- Hawaii lust - Jenna Ortega

048

It's not awkward at lunch the next day like Dahlia stayed up all night thinking it would be. They just talk about the show, and what they thinks gonna happen, and she gives her half of his brownie again. It was nice, and it leaves Dahlia excited for her to come over again tonight.

Dahlia gets home with a bag full of snacks: chips and salsa, pizza rolls, sodas, and a bag of Chex Mix. She's putting it all away, when Maddie comes through the kitchen and makes her way to the door.

"Are you going to get food or something? Because I already got some stuff at the store," Dahlia asks, turning to look at Maddie. But she notices she has a duffel bag in her hand.

"Didn't I tell you? I'm staying the night at mom's tonight," Maddie tells her with a shrug. "My grandpa's eighty-seventh birthday is tomorrow, so all my cousins are up here. They wanted me to stay over."

Dahlia feels instant dread wash over her at the fact that she's going to have to tell Jenna that Maddie's not gonna be there, and then she's not going to want to come, and now her entire Friday night is ruined.

"What's wrong?" Maddie asks, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Nothing, it's just...Jenna was supposed to come over tonight, but I think it'd be weird without you here," Dahlia sighs, pushing her fingers through her hair.

"Oh shit, Dahlia, I had no idea," Maddie tells her, shaking her head. "Do you want me to just stay?"

"What? No way," Dahlia laughs, before sighing and putting away the rest of the snacks in the fridge. "You should see your family. I guess I'll just text her and let her know. We can do it tomorrow I'm sure."

"Yeah?" Maddie asks, obviously feeling bad now.

"Yeah, don't worry about it," Dahlia laughs and hugs her, before saying, "Now go. You know how your mom gets when you're late."

"Yeah, you're right," Maddie nods and laughs too, before pulling her bag over her shoulder. "See you tomorrow."

"Have fun," Dahlia waves and smiles, as Maddie shuts the door and leaves.

As soon as she does, Dahlia puts her face in her hands and sighs. Not only did she want to see Maddie tonight, but it's now going to be extremely awkward to have to text her and tell her that oh yeah, Maddie's not going to be here to diffuse the awful awkwardness, so I guess you shouldn't come!

Jenna's probably on her way now too, so she has to come up with something fast. Dahlia grabs her phone and opens their text conversation up, before starting to type out hey, sorry to tell you this so close to time, but-

"I've had the stupid "wanna be on top?" theme song stuck in my head all goddamn day," Jenna walks in and laughs, throwing her back into the corner. Then she sees Dahlia frozen in place, then looks at the salsa on the countertop, then looks down at the salsa in her hands that she brought, then looks up at Dahlia. "I almost said "great minds think alike," but I think we both know that only one of us has said great mind. I guess we can eat straight from our own jars now without worrying about double dipping, though."

"I was just texting you about Maddie, actually," Dahlia forces a laugh, now having to tell her in person. "She's going to stay with her mom tonight."

"Yeah, I just passed her on the stairs," Jenna nods, walking over to the cabinet, opening it, and then grabbing their bag of chips. She doesn't seem bothered by the fact that it's just going to be them. "So are we gonna start this show or not?"

And so they do. Complete relief floods through Dahlia at her words, because she was terrified that she would get awkward, and then she would get awkward, and then she'd leave and they would be back at square one.