Falling in the Dark | ✓

23 | Bruise

My phone chimes with a text. I turn it face-up on the shiny tabletop with my left hand, the other clutching a fork of mac-and-cheese midair. Felix's name flashes across the screen, his text popping up underneath.

Hey.

The three girls sitting around me in our booth at The Blacktop are immersed in conversation, fastidiously swapping details about their last-minute Christmas present shopping. Well, Karah and Astrid are immersed in the conversation while Vera just looks on with the same tired expression she's been wearing ever since she returned from meeting her friend this afternoon. Memories of the phone conversation I overheard are still fresh in my mind, and so is the terror of almost getting caught red-handed with Liam.

Judging by the cloudiness in her bloodshot eyes, I suspect pizza wasn't the only thing she, and her friends, had had for lunch. But I can't bring myself to say anything because every time I try to speak to her, my throat dries up, and I find myself flailing for words.

Chewing my lip, I look down at her empty plate of early dinner. The ceramic surface is carrying a few traces of the spaghetti dish that Vera had scarfed down the moment the plate landed in front of her twenty minutes ago.

My attention returns to my phone when it bleeps with another text. Felix again.

What's up?

"And you? Carmen?"

I look up. Astrid is peering at me from across the table, her eyes glinting like sapphires under the glare of the lights hanging above. Her eyelids are lined with dramatic dark green eyeliner to match her chunky sweater. She and Karah are watching me hopefully, expectantly.

I flip my phone facedown, deciding to reply to Felix later, and shake my head. "Sorry, what . . . ?"

"We were asking if you both got tickets for the charity concert this weekend," Karah puts in as Astrid absently twirls her finger around one of her girlfriend's purple strands of hair.

"Oh. No," I say just as Vera snorts and mutters, "I'm broke."

"Well," Astrid pauses, exchanging an excited glance with Karah. She brandishes two rectangular pieces of glossy paper covered in bold, graffiti-style print. Beaming, she holds it out to Vera and me.

"Surprise!"

I give a small gasp as understanding dawns on me. Vera takes hold of one of the passes and studies it carefully, tilting it this way and that.

"But you shouldn't have!" I say, meeting the two girls' expectant gazes. "These are expensive."

Karah waves my reluctance away with her hand. "Consider it our Christmas present to you."

I open my mouth to protest, mentally calculating the vast difference between the simple presents I'd gotten for the two girls and their extravagant gift for me. But Vera cuts in, grinning as she thanks them profusely.

"And speaking of Christmas presents," Karah adds, leaning across the table, "we're doing some last-minute shopping before exams this Friday. Want to come with?"

Vera turns to me questioningly.

"Can't." I shake my head. "The concert's on Saturday, so I need to cram as much as possible on Friday and Sunday."

Astrid nods sympathetically. "What kind of sadist thought to have exams right before Christmas break, anyway?"

We roll our eyes and groan in agreement.

"I'll go, though," Vera says, raising her hand as though she's volunteering to answer a teacher's question. "I still need to buy my boyfriend a present. I have no fucking clue what to get."