LOVESTRUCK ━ lip gallagher¹

05 | worst birthday ever

"Isn't that Holly Herkimer?" Mandy questioned, her voice lowered to a whisper.

"Yeah," the other brunette replied, before beginning to laugh. "Dumbass has been in fourth grade for like three years."

Lip jogged down the stairs. "We've still got sparklers from the fourth. We can make sparkler bombs," he announced. "Where's the duct tape?"

"In my kidnap kit in the van," Carl answered, and Amara choked on her cookie. "I'll go get it."

"Why do you have a kidnap kit, my dear Carl?" Amara questioned, ruffling his hair.

"Let's go," Lip said, ignoring her as the brothers walked out the door.

★

Amara laid in Lip's bed that night, considering there wasn't enough room for everyone to sleep downstairs. However, the blonde boy was nowhere to be found, and she had the entire top bunk to herself. The only sound in the room was Ian's heavy breathing. She stared at the ceiling in thought, sleep didn't come to her. There were a lot of things on her mind; bill's, her father, her job—more specifically the asshole from her job that she was stressed about seeing again, and the night Lip kissed her.

That thought wasn't an unusual occurrence in her mind, she would think about it all the time. She still couldn't shake the feeling of his mouth on hers, and the effect it had on her. Surely she didn't have a crush on Lip, right? It was impossible, he was her best friend. But at the same time, it would explain her hostility towards Karen, even though the girl did absolutely nothing to her. The only thing she did was sleep with Lip. Did she have a crush on him?

Her thoughts were interrupted by commotion down stairs, and she pushed herself up, listening to see if she needed to go check on the party. When the yelling didn't stop, Amara jumped off the top of the bed, and made her way down the stairs.

"What the hell is happening?" Amara demanded, just as Fiona walked though the front door. She noticed how they were a few people short—Carl and his friend were gone, along with Holly.

"Holly left my party because of something Lip did!" Debbie yelled, and Amara raised an accusing brow at him.

"You didn't—" Fiona started.

"No, I didn't," Lip protested. "I blew her off and she split."

"You could've just done it with her!" Debbie said, smacking his stomach with a pillow. "Then my party wouldn't have sucked!"

"Debbie, your party didn't suck," Silvia chimed in. "I had fun! And we can still have fun without Holly here."

Ignoring her, Debbie fell onto the couch, clutching the pillow in her hands sadly as Fiona crouched down in front of her.

"You know, I'm surprised you didn't sleep with her," Amara commented. "Sluts seem to be your type."

"What happened to you 'not slut shaming?' Huh? Why do you always have to shit on me?"

"Because you're being a dick!" She shot at him. "You're trying to split up Karen and Jody for your own selfish desires. You clearly don't give a shit if she's happy or not!"

"Nobody even mentioned Karen! Jesus, why does everyone bring her into everything? Especially you?"

At that, Amara didn't answer, and she crossed her arms, looking away from him. She bit her tongue to stop herself from crying. Fighting between the two of them was almost a normal thing—and she hated it. That was never usual in their friendship before, either. And when they did fight, it was about something stupid. Like, who drew dicks on whose textbook, or who put shaving cream in the pillowcase. Their fights were never serious, but lately, they had been.

"Great job chaperoning," Fiona said sarcastically, glaring at the older teens.

"Don't drag me into this," Amara defended. "Lip's the asshole. Not me."

"What would you have me do? Sleep with the kid?"

"This is my worst birthday ever!" Debbie declared, standing up, and walking out of the room, leaving the rest of them to watch her go, and sit in complete awkward silence.

★