The Way This Feels

Chapter 14: Thunder

The next morning after my rounds, Violet appears at my door. I guess I should have expected her. She flies in, her arms laden with a stack of library books, deposits them on the breakfast bar and sits on a stool. I elect to pretend this is routine. 

"Would you like a smoothie?"

She scowls at me, her lower lip jutting out. I commence cutting fruit and tossing them into the blender while she watches on looking both perturbed and thoughtful.

When I've lumped some sludgy pink smoothie into a tall glass for her, she begins what is clearly a well rehearsed dialogue.

"We have things to discuss."

"And what would that be?" I ask calmly as though I'm not internally racing with anxiety.

"Micah." She asserts. I deliberately take a long sip from my glass, feigning deep thought and rolling strawberry seeds against the roof of my mouth.

"Hm." I say, maybe I could even keep up the act of relative dislike for him. "What about him?"

"Well," She says haughtily, nose in the air, "He obviously likes you."

I nearly spit pink smoothie all over myself. Somehow, that wasn't what I'd expected her to say at all.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I choke, trying not to inhale chunks of pulverized banana.

"Did you not see the way he was looking at you?" She demands incredulously. My mind flies through a series of images of Micah, like wind blowing the pages of a book. Not one suggests anything like what she is suggesting.

"No?" I frown, why is she saying this?

"Uh, in the car!! He watched you the entire time and picked songs just for you to dance to."

This seems like a bit of a stretch to me. I raise my eyebrows. "You're crazy."

She splutters, "What about at the party, before we left. When he basically put his arms around you?"

"Huh?" I demand, heat rushing up around my ears and leaking in my skull, dizzying me. I think I'd know if he put his arms around me.

"In the kitchen, genius. He walked in and put his arm right behind you on the counter. He was, like, right in your space."

Oh, ok yeah I remember the instance now. I guess it was kinda like his arm was around me, but that's a pretty generous stretch from the truth. Plus, she doesn't know Micah the way I do now.

"You don't understand." I say shaking my head, "That's just Micah. He has no sense of boundaries."

"No, he didn't act that way with me. Just you. Because he likes you." She argues. Again, the statement seems to shock sensible thoughts right out of my head. 

"And how do you even know?! 'That's just Micah'" She mocks my voice, "Just last night you lied about him texting you." 

"No." I say simply, arguments out the window as I still grapple with her supposed information. I choose to pretend I didn't even hear that last part about me lying, I have no explanation for our newfound friendship, not even to myself, so there's nothing relevant that she needs to know. She shrugs pointedly and stirs her smoothie around with a spoon.

"Think what you want. The real question is, when did the two of you start hanging out? I feel like I barely know you anymore." She grins, switching her approach to friendly gossip, rather than accusatory gossip. I knew it was inevitable that my friends would catch on that I, known Micah hater, is now spending an ungodly amount of time with the guy, but I still don't want to have the conversation.