Life Of The Party × CH

5

"Stella, wake up!" Lola yells, trying her best to get Stella's eyes open.

Characteristically, Stella doesn't budge. This leads to me picking up her phone and setting her alarm for a minute from now.

We wait in silence, up until Stella's phone starts blasting a random pop song, stirring her awake.

She opens her eyes, and is moments later absently searching for her phone, trying to turn her alarm off.

"I guess I'll just wait here until you notice your phone is in my hand," I say, trying to capture her attention.

At the sound of my voice, her eyes widen and she automatically jumps out of bed. "Devin!" she screams, embracing me in a bone-crushing hug. "I've missed you so so so so so much!"

"I've missed you, too," I barely manage to say, "But you know what I also miss? Breathing."

She lets go of me, giving me an apologetic smile, "Sorry."

"Great!" Lola interrupts, "Now that the gang's back together again, what do you say we get those bagels? I'm starving."

"No wonder you're starving," I tease, "You rode Michael into the sunset yesterday."

Stella slaps Lola's arm, "Is this why you couldn't hang out last night?" she pretends to be offended. "I had to talk to Andrea the whole night! That family dinner was so boring!"

"Sorry," Lola shrugged, "Duty called, and I picked up."

"Or in this case, booty called," I wink at Lola who laughs.

"Whatever," Stella says, still pretending to be hurt, "That dick better have been worth it, because I'm pretty sure Andrea named every single type of rock found on our planet."

"Totally worth it," Lola bit her bottom lip, emphasizing her night.

"Ew," Stella pretended to be disgusted as she walked to her bathroom, stepping out minutes later, dressed and ready.

"Before we leave, you should get your brother's motorcycle helmet," I tell her, "We'll be taking my dad's scooter."

"Oh my god, yes!" She exclaimed in excitement, "I call sidecar!"

"Fine," Lola said, "But I call it next time."

"Deal," Stella agreed.

×××

After finally silencing our growling stomachs with bagels, we decided to go to our favorite café from when we were sixteen. Coffee Club Café.

That's where Anne had gone to work this morning. It was her café after all. Anne bought the place after a bake shop that was in its place went out of business, making her own business out of it.

So far, the café has been extremely successful.

I parked the scooter nearby and joined my two best friends at a table outside.

"I've missed you guys so much," I say, "It's so good to finally be back."

"Enough about how much you've missed it," Lola said, "You've been keeping us in the dark about boys practically since you left. You can't convince me nothing has happened."

"Nothing has happened," I tell them, "There have been a few make out sessions at random parties, but that's about it."

"Are you kidding me?" Lola jumps, shocked. "Have you seriously not gotten any dick since," she leans forward towards the table, whispering the next part of her sentence, "since Cole?"