Find Her, Fix Him

12 | Not my girl

"You weren't paying attention to the film?"

"Of course I was. I was multitasking."

"Multitasking is a myth. It's what people call it when they're meant to be doing one thing but are actually doing another."

"Well, one of us had to prepare, didn't we? I'm saving us from the wrath of Scotty leprechaun."

I fold my arms, huffing. "Fine. If you were paying attention to the film, what happens at the end?"

Lilo folds her arms in retaliation. "Daisy returns to England to live with her cousins, and they live happily ever after."

"Lucky guess."

"Shut up."

Lilo does something with some wires, before flopping back in her seat and smiling triumphantly. "Okay, I've finished setting up. We're good to go."

"Oh yeah? Because setting up is what's going to take care of the whole play, isn't it."

"Have some faith in me."

"You've got a plan, then?"

"Yes."

"...what is the plan?"

She raises her eyebrows at me. "We improvise."

I'm opening my mouth to snap back something sarcastic and rude, when I feel something hard barreling into my back, at the same time as a wave of strong cologne hits my nose. I don't even turn to see who it is before muttering, "Jesus, Phil, personal space, man. I'm doing something here."

My friend, fellow football teammate and the last person I want to see right now, Phillip, has wrapped his arms around my neck with a brutal strength that has me wheezing for breath. He ruffles my hair and thumps my back, causing me to cough as my spine jolts, before leaning forward and flicking a few of the switches on the panel experimentally. "Ooh, this looks fun, not. Are you going nerdy on us, K?"

Beside me, Lilo fidgets in her seat as I do my best to shove Phil off me, hissing at him not to mess with the controls. "This is difficult stuff. Stop messing."

"Didn't look like you were doing much of the work from where me and the lads are sat," he counters, doing that hair-ruffle thing to me again that I despise, "Looks like you've left all the work to the lady. Sup, Dilly. Long time, no see."

Before I can express shock at the fact that he seems to know Lilo well enough to give her a nickname, she responds with a raised eyebrow and a cool, "It wasn't me who started ignoring you after me and Matt were finished, Philly."

Dilly and Philly. Cute. Not really.

"Aw, don't be like that!" Phil smiles at her in a way that makes me want to grind my teeth, "I didn't want to take sides. It's just...well, Matt is my mate. Bro code, and all that."

"Right. Well." Lilo begins rearranging light-bulbs with a sort of machine-like determination. She looks as pleased to see Phil as I am. "You chose where your loyalties lay, and I did too. The past is in the past. It's too late to turn things around now."

"Khan and Delilah, two-minute call!" Scott yells from the corner in which he is currently holding a bunch of hair in one hand, and waving a pair of scissors in the other. Beside him, Aria looks like she's having a mental breakdown. Another time I might laugh, but right now her distress is only stressing me out even more.

"Right, I'm going back to my seat. Can't wait to see you work your magic, K," Phil grins at me, punching my shoulder so hard that I wince. "It would be cool to be chill again, Dilly. Bring your girl to lunch with us today, eh, K?"