Wrong Side Of The Bed

42 | we're all tangled up.

"You two are more entertaining than Netflix shows," Lucas commented simply. I gasped out loud.

"You guys are even more dramatic than I am," She replied. Lucas bellowed. Walter laughed too, and my world stopped around her. Clad in a gorgeous baby pink off-shoulder top with ruffled sleeves and a sinfully tempting neckline, I knew from when Walter walked in that she was intending to tease me. At her neck hung a simple gold pendant, and she paired the outfit with an off-white mini skirt that offered me a nice look at her legs. And just now, she was taking advantage of her beauty as she shrewdly trailed her heel against the shin of my leg, a move extremely tactfully casual because now I couldn’t seem to focus on anything other than her. I swallowed audibly, and that chalked out a coy smile on her face. My little coquette.

“I, uh, yeah,” I said unintelligibly, trying hard to think of a clever response to her comment but Walter knew that I was in the palm of her hand as she leaned forward and offered just a fleeting glimpse of her collarbone and the side of her neck before she shuffled comfortably against me again. My heart thumped. The smile on her face widened.

“He seems to agree,” Walter proclaimed with a naughty, proud smile on her face. She turned to face Lucas, with a careless shrug of her shoulder. “Record this time, Lucas. To the very T. Because not only is your best friend at a complete loss of words, but he also agreed to the fact that he was more dramatic than me.”

“Seduction.” Lucas sighed. “I remember when I had those days too.”

“Yeah, I don’t really wanna hear about it,” Walter said scrunching up her face. “Anyway, what are your plans for prom, Lucas? Who are you going with?”

“I am thinking of going with Estelle,” Lucas said, nodding his head.

“Why?” I inquired. “Estelle thinking of changing teams or something?”

That earned me a snicker from Lucas and an elbow in the ribs from Walter. I pretended to be gravely hurt by her attack, and she was smiling - her smile as beautiful as reading Neruda’s poetry by the windowsill on a sunny day - and I wanted to stay right here in this moment, with a smiling Walter in my arms and my best friend, unscathed and whole, beside me. To keep that smile on her face forever, I’d take a lifetime of elbows in my ribs without any regrets. Lucas gave me an eye roll before returning to thumb through his Instagram feed.

I caught Walter looking at me fondly, a smile on her face as pretty as the shade of wine staining her mouth. I brushed against the corner of her mouth with my thumb, my hand holding the side of her face. I stroked her cheek absent-mindedly. “A penny for your thoughts, Walter?”

“Only a penny?” She smirked into my palm. Somewhere out on the field, the coach screamed at a poor player. Lucas cursed under his breath, his gaze set longingly and intently on the field out there. “My thoughts are worth millions, if not billions of dollars.”

“Okay, a billion dollars for your thoughts then,” I said, and she laughed. “What’s got you so occupied?”

“No, just thinking,” Walter mused. I fished out a piece of blue paper from my breast pocket and folded it. “I forgot to tell you, but I have an important soiree to attend tomorrow. A family friend thing.” She stretched her arms forward, the smooth skin and taut muscles glistening in the sun. “But ugh, believe it or not, despite all the perfectly done mocktails, it’s always so incredibly boring.”

I folded it in half, quietly working on it until I had made it into a little paper flower. “Then, here’s a crazy idea.” I gently threaded my index finger through her bangs to make way for my paper flower, and in one swift motion, it was there, the pale blue paper flower tucked behind Walter’s eyes, bringing out the obsidian of her hair. God, she was pretty. “Don’t go.”