Paper Flowers (Pretty Plastic People) ★

026. Do Or Die

A/N: Since some of you seem to have some trouble letting Liam go, he and Celia are pictured above to convince you ;)

026. Do or Die

At Aquino High, the game is only just now heating up.

I force all thoughts of Taylor into the back of my head over the weekend, shoving the memory of the kiss far into some distant crevice where I'll have to dig around if I want to pull it out again. Saturday afternoon, I'm sitting in front of my girl friends at Cold Front with a bright smile pasted on my face, as if nothing in the world could possibly be wrong.

Brynn is twirling some of her white hair around one finger—it looks more stark than usual, like she recently got it touched up at the hair stylist. I know I should be paying attention to her, but my consciousness keeps wandering.

"Erika!" Allison, who is sitting beside me, pokes my arm with the handle of her spoon. "Pay attention! Brynn's got a new guy."

If anything, this snaps me back into reality. Leaning forward, I squint so that I can see the expression on Brynn's face clearly. "Really?"

"Don't act like it's too soon," she says. "I dumped Taylor over six months ago and I should have been over him long before then."

Taylor. There it is again. Why can't we all go one day without bringing up his name?

Brynn continues, oblivious to my distraction. "I've been getting to know Luke better since he showed up at that Post-It meeting. I sort of like him."

Still, she's not quite meeting my eye, and her lips are curled upward into a forced smile as if she has something to hide. I lean across the table and squeeze her hand, saying, "It's okay if you're not totally over Taylor. You don't have to hide that from us."

"I know," she says, nodding vehemently. "I swear I'm over him."

I let go of her hand and go back to eating my frozen yogurt, but I can't help but think about the distant expression on my best friend's face.

Outings like this are still relatively new—I'm still getting used to the fact that I can enjoy a meal with Allison and Celia at the same table as me. Right now Celia's texting vehemently, her fingers flying across her phone as she intermittently stops to take bites of fat-free yogurt. It's hard for me to twist around all my old anger towards them both and instead mold that into friendship. I know it's the right thing to do, but sometimes it's still just a little awkward.

"Tell me more about Luke," says Cassidy, startling me out of my reverie again.

Brynn smiles around a bite of yogurt. "Well, we haven't officially been on a date yet," she says. "We're sort of just talking."

"I didn't know Star Wars was your type," pipes up Celia. "Have you been researching so you have something to talk about with him?"

"Very funny," she says, but her smile doesn't quite reach her eyes.

I open my mouth to say something to her but my phone buzzes in my pocket, startling me. As I reach to pull it out Celia nudges Allison and says, "I'll bet it's Spencer." She draws out the R as if we're in elementary school, as if Spencer is just some boy in my class I have a crush on.

Sticking my tongue out at her, I check the caller ID. "It's an unknown number."

"Answer it!" chirps Celia. "Maybe it's a prank call and you can prank them back."

I roll my eyes but answer the phone anyway. Before I can get a word in edgewise, a crisp voice on the other end of the line asks, "Erika Soto?"