LIZZIE

After spending the last four days straight with Parker, her absence was as noticeable as a fresh rash. I kept checking the spot where she'd be lording over me. I'd look behind my shoulder, making sure I haven't missed her anywhere.

"Trouble in paradise?" Andrea asked when I stalled a little too long at my locker. I kept expecting Parker to just pop up and start talking. She usually approached new conversations like a jump scare.

"No." I glared at her and pretended to shift through the horde of papers at the bottom of my locker.

"There's no shame in breaking up," Andrea stated. She pushed up her glasses, maybe to get a clearer look at the crazed look in my eyes. "I mean, it wouldn't even be your shortest relationship."

"Don't remind me."

She referred to Mariah Wilson, who asked me out last year on a Saturday, took me to the military ball and then, broke up with me on Sunday night to get back with her ex-girlfriend, who saw us dancing together and remembered everything she was missing. She could have Mariah. Mariah always had something stuck in her teeth and I was too awkward to ever tell her, so the guilt nearly killed me.

I leaned my back against my locker and texted Parker for the third time today, asking if she was already at practice. I muttered, "I think I'm getting a taste of my own medicine."

Andrea rolled her eyes and laughed. "Okay, well, do you want to mope here more or do you wanna walk to practice together?"

"Mope." I frowned, dropping all my weight against the lockers.

"Have fun," Andrea sighed, raising her hands in defeat. She left me alone again.

Only my own reflection stared back at me, not a response, not a single sign of life from Parker. Maybe she did die. I whipped out my phone to ask Camille, who at least had two classes with Parker. She'd know... when did I figure out Parker's schedule? I shuddered. This trial thing was messing me up.

My phone finally dinged.

I jumped, holding the screen up. Parker did finally text back:

PARKER: [Sorry talk later]

My shoulders deflated. All the air knocked out of my lungs. That cleared that up. She really had no time for me today. My grimace twisted into a scowl and I chucked my cellphone into my backpack.

"What's the point of teaching me how to text all the time if you're not even gonna text me back?" I grumbled, so angry I could taste it. She gave me so much shit for ignoring her and she can't even spare two seconds to reply? And she canceled on me!

I pulled out my phone again.

Hiking my bag up my shoulder, I started drafting a huge paragraph about how being a hypocrite definitely got her dumped and how I wasn't going to stand for it, but I changed my mind. Instead, I did one of Camille's old tricks and simply texted:

LIZZIE: [fine]

One-word responses were regarded as a bad sign, at least that's the impression Camille gave me. Plus, she was going to need some ice for that burn, after I put that little period on the end. Camille would be proud. This way, I wanted to prepare Parker for our fight tomorrow. Hopefully, she came up with a better reason for ditching me than making the costumes. She still had all month to do them! So, it was more than that.

"Whoa," I yelped, ramming my shoulder right into someone. I sent a girl stumbling to the side and I panicked, grabbing her arm to keep her from totally eating it. My face went from warm to boiling hot. I started sweating around my collar. "I am so sorry. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry-"

The last apology lodged in the middle of my throat.

My eyes widened as Emily Kaplan (the Emily) tossed her dark curls out of her face. All the blood drained to my curling toes. I hadn't face her since... well, ever. We passed each other at that party (we were also passing girlfriends, but I wasn't going to lead with that).

"It's okay," Emily said, clutching the expensive looking camera that dangled around her neck. "No harm. I'm more durable than I look," she joked, and an uncomfortable laugh flew out of my mouth.

I've never really looked at Emily in person before. She always used filters on Instagram, so I never noticed how gorgeous she looked in the real world. Gorgeous wasn't the right word, though. She didn't look like any of the girls from around here. She had big doe eyes and a small face, all cheekbones and sharp lines. She looked like a girl from another time.

She looked cool too with her brown Sherpa jacket, a gray T-shirt and black pants with holes around the knee. I noticed something scrawled on her right hand that slipped underneath her sleeve, surrounded by little black doodles.

This looked like a girlfriend Ashley Marie Parker would have and my eyes slightly burned.

"Sorry again," I mumbled, tipping my face to the ground. I made a move to dash down the hall, but Emily moved the same way. She laughed.

