"I feel bad," Madaline admits with her eyebrows scrunched up, "I mean, imagine your mom forcing you to school after being attacked by a volleyball. And it left a mark!"
We're having our weekly, Friday gossip talk. At least that's what Madaline calls it. It's specifically used to talk about everything that happened over the week and she loves it. I, personally, think she only likes it because it shows that she knows almost everything that goes on in school.
Jackson points his beef stick towards Madaline, his own brows scrunched up on his forehead. "How big we talking?"
Madaline happily answers his question, wanting to give as much details as possible. They engross themselves into a private, mini conversation with Jackson talking just as much as Madaline. I think he's warmed up to us... or Maddy at least. After being sorta friends for a while, I'd hope so. Turning back to my untouched chips, I hungrily eat the salty treat. My habit of messy eating isn't a secret to my friends anymore, so I'll eat how I please.
"I heard Mr. Fredricks gave out free A's to any girl that spent after school with him," Julie shyly admits.
Scarlette hears this and looks up from her phone. Madaline and Jackson are too busy talking about something new to hear her. I was in my head, and heard only the last part. When no one says anything, Julie shrinks back into her sweater.
"I heard that too. Maybe I can hang with Freddy betty and get a free A," Scarlette jokes. Julie looks up at this to see Scarlette giving her a friendly smile. Julie smiles back, her eyes almost squinting from how wide her smile is. Scarlette's never directly talked to her- much less give her a smile. It was always head nods.
The two also break off into their own conversation, talking about creepy teachers and some of their comfort teachers. I continue to eat my chips while being back in my own head. After the ordeal with Scarlette on Wednesday, Julie and I headed home. I got a ride from her mom who wanted to play five-hundred questions. It lasted all the way to my house, then I played one million questions with my parents. I was pretty tired so after amusing them for a little, I took a shower and fell asleep.
Yesterday was the same. My dad questioned the bajeebus out of me that morning, wondering about my day plans. It was a short discussion that made my mood slightly dampen. I went to school and Scarlette wasn't there. It was just me, Madaline, Julie, and Jackson. It was a shock to see Jackson sitting at the lunch table. Him and Scarlette are glued to the freaking hip, so seeing one without the other is well...surprising. He even talked to me. Barely, but he spoke to me. He spoke to Julie too, asking if she liked grapes. It was weird, but Julie didn't seem to mind. Madaline and him had their short conversation before he focused on his food.
The rest of the day was boring. Madaline had family plans and so did Julie. Jackson was skateboarding and I refused to do that. So, I went home to my parents. My mom had a day off from yoga instructing and fitness work. She enjoyed her day off by baking and watching cooking shows. I might've eaten all the cookies. My dad came from his job, and I went to my room. The cookies came too, of course.
"Hey, me and Jackson are going skating after school. You guys wanna come?" Madaline pipes up. I blink a few times to clear my head.
"What?" I ask.
"Skating. Me and Jackson. You in?"
Her and Jackson. The Jackson she likes. A big, fat crush that may be mutual. Of course I don't want to join.
"No thanks. You know skating isn't my thing," I end with a smile that only Madaline gets. She rolls her eyes, but a hint of a smile doesn't go unnoticed by me.
We've been friends since we were born. Our parents were college friends, and ironically moved into the same state to start a family. Once they found that out, they got back in contact and baby me along with baby Madaline was already born. I like to brag sometimes that I'm older by an entire month. February twelfth for me, and March thirteenth for Madaline. We know each other well, so our smiles were like some secret communication.
"I'm busy," Scarlette speaks up, trying to secretly take a pretzel from Julie's side. She isn't sneaky at all as Julie sees this, and ends up sliding the whole bag over to her. Scarlette grins and they high-five. I didn't know they were so friendly now.
"With what?" Jackson asks, probably already knowing. Or not. He forgets most things.
"Street race today. Bright and early, baby," Scarlette grins again with excitement. I try to hide the light blush that coats my cheeks when she says the word baby in that way.
"Can I come with?" I ask, hopefully. Scarlette seems like she's in a good mood, so I'm using that as my opportunity. Her face expression looks skeptical and like she's debating on saying no. "Please?"
Scarlette looks like she's finally going to say something when Julie leans forward with a glint in her eyes.
"Can I come too?"
Scarlette cuts her words short before glancing at Julie. "You think you can handle it?"
