Stay

28

EVIE

"It's decided then. We'll drive down to Los Angeles for New Years Eve," Maggie confirms for the third time. There's a chorus of yes's as well as a pillow being lunged towards her head. "Watch it!"

Maggie grabs the pillow and chuck's it back towards Presley who dodges it. "Bitch," she shouts, laughing boisterously.

"Ladies, we need to sort this out. I'm not going to go on a mini road trip with you imbeciles if we don't organize ourselves," Leah pulls out a notebook from her purse and a pen, opening it up to a blank page.

I watch as my three best friends talk about the plans for our impeding girls trip. I was more than excited that this small idea was becoming a reality. I was more than ready for a getaway and I couldn't think of a better group to do it with.

We were lounged out in Leah and Maggie's new basement suit. They had just moved in over the weekend and we felt like it was essential to have our Christmas party here. Multicolored bowls with leftover remnants of our pesto pasta are scattered across the coffee table. Our christmas unwrapped gifts for our small secret santa pushed to the side and temporarily forgotten. I sipped on my "Christmas" margarita slushy- cranberry flavoured, because nothing was more Christmassy than cranberries, and laughed to myself.

They continued to fight over which car to bring. I voted for Leah's because a, she was an amazing driver, and b, she had a sick minivan. Apparently, minivan's weren't cool enough to be driven to LA,but I begged to differ. It was safe, comfortable and I would be able to score the back seat for at least some sleep. It was a win-win situation, if you asked me.

"We're not taking old Bertha," Presley whines. "It's not a guy magnet at all... who's going to want to talk to hot girls in a soccer mom van?"

"Guy's that own creepy white vans?" I answer her, biting my lip to stop myself from smiling. She shoots me her middle finger and it's all I need to giggle uncontrollably.

"What if we go to Vancouver instead? At least we'd all be legal to drink there," Maggie comments.

"I want sunshine not maple syrup. You can go hang out with the polar bears all you want but I'm going to find myself a hot surfer," Presley replies, shaking her head adamantly.

"Way to throw out the Canadian stereotypes there Pres. Canadians don't actually have polar bears roaming the streets," I corrected, which only resulted in another middle finger being shown in my direction.

"We're not changing the location... California, and that's that. Besides, Ryder said -"

"Wait," I interrupt, placing my hand on Leah's shoulder. "When did you start talking to Ryder?"

Her pale cheeks flush and she shyly looks down at her lap. "Uh, here and there..."

"Here? There? When? Where?" I press on, teasing her... "You're blushing!"

"I'm not!"

"You so are! Do you like Ryder?" Presley asks, sitting up straighter in her chair. "Oh my god, you totally have the hots for Danielson. When did this happen?"

"We're friends," she squeaks, her cheeks growing a ferocious shade of red. "He's cute... but he's... I don't know."

In unison we all begin to squeal, jumping around her on the couch. Giggling and teasing, we bug her more and more about this obvious crush on the school's it boy.

"Have you two been talking?" Maggie asks. "Tanner hasn't mentioned anything."

Leah's face remains hidden by her hands. The sleeves of her christmas sweater being held tight between her fingers and palms. Her light blonde hair falls over face as she shyly hides herself away. I lightly push her shoulder, urging her to tell us more about what's been happening between them.