Dear Gisella {On Hold}

13|Supercool girly senses

"Dude, don't push her. It'll piss her off."

"How else do we wake her up, genius?"

" I dunno. Let's tickle her feet."

As you can guess, the last comment caused me to snap my eyes open. "What the fuckcicles?"

My eyes greeted an extreme, extremely , close up view of Preston's goofy grin. " Morning" he chirped.

"We're at a gas station" Roman informed from right behind.

Curious, I looked around and, true to his word, we were at a gas station. I didn't remember falling asleep but I guess that's what happened. "Where's Lucy and Cecily?" I asked.

The boys gave me identical sheepish grins. " See," Roman started, looking at Preston pleadingly.

Preston proceeded to ignore the hints Roman dropped and looked straight off in the opposite direction.

Sighing, Roman continued" We might have, sort of, pissed them off and they've run off. That's why we wanted to wake you."

I stared at him, his words still being processed by my uncaffeinated brain.

Preston glanced over and smiled bashfully "Cmon Ella. Use your super cool girl senses, tell us where to find them."

My mind now caught up, I glared at the pair in front of me. Honestly, it had been barely seven hours since we left home and they'd managed to lose not one, but two human beings.

"What did you guys do?" I asked.

The two boys sought out two individual spots on the horizon and fixed their gazes firmly, refusing to look me in the eye. After about thirty seconds of pure unadultered silence, I prodded "well?"

"Look, honestly-" said Preston

"It wasn't even that big of a deal" Roman protested

"Like, they just overreacted" Preston affirmed.

"I never knew girls were such wimps" scoffed Roman.

"That's all well and good," I interrupted " but what did you do?"

silence.

And then-

"We told Cecily that, um-"

"Uh, that Asher probably dumped her because of her obsession with Skittles."

Cecily and Asher were the typical cliché popular-girl-falls-for-the-shy-nerd story, the only exception being... Asher wasn't shy. He was a confident guy; head of the debate team and male president of the student council.

And also a major jerk.

Everyone knew the story, it was no secret - Asher Collins broke Cecily Hughes's heart in an attempt to hook up with Astrid Jones.

And, of course, he'd gotten flat out rejected.

The entire school spoke about the spectacle for weeks, and it was no surprise to see Cecily heartbroken, but thatasted for a day or two max, and we'd all just assumed she'd gotten over it.

I mean, she was Cecily Hughes. She could have any guy she wanted. Why would she mope over some random dude who didn't treat her right?

But looking at how sombre the boys were, and the haunting absence of the girls, I was starting to think that maybe this rich, hot, popular posse felt the exact same emotions we did.

"I couldn't help it" Roman defended himself " she kept yapping on about how badly she wanted skittles. And you shouldn't distract the driver, right?"

I narrowed my eyes at the two idiots standing in front of me, and spat out venemously " how would you two feel if someone passed a terrible joke on your heartbreak?"

Preston smirked "Can't relate"

And for the first time, the smack he received atop his head was from me.

"Shut up, Preston" Roman and I growled simultaneously.

***

After telling the boys to go search out the gas station and it's premises, I walked off in search of the ladies restroom.

I knocked before pushing open the door slightly. "You guys okay?"

As expected, I received a reply. "Yeah," I heard Lucy say.

I opened the door completely and walked into the dirty, tiny washroom, my nose wrinkling in distaste at the state of the basins.

"Boys are idiots" I offered as a conversation starter.

Cecily laughed, looking at me through the cracked mirrors as she touched up her lipgloss. "How'd you know we were here?"

I shrugged. "You wanted to get away from the boys."

"And what better place than here", Lucy smirked. "It was my idea"

" I wasn't even that affected, to be honest" Cecily giggled. "I'm over him. I just wanted to freak them out."

"And you wanted them to buy you some Hershey's" Lucy added.

Cecily bit her lip bashfully, and tied her hair up.

I smiled at the two of them. The love and solidarity they felt for each other wasso painfully evident, I couldn't help the faint spark of jealousy I felt. I never had this, not with a girl.

But as the two supermodel like teens wrapped me in a spontaneous group hug and cracked jokes about my remarkable detective skills, I had a feeling that we'd get there soon.

And nothing could take away the purity of this moment.

"Damn it, Pres, they fucking played us. Pass me the Hershey's I ain't giving them shit."

Lucy threw a tissue roll at Ronan's head, which protruded from the door of the ladies restroom. "You creep" she shrieked.

Laughing, he withdrew his head.