𝑳𝑶𝑽𝑬𝑳𝒀 // fillie

16: stay out of the bermuda triangle

// 2039 words //

// inspired by yellow flicker beat by lorde //

"YELLOW FLICKER BEAT SPARKING UP MY HEART"

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M I L L I E

the bell rings and we all rise from our seats at the lunch table, all in some sort of discomfort.

"tomorrow can we pull up another table?" iris asks, now beside me. "i had to smell caleb's fish for the entire lunch period and i almost threw up."

i smile, holding in my laughter. iris despised fish probably more than anything in the world. if she had the choice of either having five tarantulas in her mouth at the same time or eat a tiny portion of fish, she would choose the tarantulas. i learned the hard way about iris' disgust of fish. one time i brought her to this town picnic by the river and she literally screamed when she saw the dozens of fish swimming in the water.

never again would i bring her to a river.

"well..." iris says, her mouth curving into a smile and her shoulder nudging me. "what's going on between you and finn?"

i sigh. "iris... please don't play matchmaker, there isn't even anything going on between us."

"then why are both of you suddenly being nice to each other? where did finn go after that fight yesterday, and why did both of you appear together?" iris grins, knowing that she's rendered me speechless.

"th-that's beside the point..." i mumble. "there isn't anything going on between me and finn other than the fact that we're nicer to each other."

"mhmm..." iris says as we near our next class, history. "sure, but bet, you two will be head over heels for each other by november."

i open the door to mr. keery's eleventh grade history class and the smell of wet soil hits me and iris face first. it technically was a school rule to keep air fresheners in every classroom, but mr. keery demanded that the jasmine scent made him sneeze, so the class windows were always open. i personally didn't like the wet soil scent that always lingered in the air, but whatever kept keery grump-free was fine by me. i drop off my homework that sadie did for me at mr. keerys desk, and iris and i head over to our seats at the back of the room.

as soon as i collapse into my seat i see the group of boys that everyone loves and hates enter the room. you could call them the bad boys, but you know never to mess with them if you don't want to get hurt. romeo, jack, wyatt... and now surprisingly jacob. i knew jacob was always different from us, he never particularly enjoyed talking or hanging out with finn, caleb, gaten and noah, but did he really have to join romeo's group?

i shrink into my seat when i see all of them staring at me, but instead of making eye contact with romeo i look at jacob to see his head down, fingers fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.

so he's nervous around them. i can work with that.

i turn back to iris to see that she's looking at noah and another girl talking with a wistful look in her eye.

"you like him?" i say, shocking iris. "i mean noah. do you like him?"

iris sighs and rests her chin on her fist. "well, i guess? i don't know it's weird. how do you know if you like someone?"

i pause for a moment before speaking. "you get butterflies in your stomach when you see them looking at you. you always compliment them in your head, sometimes not even realizing it. you blush when you're close to them, you smile when they laugh, you feel happy when your around them..." i stop suddenly when i realize something.