Salted Wound

Chapter 40 Anastacia- Dec 20, 2018

"AHHHHH!" Freddie hollows as we step out of the school. Naomi covers her ears and Noah puts his hand on his head.

    "Jesus, Freddie!" Dante groans.

    "You can't make me stay quiet today. We just finished finals and I'm officially an adult. Nothing can ruin this!" He exclaims while jumping into the parking lot. The wind begins to breathe and we all snuggle into our jackets and Freddie stops and shivers. "Okay, other than this stupid cold weather."

    "Where is it you want to go?" Zamari asks, walking beside me.

    "Pizza Plaza! My parents rented us the room with unlimited pizza," he grins.

    "Your parents are really fucking rich," Zamari comments and Dante and Noah nod in agreement.

    "Ana!" I hear someone call me. I turn to see Luis walking towards my direction. He looks at Zamari for a second and gives me a confused look. I freeze and Zamari catches Luis on the corner of his eye. I stop and wait for Luis to catch up. The group turns towards us then to each other.

    "Meet me in the car!" I mouth and I get a few nods. I turn and prepare myself for what Luis is going to say.

    "Hey," I start.

    "Hey. What's with them?" He asks.

    "Nothing, we just finished Harold's final and they're a bit tired," I shrug.

    "And why is Zamari with you guys?" His mouth twists.

    "He has the class with us and he's friends with Freddie," I say, looking away from him.

    "Alright," he responds, not convinced. "Let's go out somewhere." He suggests, his husky voice shaking from the cold.

    I move nervously to the right. "I can't. I made plans with the girls today. I can't back out." I stutter. God, he's gonna know. He gives me a weird look and raises an eyebrow.

    "And you don't make any time for me?"

    "We've been planning this for a while. I can't just ditch them," I give an apprehensive smile.

    "Is Zamari going?" He growls.

    I bite my lip and break eye contact. "I just said that it's a girls thing. Why would Zamari or any of the guys go?"

    "I don't know, you tell me?" He snaps. I pull away and furrow my brows.

    "What? Do you not trust me now?" I tilt my head to the side.

    "Well, it seems like you're not telling me something. You're a bad liar, Annie," he says.

    We both stand there staring at each other for a moment. I don't know how long it passed when I realize that the group is waiting in the car.

    "Believe whatever you want to believe. I have to go," I say and start walking down away from him. I feel him pull on my jacket and I bounce back.

    "Don't you try to upset me, okay?" He hisses. I pull away and start making my way down the parking lot.

---

    "You look like a Frederick! And you smell like one, too!" We all sing as Freddie has a birthday cake with the number 18 buried inside the chocolate frosting. Freddie rolls his eyes at our traditional version of "Happy Birthday". He blows out the candle and we all applaud.

    "And here's to another year closer to death!" Freddie cheers and Zamari and I laugh.

    We're in a private room at Pizza Plaza and the whole restaurant has an ancient Roman theme. Isn't pizza Italian? They have statues and paintings everywhere which makes the place look fancy. I feel like they would have been more popular if they made the theme more kid-friendly.