Telescope

Lemonade?

Juno

I sat on my floor, blanket wrapped around my shoulders as I hunched over homework. Ariana was sitting on my bed, painting her nails black on top of her textbook. 

"So," She said, eyeing me, "What's up with that guy?" 

I looked over at her, "What?"

"The one who came to your show?"

I smiled, turning back to my math. "Benny."

"He's hot," She said flatly, "But like, isn't he one of the quad kids?" The kids who sit in the quad are basically our high school version of cool kids, but no one really cares about them as much as they think. 

I shrugged. "Don't know." 

"Well, are you gonna spill your guts to me or what?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at a drip of black polish. 

I smiled, hopping up on the bed and crossing my legs. She turned her judgy eyes from her nails to my grinning face. I didn't care, I was used to it. "Okay, so," I said, excited to tell someone. "He gave me a ride home, right? And we like, I don't know, we went to the beach and it was raining and, it just..." I trailed off, not knowing how to explain. I smiled at her confused face, "It was really fun. And then today, we were hanging out and," I sighed, "He's really sweet," I concluded. "And he invited me to a pool party."

She raised her eyebrows. "Ooo," She said. "Fun." She looked at me suddenly, narrowing her eyes. "That's his hoodie isn't it?"

I pulled the hood up and slid back on to the floor. "Maybe."

She laughed, shaking her head as she returned to her nails. 

"You're coming to the pool party with me," I said, ignoring her sudden glare at the back of my head. As her eyes shot daggers at me I said, "Come on, it'll be fun."

"I don't do pool parties."

"Too bad." I looked at her. "Ari! Please?"

"Fine," She groaned, rolling her eyes. "Only because I love you."

Friday afternoon, the sky was a flat blue, not a cloud in the sky. The sun shown bright and unapologetically, soaking into my skin and slowly toasting me. I stood in front of the address Benny had texted me. The house was nice, with a bit too many stairs leading to the front door and large windows. I stood in the driveway, alone. Ariana had been ditched by her parents to watch her younger sister, so here I was. 

I headed up the steps, then knocked on the door. A girl with dark hair wearing an orange swimsuit with chunky platform sandals opened the door, smiling. She pushed it open more for me to walk in. "Hi," She said. 

I stepped in onto a platform, where there were stairs going up and down. "You're Juno, right? I'm Jordan."

"Hi," I said, smiling as Benny bounded down the stairs. He was wearing a backward hat, a muscle tee, and swim trunks.

"Juno!" He said, hopping down the last stair as Jordan rolled her eyes, smiling at me. "This is Jordan, Jordan this is Juno."

"We met," I said, laughing as we all started back up the stairs. At the top of the stairs was a living room and beyond that was a kitchen. I followed Benny past the kitchen, where Jordan left to talk to some girls, and went towards the backyard. He pushed the glass doors open, and I followed him out to the pool. 

Teenagers were sprawled out on chairs, playing badminton in the corner, and floating on large, colorful floaties in the shallow end of the pool. Most were in swimsuits or shorts, barefoot, and beer bottles in hand.