"What are you doing next weekend?"
Ava looked up from the Geography coursework she was currently working on, shielding her eyes from the sun that wasn't being blocked by the girl stood in front of her. She looked at Hanna in confusion, wondering why it was she was practically shaking with excitement - Hanna was never this enthusiastic about anything.
Ever.
"I'm-"
"Cancel your plans," Hanna interrupted with a shake of her head, taking a seat on the bench next to Ava.
School had finished over an hour ago, but she'd been sat on the bleachers waiting for Ryan to finish repeatedly kicking a ball up and down the field (it all seemed a bit pointless to Ava, but when she'd mentioned it to Ryan and he lectured her about the importance of improving his technique for the big end-of-season game that was coming up, she figured it was better to just leave him to it).
"Why?" Ava scrunched her nose up, closing her book and dropping it next to her bag. She lost interest quite easily, and after reading the same sentence about volcanoes a ridiculous amount of times, the words didn't even seem like real words any more and she was glad to use Hanna as an excuse to take a break.
"Guess who we're going to see."
"Who?"
"You Me At Six!" Hanna shouted (so loud, in fact, that one of the guys on Ryan's team even looked up to see what was happening).
"What!?" Ava's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened, because the thought of actually getting to see one of her favourite bands live made her want to cry - in a good way, obviously.
"My dad works with someone who's daughters ended up not being able to go, so he gave us the tickets," Hanna explained, making excited hand gestures with every word that she spoke. "You Me At fucking Six, Ava!"
After a few moments Ava's smile began to fall, because realisation suddenly hit her and made her feel bad. "I can't."
"Don't say that," Hanna's face faltered, and the hurt-puppy look that overtook her face only made Ava's gut twist with guilt.
"I'm sorry."
"Why not? Come on, Ava," Hanna pouted, sagging her shoulders over-dramatically. "It's Josh Franceschi. You can't say no to Josh Franceschi."
"I'm going to have to," Ava sighed. "It's James' birthday next Friday."
"Oh, my God," Hanna's eyes widened and she suddenly felt bad (although she tried not to show any sympathy, because Ava always told her how much she hated people feeling bad for her). "I'm so sorry, I completely forgot."
"It's fine," Ava shook her head dumbly, because she felt she should probably be the one apologising for shooting down Hanna's plans only a second after she'd made them. "Maybe you could take Tom?"
"He listens to fucking dubstep," Hanna groaned, leaning backwards until she was slouched against the bench behind them.
"Convert him," Ava suggested, knowing it wouldn't be a bad thing - she once had a free period but forgot her headphones, and stupidly accepted Tom's offer to share his. An hour of Skrillex later, and Ava was seriously considering jumping out of the nearest window. "He needs a better taste in music."
Hanna pondered the idea for a few moments before deciding to change the subject, although she tried to approach it sensitively because she didn't know how Ava would react. "So, uh, what are you doing? You know, for James' birthday?"
"We're gonna take some flowers to his grave," Ava nodded, looking blankly at the field in front of them - this was the one subject in particular she hated talking about. "I dunno, I just don't really want to do anything."
