Swallowed in the Sea

High

"So you're just going to hang out at Ila's house?" Callie double-checked as she drove me to Ila's.

   I shrugged, "Probably. We might meet up with Maddie at the park if she's not busy."

"Maddie?"

   I nodded, "She's been friends with Ila since forever."

   My lie seemed to slip by Callie without any suspicions, much to my relief, and I wondered if I was getting better at this whole lying thing.

Maybe I was getting better at keeping my eyes empty.

"I think this is it..." Callie said as she pulled into the driveway of a house that was indeed Ila's.

"Yeah, it is," I smiled softly and the quickest flash of guilt rippled through me.

Was I really doing this?

"Well, have fun," Callie told me and I thanked her before hopping out of the car.

   I slowly made my way up to the front door and took a deep breath before knocking twice on the wood door.

   It only took a few seconds for someone to open it and while I hoped and expected it to be Ila, it was instead her father.

"Hi, Summer!" He greeted me warmly and then waved at Callie who sat in the car before opening the door wider to let me in, "Ila's in her room."

"Thanks," I breathed out and took that as my cue to hurry up the stairs.

   It wasn't hard to figure out which room was Ila's once I got to the second floor because it was the only room with the door open.

"Hey..." I leaned against the frame of the door while I watched Ila brush her hair while watching herself in the full-length mirror hung on the wall.

   Ila turned her head to look at me, a big smile on her face, "You're here!"

   I chuckled and walked into the room, taking a seat on Ila's bed while she finished brushing her hair.

"I'm so excited," Ila continued to speak, "Everybody's going to be there, it's going to be so fun!"

"Well, you better not ditch me," I said, "I don't really know anybody else besides you."

   Ila eyed me through the reflection of the mirror, "I mean, you know Easton though right...and I thought you met Andrew last year..."

   I shrugged, fighting the twisty feeling that was wiggling around in the pit of my stomach, "Yeah but we're not friends or anything."

"Fair enough, they can be assholes sometimes," Ila mumbled under her breath and I stifled a laugh, "Well, rest assured, I will not be ditching you."

   I smiled feebly, "Thanks."

"I would be an awful friend if I ditched you," Ila shook her head, "Convinced you to come just to leave you behind."

"Anyway, what's the game plan," I changed the topic before I became too awkward, "We're just going to tell your dad that we're going to Maddie's?"

   Ila nodded, "He already knows that we're going to go visit Maddie for a bit...I told him the three of us were going to study together."

"Smart," I commented and Ila gave me a sly smile, "I just said that we might meet up at the park."

"Well, we better hope that nobody asks too many questions then," Ila said half-jokingly.

   Truth was, our story wasn't tight and a few good questions would probably make it crumble. As much as I tried to tell myself that we were prepared for any turn, we weren't and were really hanging on by the seat of our pants.