Shadows of Dusk

Friendship Stories

Chapter Eight

-Cassandra-

I watch Grace head down the stairs, then slipped back into my room. A few things had fallen over in the panic of hearing someone knocking on the door.

"Well, you're a terrible liar," Maria simply puts.

I let out a sigh, as I fall onto my bed. "I'm hoping she bought it,"

"She could have, I mean, I don't know how long the two of you have been friends,"

"What does how long we've been friends have to do with it?"

"Well, if you recently became friends, she may not know all your little quirks and tell-tale signs of lying. If you've been friends for a long time, then she pry knows that you're lying,"

Maria had a really good point. Grace was probably even a little upset with me, for not telling her the whole truth. I always told her everything, and she always told me everything.

"So, uh, how long have you and Grace been friends?" Maria asks.

"I think she moved here in the third grade, but we didn't really get to know each other and become friends until the fourth grade," I say.

"Yeah, there's absolutely no way she bought it, if the two of you have been friends for almost ten years,"

"You seem to know a lot about friendships. Do you have any best friends?"

"What? Pfft, no," she brushes off the question. "I'm not the kind of person people make friends with," she seemed really solemn saying the words.

"What about Diego?" I ask. The two of them seemed close last night, in the platonic way. Maybe even not the platonic way, as if there was something between them, or there once was.

She chuckled, but it sounded a little forced. "Diego? No, I wouldn't call him a best friend, he's...He's just someone who has helped me out,"

Sure I hadn't known Maria for long, and the few things I did know about her weren't the best things, but I wondered why she wouldn't consider Diego a friend, or why she didn't have anyone else to call one. She was funny, had an amazing personality, and dare I say she was beautiful.

"So," I began, thinking of a way to change the subject. "What will we do when I have to go to school on Monday?" I was hoping she'd get the little hint that I was kind of wanting her to stay longer.

"Oh, I thought I'd be gone by then, out of your hair, so you wouldn't need to worry about me,"

My stomach dropped a little. She was oblivious. "Oh,"

"And I suppose we still have tomorrow to decide all of that, so let's not get ahead of ourselves,"

My hopes raised. Was she hinting on staying around tomorrow? "Well, I probably have to take my car to the mechanic shop, so I can use it on Monday for school. You probably wouldn't want to go along, for reasons,"

She nodded. "Right, because of reasons,"

I watched her carefully, looking for something, even if I didn't exactly know what. "I would completely understand if you even just upped and left while I was gone,"

There was a long pause before she replied. "That would be extremely rude of me,"

A small smile tugged at the corner of my lips. "Does the mafia teach manners?"

Her eyes widened, but she broke out into a grin. "Stop it!"

We both laugh, knowing to keep our voices down.