Unexpected

12

Stacey's house was as familiar to me as my own was. I knew every nook and cranny, where Stacey's mom stored her favourite expensive chocolate bars, where Stacey's brother and his friends kept their weed stash, exactly which steps to walk on that didn't creek for when we were coming home late from a party. I'd spent at least as much time at Stacey's as I had my own house growing up, our parents alternating who got to deal with the sugared-up pre-tweens on a Friday night.

            That was why it felt so weird to feel awkward walking up to her house. Stacey and I had never kept anything from each other, we both could read each other too well for either of us to be successful in hiding anything for too long. Now here I was sitting on the mountain of all secrets and I felt guilty about doing it. Stacey would die to hear all about Josh, and I knew she'd be supportive and call him a jerk at the right spots in my story. That wasn't the problem, the problem was that it felt like everything would become real if I talked about. That meant I really would've lost Josh, and that he really had a date with someone who wasn't me.

            "Katie!" Stacey bellowed, jogging down her front steps to meet me halfway down her driveway. Her strawberry blonde hair was woven into a fishtail braid that hung halfway down her back, her freckles had multiplied across her nose and her skin had turned a caramel brown. She looked gorgeous, but that was nothing new.

            "Stace!" I cried, trying and failing to match her enthusiasm.

            "That was lame! C'mon aren't you so happy to see me?" Stacey taunted, hooking her arm with mine and leading us out of the cold into her warm foyer.

            "Of course, I'm happy you're back Stacey," I replied, trying my hardest to infuse sincerity in my statement. Of course, I was happy Stacey was back, but if I was being truthful, I would've liked a few more days to sit around and mope.

            "Tonight is going to be so much fun!" One of the things I appreciated most about Stacey was her ability to move on, unlike me she wasn't one to dwell on things for more than a second. Instead of questioning me about what was bothering me, she chose instead to refocus our attention elsewhere.

            "Who's coming?"

            "The whole team," The silent duh was implied and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her. "Mom and dad are letting us have the basement tonight, Tyler and his friends have to use the den." She said gleefully, and I understood why. Being a younger sibling myself, it was always fun to get the upper hand on your older siblings and in this case Stacey had somehow managed to get the basement which Tyler always seemed to manage to get. I could picture the unhappy look on his face when he was told he and his friends would have to move to the smaller and much less private den on the main floor.

            "How'd you manage that?" I asked, eager to be distracted from the thoughts circulating through my head.

            "He got caught with a girl in his room in Florida," She replied with a wide grin. Tyler getting caught had actually probably been a by-product of Stacey's meddling, as her parents unlike mine didn't make a habit of constantly checking up on their kids. As long as Stacey and Tyler were seen for breakfast and dinner they were pretty much free to do whatever they wanted while their parents remained blissfully unaware.

            "How mad was he?"

            "Mad? More like embarrassed! Both he and beach girl were missing most of their clothes!"

            "Oh jeez! Poor Tyler!" I commiserated, easily able to picture Stacey's older brother with a dark blush staining his naturally pale complexion.