starstruck

freddie

Elena seems all too distracted during their calculus lesson. They are sitting in Freddie's room, like usual, and some YouTube videos are playing. 

Freddie was listening, she swears, but somewhere between functions and the properties of exponents she notices Elena's eyes are not on the screen. 

They are on her face. Freddie's face.

It makes her uncomfortable, to say the least. She doesn't know what to do with her hands, her lips, her shoulders. When one is being looked at, does one act normal or Normal?

The guy in the video tries to explain more calculus. As much as Freddie likes math, it takes too much energy to watch a video and make sure she doesn't do something weird with her face at the same time.

Twenty-four painstaking minutes  later, Freddie closes her laptop and raises an eyebrow at Elena. "So, tutoring's done. Was there a computer screen on my left cheek or were you just being incredibly stupid?"

Realizing this sounds very harsh, Freddie adds, "Because I know you're not. Just wondering what was so darn interesting about my face."

Elena fiddles her thumbs and mumbles, "I wasn't looking at your face."

If Freddie knows one thing, she knows that that's bull. "Elena, remember that whole honesty thing? It always feels like you're hiding something from me."

She pauses before responding. "Fine. I was looking at your face. Whatever."

Freddie wants more. A 'why' would be nice. 

"Okay, and why is that, hmm?" She smiles and notices, for the first time, that Elena is wearing a shit ton of mascara. I mean, it doesn't look bad, Freddie muses. 

Elena looks like she is gasping for air. Her mouth is hanging wide open and she has balled up Freddie's blankets in her left hand. "You know, the usual."

"And what's that?"

"Huh?" Elena is playing dumb. 

"The usual?"

Freddie stares hard at Elena's dark (and a little bit clumpy, if she's honest) eyelashes. She gets bored, and her eyes travel lower.

There are words right behind Elena's lips. Freddie can see them. She is so close to finding out what they are. So close.

"You girls want some snacks? Just made some brownies!" Freddie's mother, of course, interrupts. It's the only thing she's good at. 

Grumbling Freddie says, "Yeah, thanks, Mom." 

There is a murmur of excitement and a promise to be back up with the brownies in no over three minutes. 

Elena makes the first move to speak. "So, you getting anywhere with that song?"  Bitch, Freddie thinks. Changing the subject. 

It takes Freddie a while to remember the song, the one that she promised to write for Elena oh-so-long ago, the one that she has not even started. 

"Um, yeah. Totes Mcgotes."

Just as if to prove her point, because Freddie will never be caught breaking a promise (though she breaks them all the freaking time), she stands up and ambles over to her piano. 

Her keyboard is already set on its stand, so Freddie just has to find some original sheet music that would trick Elena into thinking that Freddie is a Devoted Friend. 

The only thing original Freddie can find is The Song. That One. The Love Song She Wrote Really, Really Long Ago. Fuck.

Freddie's mom comes back in and hands Elena and Freddie a plate of brownies. she hums on her way out. Elena thanks her, but that's only because Elena has never tried Catherine's Famous Deluxe Zucchini Brownies.