Wildfire - H.S

47

A small, naïve part of me honestly thought that today might just be different.

Different from this past month.

I had really hoped it would be.

But, to my dismay, it only seems to be worse when there are others around.

From the first moment of me walking into the apartment, I knew things were still weird.

The whole apartment was beautifully decorated, pink and white and gold streamers, and banners and balloons hung on every door. I'm sure it was all the work of Evie.

Everyone greeted me with hugs when I arrived. Everyone besides my own girlfriend, who rushed off into the kitchen as soon as she saw me.

I awkwardly introduced myself to all the friends I had never met before, alone. Evie was preoccupied somewhere else - with someone else. Just to keep away from me.

She doesn't even want to touch me, let alone fucking talk to me. And now she can't bear to be in the same room as me. What am I supposed to do about it when I don't even know what it is I've done wrong.

It's like something I'm supposed to decode because every time I ask what it is, she assures me nothing is wrong.

It's been a month since we arrived back from Arizona. A month since she rushed out of her own apartment, leaving me alone and confused. No believable explanation told.

Even now, with almost all of us dotted around the lounge, with the odd few randomly standing around the kitchen, Evie is sat on the complete opposite side of the room.

Next to Michael.

She already knows about how easily I become jealous. I trust her of course, but it's almost as if she's purposely trying to aggravate me. Is she trying to make me jealous?

We're all quite crammed in because of how small their apartment actually is. I had offered to host at mine, but Esme politely declined. Whereas Evie didn't even acknowledge my offer.

"Before me and Dani head home, we've got a present for you Esme dear." Jenny suddenly announces to the group with excitement in her voice. Dani begins to fidget in her seat besides me, trying to keep a collected front but her dimples show through.

Jenny proceeds to reach into her bag and pull out a small pink box, with a thin silver ribbon laced around it and immediately my hand moves to the red ribbon tied around my wrist.

I don't understand why so much had to change since she gave me this. It meant so much at the time, to both me and her. And now she's acting as if I'm a nobody?

Jenny passes the box to Dani who then skips it over to Es who's sitting the other side of me in an obnoxiously sparkly silver mini dress. I vaguely remember Evie mentioning something about it being a bigger and better version of her prom dress.