Its gay idk what else to say

Chapter 6, Claire POV

"Hey Claire." Lily says on the other end of the phone. "I'm really sorry I have to ask this but I woke up late for... reasons and I can't make it to the store in time on foot, so could you drive me?" She asks, I can tell she's embarrassed so I decide not to tease her. "Sure, I was just about to head out, should I drive by your house?" I ask. "NO!" She yells. "I'm sorry, I mean I just wanted you to pick me up down the block." She's clearly hiding something but I decide not to keep asking. "Uh, OK, I can do that, give me 10 minutes and I'll be there." I say. "Thanks for this, all of this I mean, for buying me paints and whatnot." She stammers out. "Hey, I already said it's not a problem, I'll see you in a bit!" I say, hanging up. I quickly get dressed and say bye to my mom as I hop into my car. Its a quick drive to Lily's house, so I don't bother putting on music. As I pull up to her street I see her on the corner waving to me. I stop and open the door, "Why did you want me to pick you up here?" I ask. "I- It's nothing." She says looking away shyly. Whatever, if she doesn't want to tell me that's fine. She climbs in slowly and closes the door. Then she puts her head between her legs, letting out a long sigh. "Hey, are you OK?" I ask, concerned that something happened. "Yeah, I'm fine, let's just go to the store." She says shakily. I stop trying to pressure her and decide to not ask about it anymore. The ride to the store only takes a few minutes so we have the rest of the afternoon to spend here, I doubt she'll want to stay for more than 10 minutes though. Either way, I'm happy she decided to tag along.

As we walk into the store, Lily immediately darts to the paints isle. She's clearly been here before and knows what she's looking for. I sit back and watch her scurry around picking out all kinds of paints she needs. "Can I help you with that?" I say, pointing to all the paints she's carrying in her hands. "Sure, can you go get a basket?" She asks. I walk to the store entrance and grab a basket, when I get back to the isle I see paints lying all over the floor and Lily scurrying around to pick them all up. I get to work and start putting all of them into the basket. Lily looks away, clearly embarrassed, but mumbles out a quick "thanks." "Anytime." I say, grinning. She stares at me blankly for a few seconds before snapping out of it and grabbing the basket from my hand. "Should we uh, go and pay for these." She says, twirling her hair. She's clearly embarrassed about me paying for it. "Sure, did you need anything else?" I ask, intent to spend more time with her. "Uh, now that you mention it, I could use some new brushes, but you don't have to get them if you don't want to..." She squeaks, her face turning violently red. Wanting to give her some space I decide to wait on her at the checkout while she gets the brushes. I stay there for a good 10 minutes when she comes with a basket full of paints and brushes. I pay for everything and we leave the store with her carrying everything in plastic bags. As she puts the bags in the trunk, she turns to face me. "Hey, thanks for getting me all of this, normally most people wouldn't care, so yeah... thanks." She mumbles. "Again, it's not a problem, besides this is my grade too, you know." I respond, getting a bit tired of reassuring her that I don't mind. But with a smile like her, I can't really stay mad at her for too long. "Hey, I don't actually have anything planned for today, if you wanted we could go to the tree and get some more ideas for the project..." She says. My face lights up, "yeah I could do that, I mean I don't have any plans, so if you really wants to, we could." I say, trying to keep my excitement contained. We both get in the car and don't say much until we get to the park.

As we pull up to the park, she immediately hops out of the car and grabs her new paints. I help her carry everything to the top where she starts sketching out ideas. Since this part is mainly up to her, I just sit there watching her hard at work. Time passes by as she barely looks up from her notebook, even while she isn't drawing anything. She clearly wanted to do something else here but backed out. At that moment I notice a mosquito land on her hair. She doesn't seem to notice it so I move in slowly to try and get it. I get right behind her and wave my hands around the insect, brushing her hair in the process. She yelps, and instantly jumps up. "Why were you touching my hair!?" She yelps. "I'm so sorry! I just saw a bug land on it and I wanted to get it before it stung you! That's it, I promise." I say defensively. "Oh, I uh, thanks for that I guess." She says, looking away to hide her face. I've clearly hit some kind of nerve but I'm not sure why me getting a fly out of her hair would make her react like this but I leave it alone. She sits down without doing anything for a few seconds. "If you wanted to play with my hair you could have just asked." She mumbles. "No, that's not wha-" I try to respond, but before I can finish she lets down her hair and starts sketching. "It's fine, I know just watching me can be boring so go ahead. What was with her? Why would she let me play with her hair after how she reacted to me flirting with her. As I sit there thinking about what could have possibly happened, she clears her throat. Before she can change her mind, I start braiding her hair. We sit there for a few minutes until she finally gets up. "I'm done, she says, snatching her hair back. Don't think I did that because I like you, I just didn't want you to get bored." She hisses at me, clearly trying hard not to blush, I put my hands up in agreement. I highly doubt what she said though.

As we get back to the car, I expect another silent car trip home. Instead Lily surprises me, "sorry for being so bitchy earlier." She mumbles, god this girl wouldn't talk to my face for her life. "It's OK." I say, an automatic response. "It's not." She says. "I know I got mad at you but I've been behaving so childishly about everything and its just not fair when you've been this nice to me. I-" She continues before stopping herself. I glance over to her, as if to ask what else? She stares out the window for a while. "I don't like you but you seem like a nice person, if you want we could be friends." She says, finally looking up to me. "Sure I-" I start to answer before being interrupted again. "And please stop holding back words just because you don't want to upset me, I can tell when you do." She says. I sit there for a while before answering. "Yeah, we could be friends." I say, my mind blanking on what else to say. She lets out a sigh, clearly expecting a better answer, alas I have none to give. "Do you have any music on your phone?" She asks, clearly tired of our awkward car rides. "Yeah, I'm not sure if you'd like it though." I say, knowing full well most of the songs I had were gay. "That's fine, anything will do right now." She says. I pull out my phone and pick a random playlist and hit shuffle. The first song is a girl in red song, just my luck. I expect her to get mad when she hears the lyrics but instead she just keeps staring out the windows. "I uh, I can change the song if you want." I say, embarrassed. "No it's fine, I don't mind." She says. I can't tell if she means it or if she's just being nice, but regardless I leave the song. We sit there listening to music for a while when I feel a loud pop noise. I pull over the car to the side and get out. Just my luck, the tire's flat, and it's getting late. I get in to see a worried Lily. "What is it?" She asks. "You see, uh..." I stammer out, not wanting to break the news to her. "The tire popped, we might be stuck here for a while." I say, bracing for her reaction. Instead a look of pure dread creeps on her face. She sits back in her seat, her face turning pale. I decide to give her some space and I walk out to make a few phone calls.