Two Weeks to Fall in Love

2. Two Weeks to Win the War

"You look like the Corpse Bride."

It had been a month since Lily had left and life had returned to normal. As for Mel and me, I wouldn't really say we'd returned to normal. We never would. This was our new normal, going from an invincible trio to a duo, and we were slowly — and begrudgingly — getting used to it.

"Gee, thanks. You know I love Tim Burton so I'm taking that as a compliment." Mel stuck her tongue out at me and smoothed down her messy, curly hair. "I haven't been sleeping well." She added in a quiet voice.

"I miss her too," I said, linking my arm through hers as we walked toward the entrance to our school. Mel bit down on her lip, and I tilted my head. "Or is something else bothering you?"

"I miss Lily, but it's also my parents, they're still fighting all the time. I don't know what to do about them anymore." Melissa let out a sigh, and looked up at the sky as if a solution would drop down from above.

"I'm sorry, I wish—" I started but Mel waved her hand in the air, stopping me mid-sentence.

"It's fine, it's not your fault. It's just how it is." She sounded so resigned that my heart clenched.

Even though I'd never been in love, I guess I would consider myself a bit of a romantic. I read those cute romance books, and watched my fair share of rom-coms, so of course a part of me desperately wanted to find that for myself. But, the logical part of me knew that those were just stories, and life was a whole other beast all together.

So, what was love in the real world? Was that love? Fighting in front of your kids? Getting your heart broken by unrequited love? Was that all there was?

I shook my head, refusing to believe that happy endings were just made for fairytales. All that romance had to come from somewhere, it had to be real.

"You wanna come over for dinner?" I bumped her with my shoulder, a silly grin on my face.

She looked at me, chuckled, and nodded. "Thanks, Sky."

As soon as we pushed through the front door, we were swept up by the chatter and bustle in the halls. With more buzz than usual, it felt like everyone was trying to get that last word in before the start of the first class.

Normally, this would be the part where I zoned out until the bell sounded but on this particularly loud morning, my ears perked up like satellites at the sound of a familiar name.

"Like, I know today's your last day technically but Noah could just not break up with you, right?" I guess it was another girl's doomsday today. Evergreen High's very own Casanova was about to be back on the market. No wonder the school was buzzing more today, it was time to plan the attack strategy for tomorrow's girl; a plan of action. 

How to be the first girl to ask Noah Archer out.

"I don't think so, I mean he always ends it after two week." The girl called Arabella brushed a strand of hair behind her ear nervously, but there was still hope in her green eyes. Hope that, I was sure, would be cruelly extinguished soon enough. It had been a year since Noah started playing his little dating game, and no girl had made it past two weeks thus far. Things weren't looking good for poor Arabella.

"You can't know that Ari. Just cause he hasn't fallen for someone before doesn't mean he hasn't fallen for you! I'm sure he won't break it off!"

I snorted, a bit too loudly because both girl's eyes instantly zoned in on me, narrowing in distaste. Whoops. I wasn't exactly known for my controlled reactions and after all, her friend's delusional enthusiasm had been extremely funny.