"I still have a bad feeling about this," Ed said as he munched on a gummy bear.

    We were sitting at our spot outside town, the water in the lake was fuller and had more pressure because of the rain of the last few days. Luckily today I brought a change of clothes so I didn't have to be in my uniform all day. The calm of the lake and the peaceful atmosphere almost made me forget everything, it didn't even feel like I was in school just an hour ago.

     Edward has refused to stop talking about Chloe and the twins since we got to the lake, I've been assuring him for the last thirty minutes that there's nothing sinister about them, Chloe probably just thought I was lonely– just as she said– because it was still kinda new for me to sit alone at lunch since Edward started siting with the team.

   "Edward, Chloe and I have been friends for years now, she knows me and I know her, she wouldn't introduce me to her friends if it would have been bad, she just thought I was lonely and invited me to sit with them that's all, I know you don't like them but that doesn't mean they are bad."

   "I'm not the only one who doesn't like them but I promised we won't argue about Chloe again," Ed said with a stern look on his face.

  I decided not to say anything else and just sit in silence with him, if I did, the argument would continue. Chloe and Edward's dislike for each other was often hard on me but they both mean a lot to me in their own way.
 
    Chloe was the girlfriend I needed after moving to San Francisco, she was a link to old Lola and although she could be superficial sometimes, she meant well. Edward represented the new me, he understood what it was like to avoid attention, not many people knew me and Ed, we were just other faces at school.

    With all that's happening now; my friendship with Christian, exposing my friendship with Chloe and Edward's recent placement on the team, it seems like Ed and I are no longer just other faces at school, it happened without the both of us realizing it, I'm hanging out with 'the cool kids' and Edward is becoming a popular kid, this realization made me a bit unsettled but I wasn't ready to ruin the calm I felt at this moment with any thought.

*****

      I turned off my lamp and shuffled to lay on my belly, since it wasn't a school night, I could stay up late and that made me relax. Ariel and Autumn sent me a request on my private Instagram account, I accepted them and scrolled through their public Ig accounts, it was just as I expected, photos of them at parties and on vacations filled their accounts, it was aesthetically pleasing and they had a lot of followers to prove that, I saw a lot of photos of them with Chloe. Their social media was filled with a lot about their lives.

    Maybe this would have been me, if I didn't turn my account private to hide from people who just wanted to see what Manuela and José Daniels's only child was up to after her brother's death. I didn't want their fake sympathies and even worse their interference with my life, people usually have something to say without thinking how others feel. A text popped in distracting me from my train of thought.

Prettie_Autumn _Winters
  Heyyy

                                             Lola.L.D
                                                  Hi

Prettie_Autumn_Winters
  Wanna hang out tomorrow? We are going to see a movie.

      Hangout already? It was looking a little weird, we just started talking today and I didn't even know if they knew about me since or they just found out and I wasn't even able to ask Chloe anything. Speaking of my best friend, I wondered why she wasn't the one to ask me first about hanging out and why Autumn who I didn't really know was the one asking me to hangout. Almost immediately, Chloe's text came in.

   ChloXo
  Autumn would have probably asked you because she's too forward 🙄 but would you like to see a movie tomorrow?

                                                        Lola
                                  I have a few questions to ask you 🤨but yes I'd love to, come over to my house tommorow or see you at yours?

    ChloXo
Mine at ten so we can have time to catch up before we leave😜😁🤗

                                                        Lola
                                               🧐I really wish I saw the reason for your humor ,Chloe Addison Estelle Davidson, a hug won't help you. Ciao, I have to reply Autumn, don't want to leave a bad impression.

    I left the text message app and returned to ig, it has been ten minutes since I left Autumn's chat unread, I hope she wouldn't feel too bad. I saw the three dots to indicate that she's typing appear, so I rushed to type before she sent another message.

                                                         Lola.L.D
                     Sorry for the late reply. Sure, I'd love to.  

Prettie_Autumn_Winters
   Great!, See you tomorrow 😊🤗

                                                             Lola.L.D
                       Yeah, see you tomorrow 🙂.

