Breaking the Fourth Wall

Ch. 6 It's Pretty Much My Job To Give All Your Little Boyfriends Hell

Bailey's POV

As I hurried out of that completely awkward situation, I sighed. I glanced back over my shoulder, witnessing what appeared to be Iris interrogating Connor.

I hope Iris likes Connor, I thought worriedly. She seemed really irritated when Connor implied that our friendship is based off of the fact that we live together. I know he was just trying to make conversation, it just came out sounding a certain way...

"Great. I really wanted them to get along, and look how that turned out!" I muttered angrily to myself.

Nobody seemed to pay any attention to my crazy self-talk, thankfully, as I stepped onto Slate Drive. I shoved my hands into the pockets of my faded blue jeans and shuffled down the street.

At least I had froyo to look forward to. Cold desserts always made my day.

As I pushed open the door to Amara's Frozen Yogurt on Slate Drive, the bell jingled. I ordered a caramel frozen yogurt for myself, and a toffee apple one for Ris.

And that's when I realized that leaving my crush with my best friend, who, quite frankly, did not seem to like Connor at all, was probably a very bad idea. Shielding Iris' froyo from the sun with one hand and trying to eat mine as I ran down Slate proved to be a terrible idea, which I learned the hard way as I tripped unceremoniously, and dropped my froyo into the gutter.

I stared disappointedly at my froyo, which was trickling down the drain. Luckily, Iris' had been shielded, and had only spilled a few drops into my arm. I cursed angrily at my dropped froyo, and licked my arm in a very unladylike fashion. Not that anyone was around to see it. I wasn't gonna waste any more froyo today, that was for sure.

Wow. Toffee apple is GOOD, I thought hungrily as I leisurely walked towards the park.

I took my time. For one thing, my arm was sticky now, and the humidity was making my hair frizzy.

Shplat!

I looked down and immediately made a noise of disgust. There was brown gunk all over my shoe.

And considering the fourteen-year-old walking a Jack Russell terrier had just looked apologetically at me, I had a pretty fair guess what it was that I had stepped in. With a big sigh, I rubbed my shoe on the grass and gave the kid and his dog an awkward smile and moved on.

"Best day ever," I grumbled sarcastically, coming in sight of Iris and Connor.

Iris immediately stopped talking as I moved closer. Since I was paying so much attention to Iris and Connor's conversation, I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking.

Which meant I didn't see the giant, knobby brown stick blocking my path.

Which I abruptly tripped over, sending me sprawling onto the ground. I looked up and brushed my frizzy red hair out of my face, spitting out a wad of slick wet grass, roots, and earth that had been shoved into my mouth upon impact. I glared at the stick.

"This is all your fault," I told it bitterly, frowning comically.

And now I'm talking to inanimate objects. Just great, I thought flatly, glancing up at Iris and Connor, who were about two feet away and had witnessed my spectacular fall. I propped my face up and very unhappily spit out more dirt. Disgusting.

Iris doubled over laughing and began rolling on the ground. Connor looked at me with wide eyes as he rushed over to help me up, but I could tell he was trying not to laugh too.

"Thanks," I breathed out, taking his outstretched hand and pulling myself up.

By this time, Iris still hadn't stopped laughing.