Someone Willing to Stay

Of Course it's Not Vanilla

     "Girls, I brought some snacks!"

     I'm sitting on my bed, back pressed against my headboard. I had taken a shower about an hour ago, rinsing off the chlorine that I never intended to drench myself in.

     Claire is lying on her stomach scrolling through her camera roll and Riley is in between us with her eyes glued to my T.V. where the latest episode of Supernatural is playing loudly.

     "Thanks mom."

      She places the bowl of popcorn in my arms and hands me two bags of m&m's.

      "Don't stay up too late." Mom tells us, smiling.

     She loves my friends. I think she really loves the fact that I have some.

     "Sure thing, Jill." Claire hums.

     It's Friday night, which means Claire and Riley have decided to stay over to get me ready for the party the next day.

     That's what they said anyway. I know Riley was just worried that the water in my lungs would somehow drown me while I slept.

     I focus on opening the candy and pouring the bags into the popcorn.

     "So we're not gonna tell your mom about you drowning?" Riley asks.

     "I didn't drown," I mutter back, trying to open the second bag, "I'm still here."

     "You know what I mean."

     "I'm fine, stop freaking out."

     Riley looks at me for a second before she sighs in defeat.

      It's not that I'm afraid of my mom's reaction if I tell her about the pool incident. I know what she'll do. She'll freak out and rush me to the emergency room and I'll be there all night until she's one hundred percent sure I'm not going to die. Hospitals mean exams and X-rays. Hospitals mean getting caught.

     I'm scared of Adam's reaction. As far as he and my mom know, I was at Claire's studying. Not next door practically smothering Mason and then drowning myself.

      I'm not supposed to even talk to him let alone go to his house.

     "Well let's talk about something way more interesting instead," Claire says, "like how you and Mason were practically doing it right there on the lawn chair."

     I feel my cheeks turn bright red, "We were not."

     "Oh you definitely were." Riley teases me, letting the tension in the room evaporate as she lightly shoved my shoulder.

     "Well what about you and David?" I shoot back with a smile.

     Riley rolls her eyes, biting back a grin, "He's nice."

     Claire and I giggle

     "He's nice," Claire mocks, throwing up finger quotations.

     "You and Robert were hitting it off," I nudge Claire and grin.

     Suddenly her smile drops and she looks back at her phone, biting her lip.

      "He's pretty cool," She shrugs.

      Riley and I look at each other with confused expressions.

     Claire loves boys. She loves ogling them and talking about the latest gossip with them. But every time one takes notice of her, she's never interested.

     "You okay, Claire?" Riley asks.

     Claire smiles and shakes her head, "Just got distracted by Jensen," she says pointing at the T.V. screen, "he's a hunk."