It Could Be More | ✔

06. Especially Annoying

Liah sat across from me, doubled over in laughter. I'd told her about my run in with Vik last night. As predicted, she thought it was hilarious. Her laughter echoed in my garage. Not even our super loud washer could drown her out.

"You're gonna make me mess up." She begged me to paint her nails, which I usually refused for this very reason: She couldn't sit still. But the Halloween design she showed me was too cute to pass up trying.

She straightened up, her lips still twitching. "So, your mysterious bad boy is actually a mathlete?"

"I don't know what he is," I said, using my dotting tool to make a little ghost on her thumb nail. "Except a lair, apparently. And that wasn't even the worst part of the night."

I filled her in on the unpleasant moment when I saw Corey giving Shamika mouth to mouth, and how I tripped trying to run away. She was laughing again. The ghost I was painting turned into a white blob against her black nail.

"I quit!" I said, throwing my tools down on the table. Half frustrated with her, half frustrated that my Grayson free life has had such a terrible start.

That sobered my friend up real quick. Her eyes doubled in size when she saw her nails. "No. You can't leave them like this."

"You keep moving."

Another smile broke out on her face. "It's not my fault you're living in some comedy movie."

"There's nothing funny about my life." My mind flashed back to Corey and Shamika laughing at me. My skin burned. All I wanted was to distance myself from Gray. But not by becoming a joke.

Liah patted my hand the best she could without ruining her nails any further. "I'm sorry. Your life is not a joke. But... maybe you're trying too hard."

"That's the point," I said, grabbing the nail polish remover to fix her ruined nail. "How am I supposed to change without trying?"

"Ari, you can't force things to happen because you want them to."

I knew she was right. Still, I pouted. "Why not?"

She started to laugh again and I narrowed my eyes at her. Her mouth fell into a flat line. Liah did her best to stay still while I hurried to finish her nails. I was adding spider webs to her pinky nail when she started singing under her breath.

I glanced up at her, recognizing the melody. "What is that?"

"Is my singing bothering you now?"

"No. Corey kept humming that last night." I felt left out.

He didn't say anything else while we made the drive back to our neighborhood. Except to remind me I had on his hoodie.

"Oh! It's a song from the winter musical. Corey's been helping with the sets." She examined her new Halloween themed nails, smiling wide. "You're so good at this! You should use your skills to help paint sets." She batted her lashes, grinning.

"No." I turned to put nail polish away. Definitely not when I knew Corey would be there.

"But it will be fun." She shook my arm. "And we'll get to spend more time together because rehearsals are about to get crazy."

"If you mess those up, I'm not redoing them."

She laid her flat hands on the worktable. "Did I mention there will be cute guys there?"

Those were the magic words. I played it nonchalant. Even though I wanted to ask her a million and one questions about these supposed cute boys. "Didn't you just tell me I was trying too hard?"