Seasons Change

19.

Chapter 19.
There are certain things in life that you need a girl friend for, and getting ready for a dance is one of them. Seriously, trying to get ready for a dance alone is akin to performing brain surgery or attempting to scale Mount Everest. Okay, so maybe it wasn't quite that drastic, but it honestly felt pretty close.

Now my first ever college semester was over, my finals finished, and I was going to a dance with Luke--the first dance we'd been to together in years. And we were still in that awkward, hanging out as friends phae where I kept wondering, 'Are we, or aren't we, a couple?'. It was completely overwhelming.

Which was why I found myself calling in reinforcements the morning of the dance, after practically shoving Luke out the door and instructing him to hang out with Dylan while I got ready for the dance and did "girly things."

The phone rang only twice before Madison picked up, her voice chipper as she answered. "What's up?"

"Madison, hi," I said, heaving a sigh of relief. "Are you busy? I'm trying to get ready for the dance, and I could really use a girl friend right now."

On the other end of the line, I could practically hear the smile splitting Madison's face. "Does this have anything to do with a certain handsome young gentleman that's staying in your room?"

"It might," I hedged. "Plus Kelsey usually helped me with my hair and makeup before dances, so I'm in over my head here."

"Okay, well, why don't you bring your dress to my apartment, and we can get ready there? That way, we don't have to worry about your she-devil roommate tormenting us."

"Thank you," I said. "You're a lifesaver."

After a quick goodbye to Madison, I hung up the phone and walked over to my closet, pulling out the garment bag that held the dress I had bought with Dylan. I found a pair of strappy black heels to match it, then headed over to Madison's apartment.

When I got there, I headed up the stairs to Madison's second floor apartment, knocking gently on the door.

"It's open," she called, so I pushed the door open, walking in and draping my dress across the chair.

Madison was sitting at the kitchen table, her face covered in a pea green face mask, carefully arranging a very extensive nail polish collection on the table.

"Lilly, hey," she said, smiling up at me. "I figured we could start with face masks, and then mani pedis. As you can see, I already had a head start when you called, but we'll get you caught up in no time."

Once my face had been smeared with the cool green goop, Madison instantly started in with the girl talk.

"So, what's going on with you and Luke?" she asked, arching her eyebrow suggestively. "Are you two getting back together?"

I shrugged, feeling a pang of frustration at the uncertainty of it all. "I don't know," I admitted. "We've been spending some time together, yes, but we haven't really discussed it. Honestly, it's really confusing. I'm not even sure if anything could work out between us. He lives in Ohio now, and I'm in Florida. We're at completely different places in life."

Madison pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Okay, well, let me ask you this: do you want things to work out between the two of you?"

Again, I shrugged, feeling more than a little foolish to admit that I had no idea what I wanted. "I've liked hanging out with him again," I admitted. "I was feeling pretty isolated when I first started college, and reconnecting with Luke has helped ease that somewhat. But I'm not sure if that's just because Luke and I have history together, and we're good friends, or if it means I still have feelings for him. I'm just so confused."