the courtyard [j.hs] ✔️

[3]

Jaelyn

Opal confidently walked out of her garage, waving to the group of loud, obnoxious boys. She turned back, while I awkwardly stood by the door.

Why had I suddenly grow self-conscious?

She frowned at me, while I just shook my head. I waved her back over to me, while she ran inside. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," I whisper, hugging my bag close to me. "I really don't know."

"I'll tell them that we will meet them there," she nods, stepping out so she could see them. She came back a second later, grabbing onto my dangling hand. "You don't have to go."

"I want to, but I don't know what's keeping me back," I admit, looking over the room. "It's like middle school all over again."

I threw my face into my hands, groaning loudly. Why now of all times?

"Who cares?", Opal suddenly speaks. "Who cares what people think? You only live once, so why not live it in the moment?"

I was about to tell her to stop preaching to me, but she held a hand up.

"Who told me to wear a bright green dress to prom with her? Who told me to wear the purple pants I accidentally picked up?", she pointed at me with her two pointer fingers. "You did."

"Let's just go," I mumble, tugging her hand out of the garage. I could feel the smile growing on her face as we walked farther away from her house.

"You love it when I preach," she sings out, perkily walking next to me. Who walks in a perky way? Opal, of course.

"No, no I don't," I shake my head for emphasis, pointing at it. "This means no."

"I'm not dumb," she rolls her eyes, jumping excitedly when we heard splashing. "I hear fun."

"How can you hear fun?", I ask while she just hurriedly yanks me along her side. "My arm is not a rope, it is sensitive to its feelings."

She snorts, opening the squeaky gate. I guess they never decided to take care of it. "Your arm? Feelings? Yeah, right."

"It feels judged now," I pout, hugging my arm away from her. She pushed me through the opening, slamming it closed behind her. "Go ahead and tell the whole world we are here."

The splashing halts, before we hear another gate opening.

"Hurry up!"

Yoongi taps his foot impatiently, holding open the gate to the pool area. I start to run in slow motion, just to piss him off even more. He grumbles, shutting the gate and walking away.

I resume to normal speed, catching up with Opal. I smile, while she nudges me. "Jae is back."

"That I am," I nod, motioning for her to open the door.

"I opened the other one though!", she immediately whined, taking a step away from me. "You do it."

"You offended my arm!", I protest, waving it around crazily. "You should do it twice since the abuse!"

"That's not fair!", she stomps her feet, while we stare each other down. Her eye twitches, which means she is about to go down. She squints her eyes, while we both leaned towards one another.

"You two done?", we turn at the sound of a sigh, hearing the gate opening again. We smile, walking in together. "Such children."

"Oh yeah!", I yell, jumping around to face him. "We are."

Opal just agrees, dropping her stuff onto an empty chair. "Can't deny."

"You can't lie for your life, so I don't know why you would deny it," I point out, watching her fall back onto the chair. I smirked, pretending to look for a good spot to sit. "I think I'll sit here."