We keep asking questions and it’s going surprisingly well. That is, until we talk about favorite colors.
‘Mine’s green,’ Florence tells us, earning a few ‘No shit’s and ‘We know’s.
‘Wasn’t Ricky’s favorite color green?’ Liam, the idiot, says.
‘Dude?’ Even Jamie seems ridiculously close to snapping at him and he’s the only reason we’re friends with him. You see, Jamie and Liam grew up together and my friend insists Liam didn’t use to be such an idiot. The rest of us simply try to tolerate him, even after what went down.
‘What? I just remembered it. Why am I not allowed to bring her up? She used to hang out with us all the time back when Elija was doing her.’
‘Yo!’ a few of my friends say in outrage but Liam decides to keep playing dumb. I have my fists balled and teeth gritted at how he makes me sound. Ricky and I dated for a month before we ever shared a kiss and now my ‘friend’ is here, making it sound like she was some sort of booty call.
Not that that’s a bad thing, I just don’t want Florence to get the wrong impression about me.
‘Okay, okay, I get it. We’re playing innocent for his new chick now,’ he adds with an infuriating smile.
‘If I were you, I’d really shut the fuck up now,’ I advise him. I don’t even have to look at Florence to know she’s probably regretting making every choice that led her here.
‘Geez, alright,’ Liam says as if I were the annoying one. I look to my right to see Benji holding another J my way but I shake my head. I want to stay sober so I can leave when things go south and preferably take Florence with me. I’m sure as fuck not going to drive under the influence, much less with her in the car.
Jamie is quick to start up a new conversation and once I took a few deep breaths to calm down, I risk a glance at the girl next to him. She’s drumming something on her leg again, something I’ve noticed her doing whenever she’s stressed. It makes my blood boil all over again. I hate that we’ve made her uncomfortable.
For the next twenty minutes, Liam keeps making subtle comments everyone picks up on. Most of them include a certain girl that isn’t present.
‘Is it too late to try your weed?’ Florence asks Benji at some point, making everyone’s head turn her way.
‘No,’ Benji tells her at the same time as I say, ‘Yes.’
‘Dude?’ Benji asks me.
‘She’s not smoking weed,’ I say firmly. My behavior is only one more thing to scare her off, I guess, but there’s nothing left to lose anyway. I’m sure as soon as she’s away from us she’ll stay gone. I hate that thought but I don’t blame her.
‘It’s my weed. If she wants to try it, she can.’
‘No, she can’t,’ I force through gritted teeth, hating the way I must come across. I don’t want her to think I’m a controlling ass but I know she’d regret it if she smoked now. This is not the right environment to be high for the first time and I don’t want her to end up having a bad trip.
‘I’m right here,’ Florence speaks up softly. Something like pride settles in my chest as I hear the slight edge in her voice. I want her to stand up for herself.
‘Have you ever tried it before?’ I ask her, knowing the answer even before she shakes her head.
‘See? Benji, you know how strong your stuff is.’
‘Maybe he’s right,’ Benji tells Florence softly. Even in the dark, I can tell her breathing is growing a bit more shallow. It’s a slight change but it tells me all I need to know. I’m taking her home now.
Just as I’m about to offer her a ride, Liam opens his mouth again.
‘Ricky told me she smoked for the first time with you.’ That’s it. I was already too agitated but that was just one comment too much.
‘Yeah? Was that before or after you fucked her on my birthday?’ I snap. The jerk has the audacity to laugh.
‘Chill, bro. I told you I didn’t know you two were dating.’ Such a liar.
‘The party was at my house. There was a picture of us on my bedside table.’
‘To be fair, I wasn’t looking at your furniture.’ He still has that smug expression on his face and the last of my restrain slips through my fingers. I try to jump at him, my arm cocked for a hit, but Orion and Marcus are holding me back before I can do any damage. They speak softly to me, trying to get me to calm down. I can hardly hear them over the blood rushing in my ears.
‘Elija, you’re scaring Flo,’ Orion finally whispers. I drop my hand. Maybe it was the fact that he called her Flo and not Lorence or her name is simply enough for me to get a grip on it. Either way, I take three deep breaths before looking at her. She’s looking at the floor, her leg jumping, her hands drumming and her chest falling and rising with too quick breaths.
‘I’m taking you home,’ I tell her, hating the way it comes out as a demand rather than an offer. This whole situation is messed up.
‘You don’t have to do that,’ she answers softly, not meeting my eyes. Meanwhile, it’s all I can do not to start cursing myself for stressing her out.
‘Please, Florence. Let me take you home,’ I try again. This time, she nods a few times before getting up.
‘Bye guys,’ she says when we reach the door of the shed.
‘Goodnight, Flower girl,’ Jamie says with a warm smile. She smiles back as the other say goodbye only for the façade to drop as soon as the door closes behind us.
‘Sorry that I snapped like that in there. For Liam’s behavior too but mostly for mine. Are you okay?’ I ask her on our way to my car. The cool air is really helping me to calm down. Therefore clearing my mind enough for me to feel even worse.
‘Yeah, don’t worry about it.’ She’s less than convincing and I hate the fake smile she tries to sell me. I’m sure I’ve done enough tonight though so I won’t call her out on it.
While I’m driving to her place, I rack my brain for some topic to break the tense silence. I come out empty-handed and insanely frustrated.
‘I’m sorry about Ricky. I don’t know anything about it but her sleeping with one of your best friends is really shitty. From both of them,’ Florence says quietly. She’s still tapping her fingers and I notice it’s always the same rhythm.
‘Liam’s not really my friend. I try to tolerate him because he and Jamie used to be close but we’re not friends,’ I clarify.
‘Well, either way. I’m sorry.’ I’d tell her not to apologize again but I’m done ordering her around for the night. ‘When’s your birthday?’ she asks after a moment of silence.
‘November 14th. Yours?’
‘April 30th.’
‘A Taurus, then.’ I chuckle but it’s mainly so she finally looks at me. It works. She turns my way with a slight blush on her cheeks and a curious expression.
‘You’re into astrology?’ she asks me.
‘A bit. I kind of grew up with it because of my mom so I know the facts. Don’t ask me what the combination of your different planets and the signs they were in when you were born means though. You’d have to ask my mom about stuff like that.’ I risk another quick glance at her and instantly know she didn’t understand a single thing I said. She’s looking at me as if I spoke French or something.
‘Right, I’ll keep it in mind. Wait you said November? That’s Sagittarius, right? My aunt’s birthday was in November and she used to joke about shooting me with an arrow if I didn’t eat my vegetables,’ she says with a faraway look in her eyes. I didn’t miss the fact that she spoke of her aunt in the past tense.
‘Her birthday must’ve been after the 21st. I’m a Scorpio,’ I tell her.
Florence simply nods absently and though I’m disappointed to have lost you there, I’m glad she’s calmed down a bit.
