Desks and Letters

Hourglass

Mira

I woke up to my cell phone buzzing.

"Sasha it is too goddamn early for this, what do you want?" I grumble. 

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger, Eleanor and Dani wanted to know if we could go to Tilly's ." 

I look at my clock on the wall. It was my grandma's. Its white paint is chipping on the sides, the pink roses faded to a shade only a bit darker than the rest of it. 

11:14 

"Jeez, maybe it isn't too early." I sighed into the phone. 

"Yeah sleepyhead, what were you doing last night anyway," Sasha says with a breathy laugh. It sounds like she's on a jog. 

"Oh, Lara wanted to have a Harry Potter marathon, again," I say. Lara is my little sister. She's also my only sibling. Even though she's younger, she's more adult than me most days. First in her class, point guard on the girls' basketball team, and head of the junior volunteers at the community center, Lara is everything I wasn't in middle school. I kind of hate her for it but love her all the same.

"Okay, well get your butt up and ready, El is gonna pick you up in 10," Sasha hangs up before I can yell at her for the late notice. 

↡↟↡

Dani chatters the whole way to Tilly's, Eleanor is her usual reserved self, and Sasha is texting me memes, laughing to herself. I look through my phone, I notice a message I didn't see before. 

Hey, Mira its Celia Belmonte from school. I was wondering if you wanted to go to that new movie Hourglass sometime? Thanks, see you Monday. 

I hide a smile. Celia has been quiet around school, even when we are at lunch with the rest of the boys. She seems to open up a little bit more then and smiles more too. I wish she would smile all the time. Her freckles squish and her eyes get a mischievous glint in them.

Sasha leans over to read the text and gives me a smirk. 

I shove her away playfully as we turn into the parking lot.

Tilly's is the best second-hand store I've ever been to. And I've been to a lot. Tilly, the owner, is a small, round woman with short curly hair and a smile that could melt icebergs. She always has a bowl of candy on the counter and her cat Hermes likes to bat at people's hands when they tease him. 

We split up as soon as we enter the store. Eleanor goes straight to Hermes, who purrs happily at the sight of her. Dani goes to the clothes rack and starts an impossibly large pile of shirts and dresses to try on. Sasha lingers back and pulls me aside.

"So what's the deal with Celia?" She whispers, raising her eyebrow suggestively. Why does she think I have a crush on everybody. Last week she tried to set me up with Vanessa Ludwig. A month ago it was Beth Otzen, the month earlier Ashley Thompson. 

"She just texted to ask if I wanted to go see the movie Hourglass sometime," I said, rolling my eyes. 

"Isn't that a horror film? You hate horror films. Wait, wait, that means cuddling when you get scared. This is a good thing!" She cries. I shush her, Eleanor and Dani don't notice.