Julie looks stumped and almost embarrassed. It doesn't last long as she snaps out of it and nods her head feverishly. Scarlette nods, like that's all she needed to hear. She ignores my look of mock disapproval, making my expression form in to disbelief. Jackson sees this, his eyes cutting from me to Scarlette as he continues his conversation with Madaline.
"I'll pick you both up after school. There's something I need to do," Scarlette finally states after another moment of silence. A small smile slivers to my lips at the fact that she agreed. Julie claps in excitement sharing my happiness for a different reason. The lunch bell rings, and we pack up our trash before throwing it away while leaving. We all salute to each other before heading different ways.
My last class seemed to last forever as I watched the clock tick at a sloths pace. I could write down two pages of notes and time went forward by a single minute. It was driving me insane! When the bell rung, I was the first person out of the class with my bookbag still open, threatening to spill my papers. I securely make it out of school and into the parking lot. It smelled of gas from the buses but I ignore it as I look for any one of my friends.
I find Jackson first while he's eating another beef stick. He sees me walking towards him and meets me halfway. He holds his beef stick out to me, silently asking if I want any.
"Um, no thanks. Are you leaving with Scarlette today?"
"Yep," he answers while pulling his hand back, "her shit brothers are going to some friends houses and she promised to take them."
I nod. "So, why are you going?"
"Why are you going to the race with her?"
"Because I want to?" I answer, unsurely.
"Exactly."
I stare at him confused when a hand is placed on my shoulder. I look over to see Scarlette staring a bit down at me. I straighten up and clear my throat in case it comes out all squeaky. She nods towards the direction she came from, making me look over. Not seeing anything, I glance at her so she can confirm what I'm supposed to be looking at.
"Julie is waiting for you. Madaline said text her cause she had to leave for something- I don't know."
"Oh," I state, "okay. See you later?"
She nods and I smile before walking away to find Julie. I find her near the entrance with her mom already there. She tells me that it's okay if we leave together, since her mom already informed my parents. That was fast. I shrug it off and get into the car with Julie sliding in beside me. The front seat is filled with papers that her mom are apparently working on. I pay no attention it and instead put on the seatbelt while mumbling parts of a song that played on the radio.
"You know this song?" Julie asks, her head kind of bobbing to the beat.
"Kind of. Maddy plays it sometimes," I admit.
Julie takes that answer and soon joins me in my little mumbling concert. Her mom laughs when I poorly make the sound of a guitar which also got Julie to giggle. I continue to do it and Julie joins, pretending she's playing the piano. It's like that for the entire ride and our concert is stopped short when we reach her house. We get out of the car, and Julie happily leads me into her house after unlocking the door. Her mom trails in after us, saying we can sit in the family room.
Julie takes my arm and guides me to their living room. I look around, taking everything in. Their house has an intense family feel to it, and the living room looks comfy. I sink down into a chair and Julie sits on a separate one. We talk about random things- not feeling uncomfortable at all. I tell her that Madaline and I think Barney is traumatizing while she argues that he was her favorite. We agree that Spongebob should be everyone's favorite and maybe Teen Titans Go!
The conversation continues like that as we talk about childhood likes and dislikes. An hour passes when there's a knock on the door. Julie and I jump up as her mom opens the door. We walk over to see Scarlette standing at the door with a cool jacket on and her hair in a different style.
"You must be Julie's friend! Come in!"
"Actually, we're going out mom," Julie slides in front of her to walk out and I follow after.
"Oh, alright. Don't be out too late, we have to leave early tomorrow, Jules!"
We wave her goodbye and practically run to Scarlette's car. I hear her laugh at our childish antics, but not caring as I touch the passenger side door. Shotgun. I'll be sitting right next to Scarlette. Julie groans in playful disappointment making me stick my tongue out at her. Scarlette finally gets to her car with an amused smile planted right on her face.
"Alright kids, behave. Don't wanna leave you on the side of the road by accident," she mocks while unlocking the doors.
I practically dive into the car- not wasting a second's time. Julie climbs into the back and Scarlette gets in after. She starts her car back up and I put on the seatbelt for safety. Julie does this too and I look at Scarlette who's paying no attention to either of us. She's busy scrolling through her phone as the car rumbles. After a couple minutes she plugs the aux cord into her phone and music starts playing.
