"It was so crowded there, my ice cream melted before I could even taste it," I whined, throwing my arms up exasperatedly. "We shouldn't hang out in the afternoon."

"I'll go mad with that bitch in the house," Sam said, referring to his mother and kicking a stray stone in frustration.

"Abuela weirdly likes you, you know? She wouldn't mind if you stay at my apartment. She thinks you're my boyfriend." I nudged and shading his eyes with his hands, he squinted at me.

"Yeah?" His eyes averted back to the ground which resembled a hot, iron pan. "You are certainly more tolerable than Janet or Sia."

"Wasn't her name Liah?"

"Yeah that," he winced and I hit him on the head.

"Don't tell me you called her Sia or something in bed . . . " I trailed off, but he didn't contradict me. "Wait-what? Is that the reason she refuses to fuck you anymore?" He winced again, this time more severely and I burst out laughing. "Are-are y-you joking me?"

He shook his head, wearing his sunglasses. "I called her Janet, accidentally."

"I can't believe how you can- wait, why did you break up with Janet? Did you call her Liah?"

"You're just stretching now---"

"You literally called a chick, in bed, by some other chick's name."

"Technically, it wasn't a bed."

"I don't want to know where you did it---"

"Mariana!" I heard a screech which rang through the entire street, a shrill sound like the squeak of tires skidding against a slippery road during snowy days. Allison was speeding towards me with her blonde locks of hair bouncing and her shopping bags flapping in her hands. Her flushed cheeks were puffed up and she advanced towards me, her bright eyes spotted Sam and hardened. She halted instantly, her cold eyes assessing Sam with the ferocious nature of a tiger. Lately, I had been hanging out a lot with Sam, sort of neglecting Allison . . . Mostly because she made me stay for an uncomfortable number of hours at her beautiful house with her beautiful family.

"Hey," I said, my voice a bit forceful when she refused to tear her murderous gaze from an impervious Sam.

"I went shopping alone because you said you were busy," she addressed me while looking at Sam.

"My plans got cancelled," I lied, then feeling the first tinge of guilt rise inside me, I added, "Sorry, I forgot to tell you."

Her ears perked up like a puppy's and she turned to me, her eyes gleaming again. "Let's get some food now, come!" She grasped my hands and without paying any heed to Sam, dragged me across the street. I glanced back to see an amused and baffled Sam shrugging and walking away. "I stopped by your place in the morning, but your grandma said that you were out with that boy."

"Oh yeah? That's Sam-wait, how did you know the location of my apartment?"

She didn't respond anything, just flashed a naughty grin, implying that she had taken up a new hobby of stalking me. I grew mildly concerned since she had discovered my living conditions after years of carefully hiding it, but I barely had any time to ponder over this with how we we flew from street to street as if we were late to school. She led me straight to the vegan café, opening the glass doors and nearly shoving me in.

"I thought you gave up on being vegan," I commented, remembering the last time that she was tearfully stuffing her mouth with bacon after Tony (for the hundredth time) stalled in having sex with her.

Her cheeks became a fiery scarlet as she fought an embarrassed smile. "I relapse sometimes."

Before she could spend an hour scrutinizing the menu and in the end ordering the same thing, I did her an enormous favour by asking the waitress for a pasta salad. In spite of my protests, Allison asked one more for me along with two blueberry smoothies. I mentally calculated the damage it was going to create in my already tattered wallet, but when the bill came, she paid for me too. Her bright eyes had softened when I had half-heartedly reached for the bill and she had snatched it with jittery motions. Initially, I thought it the best to not broach the money topic, but as we proceeded out of the café and seeing her satisfied expression, the troubling thoughts in the back of my head infiltrated to the front.

"I can pay, you know," I said with deliberate emphasis and she looked startled.

"Oh no, I know. My parents had given me money for shopping and I got such cool stuff on sale so I still have money left. Look," she said, letting me peep into her bag full of expensive clothes of the finest fabric.

I snorted. "Yeah, right. They're great."

"Aren't they!" She exclaimed, unable to sense my sarcasm which irked me.

"Yeah, you and your family and your life . . . All great." I began stalking off before I felt her perfectly manicured fingers on my arm.

Her eyebrows were knotted in bewilderment. "I don't understand you . . ."

"Exactly why I prefer hanging out with Sam more," I said, my words hitting the insecure spot in her mind. It gave me an odd contentment to having established my control again. I smiled at how she struggled to form coherent sentences and in rage, she abruptly dropped the shopping bags on the ground.

She stormed away with empty hands as I watched her, stunned that she didn't burst out crying. Then suddenly, she whipped her head back and with tears glistening in her eyes, she took a couple of bold steps towards me. With her quivering chin, she snarled "You never tell me anything! You lie! You always lie!" Then picking up her bags, she dumped them in the nearest bin, surprising me by her furious actions and her next words, "None of this matters to me. See? Friendships are more important to me."

I was too mesmerised by the drama unfolding before me to do anything valuable so I waited for her to disappear before I took the shopping bags out and hailed a cab. Gathering my senses, I rushed to her beautiful house. She hadn't arrived yet so I lingered outside, texting Sam about the incident which entertained him. After an hour, she appeared with a hollow look, her forest-green eyes sunken as if someone had punched her repeatedly. All my humour vanished and when she saw me, she acknowledged with a nod. Then her gaze travelled to the shopping bags at which she openly scorned.

I started, "Ally, hey . . . I'm sorry, I didn't mean any of that . . . "

"You always say mean things then you say you don't mean them. How am I supposed to know what you mean and what you don't?" she murmured almost to herself, her blonde locks limp against her round, pale face.

I thrust the shopping bags to her and said, "I'm just jealous, jealous of everything you have. That's it. Don't bother with what I say, it's all rubbish."

Her eyes widened in disbelief. "You are? Of me?" Then a crazy grin lifted the corners of her plump lips. "Are you mad, Mariana? Have you looked at yourself? How pretty you are!"

"Does it matter? Forget it, I'm sorry. What matters is that I have been an asshole to you and I won't do it again." There was a liberation in confessing and popping my bubbling ego, it restored a tranquillity that otherwise I didn't have.

"I'm sorry for acting silly," she said, a little, coy smile playing on her lips which made me smile too.

"Where were you all this while?" I asked, wondering if she had been crying in some corner of the town.

She fell victim to another helpless blush as she admitted (making me laugh and dissipating all tension), "I had some-little bacon."