    I wasn't really sure how it would feel hanging out with them, they seemed nice but I only sat with them for a few minutes during lunch, hanging out with them for hours might be different.

     I suddenly missed Sydney and Felicia. Sydney and I met Felicia in the first year of high school, it was so easy being friends with them, when our worries was so simple, what to wear to a party, homeworks being done on time, spending every season on vacation with one of either of us parents or someone else hired as a guardian.

    We thought we'd be friends for life but end of Freshman year brought the tragedy that separated us, moving to San Fransisco put physical distance between us and I put an emotional distance between us by closing off and being cold.

     I probably hurt Syd the most, we've known each other since middle school when her dad transferred to New York from LA, she was the new girl at school with no friends and I was the girl whose only friend was her brother who just left for high school, we made quite the pair. She was hotheaded with enough anger for the both of us, Felicia was the sweet one and I was the balance, we made the perfect trio but my self obsession ruined everything, just like it ended my brothers life. A single tear dropped from my eye before I drifted off to sleep.

     The next morning, mom and dad were at the dining table early and the smell of waffles wafted in the air. I heard Beatrice laugh at something either of my parents said before she saw me and gave me a big smile motioning for me to come over to the table.

    The table was filled with a lot of things but nothing looked healthy enough for me to eat and I haven't gotten the courage to tell anyone that I was on some kind of a diet, my parents have not noticed it because they've been busy with work and I've managed to fool Beatrice for a few days now.

    After I said hi, I didn't know how I'd escape breakfast today so I decided to take the strawberries Beatrice had diced as toppings for the waffles to munch on. She looked at me weirdly before pushing a plate of waffles to me, I was grateful she didn't put any syrup or whipped cream. I couldn't escape this one so I might just have to starve for the rest of the day to make up for the slip up during breakfast.

   The sooner I could tell everyone about my decision to go on a diet, the better for me but I couldn't help feeling like they would all have an opinion on that, mom might even feel guilty for my decision and Ed would never understand, Chloe was the only person that kinda knew and even she is acting weird about it.

   I ate a little of my food and more of the fruits at the table, mom and dad said something about going out later on a date, I told them I was hanging out with Chloe for the day and left the table to get ready.

    The sky was a dull shade of grey and it was past nine am when I left home, it looked like it was going to rain today, the movie we wanted to see was by noon, if it ended up raining, we might not be able to go to the movies. Chloe's house was a bit of a drive from my house so it always gave me the feel of going for a long drive, I had time to think while I drove, sometimes it was nice, and sometimes it was hell especially when my thoughts strayed to Leo.

     I arrived at Chloe's house a few minutes past ten, my best friend had a few questions to answer. I rung the doorbell and a help answered the door, I said Hello before I screamed.

    "Chloe.A.E.Davidson!" I called, while I walked up the stairs to her bedroom.

   "It was for your own good!" She screamed back from her room.

   I took the stairs two at a time till I got to her room, the door was shut but I didn't knock, I barged in, fuck courtesy. Chloe was sitting in the middle of a pile of clothes, her room was a mess, which wasn't unlike her when she had somewhere to go.

    I stood akimbo with a glare pointed towards her. Chloe rolled her eyes and pushed the clothes away so she could sit more comfortably.

   "Stop being such a drama queen, Lola, I didn't know helping my bored friend at lunch was such a big deal."

  "Really? Thank you Bff," I said.

  "I can literally see sarcasm dripping from your words."

    I rolled my eyes at her and kicked a shoe she left in the way before going to make myself comfortable on her chair.

   "Seriously, Chlo, I'm not mad because you made our friendship public yesterday because I've been considering it myself, I'm mad because it felt like you didn't give me a choice."

   "You've been considering it? Since when?"

   "Out of all the things I said. Well, since I came back from Napa."

  Chloe gave me a look, it was similar to the one she gave me yesterday when she said I was watching my carbs. Then she smiled.

   "See? The power of friendship, I somehow sensed that you'd be okay with it, so why are you still being dramatic?"

