"Man, does it feel good to have no homework," Lila said as she hung over the back of her couch. I bit on my pinky finger and winced; she was going to fall over and crack her head open any time now, and I sure wasn't going to be able to do anything about it.

Olivia seemed to share my sentiments. She stood up and pulled on Lila's legs, dragging her back down so that she was sitting on the couch properly. "Yeah, it's almost summer time, guys. We might as well get ready."

Lila dismissed Olivia with a flick of her wrist. "Get away from me. I was having fun."

"Actually, your face was turning dangerously red, and you were about to fall over any time. You do soccer, not gymnastics." I tossed my calculus notebook behind me onto where my backpack would surely be. I hoped I'd never see it again.

"Actually," Lila retorted, holding up a hand, "I did gymnastics when I was younger."

Olivia snorted. "You mean when you were six." She pointed at the Merciers' cabinet full of pictures, one of which was of little Lila in a leotard. Damn, she was incredibly cute back then. I didn't know about her right now...

I kid, I kid.

My phone rang, and I picked it up with my pointer finger and thumb of my left hand. It wasn't Luc (I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish that it was him), but rather Eli, who wanted to know if I was going to the senior graduation ceremony in a couple days (since he was taking care of tickets for Blake, his elder brother who was graduating). I looked up to see Lila and Olivia watching me expectantly.

"And?" Lila asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is my brother asking me to pick him up or something?"

I shook my head. "He took his car today, remember? And I don't know where the hell he is right now, so don't even bother asking."

"Ugh." Lila rolled her eyes. "And I thought you guys were dating."

I choked on nothing in particular (I guessed that my spit was a valid contender for that cause). Olivia had to toss me my water bottle from halfway across the room with a little smirk before I could sufficiently calm myself down. I chugged the water one last time, just to annoy them both by wasting time. They deserved it. After all, they did give me hell on our last day of exams (by stealing my backpack and nearly bringing on a panic attack).

"Spit it out," Olivia said, frowning at me jokingly as she stretched her legs on one of the armrests of Lila's loveseats. Lila shot her a sharp look, but she only gave her a snarky side glance, refusing to take her feet off. "We wanna hear everything—all the nasty details too."

"Go back to your own boyfriend," I retorted. I mean, at least I thought she and Eli were dating.

Olivia coughed a few times into her fist. After a second (aha!), she sputtered out, "I'm not seeing anyone."

I pointed at her water bottle, which was lying right next to her on the ground. "Maybe you should help yourself to some of that," I said pointedly, raising my eyebrows right back at her.

"Stop bickering, children," Lila said, sitting upright on her couch and raising her hands as if she was the Mother Abbess from The Sound of Music breaking apart the bickering nuns. (She wasn't holy enough, though, in reality. That was why she didn't make the cut last year, when our drama department did The Sound of Music.) "Just spill everything, you both."

I held up my phone defensively and sat up in my little armchair. "For your information, it was Eli, and he was just wondering something."

"Why was he texting you?" Olivia swung her legs over the couch and sat in it properly, to Lila's visible relief (her face just lightened up).

Maybe it was just me, but I really thought it was super cute how Olivia transferred her giddiness toward Luc to Eli. (All right, it also had a lot to do with the fact that I knew for sure that I had a thing for Luc.) I smirked at her. "You guess."

Lila held her hands up again. "Wait, are you two dating?" She lay back down on her couch.

I swiveled my head to look at her so quickly that I cracked my neck. (Ouch. But it did feel good since I hadn't done that in so long.) "You mean me and Olivia? No thanks."

Olivia glared at me jokingly. "It hurts, Audrey."

"But tell me," I whined, holding my hands up to my chin as if I was begging her, "are you two dating? Because that would be so cute, and at least Eli knows Luc, so we can, like, totally double date—"

Wait, wait, where was I going with this? Even though I'd tried to confront him about the topic several times already, Luc always managed to either dodge the question or give me a vague answer (and distracting me afterwards—but again, wasn't that my forte, not his?). The asshole. I was determined to get my answer at one point or another before school let out.

"Spare me the details," Lila mumbled. Her hand fell down (she had been raising it for no particular reason as she was reclining on her couch) on her face, and she left it there. I felt her pain. Exams were very draining (just like vampires). "Would anyone ask me about my love life?"

I held up a hand to silence her (even though she wouldn't even see me...that was really a shame because my acting skills were just fantastic). "I wanna hear all about Olivia and Eli. Hmm...that would be Oli? Or does Elivia sound cuter?"

"Shut up" was Olivia's flat response as she shut her eyes and leaned her head against the back of Lila's loveseat.

"Come on, confirm something." I stood up from my armchair, grabbed my water bottle, and walked across the room in three broad steps (which really made me feel proud, considering the fact that I didn't do sports), plopping myself down next to her. Ugh, it felt so squished. Maybe it was because we both had big butts. "I don't judge. And plus, Eli is cuter than all of Lila's crushes, so—"

"You're too mean," said Lila.

Olivia paused. "Well," she admitted grudgingly, "Eli is pretty cute..."

I raised my eyebrows. "And?"

"Yeah, Lila's taste in guys is a little dubious." Olivia poked me in the side with her elbow. "You can be super mean sometimes."

"You're meaner than me," I protested. "I mean, you trash-talk pretty much everyone in the school, so I have nothing on you."

Olivia couldn't fight back against that, so she sighed and leaned back against the back of the loveseat where we both were sitting. "Well, we've been hanging out at the Café"—the café close to the school campus where pretty much everyone at Excelsior frequented afterschool—"a couple times. And we talk at the school library, as I did mention earlier." She flushed.

