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Mila's Pov
I'm smiling like an idiot as I get ready for the day, it'll be a long one so I use my waterproof mascara and wear slightly smaller heels than usual.
The entire school is engaging in the biggest event of the year, a school wide hide and seek tag game. Five of the most athletic faculty members are the seekers and the rest are standing along the grounds to make sure people stay within the allotted area.
But before that begins after school, Carter and I had some explaining to do. Sooner or later, we have to tell the group about our...situation. And I'd rather tell them today, like ripping off the bandaid.
Georgia texts me that she's ready to be picked up so I lock up my dorm and rush down the stairs.
Avoiding everyone's judgy little looks towards me after the tape is difficult, but manageable. Even head bitch Beatrice looks down at me like I'm a spec of dirt on her stupid clonker shoes.
As soon as I push open the door to leave the building, cameras click in my face. Thankfully, the sunglasses over my face block out my eyes from the world, but I can't hide completely.
Stop. Please. I silently plea, but it's no use. I'm just a pretty face with a scattered reputation to them.
When I finally make it into my car, I flip off one of the guys that had himself pressed against the door, asshole.
It takes me another two minutes to leave my parking stop with people blocking my way, but I do make it out of there eventually
I cant even imagine what Carter would have done to them if he had picked me up, but I insisted on collecting Georgia myself and taking her to the library since we needed to strategize a plan for the game.
Once I pull up to Georgias house, I get out and lean against my pretty car. The car that Carter had given me in November. It sounds stupid to say it now, he literally bought me a car and I thought nothing of it.
I hear shouting from inside but right before I can storm in there myself, G slams the door behind her and avoids my eyes.
"Georg?" I try my best to not look on the side of her face where a deep purple bruise sits on her dark skin. But she doesn't want to talk about it, and I'm not gonna push her on the matter.
So we both get into the car and ignore the issue. She has many plans for our game later, so I let her explain each route and hiding spot across our school for the distraction she desperately needed in that moment.
The grounds are huge, so the game should last all day, which meant we would be out late. And although we were reaching the warmer months, it was still getting colder.
So when we park in front of the school library, I grab one of Carters jumpers that he left in my car and slip it on. Georg side eyes me as if she can tell what's going on.
"You and Carter, hm?" She teases, putting her shoes up on the dashboard and lowering back her seat.
I attempt to hide my smile as she pokes me in the arm. "Awww, Emilia Violet, her cold heart is warming up. Who would have thought we'd ever see the day?"
"Shut up." I mumble, taking out one of my emergency eyeshadow palette's.
Georgia laughs beside me at the label on the side of the palette, that read 'EMERGENIES ONLY.' "Seriously? I brought bandages, water, snacks, plus a map, and you brought make-up?"
I waggle my eyebrows and hold up my makeup bag. "Plus clips, which you so desperately asked me to bring, by the way."
She takes a clip from my hand and adjusts it into her curly hair. "Of course, just the necessities."
I ignore her teasing, rubbing a finger on the purple eyeshadow and smearing it on the skin below my forehead. Georgia is giggling until she realizes what I'm doing for her.
"Lia, you don't have to. I'll just say I fell, it's no big deal." She shrugs, putting a makeup brush into my open hand for an easier blend.
"You go on in, I'll be there in a sec." I tell her, she hesitates but get outs of the car after a couple seconds pass.
I finish applying the makeup and follow her in, waving to our group after saying hello to the librarian.
Blair asks about the bruise right when I come up behind Georgia, so I squeeze G's hand and usher them all to sit down.
"We bumped heads earlier when I picked her up." I state clearly and none of them seem convinced. "Yup, we bruise like peaches." Georgia chimes in and both of us nod.
Harrison, Ben, Rob, Blair and then Georgia with Monica on her lap all squash into one couch and I take the chair opposite them before asking. "Where's Carter?"
The six of them shrug until a door opens somewhere and Harrison tilts his head behind me. "There he is."
I turn around in my seat, catching eyes with Carter who's walking over to us. His lazy smile and pretty eyes make my breath catch and...fuck it, because at that point, blush is spreading fast across my face.
When I turn back to the rest of the group, Blair's eyes widen and I talk before she can. "It's not what you think! Just let us...explain."
Blair scowls and crosses her arms.
Carter sits down beside me and we look at each other once more. "You ready?" I give him the go ahead with a nod as he turns to the group.
"Okay, we ask for everyone's patience and co-operation." He takes my hand in his and rests them on the small space of the couch in between us.
"Mila and I...are together." Carter says quietly. Everyone stares blankly at us for a lengthy four seconds until they all react.
Monica groans and shakes hands with Rob, passing him a twenty note as if they were betting on it.
