like, a week freshman year but it didn’t work out. Mason though, she thinks that I still have a thing for him and she doesn’t want to do that to me.”

“Do you?” I ask her, trying to be a good listener without being too invasive. Being a friend to somebody is harder than it seems, I’m realizing.

“No,” She shakes her head with a sigh. “I mean, he’s cute. Anybody with eyes can see that Brian is freaking cute, but we’re just friends and that’s how I like it.”

“The longer I stay here, the more dramatic it seems,” I admit with a nod.

She laughs and shrugs. “Dramatic, yes, but also exciting. We’re kind of like those shows like One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl. I’ve never watched them, but they kind of seem like high school drama shows and that’s pretty much us. You’re the new girl that will hopelessly fall in love eventually.”

“I’ll fall in love?” I wonder with a curious laugh. “With who?”

She shrugs again, her short blonde hair bouncing by her shoulders. “I don’t know. Usually it’s the friend’s brother, but I’d feel so sorry for you if you fell in love with my brother. Like, my sympathy level for you would be so high that I’d probably euthanize you.”

“Such a good friend,” I joke. “But I’m pretty sure you’re safe there- your brother doesn’t seem like the most… lovable guy.”

“He’s really not,” She agrees. “I mean, obviously, I love him but that’s just because I have to and I still remember when we were little and we wore matching outfits like all other little baby twins.”