Introvert

sixteen

Like the day before, the girl's older brother dropped her off. This time at her best friend's house. It felt like ages since she had been at his house, yet she didn't think twice as she let herself in.

Taking her shoes off at the front door, she called out his name. "EV I'M HERE."

At the end of the hallway, she saw the boy pop his head out from his bedroom. "Hey." He smiled at her. "My parents aren't working today, but Dad's running errands right now and Mom's over at Delly's visiting her and the baby."

"Does that mean we get the big TV?" She asked before walking down the hallway.

Whenever they did their AHS marathons, it was normally in Everett's room because someone was always using the family room flat screen. Back when his siblings lived at home, they would be slumped on the couch during the day. More recently, his parents would be playing the TV as background noise while doing house work or just be watching it in general. The friends didn't necessarily mind, but loved to take advantage of an empty house.

"Yup," Ev said as he grinned from ear to ear. "I'm going to make popcorn now that you're here, can you start grabbing the extra pillows and blankets from the hallway closet."

"Yes sir," Dylan dropped her bag by the couch and headed for the families closet. She already knew what Everett was thinking. If they were going to have an empty family room, they were going to make a pillow fort.

While the boy prepped the snacks and drinks, the girl lined up the chairs to tie the blankets to. As she was finishing up the base of the fort, Everett brought in the tray of their favorite snacks.

"This is perfect," he said as he set the tray down.

While he began to arrange the pillows, she wandered over to the tray. Thrown into the popcorn, M&Ms were mixed in the large bowl. "Hell yeah, your mom had M&Ms."

"Actually, I bought those yesterday when I went shopping for our snacks. You're welcome."

"You are seriously the best." Dylan turned back to fort so they could finish it up.

"Thank you, I know."

Once the fort was built and the snacks were in perfect reach that wouldn't get knocked over, the friends settled in for their marathon. Freakshow was by far her favorite season of the show, but as her gaze remained on the screen, she couldn't seem to focus on anything that was actually happening.

It wasn't that she was bored or tired. She knew it wasn't either of those things. Her mind just continued to wander. As she cuddled into Everett, just like the always did, she began to think of Austin. She had become so accustomed to watching movies and TV with Austin that cuddling with her best friend instead of him just wasn't the same.

She couldn't stop her mind from making the comparisons.

Austin would absentmindedly play with her hair. Everett wouldn't. Austin would rub circles with his thumb on her hand. Everett wouldn't. Austin would pull her as close as possible. Everett wouldn't.

It was just different.

Austin was different.

"Dylan... Dylan... Dylan... Earth to Dylan."

The girl finally jumped out of her thoughts when the boy next to her started to nudge her foot. She was so lost in herself that she hadn't noticed him pause the show and take a phone call. "Sorry, yeah?"

"Dad's on the phone. Mom's planning on staying the night at Delilah's to help out with Milo, he's going to pick up Chinese for dinner is that cool."

"Yeah, totally."