"Looks like we're going the same way," she said.

"Are you heading to the theater?" I asked, praying she'd say no.

"Yeah, actually."

Damn.

Internally, I groaned and had a little temper tantrum, complete with stomping my feet and screaming into a pillow. All on the inside, though. Then, the worst thing that could possibly happen to me did and Emily matched my pace for the auditorium.

"Are you a part of the play?" she asked, opening her camera. She fiddled with the settings. "I'm taking pictures for the yearbook. God." She rolled her eyes, laughing again. She had a deep voice, surprisingly gritty and a little flat. Even her voice was cool like she didn't care about being perfectly understood, like an Indie pop singer with a folky aesthetic. "I'm Emily."

I knew that.

"Elizabeth-" I caught myself, flinching at my own stupidity. "I mean, Lizzie."

"Oh!" Emily spouted. "I do know you! You're Camille's cousin, right?"

"Yeah," I said carefully.

"Then, you must be friends with Parker."

"Actually, we're dating-"

The words just flew out of my mouth and I physically stopped, wishing I could stuff them back into my mouth. Wide-eyed, I met Emily's dumbfounded look. I was the kid that just got caught red-handed, swiping something from the store. Except in this scenario, Parker was the thing and Emily was the store.

"Huh." Emily blinked. Her demeanor cracked as if the gears inside her brain malfunctioned. She shook her head, shaking her curls too. "Dating? Like dating, dating?"

"Yeah, unless there's another meaning to dating."

"Sorry. I'm just surprised. I haven't seen you guys together on Instagram or anything."

"No, I'm sorry. I know you two dated." I shut my eyes and fought back against the foot I firmly shoved into my mouth. "I could've been more delicate."

"How long..."

"Since the first."

"Oh, wow." Her eyes widened. She mumbled the way I chewed through tough meat. "That was fast."

"It all happened really fast."

Emily didn't respond to that. She took a scrunchie off her wrist and tied her hair out of her face. I hadn't noticed before, but from her neck to her ears, her skin went red. We began walking again, this time with a third wheel I liked to call my social anxiety. Emily fiddled with her camera settings more and I looked at the walls like I've never seen concrete before.

"Is Parker going to be at practice?" she asked.

I straightened. "Um, I'm not sure." The more I said, the more I wished this stupid mouth had a reversal button. Why didn't my brain understand that I didn't have to tell her everything? I ended up admitting, "She hasn't texted me much today."

That made Emily chuckle. She let out a relieved little sigh. "She's probably busy with the costumes then. Until the play's over, you might want to get used to getting ignored." She gave me a knowing look and walked ahead to slip through the auditorium doors. I caught the edge of her smug little smirk like she has our relationship all figured out.

"Emily!" I called out to her before it was too late. She looked over her shoulder at me and I asked, not really caring about being nice anymore, "Is that why you broke up? Because she ignored you."

Her expression darkened, but her lips twisted into a smile. She looked at me much differently now, with daggers and knives. "I'll just say this, Lizzie. I always came second to Parker's work, so don't expect much more."

My stomach twisted. Everyone really did think of us being together as a joke.

She let the door close behind her and I raised my fist, shaking them in the sky, trying to get over this feeling of wanting to knock that girl's lights out. She thought she was better than me and she didn't know a single thing about me. I wasn't like Emily Kaplan. I wasn't going to let Parker get away with it. Parker yelled at me for my dating hang-ups, so I'm going to yell at her too or what was the point of this stupid trial anyways?!

I pulled out my phone and dialed Parker's number.

It rang until I could hear her voice mail, so I called again and again and again.

Parker finally answered, "Okay! What? What? Why couldn't you just text me? Who calls people anymore? I don't even call to order a pizza-"

"I tried texting you! But you ignored me all day! Why didn't you text me?" I shouted, guns blazing. My whole body tingled as my heart thrummed. This was taking all my courage and I was already exhausted as if I just ran a 5K.

"I was busy!"

"You didn't have time to send me just the quickest reply? I'm not asking for your whole day. Just a second. I just want a piece of you, Parker, and I'll be satisfied."

