Dylan smiled a little too big when he saw Julie and I approaching, telling me that the eggnog in his hand had an effect. The few guys around him spotted me immediately and not so subtly ran away.
"Hey — " Dylan turned around, then back and frowned. "Genevieve you scared them off."
I didn't really care. "Whoops."
I heard Julie laugh beside me. "Gen made some new friends today."
Dylan's eyebrows rose. "Wow."
"I know."
"No." Dylan's eyes were on something out of our view. "That's wow."
I turned in time to see Alice's face pull away from some other girl's. Now, I'm real sure that she had a thing for girls and all, but it still surprised me. I don't want to seem full of myself, but she was into me a few days ago, right? Or am I extremely bad at reading people? If not, then I'm not sure this was a healthy way of coping with rejection.
"Huh."
Dylan frowned. "My chest hurts."
"Heart attack?" I asked, a small, evil part of me hopeful. Julie noticed and gave me a super weak pinch to my arm.
"No." He looked away and took a sip of his eggnog, eyebrows pulled together. "Why can't Alice just like... turn ugly."
Asked myself the same thing once.
"That why you still stick to her?"
Dylan shrugged. "No — maybe a bit, but mostly no." He looked at me. "Figured that it's healthier route than completely shutting myself away." His usual grin appeared. "I mean, take you for example."
I rolled my eyes, the feeling of betrayal crawling it's way into my chest when I saw Julie resisting the urge to smile. How dare she laugh at my edgy self?
Dylan toughened up a while later, deciding to try and find a pretty girl to talk to without me as a wingman, because I'd probably be pretty useless. I would worse than useless. I'd ruin the whole courting process before it even started. His potential girlfriend would take one look at me, get spooked, then make her escape.
Julie wished him good luck, being the genuine and super nice person she was. Finally, we were left to ourselves again.
"Cookie?" Julie held up a bright red cookie.
"What if Dylan somehow put weed in that?" I gave her a look, disappointed in her lack of caution.
"He already told me that it was safe."
Her eyes made me trust her on Dylan's word. She got a green cookie for herself. That moment, I'm sure we both had the same realization: Dylan made some good cookies.
"Next time we make cookies —"
"Invite Dylan?"
Julie furrowed her eyebrows, completely not okay with the idea. "No, we ask him for advice. But, I like your new way of thinking."
My eyebrows rose. "I thought you liked Dylan, why not invite him if he's a friend?"
Julie chewed the inside of her cheek. "Well, it's our time." She looked up at me as she slouched against the counter. "I'd like it to stay that way, wouldn't you?"
"Yeah."
My ears felt warm, and I'm going to say it's because this room is filled with too much people.
__________
I trusted Gabby and her friends with Julie while I became a recluse in the slightly less crowded part of Alice's backyard. It wasn't like I was tired of her or anything, but she looked like she wanted to spend time with them and they wanted to hang out with her as well. My weird self actually wanted people happy.
Alice's backyard was always pretty boring with only one boring tree at its corner, but it seems she and Dylan found a way to make it look nice with some lights and other decorations. I decided to hang out beneath the boring tree, far enough from everyone to not have to interact with them and near enough to use them as my live entertainment.
This was nice. It was cool, comfortable, and relaxing. Perfect for me, so perfect that I felt content and pretty damn happy at the moment. Got to witness my daily dose of cliché drama where a girl dumped her drink on her boyfriend for a reason I don't know and someone else kill the grass with their vomit.
It was perfect until I felt a presence beside me.
Alice smiled awkwardly. "Hi."
In response, I gave her my most polite, 'go away' smile. She made the atmosphere weird and I didn't like it.
"I know you hate me and I deserve that."
I rolled my eyes. "I don't hate you."
"How could you not?"
I shrugged. "Just don't care anymore."
"Well, I'm sorry." She looked at me. "And I really mean it, not being fake here."
I studied her face, trying to find any sign of insincerity. I could not find any, which kind of surprised me. "Alright."
"That's it?"
She looked too surprised than she should be. I thought she'd be relieved, and then leave. Then it would end happily. That would be really nice.
"Mm-hm."
"Okay... so we're good then?"
I shrugged for the second time that night. "Well, I'm not gonna say it isn't gonna be super awkward." I looked at her, moving my hand in a way to gesture towards this conversation. "This, is awkward for me."
Alice pulled on a face of determination. "Then let's just make it not awkward. Start over?"
I narrowed my eyes. "What's with you now? D'you have some sort of revelation today or something?"
"No, it was actually a bit after the janitors closet thing." I noticed the slight flash of discomfort on her face as she turned her head away a bit. "I realized that I was wrong and now I want you to know that I know." She turned back to me. "I also want to go back to before, being friends, I mean."
I looked up at the dark mass of leaves above me, thinking. "Maybe... how do I know this is not some elaborate plan or something?"
"Trust me."
My face dropped as I looked at her with bored eyes. "Trust you? Should I really?"
"I've got nothing to gain from this except being friends with you again."
"Maybe... maybe you're trying to ruin my reputation by getting close," I accused.
It was her time to roll her eyes. "Everyone's already seen you get all heart eyes with Julie, I've got nothing to ruin."
Oh, now everyone's just gonna point that out then? That'd just cheap, real cheap.
"Not jealous are you?" There was a slight taunt to my tone but I tried not to make it obvious.
"No." Alice's head tilted to the side. "Okay, maybe a bit — but not as much as before."
Oh. Oh. What Dylan noticed earlier finally made sense. That means I'm safe.
"So, this got anything to do with the girl you were kissing earlier?"
Her body tensed for a fraction of a second but she kept her composure in a typical Alice fashion. "Um, yeah."
Alice spoke again. "Which is why you should trust me. I have no more motivation."
Maybe Julie's rubbing off on me. I suddenly want to give people second chances. Super weird.
"Alright."
"Really?"
I flashed her a tight-lipped smile. "Yeah, but we're not close anymore. Starting from the very beginning."
She nodded, this actually genuine smiling spreading across her lips. "Okay, I'm fine with that."
_____
A/N: Been a while hasn't it? Yeah, whoopsie. I hope the fact that I stayed up on my phone to make this makes up for it. I mean, it's not like I had to, but to make it seem like I put more work into it than I actually did. You get me?
I've been waiting to end the pretty unnecessary Alice drama. Felt pretty bad from the start 'cause it's really lame drama. Probably 'cause I ain't that good at making good drama. It started out so edgy, ugh.
Anyway, thanks for reading! Here's a smiley face :)