Blinded by Limerence

46 | One Weird Afternoon

"The last time we did this," said Addie as she poked around the dusty boxes in the garage, "we did it with Hanna."

Morgan chuckled. "Yeah. She was okay before she went berserk."

Despite everything that happened from a time not too long ago, Morgan still missed the girl sometimes, and it was embarrassing to admit; Hanna was one of her best friends, for such a long time, at that—something like that doesn't just fade away that easily.

Morgan always thought it'd be easier to disguise the pain as hatred. Why deal with the loss of a friend, after all, when you could focus on how she was the one who left?

Morgan knew it was unhealthy not to process her emotions, but remembering the fact that Hanna has it all now—popularity (which in hindsight she's always had) and the perfect boyfriend—kept her grounded. She has no need for her or Addie.

Yes, it's much easier to hate someone you envy.

Still lost in the plethora of her thoughts, Morgan mindlessly opened a box, and a bunch of dust bunnies immediately popped out of the box, resulting in her falling into a coughing fit.

"In fairness, you did like her, boo," Addie shrugged as though she knew all about Morgan's redirection of hatred.

Addie's certainly noticed her best friend's coping mechanism towards the death of their trio, but she didn't want to say anything since it is her fault Hanna found out.

"Well, yeah, she liked Archer first, but that doesn't mean no one else can like him," Morgan argued.

Addie walked over to Morgan's side of the garage and sat on some of the more heavy duty boxes before grabbing a plastic bow from the opened box. Hiding behind it was a black plastic quiver, armed with eight or nine arrows made of the same material.

"What's this?" she asked, holding the toy up so that the sunlight coming from the open garage door could stream through the blue plastic.

Then, it hit Morgan like a truck:

—

"This is so thoughtful of you," Morgan cooed with a bright smile—so bright that it combatted that of the afternoon sun's, which was mercilessly smiting down on the pair. She held the bow and arrow close to her chest.

Turning scarlet, the boy laughed then shook his head. He flicked her forehead. "Dummy," he said, "it's a sarcastic gift. You don't have to act sarcastic, too."

"It's very funny, y'know," deadpanned Morgan as she drew an arrow then pulled it back on the bow's string. "I'm an archer now, too."

"That's the point!" he laughed. Lacing his fingers with hers, he leaned in and gave a chaste kiss to her nose. The girl turned bright red before he whispered, "Happy one year, babe."

She grinned in pure ecstasy under his touch. "Happy anniversary, Arch. Now let's get out of here. We have someplace to be."

—

"M?" called Addie, snapping her long fingers in front of Morgan's face.

The latter blinked twice and whipped her head in the other girl's direction. She had to close her eyes for a second more to allow the waves of nausea that lapped against her to fade.

"I just remembered something," she said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, it's like one of those dreams I get of Archer, but... this one... this one I got awake—you know, like a daydream but not a daydream," said Morgan. "Does that make sense?"