"Now we can go," she says, getting ready to drive off.
"Wait!" I yell, startling both her and Julie, "seatbelt first."
Scarlette looks at me like I'm crazy and I stare back until she finally puts her seatbelt on. One point for Nolan, Zero for Scarlette. We drive off after that with the music playing lowly in the background. I unknowingly bob my head along to some sonfs while watching the scenery quickly pass by. It's mostly a blur of green from all the trees. Maybe some blue from the plain sky.
"Do you street race often?" Julie asks from her comfortable spot in the back. I keep looking out the window, knowing the question isn't for me.
"Yeah, I've been doing it a while," Scarlette answers with no problem.
"Do you always win?" the questions keep coming.
"Not always. Sometimes I'll come in second."
It goes on like this until we pull into an unfamiliar spot. This isn't where she raced last time. Scarlette parks by a row of empty cars and turns off her own. She in buckles herself and gets out. When neither I or Julie make a move, she leans down so her head is peeking through the open door.
"Okay, c'mon kids."
Julie and I scramble out of the car in time for Scarlette to lock it and stuff her keys in a jacket pocket. We follow her long strides, her legs leading us to another row of empty cars. There's twelve and I spot the one Scarlette used when I was with her the first time. I stay quiet, not wanting to get all excited over something like that and maybe embarrass myself by asking her to choose it again. Only us two would know why, but still. Scarlette walks over to some guy and grabs a set of keys from an old brown box. We watch her press a button and she chose the car. The headlights shine and I hide my smile with a fake cough.
Scarlette looks back at me with an almost knowing look before turning back around to unlock the doors. Julie and I stand to the side as she presses another button to open the front of the car. Her hair is tied back so none of it gets caught in the engine parts and gets greasy. She checks some things before nodding and closing that part, then continues on with checking the wheels. I watch her squat down to assess each one. Julie glances at me, and I slowly shake my head- saying I don't know either, but silently.
Scarlette moves on to inspect everything else before deeming it all okay. She suddenly turns to us, to see us gawking right back at her. Scarlette looks between us before shaking her head.
"Get in, crazies. Julie, you're in front."
Again, we scramble into the car with Julie being in the front this time. I'm a little upset because I wanted to experience this again while being directly by her side, but Julie has the opportunity. I buckle up and try to lean forward as much as I can. The space we're in is bigger which meant more racers. Four others join Scarlette on the line with the timer placed on the side.
"I didn't think I'd be in the car you," Julie confesses with sudden nerves. I smile from my spot, knowing I had the same reaction.
"Well, I need my lucky charm," Scarlette glances at me from the rearview mirror, "and I can't leave you dry in the crowd. Now lets race."
The timer hits one and Scarlette somehow revs the car, the roar of it echoing across the entire space. She zooms off at zero, my body falling back against the seat. Julie squeals from the rush and her hands hold on tightly to the door handle. Scarlette lets out her angelic laugh- the one that's assigned for when she gets excited about these things. Her dimples show proudly and I can't help but smile while secretly staring at her. We advance towards a couple obstacles, but Scarlette gets around them with ease.
"Oh my god, oh my god!" Julie freaks, as we swerve and slide.
I laugh and cuff my mouth, so my words echo. "Calm down, Julie! Just lean back and enjoy it."
My advice doesn't work at first but around the last go around, Julie starts to calm down and cheer as we stay in the lead. I follow her lead and we cheer Scarlette on as she drives across the starting line in finishing time, and winning first place. Scarlette cheers herself on and puts the car in park before we all step out. The watching crowd yells and holler at her win as Scarlette goes to collect money that sat piled on a table. She steals two medals from the table and ignores the guy that tried to object.
I smile brightly at her as she walks over to us with a victory grin. She puts the now clipped money into her pockets before placing the two medals around Julie and I's necks. She gives a small smile to me before asking Julie how her first race was. They talk for a little and I wait until they're done to pull Scarlette to the side.
"What's up?" she asks, confused.
"At first you ignored Julie, now you're the best of friends," I get to the point, "why?"
Scarlette raises her eyebrows at my bluntness before slowly smirking. "I'm just being nice to your girlfriend, Nol," she answers before walking away to complete something.
I stand there stumped with a confused pounding in my chest. I can't tell if I've lost her, or if I still have her. I hope it's the second option.