Lila took her hand off her face and sat up to face us both. "Well, someone's holding back details while demanding them from another person." She took a second to survey our positions. "Wait, am I missing out on a love fest over here?"

"No, no—" I began to object, but Lila sat down on both of our laps, showing her satisfaction with a grand wave of her hands.

"There," Lila said. I could just hear the smile on her face.

Olivia grumbled, "Get your fat ass out of my face."

Luckily for me and Olivia, Lila decided that it was too uncomfortable for her to sit on the two of us (Olivia and I had both started to jingle our knees like a malfunctioning massage chair after we exchanged a little devious glance). "Mean." Lila plopped down on the ground next to our feet.

"But are you guys, like, actively dating?" I wondered, turning back to Olivia.

She shook her head. "He was going to ask me something during break last week, but you and Luc interrupted us." She sent a severe glare with a pout to Lila, who shrugged.

"Don't remember a single thing," Lila said innocently (but she was the opposite of innocent more than half the time, so Olivia and I knew better). "As long as he asks at one point or another, we're good, right?"

My phone pinged again with another text from Eli.

And if you're going, are you going alone?

I drummed my fingers on my phone screen idly. "So what'll I tell him, guys? You coming to the senior graduation ceremony?"

Lila shrugged. "If you're going."

"I mean, Blake did invite the lot of us, and Luc did tell me that they're planning to hold a separate party for him." I bit on the edge of my phone case (which was, as Luc had told me on more than one occasion, very unhygienic, but didn't everybody do this?). "Blake's parents are totally cool. They're my mom's coworkers."

"Your mom knows everyone," Olivia said, scoffing. "That doesn't mean much."

"Are you turning down champagne?" I raised my eyebrows at her. "Blake's totally awesome as well, so there's no reason for me not to honor him. After all, it'll be our turn next year."

It fell silent. After sitting awkwardly for a minute or two, I held up my phone and met both of my friends' eyes. "So what's the consensus?"

Lila fiddled with her hair (to look for non-existent split ends, undoubtedly—it was practically impossible for her to have split ends since she did visit the salon about ten times more often than I did). "I'll go with you."

"I guess I'm okay with going," Olivia admitted after a while. "The Wyatts are cool."

"Awesome, thanks for giving me such a speedy response," I muttered under my breath as I responded to Eli.

He really did sound a little too enthusiastic when I mentioned that Olivia was, in fact, coming.

"Well," Lila said as she waited for me to finish texting, "I guess you and Luc haven't figured anything out yet."

"We have been focusing on serious topics such as Madame Bovary," I said pointedly, nodding at her. "So really—" I cut myself off before I could tell a lie (which was that Luc and I didn't have time to discuss when we really had plenty—we were both just good at avoiding the topic).

There was an awkward silence again since my friends had accepted my uncertain relationship status with Luc. I fiddled with my school skirt (because, once again, I had forgotten to bring casual clothes for afterschool hangouts).

"Is it just me, or am I a little sad that the school year's over?" Lila wondered after a while.

"It's just you—" I began to say, but Olivia cut me off.

Olivia nodded, frowning as she leaned her chin on her left hand, which was resting on her armrest. "Yeah. Next year's gonna be our last year together, probably, you know?"

"Don't think that way," I said. Damn, those two were making me feel all sad and nostalgic now, like I wanted to revisit awkward freshman year memories (when I did, admittedly, have a little crush on Luc because puberty had been kind to him—not so much for me though, since I had a very annoying acne situation at the top of my forehead). "We have another year, guys."

"And then we're headed off to college." Lila frowned too.

"But we still have the summer between high school and college," I offered as helpfully as I could. I hated feeling philosophical (except whenever I was around Luc, who basically inspired deep thoughts in me with all of his vocab words). "I mean, we can even go on one of those clichéd road trips that they write about in books—"

"I'll probably be taking up an internship, to be realistic," Lila returned. She bit her lip. "Damn, that makes our time together sound so short."

"I promise to remember everything, okay, guys?" Olivia lifted her chin off her hand and sat up, as if she was going to take an oath. She and I would have been a dynamic duo in our school musical this year. Too bad I had to edit The Aquiline all by myself, effectively taking up all my time.

Lila shook her head. "That's not completely necessary. Just, you know, cherish all our memories right now." Her mood brightened a little—she looked up at the two of us from the ground with a little sheepish smile. "I mean, I can't even remember what I had for breakfast two days ago."

"She has a point," I said, snapping idly. "Take plenty of pictures. And I'll be sure to send you pictures of my beautiful ass when I go off to Cancun this summer—"

Olivia stuck her lip out at me. "I'm headed off to France myself, so I'll just show you all the hot guys that I'll meet there."

"What about Eli?" I asked, faking horror by pretending to swoon. "I thought your romance was going so well—"

"Shut up." Olivia elbowed me hard, but I could only laugh out loud. My vision was misty already, and not from my faulty contacts.

God, I was going to miss this bunch so much next year.

But I still had this year, so I'd make the best of it.

→

Well, the mood is a little more pensive in this chapter (although it is not lacking its AOL antics), which kind of reflects my mood, haha. As I might have mentioned in the earlier chapters, I've just finished my run in The Sound of Music last weekend, and I'm just listening to the soundtrack nostalgically now. The feels...

But how do you feel about #Elivia? Poor Lila (who may or may not have a love life that Audrey is not aware of)... You can guess for yourself! And what about Audrey and Luc? Any thoughts?

Thank you so much for supporting me up to this chapter (after all, there are only two chapters left), and thank you so much for voting and commenting and reading and supporting me in any form!

Anne <3