Falling for the unloveable

An errand for a friend

Iris:

After ten minutes of begging and a promise of letting him pick the next movie we watch, Jake agrees to letting them put the face mask on him.
"Iris has to do it though because I don't trust you two to not put it all over my face" i freeze mid way through the door frame, on my way to grab a beer, before I'm ushered over to Jake.

"I was on my way to get a beer" i complain.
"Tough shit" with my most unimpressed face plastered on I start to coat his face in the mask.
"Sorry" he mumbles after a minute of me messing with his face. Stepping away from him I nod. "You look like a bird shit on you" throwing the insult back in his face I laugh when he scowls at me. "Not funny" Jake shoots back before an arm wraps around my shoulders and someone leans their weight on me.
"I thought it was very funny" Mal backs me up with a charming smile.

Jake doesn't say anything more, he simply deepens his scowl making Mal laugh. Her forehead falls against my temple as her body shakes with uncontrolled giggles. A smile of my own appears as I wrap an arm around her back, to embrace my friend. "Don't forget about me!" Kim shouts as she races across the room and throws herself into our hug. I grimace at the force hitting my stomach but cover it up with a laugh before one of the boys see it.

"You know what would make this moment even better?" Kim asks, squeezing her short arms even tighter around the both of us while she looks up with a sparkle in her eye that not everyone has. "A beer?"
"No, music!" Purity radiates off of my small friend who giggles, watching our other friend rush over to her phone.

"Boys get out!"
"But-" Malcolm begins to whine.
"No this is a girls night you can allow us to listen to one song on our own before you crash the rest of our night" with hands planted on her hips Kim dares the boys, with her eyes, to disobey her. They know better than to do so.

"Fine we are leaving" Malcolm huffs, dragging his feet to the door with the rest of them following, Jake never loses his frown as he sulks out of the room with his fresh face mask intact while elias smirks and even dares to wink at me as he exits the room. If I was as smart as he was smug, I'd be the new Einstein. Aidan doesn't make any fuss as he is happy to leave after one last longing look toward Mal who is oblivious as always.

"Please don't put some terrible song on" a mischievous smirk is all I receive in response and not a second later Taylor Swift is blaring through the speakers. 'New Romantics' bursts through my eardrums. "We're all bored, we're all so tired of everything!" Mal screams with the cheesiest, brightest smile I rarely see her wear.

"We wait for trains that just aren't coming!" Kim yells just as loud down my other ear as she too makes the sun seem dull compared to her smile.
"We show off our different Scarlett letters, trust me mine is better" They keep low, singing to the lyrics that they have perfectly memorised. Mal swipes a hairbrush from her desk and throws it to Kim who catches it with ease. She sings the next lyrics with the new prop placed at her lips. Then Mal grabs another brush to use as her own microphone and a tv remote is thrown to me.

I manage to catch it with the tips of my fingers before Kim pulls me onto the bed where Mal is standing, adorning a pair of shades that seem to have appeared out of thin air. We stand in a line across the bed with shades and a microphone each, just in time for the beat to drop.
"Cause baby I could build a castle!"
"Out of all the bricks they threw at me!"
"And ever day is like a battle" I mumble with loud encouragement from both girls.

"But every night with us is like a dream!" We synchronise our voices, jumping on the bed like little kids and acting like we are in one of Taylor's music videos. Mal flips her hair and dances to the beat as it changes, Kim transforms to a whole other person that has the confidence most of us dream of having and I, well I enjoy acting like a teenager with no real problems. I can sing as loud as I want and dance as weirdly as I like with no consequences because in this moment I'm just a teenage girl whose worst worry is what she's going to wear tomorrow. At least I am for now, while I'm safely hidden from the actual world.