Ethereal

14

Hira

I sat on Claire's bed, hugging a pillow as Claire and Gia stared at me. 

"I'm fine guys, I swear" I said. 

"Dude obviously you're not, you were crying the whole time in the car on our ride here" Gia said, looking at me with concern.

"Hira, you can talk about anything with us, you know that right?" Claire asked. 

"Yeah I know, there isn't much to say though. Besides I'm sure you guys know the whole situation from eavesdropping on Aaron and I" I said, smiling a bit. 

"We weren't eavesdropping! We just...wanted to see if you were okay because you seemed weird in practice" Gia said, looking bashful.

"But I guess we did end up eavesdropping, sorry" Claire said. 

I leaned back against the headboard of the bed. "It's okay, I'm not mad" I replied. 

"How long have you guys been like sleeping together?" Gia asked. 

"Gia!" Claire said, smacking her. 

"What? I know you're curious too, she didn't mention anything about it once!" she replied, before looking at me, "So how long?".

"11th grade, around the time when my mom passed away" I replied.  

"Damn, we never even suspected anything" Gia mused. 

"How did you guys get involved?" Claire asked. 

"What do you mean how? When two people are lonely, in love or horny, they yknow" Gia said.

Claire rolled her eyes and looked at me. "I guess...I don't know. The first time we were both drunk so yknow one thing led to another and we ended up doing it. If I'm being honest, I liked him a lot even before than but I just never wanted to admit it and I guess he didn't want to admit it either and Mom had just passed away so I didn't want to get into something serious since I wasn't at the best place mentally. So then I just ended up saying if we were gonna continue sleeping with each other it has to be no strings attached" I replied. 

"How are you feeling now that it's over?" Gia asked. 

"I honestly...kind of sad? He was one of my closest friends besides you two, and even though we were never dating it feels kind of like I broke up with him" I said, burying my face into the pillow. 

"Yeah well it kind of was a break up, I mean you told him that you didn't want anything to do with him from now on and didn't want to be friends. It makes sense why you're upset" Claire said.

"Did you love him?" Gia asked. 

"Fuck Gia, you don't just ask that!" Claire said, smacking Gia again. 

"Bruh what?! Why not? It's just a question!" Gia responded, rubbing the place Claire smacked her. 

I smiled a bit and looked up at them. "I guess, he meant a lot to me even as a just a friend, but honestly it was doomed from the start" I replied. 

Claire leaned over and pulled me into a hug. "It's okay Hira, you'll find someone a lot better".

Luca popped into my mind when she said that.

"Yeah maybe" I said, softly. 

"Alright! How about we do some karaoke?" Gia said, jumping up.

Claire pulled away from me and we smiled. "That sounds like fun" I said.

"What song do you want to do?" Gia asked, jumping off Claire's bed and turning on the TV. 

"Let's do Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme by ABBA" I said, getting up.