Scent (Scomiche)

A Group of Girls to Bring Me Back to Life

I decide not to invite Scott to Kirstin’s. It was a hard choice to make, but I thought if Kirstin’s friends and I hit it off, I need friends that are all my own and who are not friends with a “lover” of mine. Of course I still tell Scott I’m going over there, and he’s so happy for me, he’s actually using emojis, which is weird in itself but still cute. It makes me feel a little bad about not inviting him, too, but I know he’d have to bring Lindsey. I have no problem with that, but I don’t know Kirstin’s friends, so I don’t know how appropriate they are.

“Mitch is here!” Kirstin yells back to her friends when she answers the door. “Everyone come meet him!”

“Kirst, you really shouldn’t be the one answering the door, you’re pregnant,” one of her friends warns, lightly tugging her arm.

I can see from the look on her face she’s going to say something really sarcastic. “Oh, really? I wasn’t aware. I also didn’t know that pregnant people couldn’t open doors. Someone should’ve told me that in sex ed.” She wriggles away from her friend’s grip and grabs my wrist to drag me in. “Okay, it’s time to meet everyone. Some people couldn’t make it, so there’s not as many people for you to remember.” She leads me into the dining area where the table is scattered with first-draft plans.

There are about five people there besides Kirstin. They shriek when they see me. “You must be Mitch!” A blonde girl with lots of freckles across the bridge of her nose exclaims, walking up to me with confidence. I almost want to say no and see the look on her face.

“Duh, I yelled it back to you guys.”

The blonde shakes her head, smiling. “Kirst is really irritable lately, don’t mind her.”

“Pfft, I’m always like this.”

I laugh. “Totally fine. I like the sassiness.”

“Anyway,” the blonde continues, “I’m Liv.”

“Nice to meet you,” I respond.

She steps away and grabs me a mimosa from the island counter. I accept it, looking at the next girl who raised her hand so I’d notice her. She has dark, curled hair that goes just past her shoulders. “I’m Elsie.”

“Adalyn,” the next girl says, “but you can call me Addy if you want.” Her hair is back in a high, tight ponytail. I can tell it’s been dyed and that her natural hair color is brown, but everything except the roots is an orangey color that doesn’t look half bad. Except she needs it redone.

Next in line. “I’m Justine.” She looks to me with dark brown eyes and hair to match, then continues working on whatever she has in front of her on the table.

“And I’m Danielle,” the last one says. She is almost the complete opposite of Justine who she’s sitting by. Danielle has light green eyes, auburn hair (I don’t know if it’s natural or not), and is fairly thin. So, nothing like Justine, which I find funny but I don’t know why.

I nod to everyone and say, “I’m Mitch, but I think we all got that already.” Some of the girls laugh. “Okay, so,” I go in order, “Kirstin, Liv, El….sie Elsie, Adalyn or Addy, Justine, and Danielle.”

Justine claps her hands. “Now that we have that all figured out, can we get back to work please?”

I’m taken aback by her tone of voice, but I don’t want to show it, so I just respond with, “Yeah, what should I do?”

“Don’t be so cranky, Justine,” Adalyn says, “We want to make Mitch feel welcome because he’s Kirstie’s friend.”

Danielle waves me over to her, and I am thankful. “You can come help me decorate these frames.” I walk over and sit down on the wooden chair. “We’re going to be putting some baby pictures of Kirstie in these and then some of her ultrasound photos in the others.”