The other end of the line went quiet. I got a little pissed, thinking she hung up on me.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"You're sorry!" I guffawed, still steaming like a teapot, but then I actually listened to what she said. I did a double-take at my phone, double-checking I was talking to the right person. "You're sorry?"

"Yeah, I shouldn't have blown you off."

"You are the one who made me feel bad about not texting you, remember?"

"Right, again."

"Well..." I spoke softer, walking aimlessly in the empty hallway. I reached the white concrete wall and jabbed my converse against it. "You know if we were keeping points, I'd be winning."

"It's not a contest."

"Why? Because you're losing?"

She laughed and I looked up with a smile. I said, "We're cutting my hair tomorrow at your house, understood? Don't blow me off again."

"I won't, okay? I'm sorry."

The double doors opened, and a few band guys walked outside. One shoved the other as they let the doors go. Still, the music trickled outside. Norah (or Cinderella) was singing about a lovely night and about a charming prince that she definitely didn't meet at a ball that she definitely didn't attend.

"Okay..." I looked back at the maroon theater door, imagining Emily there. I'm a little relieved Parker didn't show up. I don't think I could stand watching them both interact. Hopefully, I'd never see the day. Instead of confessing about our little meeting, I told Parker, "Practice is going to be boring without you."

"You mean more peaceful?"

My brow scrunched. "No. I mean, no one there can make me laugh as much as you." She went quiet again, but this time, it didn't sit well in my stomach. "Are you okay? Why are you so distracted?"

"I just get like this sometimes," she answered, which wasn't really answering. "I'll see you tomorrow at school and then, we can go back to my house. Do the finishing touches on your Pinterest board, Lizzie, and say goodbye to those split ends."

"Tomorrow then."

"Tomorrow."

And like that, I hung up the phone and walked into the auditorium. I took my place with the others, spying on Emily all practice. Eventually, I grabbed Camille. "Can I ask a favor?"

"Sure," she said, slightly breathless after a few dance scenes. She took a swig of her water and I sat with her in the back of the stage. We were watching Jordan attempting to pick up Norah who at least had a foot on him. In the background, the team discussed the physics at work without bruising Jordan's ego.

"What's up?" Camille took another drink.

"Can you find a picture of Parker and me, then send it to me?"

"You don't have one?"

"No." I frowned. "Is that bad?"

"It's not surprising," she chuckled and to see her smiling again filled me with relief. She searched through her phone. "You hate taking pictures and until a few days ago, it was hard enough to get you two close enough for a selfie- Ah! Here we go. I made you guys take this for me..." She showed me the screen.

"Oh, yeah," I said, remembering that day. It was the last day of summer and Camille demanded we take a picture as evidence of a time before we were seniors. We bought sparklers and played in Camille's carport until we emptied the box. In the picture, it was difficult to see us in the dark, but with the sparks flying between Parker and me, our eyes glimmered.

"Do you care if I post it?" I asked.

"Just give me credit as Supreme Goddess." Camille smiled and raised her arms, ready to be worshiped like it was her life's purpose. The sweat had nothing to do with her sparkle. Before she got up to practice her solo, I grabbed her and had to ask.

"What do I post? In the caption?"

"Say..." She glanced through the cast and the crew. She frowned, spotting Emily hanging out with a few of my fellow band geeks. Emily tossed her curls, making them laugh. Camille said, "Say that we missed her at practice."

"Got it." I nodded.

Camille froze and spun around, pointing a finger at me. "And a heart emoji."

"I'm not ready for that."

"Then, the smiling emoji with that little blush."

"Okay." I typed it up as I found my place back at the piano. Practice went on as normal. During the next break, I checked my notifications. Parker liked the post, along with a crowd of people in the tech crew. I thought that was it when I noticed I had a new follower:

EmilybutSpooky.

#

Author's Note

Happy Fourth of July, unless you're not from America than hey! Happy Thursday, ya'll. I just realized I'm posting about a fictional Thursday on an actual Thursday and if that's not meta, then I don't know what is XD

Hope you guys like the update! Did you expect to see Emily again? Do you think the fight with Camille is swept under the rug and over? Are you excited for that haircut? Let me know what you think in the comments! 

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