CARAMEL POPCORN WAS SCATTERED ALL OVER my TV stand. It was Paris' turn tonight to have the first pick through the movies we brought. She chose Legally Blonde. Some might say it's fitting since she looks like Reese Witherspoon's long lost daughter with a mix of Kendall Jenner. But in reality, she only chose that movie so I wouldn't be bored out of my mind for her next choice. Which was almost always some new Sci-Fi movie, I have no hate for the Science-Fiction genre but it just gets so confusing. I think I only like one Sci-Fi movie–if Wall-E counts.
Amira takes another handful of popcorn and throws it at the screen that displayed Warren Huntington III in 8K resolution. This was the scene at the end of Elle Woods' court case for Mrs.Windham.
Hearing the name Brooke Windham never fails to make me freeze up. But speaking of Brooke Windham, I'd rather take the fall for murder instead of telling everyone I had liposuction done to my body. I mean, getting work done isn't something you should be embarrassed about, but If I built an entire workout empire off of lies, then jail here I come.
"And that I was wrong, and you are the girl for me."
Amira loudly gasps, shouting at the TV. "LIAR!"
Paris taps her shoulder, trying to pry her eyes off the movie. "Amira, have you ever watched this movie?" Amira shakes her head no, replying,
"My family really likes nature documentaries. They never really put these kinds of movies on for me. Plus I didn't really go out to watch movies much, usually working in my room." Grabbing another fistful of caramel popcorn, stuffs her face and turns to me.
"Paris, Alinna, how do you guys pronounce 'caramel'?" Her eyes twinkled with anticipation. I look at Paris and we both say in unison. "Car-mel?" I swear Amira almost choked on her popcorn, shocked, she yells.
"CAR-MEL? There's a bloody 'A' in CAR-A-MEL" for a REASON!" Eyeing us, she asks another question. "How do you both say "pecans?" She emphasizes the 'A' as 'awns' to make it sound like "pec-awns".
Paris puts on an over-exaggerated British accent.
"There's a "bloody" 'A' in pe-CANS." Glaring at her with her eyebrows snapped together. "The "CAN" in pecans should be pronounced as like "soda CAN" not "soda cawn". Gosh, British people are weird." I nod my head in agreement.
Huffing, Amira pouts and flips on another movie, trying to avoid Paris and I's taunting. Picking out the movie "Pet Semetery" based on the 1983 horror novel by Stephen King. Paris rolls her eyes at the screen, scoffing. "This movie was so anticlimactic." And turns to the stack of movies we brought and picks out another film. Amira's jaw drops and tackles Paris before she puts in the CD.
"Paris please! I know you don't like it but I think it's a good film!" Paris's lips formed a straight line, and sighs.
"Fine. I'll sit through this movie, just this once." Giving Amira a stern look. Excited, Amira takes my remote and starts the movie, her eyes glued to the screen. The thing about Paris is that she has one killer poker-face. She could look cold and stoic but still enjoy your company. And right now, she SEEMS upset that she couldn't put in her movie but, she actually doesn't mind. As much as she wants things done her way, she never wants to disappoint people.
Personally, I don't mind what movie we watch. I prefer chick-flicks, you know like, Mean Girls, Clueless... stuff like that. But I'm not really paying attention to the screen right now. Mason's message still echoing in my head. Pulling out my phone, I struggle trying to type out the words I want to say. My fingers dance around the keyboard.
I can't leave him on read? I'm not a monster.
Or you can forget about him? Why does it matter to you? Both of y'all haven't said anything nice to each other since 9th grade.
Okay but this is a NICE message though, can't I return the favor?
Alinna it's the bare minimum.
Shaking off these conflicting thoughts, I toss my phone beside my pillow and stare out my window. Allowing me to have a clear view of Mason's house, especially Mason's room. I see he has his lights on and I sigh.
Stalker much?
