It Could Be More | ✔

25. Easy (1)

"Repeat everything I just said."

I stopped packing my bag, looking over at Liah. "We've been over this a million times. I know the plan."

It was Friday night and Liah and I were supposed to meet Corey at the park, where Vik would pick us up to spend the weekend at his place. Mom and Gray were out hunting down black Friday deals. They'd be back any minute. Hopefully without Gray, since he was supposed to drive back to campus after their trip.

I could lie to Mom, but Gray? He'd smell the crap from a mile away.

"Repeat it," Liah said with more force.

I plopped down on my bed next to her. "We're going to Emily and Lily's house for a sleep over with the rest of the cast and crew who worked on the musical."

"And?"

"And..." And what more could there be?

"Come on, Ari," she said, exasperated. "A sleep over is one night. We need the whole weekend."

"Oh, yeah, the fake dress rehearsal and the pizza party on Sunday."

The pizza party was the only true thing about our weekend plan. Mrs. Darcey wanted the actors to relax a little before opening night next Friday. Liah had been more wound up lately, which was probably why she looked like she wanted to strangle me.

"Repeat it," she said again. "No mistakes this time."

I groaned, ready to strangle her myself. She told her parents last night. She made sure both sets of her grandparents were still there, so there was no way her parents would say no. When it came to their kids and their grandbabies, the grandparents always sided with the grandkids.

I hadn't told my mom yet, but she was easy. As long as Gray wasn't there, I could've gotten away with just telling her I was going to Liah's all weekend. She trusted me like that.

Then again, it wasn't often that I claimed to be at Liah's and was actually somewhere else...

I repeated the plan to Liah until I had it perfected.

When Mom got back, no Grayson in sight, Liah and I had our bags and satin covered pillows ready to go. We told my mom we were meeting Emily and Lily at the school where everyone was meeting. Our plan almost fell through when Mom insisted on dropping us off because it was dark and cold.

I pulled out my best whiney voice and told her how embarrassing that would be, and she backed off.

As soon as Liah and I turned off my street and knew we were in the clear, we couldn't help but laugh. We did it!

There were a lot of firsts happening. Our first double date. Our first co-ed sleepover. It felt like stepping into a whole new era of us.

● ● ●

Vik lived in one of those neighborhoods where all the houses were identical. All white, with small manicured lawns. The only thing setting his house apart from the rest was the basketball hoop above the garage.

On the drive over, Corey and I sat together in the backseat. I wanted to talk to him about what I said to Shamika, but not while we had an audience.

Liah and Vik were all lovey-dovey while every time I looked at Corey, all I could see was him getting mad at me. I'd never seen him mad before, but I felt like what I did could bring that side of him out. I was not going to relax until I told him.

"Cool. So we're all here." Vik looked helplessly awkward as the four of us crowded the entryway with our bags.

His house was nice. Different shades of gray with pops a blue and gold here and there. There was a living room to right and a family room on the left. Straight ahead were the stairs, flanked by fake palm leaf plants in big blue vases.