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P2 - Chapter Fifteen

October 16th, 2020:

~Part Two~

We all sat in Qibli's living room, attempting (and failing) to do some origami. So far, I had tried to do a peacock, a dog, and a cow. Failed every single time. Kinkajou was busy making a rose, which was actually coming out pretty nice.

"Can we put on some music?" Kinkajou asked after a moment as she placed her origami down. "This much quietness is bad for me."

"I'm sure it is," Winter snorted as Qibli pulled out his phone.

"What do you want to listen to?" Qibli asked, raising his gaze to meet hers.

"It doesn't have to be an actual song," Kinkajou said. "Maybe some calming background music and we can talk for a while."

" 'Calm' is not a word I'd use to describe you," I hummed in an amused tone. "But I do want to talk." I placed my failed origami down. "It's been a hot minute since we all just talked–well, we did at the sleepover at Turtle's house, but Winter wasn't there and it just turned out into a disaster." I immediately regretted saying that, noticing Kinkajou's usually bubbly expression die into anguish.

Why did I remind her?

"I would like to know what Winter had been doing during all that time without us," Turtle said with a nod, raising his eyebrows expectantly at Winter.

He dismissively waved his hand as if it wasn't as important to him as it was for the rest of us. "Just the usu. Went to school, went home, went to school–it was a repetition."

"And you totally missed me throughout all of it," Qibli said with a grin as some soft background music began playing from his speakers. Thorn was in the kitchen baking us some cookies. "Right, Winter?"

"If it helps you sleep at night," Winter said with a scoff, not meeting his eyes, be deep down, I knew he did. Qibli let out a satisfied laugh as if that was exactly what he'd expected him to say.

"If you guys are done flirting with each other, I say we get started on our homework." I reached over and gripped my backpack, taking my homework out.

"If that's flirting," Kinkajou said, "what do you call you and Qibli on a daily basis?"

"At least we're not making out in the middle of the hallway every other day," I retorted, making Turtle laugh nervously. Kinkajou huffed.

"Sometimes we forget we're at school!" she defended as she got up and grabbed her backpack as well.

"It would've become something else real quick if they weren't at school," Qibli loudly whispered to me, making me stifle a laugh.

"Um, anyway," Turtle quickly interrupted as Thorn walked into the living room holding a tray of cookies. "What about you, Moon? How are you and Qibli so far?" I knew Turtle was just trying to get Thorn interested so she'd start a new conversation.

Was it me, or did Winter twitch from beside me?

"Yes, how are you and Qibli?" Thorn asked excitedly with a grin on her face. "I'm glad he found someone he really likes, especially after Sunset. God, she was horrible. You know about Sunset, right?"

I nodded my head, knowing Qibli would much rather not have this conversation at the moment. "I went and talked to her, actually."

Qibli abruptly sat up, seeming startled. "What?"

I hesitated, wondering if I shouldn't have said that. "I... talked to her a while ago." I knew Kinkajou, Turtle, and Winter didn't know the true reason why Qibli and Sunset broke up. They thought Qibli had done all those horrible things, but they were wrong.