“I’m in love... withLex?”
I’m struck with a moment of clarity so intense that I grasp for something, anything to hold on to. I lean against the building next to me, the cool stone rough against my fingertips. My heart pounds in my chest and my mind swims as I forget how to breathe. Is this a panic attack? What are you supposed to do at times like this? Smell five things, blink four times, lick three objects—
My phone vibrates from inside my purse and it startles me so bad I nearly fling it away from me. With shaking fingers, I palm the device.Olsen.I press the red button and tuck my phone away. He wasn’t who I expected. Who I wanted.
My phone rings again. I look at the screen. Olsen, again. Red button, again.
I can’t believe this. Of all the weird shit the curse could throw at me, making me fall in love with my best friend is by far the most awkward shit ever.
My phone rings a third time. I lift it to peek at the caller and answer it immediately.
“Hi.” My voice is little more than a breathy wheeze.
“Aubrey, you okay? Where are you?” Though Lex is brimming with concern, the sound of her voice soothes my nerves.
“I’m fine.”
“That’s only one of the questions I asked. Olsen said you left and you’re not answering your phone? Is everything okay? What happened?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Your question-to-response ratio is terrible. Are you in an Uber? Are you on your way home? Tell me you’re safe.” Her genuine distress from not knowing whether or not I’m okay makes my heart squeeze even tighter around the notion thatsheis my person, and has been this whole time.
“I’m walking home.”
Silence. Then, “It’s almost midnight, and you live on the other side of town. Are you feeling sick? He said you ran away. Where are you? I’ll come get you.”
“No, no, it’s fine.”
“It’s clearly not fine. I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you, okay? Just drop me your pin.”
The idea of Lex being with me right now settles my anxiety, if only enough for me to take a slow, steadying breath. I do asI’m told, pressing the requisite buttons with shaky fingers to share my location.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes. Do you want me to stay on the phone with you?” Lex sounds like she’s on the move, probably grabbing her keys and hopping into her car.
“No, I’ll be okay.”
“Okay. I’ll be right there.”
“Lex?” I hear her pause as I close my eyes, take another breath, and release it in a slow, shuddery exhale. “Thank you.”
“Of course,” she says, quiet and tender. “I’ll see you soon.”
I hold my phone for a long time after we’ve hung up, just staring at her profile picture and wondering what the fuck I’m going to tell her.Hi, Lex! I cried out your name while your brother made me come all over his couch! Want to Netflix and Chill some time?Or maybe I go in with,Hey, I know we’re best friends and you just set me up with your brother, but I’d like to try LesbianingTMwith you despite having zero experience doing so!Or, even better,Heya! Do you want to risk ruining the best friendship either of us has ever had to try to make a go of it as a couple despite the fact that the curse will probably rip us apart and drag us through hell for even attempting it?
Apparently spiralling speeds up time because I feel like I blink and Lex’s Subaru has pulled up beside me. Keeping my eyes on the sidewalk and still struggling with what the hell I’m going to say, I cross behind her car and open the passenger door.
“Lex, I—oh.” I stop in my tracks, blinking up at the face of Lynn, not Lex, as she sits in the front passenger seat with her expensive purse on her lap. She regards me with an extremely unamused expression on her delicate features.
“Shit, I’m sorry, I forgot you were on a date,” I say, glancing from Lynn to Lex. I’m the worst friend ever. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“We were just at the movies. It was almost over,” Lex explains.
Relief that I didn’t interrupt anything more salacious makesme feel a bit better, only to increase my guilt that they were probably on their way back to Lynn’s to take their evening to the next level, which I’m ruining. I step back. “I’ll call an Uber, it’s fine.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Get in.” Lex’s eyes are serious, as always, but there’s a hint of relief playing across her features, like she half expected to show up and have me keeled over on the street. Which, to be fair, is a likely scenario given what we’ve been through.
That being said, the last thing in the world I want is to climb in the back seat with Lex and Lynn in the front, rudely interrupted on their date, at, what time is it, close to midnight? Nobody on a date this late is ever doing anything they want to have interrupted. Joining them now would be so... so...
