Pride | Baxter Radic

nine | denial

Florentina's eyes open, opening and shutting as the light hits her face. A tired groan leaves her mouth. Rolling over to check the time on her phone, she stops midway as the memories of the day before rush back to her. Her head whips to the side where she feels a heavy arm across her waist— something she didn't even think about before.

Her dark eyes study Bax's face for just a moment, her cheeks turning red before she snaps out of it. Gently lifting his arm off of her, she slides out of bed. A shiver washes over her at the sudden lack of warmth from the boy.

Going back to check the time on her phone, she scans the notifications she received over night. When she reaches the text from Poppy, her face falls in confusion. Her mind starts racing as she thinks about all of the possibilities. To her, it doesn't seem like Poppy would be the type to get upset over her and Marlon's kiss when they weren't together yet.

Is this Wren's work? Flo thinks to herself. Does she seriously hate us that much?

Speed walking to her closet, Flo rushes to change before quickly grabbing her keys and dialing Summer's number on her way out of the door. A part of her thinks about how she's leaving Bax behind in an empty bed with no words, but the rest of her blocks that out. Flo has always been scared of getting attached to people romantically. With that being said, running from those kinds of problems is always her go-to.

The dark-haired girl can hear her best friend shuffling around on the other side of the phone and immediately starts talking, "Summer, did you tell Poppy about me and Marlon kissing?"

"No," Summer's voice is confused, "Why would I? That's not my place, I was waiting for you or Marlon to tell her."

That's what Flo assumed she was going to say. "I was planning on telling her today, I just didn't know how to explain it so I've been trying to figure it out. But then she texted me last night while I was sleeping and said "she knows what we did". Isn't that kind of weird or am I going crazy?"

"That's... weird. I don't really think Poppy's the type to get mad about it if it happened before they got together."

Flo throws her hands up in the air, letting out a sigh. "That's what I was thinking too!" The teenager fumbles with her keys as she puts them in the ignition. "What're you doing right now? I'm coming over."

* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ * 。° 。 • ˚

Summer and Flo run next to each other, Summer sweating and out of breath while Flo seems perfectly fine as she keeps ranting anxiously. Summer doesn't understand how her friend isn't even slightly out of breath but she's forced to accept it since she's the one who originally talked Flo in to going for a run in the first place. Every time this happens, the girl forgets that Flo is unnaturally good at running for the little amount of exercise she does.

"Yeah, also Bax and I fell asleep in my bed last night and-"

Summer practically skids to a stop and grabs Flo by her shoulders. "What?!"

"Yeah..." Flo has furrowed eyebrows and looks confused. "Why is that a big deal? You and I do that all the time."

The girl shakes her finger in Flo's face as she tries to talk in between catching her breath, "We," Summer gestures between the two, "do that. We're friends, Flo."

"Okay? Me and Bax are friends too."

Summer gives her an exasperated chuckle. "You're not friends. Friends don't look at each other the way you two look at each other."