~~
"Wait, so let me get this straight-" Peggy started, sitting up on her bright yellow bed. I sat in a small, white beanbag chair across the room.
"It's pretty gay, but go on," I interrupted. She sent me a glare that told me to shut up without having to make a sound. I held my hands up in mock surrender and waited for her to continue.
"So Alex, the guy you met on Saturday, is your soulmate? I didn't even know there was such thing as gay soulmates..." she trailed off. "I guess that part doesn't really matter, because you found your soulmate! This is great news!"
Peggy did a little victory dance with her arms, but I sat there with my head resting in the palm of my hand. She must have noticed my unenthusiastic state, because she then asked, "What's wrong? This is great news, isn't it?"
I shrugged my shoulders and released a heavy sigh. "Not really."
She furrowed her eyebrows together in confusion. "Why not, he's your soulmate. I'd be thrilled if my soulmate was that good looking."
I chuckled a bit at her comment, but fell back into my slump. "I don't know, I guess it's just... I care about him, okay? I don't want to see him get hurt in the long run."
"I guess that makes sense. But don't you want to find love? Be happy? I don't know, live a little?"
I actually considered what Peggy was proposing, but I was living. I had people who cared for me, people who hated me, and a shit-ton of memories that I wouldn't trade for the world. Was there really more to life that I was missing out on?
"Peggy, I'm fine. The only thing I want from this life that I was stuck with, is to be able to spend my last few days away from this shithole of a town." I sighed. "I don't need a soulmate."
"Fine, whatever, don't listen to me, but remember me on your d-day when you're dying and you realize your life sucked." With that, Peggy stood up from her bed and sat her hands on her hips. "Now, do you want anything to eat? I'm starving."
"Actually..." I trailed off as I dug around in my pocket, pulling out the money I had gotten from Thomas earlier that day. "Can we go out for lunch?"
Peggy's eyes widened at the sight of cash in my hands, but she soon turned her surprised expression into one of anger. She glared daggers into my skull and asked, "Are you selling Thomas drugs again?"
I stood up from the beanbag and shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. The world may never know."
She rolled her eyes as she grabbed her keys from her nightstand and led me outside to her car.
* * *
Peggy drove to the 50s themed diner that the both of us would always go to whenever we had the chance. We knew everyone who worked there, and everyone knew us.
We walked into the diner side-by-side and were escorted to our usual booth. There was a small jukebox that sat on the end of the table, up against a large window that overlooked the parking lot.
The hostess handed us our menus and left to retrieve a waitress. Peggy and I didn't even need to look at our menus because we always ordered the same thing.
A girl with long, dark hair and fair skin approached our table with a pen and pad in hand. She clicked her pen and pressed the point against a clean note page, and then she greeted us. "Hi, I'm Eliza, and I'll-"
"Wait, Eliza?" Peggy asked in confirmation, but the waitress simply raised a single, delicately groomed eyebrow and nodded. "I'm sorry, can you give us a moment? We're not quite ready to order yet."
Eliza nodded and went to wait on another table. Peggy held up a menu and leaned over the table to whisper to me, like people did in the movies.
"Do you know who that was?" she whisper-shouted, pointing discreetly at Eliza.
"No, and why are we whispering?"
Peggy huffed and moved a strand of her curly hair from her face. "That's Eliza. My sister Eliza. I had no clue she worked here!"
My eyes widened at the sudden realization. I took a quick glance back at the waitress, but Peggy had slapped my arm to pull my attention back to her. "Don't look now!"
"Alright!" I hissed.
Peggy was the third child in her family. When the government found out she wasn't an only child, they sent Eliza and her to different foster homes and killed their mother. Because Angelica was the first born, she stayed with the father. The three of them haven't spoken or seen each other since the day they were separated, and I was the only person she had told. I couldn't imagine what it must have felt like for Peggy to see Eliza after all this time.
"Do you wanna go somewhere else? There's a pizza place down the-"
I was interrupted when Peggy said, "No, it's fine. I'm... fine." She set down the menu just as Eliza came back over to our table.
"Are you two ready to order yet?" she asked in a kind tone. I gave Peggy a concerned look, and she nodded slightly.
"Yeah, can I have a Super Cheesy Cheese Burger with a side of cheese fries- extra cheese-and a vanilla shake?"
"Alrighty, and you?" Eliza turned her attention to me, pen ready to write my order down.
"Let me get a Double-Decker Bacon Burger with curly fries and a strawberry shake, no whipped cream." I answered confidently.
Eliza jotted down the last bits of my order and clicked her pen. "Great, I'll be back in a little bit!" she grinned as she skipped back to the kitchen.
"Are you alright?" I asked Peggy, who seemed a little less cheerful than she usually did.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just..." she trailed off in thought. I heard her choke back a lump in her throat before she continued. "It's just kinda hard to go on knowing that your sisters don't know who you are."
I thought about what would happen if Martha was ever taken away. Would she ever forget who I am? I couldn't bare the thought of losing my baby sister. I meant so much to her for her to just forget who I am, right?
Peggy changed the subject, realizing it wasn't the best topic of conversation for the both of us to be having. "Have you started Mr. Franklin's project yet?"
"I have, actually," I replied. "But it's still a surprise. When's it due?"
"Tomorrow."
I nearly choked on my own saliva at her response. "Tomorrow? I only started it yesterday!"
Peggy shrugged nonchalantly. "That's what you get for not letting me help you."
Eliza had returned with our milkshakes on a black, plastic trey. She gave us our respective drinks and said, "If you need anything else, feel free to ask." As she skipped away, Peggy and I took sips from our milkshakes.
"I'll get the project done," I reassured her. "I'll just have to crack down on it when I get back to my house, no big deal."
Peggy rolled her eyes and took another sip from her vanilla shake. Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out to look at the caller ID. "The school?"
"Yeah... I kinda put your number in the school system as my emergency contact." I said, staring out into the parking lot to avoid eye contact.
Peggy glared at me, then answered the phone, pulling it up to her ear. "Hello?... Yes, this is she... Really?... Yes... Okay... Alright, thank you... Okay, bye." She hung up the phone and stuffed it back into her pocket. "You're lucky I love you, or else I wouldn't have just posed as your mother."
I then realized that I didn't know what I'd do without Peggy. She was the only person I could trust with my life, and I appreciated everything she did for me. She was like a sister to me, and I'd do anything for her.
I gave her a weak smile as I swirled my straw around in my milkshake.
~~
(Kind of a short chapter, and it's not my favorite, but it works. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to leave a vote and comment if you feel like it 💕)