Amira turns around and frowns, "Why are you so gloomy Alinna?" and lays right next to me. I take my pillow and squish my face into the satin pillowcase, muffling my scream. Why must things be so difficult for me and him? Sure, he's the reason for almost all of my problems but when he plays this hot-and-cold game, it makes me think that maybe he won't be such a pain. When we were children, it was so much easier, because he wasn't always this closed off. He used to love hanging out with people. He used to love hanging out... with me–and Paris. Yeah Paris, Him, and Me. The three of us. Together. That's all.
Now don't get it twisted, Mason wasn't the silent brooding type. He was more of a cocky, witty guy, who will annoy you if he happens to be in the same room as you kinda type. He always had some snarky remark up his sleeve and an arrogant smirk on his face that'd make you want to slap him into the next century. But if he wasn't like that, he was harsh and rude. He'd cut you off and you hanging for days or even weeks at a time, leaving you wondering if you did anything to upset him.
I'll give you a quick rundown of Mason and I's history. We've always lived across the street from one another and we always fought over the stupidest things. Not to mention we'd compete over everything, but it was how we were, we were happy...I think. Ninth grade came around and he kinda left me high and dry. After that, things got more serious and we started to grow more hatred towards one another, fueling a need for constantly competing to show who was better at what, it was so draining.
And It always left me wondering where I went wrong.
How did I lose my best friend?
As the movie ends, Paris lays down on the other side of me and waves her hand in front of my face. "Earth to Alinna! Hello?" I snap out of my thoughts and stammer,
"Yeah, yeah, um... it's just, Mason texted me earlier today and I've been struggling to put my thoughts into words." Amira rolls off the bed and heads to my bathroom, as she takes off her hijab and brushes out her hair, she yells.
"Well what'd he say?" While trying to untangle the knots of her dark long wavy hair. She then starts to brush her teeth. Paris takes this as an opportunity to chime in.
"Or...you can just save the headache and click 'Block this Caller' and BOOM! Stress free with no worries."
Glaring at Paris she disagrees and explains. "Don't be so mean Paris, maybe he's having a rough day-"
"Pfft, more like a rough life." Amira scowls at her and braids her hair while walking to me. She sits down beside me and says,
"Give me your phone." Her hand reaches outward and waits for me to hand her my phone. Before handing it to her, Paris notices Amira without her hijab and quickly flips around and looks away from Amira,
"CRAP I SAW YOUR HAIR! I'm SO SORRY" she says facing the wall. Amira lets out a lively cackle and tries to catch her breath,
"Paris it's okay HA! I am allowed to take off my hijab infront of my future husband, pre-pubescent boys, my father, brother and such. But not infront of men who I am not married to. Of course, these rules don't go for everyone. Some people are more modest and stricter than others, but with that being said. Paris you ARE allowed to look at my hair." Paris relaxes, releasing a deep exhale, and slowly walks back to sit down on my bed.
Unlocking my phone I hand it to Amira. "Please PLEASE don't say anything embarrassing. I can't handle anymore boy troubles today." I beg.
Dismissingly waves her hand at my plea, "You have such little faith in me, don't worry I've got this." She yanks my phone and starts typing. Paris crawls behind her on my bed and rests her chin on Amira's shoulder, trying to see what she's gonna type. Hearing lots of "Oooh's" and giggles I turn and face my window again, looking out to Mason's room, trying to distract myself. Seeing that his light is off and his lamp is on, A silhouette of Mason appears, taking off his shirt. I quickly shut my curtains and turn away. My cheeks heating up, I look up to my ceiling, trying to calm down.
You didn't even see anything, don't make it weird.
It was weird the minute I STARTED STARING INTO HIS ROOM!
Okay true.
Amira's phone lights up with a notification from Lukas, saying
>>>mira can we plz trade students?? i think something's wrong with mine😐😐
Looking up from my phone, Amira yells. "Who texted me?" Tossing her phone to her I say,
"It's Lukas!" And grab my phone back from the two. Scrolling through my phone I open my messages app to see what they said. Hoping that they didn't say anything embarrassing, I find Mason's contact and hesitate to open the messages. Deciding to bite the bullet I finally press on his contact and I read what Amira and Paris said.