Georgia slaps Harrison in the arm, whispering. "I told you so."
Ben sits forward in his seat and points to me. "If they break up then we have dibs on Blondie and the girls can take Carter!"
Blair flicks him in the head, standing up and glaring down at Benny. "Hey, that's just not fair. You don't get to decide that!" She yells at him and he stands up opposite her, mirroring the crossed arms position.
"Oh really? Well, how come I just did?" He yells back, flicking her head in retaliation and she flicks him back, again. "You're so fucking annoying." Blair grumbles, sitting back down on the couch while Ben grins.
"Shut up, Blair, you love me to pieces, don't kid yourself." He reply's, admiring his blunt nails that she—no doubt—filed for him herself.
Although Blair tries to deny it over and over, they probably have a stronger friendship than her and I.
"Oh god, Lia! Can't you just suck on those lollipops that you waste all your money on and not my brother, please?" Blair ask me as I cough and shift uncomfortably while Monica starts laughing.
"Blair? Don't you think we all could have gone without that visual?" Mon asks, covering her face to hide the red spreading across her cheeks.
"Oh wait, Lia...? You didn't make me go into that lingerie store the other week and buy those...thong thingies for...him, did you?" Harrison is pissing himself laughing and Ben pats poor 'traumatized by lingerie' Rob on the back.
"Oo Rob, did you see any of Milas battery operated friends?" Ben asks eagerly and Monica shuts him up, shaking her head at him.
"Well...it would have looked weird if any paparazzi had caught me going in there all by myself." I mumble and Georgia high fives me. "That's my girl."
I cant help but laugh at poor Rob, I might as well have flashed him my tits and the reaction would be no better.
"But what if you guys break up?" Monica asks quietly. Don't get me wrong, Monica is amazing, but she had a habit of looking at both the positive and the negative.
"We won't, right?" I respond, looking over to Carter for reassurance who's laying back in his chair and smiling at me. "Right."
I like a lot about Carter, his hair and his eyes, the way he kisses me and how he makes me feel something I've never felt before. But the thing I love? I love how he is around me, compared to others.
With his friends? Quiet, reserved, almost slightly out of it and his head is somewhere else.
But with me? Confident, loud, happy, and his head is always with me, no matter the situation. Or rather...his head is always in me-
"Okay! Should we walk over to the courtyard? We need to assemble into teams and get our colors for the game by twelve."
Monica reminds us and the girls start to pack away their books from studying and the guys pick up pencils off the floor that they were flinging at each other.
As we walk across the school grounds, Harrison picks Blair up bridal style when her shoes start digging into her feet. She tries to protest but she hates walking, so she opts for the latter.
Monica and Blair are still reassuring poor Rob, who's face is still bright red with embarrassment.
Carters arm is around my shoulder and Georgia walks backwards to face us while discussing some club that she's playing in next week.
G is in a band with Monica's ex boyfriend—much to her discomfort— and some girl from the volleyball team plus our schools head boy. It was definitely a unique selection of people, that's for sure.
Our entire school is all crowded into the courtyard, getting their colors for the game. There is six different teams and the final person found on whichever color you're on are the winners.
You are assembled into duos with another person of your teams color, but if one of you are caught, it doesn't mean that both of you are.
Georgia passes me a blue bib and I grimace at the smell. Carters hoodie will need to be washed, twice. I just thank the skies for opting to not wear my precious Prada cardigan today.
I help G put on hers and she does the same for me. Carter and Benny choose red, Blair and Mon get green and Rob makes Harrison pick blue.
After some roll calling and handing over our phones to head bitch Beatrice like every other morning, they begin the almost billboard-like timer.
We all split off, Georgia and I link hands for efficiency and begin to scour the forests that surround the school grounds. She has it all mapped out, so I put every ounce of faith into her.
After some assessing of the area, she decides on climbing up a steep ass tree, G grimaces when I use her hand to boost myself up as my heel digs into her palm.
"Shit, sorry." I apologize, holding out my hand to help her up before two members of the seekers come into view.
Crap! How has it already been two minutes?
Georgia looks up at me from the bottom of the tree. "Em, I love you, you absolute bitch." She holds a hand to her heart, and gives me the middle finger before running off, distracting the two teachers that start to chase her.
Thank the lord for Georgia.
I watch with the pair of binoculars that she had given me earlier and start to panic when they get closer to catching her, but she manages to hop over a fallen tree after one of the teachers bangs their foot off a rock. Ha, Idiot.
When I adjust my position in the tree, I realize how close I am to the boundary that you can't cross. Mrs Hart—my favorite teacher—gives me a small wave, and I wave back.
She very casually begins to stroll past the tree, but not before whispering. "Don't let Carter win this one!"
