Mess To Be Made

35

"Let me guess," Rachel mused as I stuffed my empty sandwich bag into my backpack. "You're going to the library."

I shot her a sore look, even though she wasn't wrong.

"Mm," Lindsay chimed in. "No, twenty bucks it's behind the caf with Cory."

Since my birthday, I'd spent the last week and a half using the last 20 minutes of my lunch break bouncing between smoking with Cory behind the cafeteria or bothering Tyler and Scott, both of whom were usually in one of their cars or the library.

Apparently, it became clear to my friends, based on my actions at my birthday party, that I was into Tyler Hennessy.

"I like that Scott kid," Sean said, snatching a crumpled red solo up off of Lindsay's living room floor. It was the morning after my birthday party and the four of us—Sean, Rachel, Lindsay, and I—were cleaning up the wreckage from the night before. Liam and Caleb were recruited to help, but the pair somehow managed to end up sprawled across a couch in the living room, scrolling through social media on their phones.

"Oh, we know," Lindsay cooed as her hand rifled around inside a box of Goldfish before producing four orange crackers in the palm of her hand. The Goldfish, among a variety of other salty snacks on the kitchen counter, were supposed to help motivate our cleaning. She popped one in her mouth and smiled widely at me. "You guys were almost as attached at the hip as Tyler and Allie."

Tyler and Allie.

I crumpled one of the empty beer cans in my hand extra hard and threw it in the trash bag I was carrying around in an attempt to stifle the stupid giddiness tingling in my core at the sound of our names spoken out loud together.

I wanted to scream at how pathetic it was.

"We're friends," I insisted, but my voice came out broken.

Rachel laughed, pulling off a streamer from atop one of the sliding glass doors. "Will you just admit that you like someone. For once."

I felt Sean's eyes on me as I began stacking empty, sticky red solo cups.

"So you like him, huh?"

I halted my movements and met his gaze. His chestnut eyes held a hopeful warmth-skeptical, but curious. They comforted me and I felt my shoulders drop a little in relaxation.

He clearly took my lack of response as a yes because he looked down at his shoes, chuckled, and shook his head. "I guess I'll have to interrogate him instead of Cory the next time he's around."

I focused my attention on throwing away used solo cups again without a word.

"You and Spencer disappeared for a while," Lindsay noted with an eyebrow raise and I resisted an eye roll.

"Yeah, he gave me a present."

Everyone stopping moving and I felt three pairs of eyes on me.

"Oh god, NO," I yelled, dropping the half-full trash bag I was holding as I glanced between my three best friends. "Not that kind of present, you pervs."

"You sure?" Sean snickered as he leaned down again to grab a stray beer bottle. He was close enough where I could lightly kick his upper arm in retaliation, prompting a yelp to escape from his lips.

"He gave me a necklace," I clarified. Sean snorted.

Lindsay's eyes brightened though. To her, unlike Sean and Rachel-and me-this was far better than sex. "A necklace?"

"I'm surprised it didn't come with a handwritten poem," Rachel muttered and I couldn't help but laugh. It was amusing-the idea of Spencer giving me not only a gift, but something as intimate as a necklace. A poem wasn't far off. "It's going to kill him, you know that, right?"