Erin, Aaron, and Grace

Chapter 1: Erin 11/16/19

Erin was feeling pretty okay. Not great, but she rarely felt great. Okay was a good medium.

Noah was in town, and she hadn't seen him in a few months, so seeing him tonight would be great.

And then her phone pinged, announcing the arrival of a Snapchat. Aaron. She sighed. Noah's older brother, who she didn't really know what to do with anymore. She'd liked him for a while, and then she didn't really know. But he liked her, he liked her a lot, and that felt kind of good, who was she kidding?

She unlocked her phone, but her thumb hovered over the message instead of opening it.

She'd tried to ghost him recently, that hadn't worked because he'd called her on it, so they'd ended up hanging out again. But he would know something was weird if she didn't answer, Erin didn't want that. She opened the message.

'Heard Noah was going to be at your pace, he told me I should invite myself over lol.'

Well that was a little ballsy of him, but of course he wanted to come over.

'IDK, they're probably going to be here really late.'

Aaron took a moment to respond. Maybe he wouldn't come, which would be better for everyone. It had gotten hard to look at him and remember what they'd done.

'That's okay, I was thinking of coming to the harvest dinner at church tonight, so I'll be in the area.'

'Okay.' Erin responded, sighing. He just didn't get it. Apparently not flirting with him anymore wasn't enough for him to realize she didn't like him. Erin was accustomed to guy's liking her though, so it wasn't too surprising.

She looked up into her bedroom mirror, smiling at her perfectly done space buns and makeup, satisfied by the glitter of her many different piercings catching the light.

Aaron was typing, he took his time responding.

Ping.

She opened his message.

'I have someone with me, is that going to be a problem?'

Someone? What did someone mean? A girl. Someone meant a girl, or he would've said friend.

Erin typed quickly and angrily.

'We're just friends.'

Aaron responded to that fast.

'I was just asking in case it bothered you.'

A second message from him appeared on her screen.

'And I know we're just friends.'

It did bother her. It bothered her a lot. They were so close just a few months ago, she's told him everything, secrets she hadn't even told her family. She glanced down at the scars on her bare legs, and pulled her over sized t-over them.

She left him on read.

*

Erin was chatting up her guy friends in a side room adjacent to the fellowship hall in the church. They were supposed to be putting pie on individual plastic plates, but they were mostly goofing off. Why couldn't it be like this forever? Why did people like Aaron want more?

Just the group of them, hanging out like always, a little flirting for fun, nothing serious. No growing up.

Erin felt Aaron and the 'someone' walk in before she saw them. She heard Aaron greet his brother, but she didn't turn around to look at him.

She knew what the girl looked like now, she'd tagged Aaron in a picture of them together, looking suspiciously like they were on a date. Her name was Grace Hughes, and she wasn't very impressive.