30 Day Trial Period

4.7 Parker

PARKER

Being around Lizzie made me forget to breathe, which meant I spent several minutes of the day lightheaded and with the skin tone of a Smurf. We sat in the waiting room, going through optometry magazines and vaguely watching an afternoon talk show playing in the corner. An older man across from us snored softly as he completely melted inside the one leather couch in the waiting room. Every now and then, he'd snore so loud, he'd wake himself up and I'd have to hide behind my hand to laugh.

"We still need to find ten people for the chorus," Lizzie reminded me like a lasso that pulled me back to reality.

I nodded. "Yeah, we exhausted our school for people and Mrs. Donnelly already roped some of the production department into it."

Lizzie perked up. "Oh my god. Are you—?"

"God no!" I staged whispered. "No one wants me ruining the chorus. There has to be something else we can do. Like maybe we should make posters and hang them by the community theater."

"But we only have a week. We need ten people and we need them now."

With a sigh, I slid down my seat and took out my phone. I replied to a few texts, getting bored and decided to peruse Instagram, clicking through a few stories and checking out my feed. There was a DM from Emily, but I still hadn't replied to her original text message. I had already hurt her so much and I didn't enjoy thinking about how I needed to do it again.

"You follow Miss Patty?" Lizzie asked, glancing over at my phone.

I snatched it out of view. "Um, young lady, it's not proper phone etiquette to snoop on someone's phone."

"Sorry." She raised her hands. "We never covered that during the trial."

I chuckled. "That trial. I can't believe we did that."

"You said that like it happened years ago. It's barely been a couple of days." Lizzie rolled her eyes. I missed that eye roll. Her voice. Her face. I was weak.

"How did I ever get you to agree to do it? When you hated me so much?"

"I didn't hate you. You were annoying and an egomaniac, but I didn't hate you."

"I was annoying? You didn't hate me? Is that still the truth? You don't think those things now?"

"No."

I looked into her eyes, feeling a spark appear in the cold dungeon where my heart lived. A fire was trying to ignite, and I wanted to let it burn. Leaning in carefully, I touched Lizzie's arm. But I barely moved an inch closer when Jordan's voice shattered the moment and Lizzie jumped up and out of reach. Damn.

"Hey, guys! Look!" Jordan pointed at his eyes. "Contacts! They're letting me wear contacts! I can't believe it!"

"Believe it," the nurse who accompanied him said. She chuckled a little and motioned him towards the lobby. "Go ahead and pick out a frame with your friends, then we can start the process of making them."

"When will his glasses be ready?" Lizzie asked, in full mom-friend mode.

"In just a few days."

"Perfect."

"Who cares!" Jordan exclaimed and ran around the office. "I get to wear contacts! Holy crap, Parker! You've got like a million freckles! Whoa! The carpet in here is so weird looking. There's a stain there! Can you see it? Cause I can see it."