   I hit my palm on my forehead in frustration, Chloe was not getting it. She was okay with our friendship being public for everyone to know, I've been the one who had a problem with it so I would have preferred if she asked me first before talking to me in front of everyone at school.

  "What if I hadn't been considering it? Chloe, you didn't ask me first."

  "Would you have asked me if I was okay with you coming out as my friend in school?"

   Her question shut me up, we've talked about it once before when we first started talking, I was the one who asked for our friendship to be private so if I had gone over to talk to Chloe yesterday, I might not have asked before I did it.

  "No."

"Look, Lola, we're friends and I admit it was somewhat wrong putting you on the spot yesterday but I didn't think too much about it, just like I think you wouldn't have thought about it if the case was reversed."

  I thought a lot about it but not about how it would affect Chloe, but I wasn't going to say that.

  "Explain something to me," I said and she nodded for me to go on, "The twins, when did you tell them?"

  "Autumn and Ariel have always kinda known, they knew I had a best friend who also went to Beachview but not who you were because I told them it was our secret and that you didn't want all the highschool drama."

   "So they didn't know me until yesterday?"

   Chloe tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ears with a sheepish look on her face.

  "They knew since last week when Christian Giuseppe started sitting at your table."

   "What? How?"

  "Everyone at school was talking about it including the twins and I kinda let slip that you're my friend."

   Christian caused this in someway, he just decided to waltz up to my table and bring all of Beachview's attention to me.

  "The twins like you, they think you're cool."

    I stared at Chloe and she shrugged, I guess that was a good thing. I wondered how I would have felt if Chloe's friends didn't like me. I decided to put all those thoughts behind me as I caught up with Chloe and helped her pick an outfit to wear later.

    Almost two hours later and sky was still grey like it would rain any minute now, the twins were meeting us at Chloe's house so we could all go in one car because of the hell it is to get a good parking space, Chloe said Autumn was driving so they'd pick us up.

   I heard their car pull up while I was in the kitchen getting a drink, the doorbell rang and Chloe went to get the door. I heard voices but couldn't hear what was being said.

   I felt nervous. Yesterday I was in my uniform so there wasn't much difference between my outfit and theirs but today, I'm sure they'd be dressed in their best and I'm wearing my regular Big Tee and jeans with a sweater for the chill in the air because of the rain, I didn't put any make up on but I had my hair up in a neat bun with a few curls loose.

   "Hi," Ariel said as she walked into the kitchen. Autumn was behind saying something in whispers to Chloe, she stopped when she saw me.

   "Hey, Lola," Autumn said.

  "Hi, Ariel, Hi, Autumn," I replied.

     I felt a bit out of place which was strange because I've spent majority of my time in Chloe's house but it felt different with the twins being here. Somehow Chloe managed to keep them away from knowing me, they've never met me here and I've never met them here.

    Autumn and Ariel wore jeans too, their tops were more fancier than my simple Tee and they both had make up on and I felt like I would look like the odd one out between everyone when we go out.

    Without any warning, rain started pouring, Chloe's face paled before she ran up the stairs, Autumn and Ariel looked at her the same way I was looking at her, like she grew horns but I knew they would know it was Chloe and anything can happen with her, just like I knew because we were all her friends. This thought comforted me, they were Chloe's friends and I was her friend too and that was it.

   Chloe came down minutes later heaving then she said between breaths, "I shut the windows."

    We rolled our eyes at the drama. The rain was so heavy it was hitting the sink through the opened kitchen windows. Ariel went behind me to shut it and Autumn rummaged through the pantry for a snack, they were at ease like I was. I hope I remained at so ease because we were all trapped inside now.

A/n Heyyyyy, my people, this chapter was longer than I wanted it to be but I couldn't find where to end it, in fact it continues on the next chapter so I hope you enjoyed reading it.

  So what do you think about this chapter?
  
I'm trying to finish this book before November but I'm slower than a tortoise :-\, I was thinking if I'm done with this book before next month, I'll test my speed (hahaha) and abilities as a writer by writing for NaNoWriMo, what do y'all think?

Anyway, keep me happy with your comments and votes and shares.

Thank you for reading
NmX.