Fraternizing with the Enemy

26 // On a Spectrum of Okay Are You Matilda or Macaulay?

   "OKAY, you're gonna have to explain this to me one more time, and why can't I go on a date with Reese? What possible reason could keep me away from him?" Eva asked for the millionth time, sprawled across my bed and staring me down with narrowed eyes. "I was born for this, Stella. Born."

    I sighed, again, aimlessly searching through the Netflix selection as I had been for the past fifteen minutes with no hope of actual movie-watching on the horizon, and rolled my eyes at her. We'd had this exact conversation at least five times since I'd brought it up to them, and it seemed a sixth was becoming inevitable.

     Savannah with her baby blue tank-top and thoughtlessly perfect bun was lounging in the computer chair, flipping through a fashion magazine. She met my eye with the ghost of a smirk when Eva gave another unimpressed huff, but made no effort to save me.

     I continued button-smashing the remote, looking over to see Eva's cherry-stained pout. "Because you said that you have to babysit on Friday. Meaning you have other affairs, and you should count yourself so lucky. I'm sure hanging out with Satan incarnate is the last thing Savannah wants to do, and is only doing it because she's such a great friend."

     Savannah saluted. "Just doing my job."

     "If it's so terrible, let me go!" Eva wailed, ignoring the blonde and rolling over onto her back with flailing limbs. "Four year olds can basically handle themselves. Matilda did it. It happens."

     I snorted, cocking a brow. "Matilda also had magical powers."

     "I'm telling you, something is up with Santiago. If anything, I bet he'd be able to Home Alone it fine without me. Let me go. It is my destiny to go on this date, Sandavol! Do you want to stand in the way of destiny?" She looked up at me with big, blinking eyes in a way that I'm sure she thought was convincing.

     I shot her a deadpan look. "I don't think Macaulay Culkin is anywhere close to okay."

     What I had failed to tell her was that I'd specifically chosen Friday so that it seemed merely a coincidence that Savannah was the one that had to go, but it definitely was nowhere close to that. It was all strategically planned, so Savannah was forced to go and Reese would be appeased enough that my private notebook stayed exactly that- private. And Eva, who was none the wiser, had taken this as a personal attack against her very being and continued to fight it with everything she had, because this was Eva, and of course.

     Which- rude. I was saving all of us. Mostly myself. But in the grander scheme of things- all of us.

     "Eva Powers, are you trying to tell me that doesn't sound amazing? Are you trying to tell me that it wasn't meant to be?" she continued on, unrelenting, ignoring my voice of reason as she usually did.

     "It's not even about us, it's about Stella and Tyler," Savannah interjected, shooting me a small smile. "We should be more focused on that, yeah?"

     I beamed at the blonde, already feeling the excitement rush through my veins even though the double date was a day away, I could barely contain myself. It had constantly been lingering in the back of my mind every time I caught Reese's eye or while I stared at the back of Tyler's head in geography. The surreal fact had been plaguing my thoughts, but it had been increasingly harder to forget that Savannah was also being brought along.

     The idea of Reese and Savannah actually having a conversation with one another was becoming way too real for me in ways that did not make me happy.

     "We already know that they're going to be happily ever after- that's not the problem. The problem is I'm spending my Friday night watching The Wiggles and you guys are getting some sweet, sweet ass," Eva whined, mouth twisting into a melodramatic frown.