Beginnings • c.h

Chapter Thirty One

Chapter Thirty One

Anni POV

My arms were getting sore from the heavy weight of the shopping bags I was carrying, the textbooks and stationary weighing me down. I wasn’t the only one either, the rest of the girls: Grace, Aimee and Megan, were all struggling as well. We had been trudging around the shops for several hours now, doing all our last minute school supply buying. We hadn’t noticed it for the first hour or so, but after the conversation slipped away a bit; the weight became more noticeable.

“Guys, if I don’t put down these bags right now my arms are going to drop off!” Megan groans. We all murmured agreement, and with a quick discussion, we all made our way to the food court. Finding a table we all drop our bags and Megan and Aimee decide to go and find food for all of us. Grace and I make polite small talk about the boys, the band and their growing social media success. By the time Aimee and Megan are back, their arms laden with food, Grace and I are in hysterics over a story I had just told her.

“Alright, what did we miss?” Megan says, plonking down and shoving a fry into her mouth. I open my mouth to answer, but I don’t have a chance to before I am laughing again. Grace joins me, and both of the other girls are staring at us like we are crazy. Who knows, maybe we are. I sober up just enough to tell them what we were laughing about.

“I was telling Grace about the time that we were at a party, and Luke, Megan and I were playing truth or dare with another group of kids. Luke was dared to kiss some random chick, and he hadn’t kissed a girl yet, so he was heaps nervous and when he went to kiss her, he slipped and his forehead smashed into the girls nose. She ended up crying and bleeding everywhere, and Luke left the party with a giant red hand-print across his face.” After finishing my story, the girls and I are in hysterics again.

As we laughed, I realised how much I had missed this. All four of us girls hadn’t really had much time to all hang out together these holidays, it was always just two of us, or all of the boys and us. We hadn’t had a girls day out in weeks. So over lunch, we discussed everything that we hadn’t had the chance to. The first topic lined up, was Megan and Mikey’s recent relationship.

“Wait, have you guys even gone on a date yet?’ Grace asks Megan. Megan shakes her head,

“Not yet, we haven’t had the chance. Anytime one of us is free, the other isn’t. It just seems like there is always something in the way, but, I would rather be with him and not go on dates, than not be with him at all.” She explained. I felt bad for her in a way. Cal and I had gone on two dates now, the second having been a few days ago. We decided to go see a movie, but Cal refused to let me pay. I pretended to be angry at him, but I was flattered by the sweet gesture.

“I guess you’re right, but seriously, if a guy didn’t take me on a date, and we had been together for over a month, I would be kinda’ pissed.” Grace stated, sucking the straw on her Coke. Megan shrugged her shoulders and flashed a smile, but I sense her sudden change in mood. Trying to take the attention away from the current conversation, I say,

“Wait, Aimee, do you still have a crush on Ashton?” The reaction is instant. Grace is shocked, she mustn’t have been told about Aimee’s recent crush. While the girls are distracted, gushing over Ashton, I turn to a sour Megan. Leaning over, I whisper low enough for only her to hear.

“So, how far have you and Mike gone?” I hope she understood the hidden message in that question. Has he seen your scars yet? Megan must have seen what I was asking, because she shakes her head, and whispers back,

“He hasn’t seen them, but he knows about them. He wants to help.” I lean back, and give Megan a surprised reaction. I was astounded at the fact that she told him. She nods her head, and smiles at me proudly. Before I could ask her how she told him, she leaned back down to me and told me.