The girl behind her smile

- 21 -

ELIZA

The next three days passed by, and every morning after my brothers left for school, Jasper would wait by my door, each day offering a new tub of ice cream. I would be lying if I said that it wasn't affecting me in the slightest, I believe that I was en route to forgiving him. And if not completely, at least giving him the benefit of my doubt. His acts of kindness and favour were starting to play in my mind - coaxing me to accept his peace offerings. This morning, he had come with honeycomb ice cream, which was my favourite, so it felt undeniably wrong for me to not take it from him. I still slammed the door on him, but only after snatching the tub from his hands.

"Hey! Make sure you keep whisking the egg whites!" Riya yells from the other side of my kitchen. She had arrived yesterday night from her holiday, and spontaneously showed up at my door today, demanding we bake a cake together to celebrate her return.

"I am! What does this look like?" I groan.

She peers over, before scrunching her lips, "Like you're daydreaming."

I scoff in reply. She had known I hadn't been to school for a while, so I think she actually came over to check up on me - but she's too stubborn to admit that.

"Girls, I'm just going to head out to go grocery shopping, I might drop by at your mum's house, Riya, so don't expect me to be back until around seven-ish."

"Ok mum!"

"Hey, Florence? Can you tell my mum when you see her that I won't be back until later, I forgot to tell her what time I'll be back, and my hands are covered in flour right now, so I can't text her." Riya asks just as mum steps out of the room.

"Will do! Bye girls, love you!" She shouts, closing the door behind her.

"Why are you staying so long? It's Friday, don't you have a piano lesson at 5?" I query.

"I cancelled," She turns around and leans on the tabletop, "You and I need to talk."

I glance at her briefly, "We do?"

"Yes, we do."

-

We sit on my sofa, both of our legs raised on the coffee table in front of us as we eat the cake slice in our hands.

"So tell me, what's been going on with you." She asks, mouth filled with icing.

I take a bite, shaking my head, "Nothing."

"I'm not an idiot Izzy, you've been weirdly silent on call, you've not been going to school, and you're definitely not sick - otherwise I wouldn't be here. What's on your mind?"

"I don't know man, I mean, I guess I didn't expect dads birthday to just be so hard you know?"

She places her cake down, "What happened."

And so I tell her, every detail of that day. Starting from the fact that all of my family members had left me for the majority of the day, how Jasper purposely throwing the last present I had from dad, and Ezra slut shaming me. Saying out loud really sounded unbelievable, like I had made up most of it.

"I can't even imagine what you were going through." She whispers, "I'm so sorry I wasn't there, Izzy."

"You couldn't help it Ri," I pause, "And there is something I've been keeping from you- no wait two things actually."

"What is it?"

"I kissed Jasper." I blurt, unsure how else I was going to be able to say it to her.

Sh stills in her seat, her eyes bulging.