<<<it's alright, i miss you though.
I paled, almost dropping my phone, my mouth fell open. I couldn't believe what I was reading. I knew Amira would say something nice but Paris...agreed to this? Who said I missed him? I don't, okay?
...Okay then.
I DON'T!
Sure, we were good friends. But people change, people grow apart, that's life. I have Benjamin, Paris, Amira, and Lukas. What more could I want? I'm satisfied with where I am, I wouldn't change a thing...right? I fall backward onto my bed, letting my phone fall out of my hands I whine. "Whyyy literally...WHY did y'all say that? TO MASON!"
Stifling a laugh, Amira throws on a hoodie and rolls beside me. "Love, it's not that big of a deal. But just letting you right now, WE did you a favor." I hit her with a pillow.
"What FAVOR? This is gonna complicate things even MORE!" Paris crawls in front of me and scolds.
"You're acting very ungrateful. Before you know it, you'll be besties again and you'll forget all about me."
"Maybe I should forget all about you, it'd probably do me some good." I retort.
Paris shakes her head and sticks her tongue out at me.
Classic Paris.
I glance at Amira and see she's engrossed in her phone, specifically her text messages. I sneak up behind her and peek at her messages. Before I could see anything, Amira flips around, her braid hitting my face.
"Ouch! Why does your hair hurt so bad?" Rubbing my cheek trying to ease the pain, Amira smirks.
"I didn't even mean to do that, but you TOTALLY deserved it for sneaking up on me!"
"Whatever." I grunted. I pull out my phone up again and unlock it, seeing that it was still left on Mason's contact, I see three dots appear on my screen. I throw my phone across my bed and start pacing around my room. What is he gonna say? He's probably going to think I'm like...obsessed with him. Oh god, this isn't gonna be good. Why did I agree to this?
Because you're stupid. That's why.
It was a rhetorical question.
My eyes dart around my room, trying to find something to distract myself with. Shuffling across my floors, I finally decided to focus on cleaning my room. Yes, cleaning my room, okay? I receive questionable looks from Amira and Paris.
Paris arches her eyebrow. "Uh... why are you CLEANING your room, it's 11pm."
I shrug, lying. "Well who said I couldn't start cleaning? Hoping they wouldn't notice my tense behavior. Eyeing me up and down, Amira replies.
"Because Alinna, your room is spotless" Freezing up, I grimaced, cringing internally. I shamefully walk back to my bed and give them my phone. I place my hand over my eyes, covering them I say.
"What did Mason say? I'm too scared to look ugh." My back turned to them, I uncover my eyes and start biting my fingernails. All at once, I feel a familiar feeling of my chest tightening.
Inhale... Exhale...
I repeat this process of slowly taking in and releasing breaths until Amira's voice makes me turn around.
Her lips pressed together. "Hmm..." Paris nearly jumping from her spot, impatiently asks.
"What? WHAT? What did he say? Amira I swear-" Instead of telling us what he said. She hands my phone back to me and places it in my hand.
"I think Alinna should be the one to read it." Softly smiling. Paris' jaw drops into a big 'O' and gawks.
"What. THE. HELL! I was waiting on you to tell me! Ugh!" She falls back onto the bed and shoves her face into my pillow. I stare down at my phone, wondering if I should open the message to see for myself.
Don't you wanna see Alinna?
What if it's just an 'Okay'?
And what if it's not?
Why do you want me to open it anyway?
Your hesitation already proves my point. You're scared because you DO care about what he has to say about you.
I start playing with the phone in my hands, tossing it back and forth, looking through the corner of my eye– I don't miss the ogles Paris gives me, desperately wanting to see what he said. I can't deny it, I want to see what he said too, but what if it's not the answer I hope?
What answer are you hoping for?
authors note: again! it's real long i apologize, but i'm tryna practice going in more depth and detail. but i think i have a love/hate relationship with this chapter but idk.
also!!! if i get anything wrong about Amira wearing a hijab plz let me know!! i have no intentjon in offending anyone <3