left myself at home

chapter sixteen: pinky promise?

"ILL BE RIGHT BACK." i say to the table before heading to the bathroom. as i walk, i pull my phone out and text claire.

r u at school? i type before a quick yea why pops up.
come to front bathroom rq i send. about a minute after i walk in claire comes trailing through the door alone.

"hey i was thinking," i pause.
"what are you wearing?" i ask claire as i notice her bulky bathrobe on.

"oh yeah sorry, birthday fittings; options were in my closet." she explains.
"what did you need to tell me?" she clicks me back into the conversation.

"oh, right. so kyle, he's figuring shit out from you calling me, right? but maybe to prevent this i could change my phone contact to a different name for you." i propose. she looks at me blankly.

"that's actually what i wanted to say to you, well similar topics." claire says before checking that no one is in the stalls.

"why do we need to keep keeping us a secret?" she says.

i bite the inside of my cheek.

"listen, can we just deal with what i asked for, first. then everything will sort itself out." i try to compromise.

"i don't want a fake name!" she expresses.

"then it won't be fake! i'll..." i search for a middle ground.

"i'll use your initials, put them backwards or something."

"so i'm BC?" she's smirking now, luckily.

"sure." i smile back.

"how fitting huh?" she laughs as she comes closer to my face.

"and i'm, RV." i say back to stop her lips from interacting with mine. it's not completely safe here.

"what is my name again? huh? what is it?" she jokes again, moving me around the bathroom still locking eyes with her.

"BC" i laugh back as we individually dance around.

claire holds up her pinky as we're in the center of the room.

"BC."

a pinky promise.

"RV." i catch on.

"promise." she states, communicating to me thats she's willing to do anything just for my comfort.

i want to sob of happiness.

our pinkies our still attached, but i know that claire and her poofy bathrobe have a party to go to. well claire would leave the bathrobe here but—okay you get it.

"i think the birthday girl has somewhere to be." i interrupt out intimacy.

"you know me so well." she smirks again, doing the one thing i love more than anything in the world.

she exits out of the bathroom keeping her eyes intertwined with mine until the door shuts behind her.

and now for the hard part, which is surprisingly also a party.