DELICATE / Brandon Darrow

five

five
don't keep secrets
FIRST PERSON

"YOU GUYS CAN'T GO tonight," Brie told us. "Tell me you're not meeting up with him."

Rowan looked at us; she was afraid to admit it. She needed to go but she was afraid.

"We're not going," Rowan answered. "Of course not."

"You need to tell dad, Ro," Brie instructed her. "Promise?" Her sister gave her a serious look.

"Yeah," Rowan agreed.

Brie nodded then when up to Hailey. "You: be nice to my sister, I don't need her crying into her pillow every night again."

"Thanks," with that, Rowan grabbed her phone and left.

♡

We all got out of Hailey's car and Rowan started to walk away really fast.

"Rowan," Hailey called. "Wait up."

We all ran towards Rowan who stopped for us.

"So, are you two friends or not?" Elisia asked, catching on to the unfinished tension between them that was actually beginning to annoy me.

"We were best-friends," Rowan answered. "Always," looking at Hailey.

"I met new people," Hailey shrugged. "Like, Cynthia's cousin, it's no big deal," she pointed towards me.

"You used to make so much fun of Nicki," Rowan muttered in disbelief. "And Brandon, and Sean," she looked at me when she said that.

"They're cool," Hailey defended. "Get over it."

Those harsh words made me feel for Rowan as I saw the hurt in her eyes.

"We always said we wanted to meet more people," Hailey continued. "Wanted girls like Nicki to like us."

Rowan just nodded in disbelief.

"She's nice, I swear," Hailey defended.

"No, she's not," Rowan stated; which was true.

"She's definitely not nice," Elisia added, chuckling a bit.

"I doubt she even knows who you are," Hailey snapped.

"Sorry, Hailey, but I agree. She's a bitch," I agreed.

"Maybe you did something to her," Hailey said to me. Realizing what had came out her mouth, she tried to back herself up. "She is nice...to me, at least."

Rowan held out her hand. "Do you even remember?" She asked Hailey.

That's when they started to do a handshake. They were smiling and laughing.

"See ya," Elisia interrupted.

"Wait, wait, wait," Rowan repeated loudly. "I meant to ask you: where do you live?"

Elisia looked at her once before answering. "I stay with my cousin."

Oh, yeah, Jake, I thought.