"Luna, wake up," I hear Brielle say and I grunt in response.
"C'mon. You have to go since I'm going," Tess tells me, obviously not as excited as Brielle.
"Miss what? Sleeping?" I reply, turning to face them.
"No, just wake up. We'll be waiting," Jackie states and they leave.
Slowly, I get up and put on a bra then I brush out my tangled hair. As I slip on a jacket, I grab a stick of gum and my chapstick. When I walk out, the three girls are waiting for me. Jackie sprays perfume on me then throws it in Brielle and I's room. We walk to the back door then through the back gate.
"Where are we going?" I whisper, looking between the three of them.
"You'll have to wait." Brielle responds.
I roll my eyes, but I follow them anyways. We end up at a house that is literally abandoned, yet we still go in. There's at least four guys sitting in a circle, obviously waiting for us. This is actually terrible and I decide that I don't like it.
"You do know that Helio and I are dating?" I question even if it's a lie.
"Wait, really? It doesn't matter, he doesn't have to know. We won't tell," Jackie replies with a smirk.
"I'm not going to cheat on him." I sternly tell them. I probably wouldn't even be with any guy other than Helio.
"I thought you said that she wouldn't be annoying," The redheaded boy says looking at me.
"C'mon, Luna. It'll be fun!" Brielle exclaims and I shoot a glare her way.
"Fine, but I'm sitting the first round out to watch." I give in, not wanting to be a buzz kill.
"Yay!" Brielle giggles then sits by the black haired guy.
I watch then all form a circle and wait until they're all distracted to pull out my phone. I text Helio C which is code for call me. He set this code up after Mr. Venne decided to overstep his boundaries and kiss me. A is might need help, B is I think I need help, and C is call me and if you get no answer then you should be concerned. It's simple, but very effective.
"Hi, babe," I answer when he calls me about a minute later.
"Are we pretending to date? Do I need to have you come over to help me in a made up situation?" He whispers.
I hate pretending to date Helio, but I could never confess my feelings to him. I'm not good with words at all and it'd be humiliating if I tried to explain my emotions. Someday I'll get the courage to express how I feel towards him. That's obviously not today, but someday I will.
"Yeah." I respond in a strangled voice as everyone looks at me.
"Okay . . Luna. I got my fucking hand stuck in that one vase and I need your help, can you please come over?" He loudly exclaims and I force myself not to laugh, instantly feeling a lot better.
"Uhm, sure. I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Thank the Lord, I am literally panicking. See you in a bit." He hangs up and Brielle stands up.
"Is that Helio? I heard that he wants you to come over," She states with a smirk.
"Yeah, he got his hand stuck in a vase. I can go alone while y'all stay and play." My hand is on the doorknob, but Tess stops me.
"I'll come with. You shouldn't be alone." She mouths please after that.
"You're right, it is downtown. And I don't know were I'm going." We walk out together and she breaths a sigh of relief.
"I know this is inconvenient, but Brielle and Jackie are fucking boy crazy. They're probably all planning on having an orgy right now." Tess explains and I slowly nod after we cross the street.
"It's fine. I wanted out of there so bad that I made Helio come up with a lie. His hand isn't in a vase, that's just what he came up with."
"He's a good boyfriend. I've never had a boy treat me like that, too busy with school."
"Oh . . we're not actually dating. I just didn't want to do anything with those guys."
"That makes a lot of sense actually. I'm pretty sure the blonde guy has a girlfriend, but he cheats on her all the time. I'm pretty sure the other two always have some disease."
"Brielle and Jackie must not care."
"They don't. Jackie has caught a couple things, but they've all gone away."
"You'd think she'd be more cautious."
"Yeah, but she doesn't care."
"Are they the worst out of the other girls?" I look at her and she nods, her red, wavy hair bouncing along.
"The other girls behave and stay out of trouble, but those two love trouble."
"That's sad."
"Mhm, Ms. Lilin is getting too old to deal with it. I've had to put my foot down a couple times, but they've never listened."
"Of course not." We reach his apartment a few minutes later and I open up the secret compartment in the light fixture.
"That's clever." Tess comments.
"Ambrose came up with it."
"Ah, he's the store manager, correct?"
"Yeah, Helio lives in one of the apartments above here."
We make our way up the stairs in silence since its eleven at night. I knock as quietly as possible and Helio appears a few seconds later in pajama pants covered in dinosaurs and a plain black shirt. He grins then steps out of the way to let us in.
"Hi Tess. I wasn't expecting another human to be with Luna so I apologize for my mess," He tells her as we look over to the table that is covered in baking supplies.
"It's fine. I don't care." She reassures him as she takes off her coat and sets it on the hook.
"Perfect! I'm making cookies wanna help me?"
☼☾☼
"Yes, Ms. Lilin. I promise we will be home in the morning and ready for school," Tess calmly tells Ms. Lilin who thought we ran away.
"Okay, but where are Brielle and Jackie? It's twelve-thirty," Ms. Lilin asks over the phone which is clearly on speaker phone.
"Uhm, that one place you found Jackie passed out drunk. We wouldn't of left them, but Helio got his hand stuck in a vase."
"That's happened to me before. Did you guys help him?" I can tell that she's smiling, but she also sounds concerned.
"Yes, of course." I respond.
"Good. Well I'll talk to you and Tess in the morning."
"Alrighty, bye." Ms. Lilin hangs up and we all laugh.
"We literally lied to her and she probably thinks I'm complete fool like why couldn't I think of something else?" Helio face palms, his face turning red.
"I have no clue, but let's eat these cookies and watch movies."
