She's Too Naive

Chapter 20

"I can't believe you like Josh." I broke the silence that had engulfed all us girls. Ever since Lee and Lynn started fighting, there was a rift that formed between the guys and the girls in our group. We hadn't all hung out together in a long time.

"I know," Ara sniffed. "It's so bad, but it just happened."

"You poor thing," Lynn muttered, giving Ara a sympathetic look. In all our time of knowing Josh, not once had we ever see him try and settle down. He wasn't one of those guys that went and slept with a bunch of girls, that's disgusting, but he was definitely flirtatious. He went on dates, but usually got bored after a while and broke it off before anything really began.

Josh was genuinely a good guy, he didn't enjoy hurting girls but deep down he just couldn't commit to anyone yet. He was too indecisive. Ara had apparently been crushing on Josh for a while now, but wasn't quite ready to accept it.

"I feel like I should tell him," Ara said, rubbing her forehead with the palm of her hand.

"No, no. Bad idea," Abbey intervened and the rest of us agreed quickly. "That'll just make things more awkward. If you let it alone it should pass."

 "I never thought I would say this, but it appears that Ellie has the best love life out of all of us," Lynn said, changing the focus to me.

"Love? Who said anything about that. What Rosen and I have is pretty casual, don't forget that," I replied, pointing the fork I was using to eat my watermelon with at her. Lynn rolled her eyes at my response

."You guys are cute together. I think once you explore each other a little better then it'll become something more than casual. One day you'll suddenly be like BOOM I love him, and then passionately kiss," She said, making us all laugh.

"Oh yeah? Is that how it worked with you and Lee?" Ara asked, treading on dangerous waters. We all hesitated, wondering if Lynn would crawl in on herself after the comment.

"No, Lee and I always loved each other. We just had a love that grew with us over the years," Lynn said with a small smile. We all internally sighed in relief that she didn't get upset.

"That's why you guys are going to stay together. Just wait, in a few years you guys will look back on this and see how stupid the whole thing was. This fight will only grow your relationship more," Abbey said, ever the wise one. We all shared a quiet moment where we smiled at each other.

"My girls!" A familiar voice exclaimed, walking towards the picnic table we were sitting at. I laughed, and Ara blushed deeply when we looked to see Josh arrive at our table. He took the open spot next to me, and I scooted over slightly to make room.

"Guys, It's been forever since we hung out. This is awful," Josh groaned. I stabbed a piece of watermelon, plopping it in my mouth so I wasn't obligated to reply. Josh sighed as the other girls also kept quiet. "That's it. Dairy Queen tonight. I don't care that Lynn and Lee are bickering. We are all friends and we should still be able to hang out. This is ridiculous," Josh shook his head, looking at us in disappointment.

I stared down at my now empty cup of watermelon, my cheeks flushing. Nobody else said anything and Josh snorted before standing back up and walking away. He didn't leave it open for discussion, meaning Dairy Queen night was a must. This could be the first time not everyone shows up.

"I should say something," I mumbled before getting up, feeling guilty that Josh was so upset. They simply nodded at me as I hurried to catch up to him, touching his shoulder to get his attention.

"We all know you're trying to do the right thing, don't be upset," I pleaded with him as he looked at me patiently. "It's just hard because we obviously will take Lynn's side, and you guys are going to take Lee's."