Seating Arrangement

Grayson & Amelia // three \\

Grayson smiles at the contact that pops up on his phone screen. The picture is of her in English last week, a goofy grin on her pale face, her blonde bangs tickling her eyebrows. She allowed him to snap the picture of her after she put her number into his phone.

"For if you ever need someone to cry to." She had said. Grayson had opened up to her, and in turn she had told him about her cheating mother and her broken father. They had built some sort of friendship thing, and Grayson found it more bearable than the constant bickering between the two of them that usually ensues.

He answers the phone before it turns to voicemail.

"Grayson!" Amelia's voice is excited and happy. "Oh, thank god you picked up! I thought I would have to leave a threatening voicemail or something." She laughs, then resumes talking before Grayson can respond. "Listen, my dad said I can have a few friends over while he's at my aunt's house with my older sister, so do you want to come over? I'll text you the address, bring a pillow and some pyjamas-"

"Wait, are you inviting me on a sleepover?"

"Catch on, Gray. Yes, I'm inviting you to a sleepover. There'll be other guys there, don't worry. Oh, and that Latina girl...Sophia, that's her name! Yeah, she'll be there, so you could try your flirting skills with her-"

"Will there be anyone that I'm friends with?" Grayson asks, feeling sceptical of the whole situation.

"Uh, me?"

Grayson rolls his eyes.

"Just so you know, I can practically hear you rolling your eyes at me, Perry. Anyway, get over here! You know you want tooooo,"

Grayson sighs and looks around his room. His mom would kill him if she found out he was going to a girl's house for a sleepover. But then again, he could lie and say he was hanging out with some guy friends. Technically he wouldn't be lying, just skipping over the details of how many females would be present.

"Fine,"

"Great! I'll see you in half an hour, okay?" Again, she doesn't give him a chance to respond before she hangs up.

Seconds later, his screen lights up with an address, and he sighs, a small smile fighting it's way onto his lips.

"Mom, I'm going out! I'll see you in the morning!" He calls, grabbing his pillow and the sleepover essentials before hurrying out of the door before the Mexican woman can object.

***

Grayson parks his car a few paces away from Amelia's house and walks up to her porch.

The door swings open without Grayson knocking, revealing a dark skinned boy in nothing but boxers. He has dark green eyes and bright white teeth shown in his grin.

"Hey Mia! Your guy's here!" He calls into the house. Grayson hears hurried footsteps before he sees Amelia's messy blonde hair behind the dark boy's muscled figure.

"Great! Come on in, Gray," she pulls him inside, leaving the grinning boy to shut the door behind the three of them. "So, I see you've brought everything I told you to." Amelia states after she's dragged Grayson into her bedroom. There are three other people in there: the boy who answered the door, a tanned girl with dark hair, and Zac Fletcher from English.

"Yo, my man Grayson!" Zac grins up at him from the floor where he's sitting. He doesn't wave, because his hands are too busy braiding the girl's hair.

"Is this that boy you were talking about earlier? The cute one from English?" The girl has a Spanish accent, sounding like the girls from Orange is the New Black. Grayson feels his cheeks tinge pink, and he doesn't miss Amelia's blush creeping into her face, either.

"Yeah, this is him. Grayson, meet Sophia Terrence. Sophia, meet Grayson."

"Nice to meet you." Grayson's voice polite, and Sophia nods as a reply.

"Stay still, woman, I'm trying to braid here!" Zac snaps, tugging on the pieces of hair he's holding. Sophia winces but doesn't say anything.

"He looks like a lost puppy, Mia." The dark skinned boy says, smiling at Grayson as though he's amused. Grayson shifts uncomfortably, which only makes the boy grin wider.

The boy is really attractive, Grayson observes.

"Shush, Adam. He's adorable." Amelia says, waving a hand dismissively. The boy - Adam - shrugs and flops onto the bed.

Grayson watches them all from his place leaning against the door frame.

Zac braids, Sophia scrolls through her news feed on her phone, Adam grins at him every now and again like he knows, and Amelia changes the song playing in the background every few lyrics.

So this is what it's like to have friends, Grayson thinks. He's never had many of those, other than Ray, who can be overbearing sometimes and a complete ass other times.

Grayson realises in this moment that these people will probably end up being his friends now, Amelia and her little cluster of social butterflies.

The thought makes him grin.