I grin and nod, tipping an imaginary hat off to her. She smiles back and returns to her guarding position on the boundary.
My brain goes into overdrive on how to get down from here, but I eventually shimmy just enough to have a smooth landing into a pile of leaves.
As it gets slightly colder, I decide to make a run for the sports hall, silently hoping that someone else is hidden there. It's not forbidden to join up with a different color, but it's definitely not encouraged.
I dodge a group of five from the orange team and make eye contact with that girl Avery who's on the yellow team. She smiles, so I smile back. The urge to be mean wasn't as prominent anymore, weird.
But I still hate that two faced bitc- "Em!" I hear someone call my name and turn around to Mon holding open the sports halls side entrance door for me, she gestures for me to join her so I quickly dash over.
I run into her arms and we both sneak through the huge hall by staying close to the walls and slowly creeping underneath the stairs of the stage.
My eyes widen when we finally reach the spot, as Ben, Carter, and Blair are already hiding there. I'm about to make a run for it when a door opens on the other side of the hall and Monica pulls me in with her.
I fall onto a dusty beanbag as Blair shoves two crates in front of the gap that I snuck through. "What the hell are all of you doing in here and how'd you know it was me?" I ask, brushing a spider off my leg while wrinkling my nose.
Carter kisses me on the cheek before returning to his spot at the little peephole in between the sets of pull out stairs.
"Monica found this spot and then these two idiots joined us." Blair glares at Ben, like always, he's smiling and she's frowning. "We found this spot first!"
"Would both of you shut up!?" Monica shouts until halting to a whisper.
Then, both Blair and Ben glare at Monica for trying to shut them up and they resume arguing. Except poor Mon makes the big mistake of whispering to me... "Those two are made for each other."
I cover my mouth to stop from giggling as Blair's face turns furious, Ben looks amused.
"Totally agree, our future looks picturesque, right, babe?" Ben pats her on the head, just to piss her off and she turns away from him, joining Carter at the peephole.
"No seriously, I can picture it now, white picket fence and a dozen children, won't it be just blissful, future wife?" Ben holds out a hand to Blair who swats it away like a fly.
When footsteps near our spot, all five of us go silent, with Monica squeezing my hand and Ben hiding behind Carter for protection from Blair.
But of course, Ben can't hold his sneeze. I think Carter tries to hold his nose, but whatever attempt he made, clearly failed.
Ben sneezes, loud enough to wake the dead and Blair gives him a look that could kill.
"Could you have not shut him up!?" She hisses at Carter and he rolls his eyes. "Not all sneezes can be stopped, they surprise you sometimes!" He says back in defense of Ben.
"It's not that difficult to just-" Blair starts before I shush the both of them. "If either of you say another word, I'll jump out and plead for them to catch us both."
Right when I finish yelling at them, a cough sounds from behind us. A distinctive cough, Harrison.
"Blondie!" Harrison smiles at me, pushing past Monica to sit beside me. "You're all hiding together?" We nod, confirming his question.
"Where's Robby?" Monica asks Harrison, crossing her legs and fiddling with the hem of her dress. "He sacrificed himself to save G."
"Awh, that's nice of Rob, so Georgia is still in the game?" I push further and he nods. "Yeah, but she said that if she wins then she'll rub it in his face, so I don't think Georgia was willing to return the sentiment."
Monica giggles, leaning her head against the wall. "That sounds like Georgia."
We sit in silence for a little while longer until Carter reports that it's getting dark out and we should move spots before teachers start checking indoors.
Harrison checks behind the crates, making sure the coast is clear before motioning his hand for us to get going. Carter is about to go first, until I say.. "You're like my protector."
"Hell no, who said that I was protecting you? If you claim to wear the pants then you gotta live up to that." I stand there after Carters little pep talk, stunned for a second.
Sighing, I push past him and lead the way. Harrison laughs at our little bickering exchange with wide eyes before turning to Ben. "He definitely calls her mommy in bed."
This time, it's Monica who hits him over the head to put him in his place and he rubs the spot that got slapped. "Ow, uncalled for."
Carter grins at me, winking when I grimace. What a strange, strange boy that I'm in love with.
Right when I think we have almost made it out of the building, Bartholomew comes bounding up to us and wags his tail.
He stops in front of Monica and rolls on to his back for her to pet his stomach, Harrison seems deeply offended since little B chose Mon over him.
He leans over to Blair and whispers... "I knew there was a reason I didn't like this girl."
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Authors Note
The friend group has my entire heart, but the nitrgoens era is over </3 The fluorine's has gotta be the new name
(4 girls + 4 guys + little B)
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Lots of Love Babies, mommy el <3
Words - 3097
Date - 06/07/22
Reads - 696K (+16k)