TWO YOU'VE BEEN LYING TO US

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"I know you've been lying to us," Melody spoke first thing in the morning. Now, in a normal friend group, this wouldn't freak someone out so much. However, nothing chilled Lyra down to the bone more than someone finding out about her curse. This was not a burden she wanted to place on her friends at all. She couldn't do that, not to Melody and Archer. Anxiously, Lyra slammed her locker shut to face the dark-skinned girl with Archie by her side; the brave front was sliding off her face the longer Melody took to elaborate. She hoped her friend couldn't see how petrified she really was.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Lyra attempted to act nonchalant and play it off but Archie just shook his head and tsked, giving away the fact that he was also in on this.

Melody rolled her eyes, "We know you have a crush on Peter!"

Lyra sighed with relief. Something had told her it was probably just something trivial, but that hadn't stopped the fear from cascading throughout her veins. Although, this was purely fictional and she would be quick to dispel such an accusation from the girl. "Literally what gave you that idea? I've talked to him maybe twice since freshman year. Besides, isn't he still getting over that senior girl that moved away last year?"

"She's old news," Archie contributed, "You guys were flirting up a storm in math yesterday."

"Sharing homework answers is not flirting, you should know that considering Melody asks you to send her a picture of the homework answers like every night," Lyra explained with a scoff and an eyeroll. Although she was glad her friends didn't know about the curse, this didn't turn out to be all that much better. Denying a crush she didn't even have would be harder than it looked considering Melody had been practically forcing Lyra to fall in love with someone ever since they started high school. However, when you have a death sentence hanging over your head, there's not really much time for romance. Maybe it was best she never does. After all, if she ends the bloodline, she ends the curse. Simple solution for a complicated problem.

Melody brushed off Lyra's comment, "That's different, he's smart he didn't need to check answers with you, but he still asked you anyway. That's like nerd flirting one-oh-one."

"You are ridiculous. I don't have a crush on Peter and we're not going to do this anymore, okay? Please?" Lyra pleaded, throwing a pout her best friend's way to rack up some pity points. "I'm exhausted and trust me, romance is the last thing on my mind. I have way too much going on right now."

"Speaking of things going on, what are we doing for your birthday?" Archie asked and Lyra froze. She tried to play it off, but her frigidness was clear once Archie raised his eyebrows at her. "What's up? Is something going on with your birthday?"

Taking a deep breath, Lyra spoke as casually as possible as her fingers reached to twist around the ends of her long, dark, ponytail while she said, "Uh, no. Just a private celebration with family like it is every year!"

Melody scoffed at this, "Dude! It's your sweet sixteen! You're seriously gonna do the same shit as always? You have more personality than this, come on. At least go out somewhere nice for dinner instead of having your dad make your favorite pasta again."

"I like chicken alfredo!" Lyra defended, her mouth agape at such an accusation, "And I know I have more personality than this, thank you, but you guys know my birthday is the one thing I won't budge on. Maybe we can do something the weekend after." If I don't die, she left unsaid. Of course, there had to be that underlying theme to everything she said in regards to her birthday.

"Just once, why can't you ditch your dad and go out with us? It's your 16th!" Melody tried to coerce her, but this was one thing Lyra could and would never budge on. She couldn't risk being away from her family on her birthday -- not with such a curse looming over her head. Maybe this year it wouldn't show up and then she could go out with her friends on the weekend and celebrate properly. She simply had to defeat the oncoming feelings of dread and fear before she could do such a thing.

Lyra shook her head, "I can't. I'm all he has, you know? I mean, he has my grandma sure, but all she does is watch People's Court and talk about being young. With my birthday being so close to mom's it's like... one of the days we get to celebrate her and me together. It's just special for us. My birthday is off-limits, you should know this by now."

Melody sighed, "I know, I was just hoping that since it's such a special one you might budge."

"I mean, it's not like we're close enough with enough people to have like, a real party, Mel," Archie reasoned with a shrug, "We were probably just gonna watch shitty horror movies and eat too much popcorn anyway, right, Lyra?"

"Thank you, Archie," Lyra nodded, "No reason we can't do that the weekend after! Okay? Is this settled?"

Both of them looked to the girl who had a prominent pout on her face, but then neither of them budged she rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Yeah, yeah, settled. I get to pick the first of the movies, then. And you're letting me tie balloons to your backpack at school next week."

"Movies, yes, balloons, absolutely not. I will steal silverware from the cafeteria and force you to watch while I pop them," Lyra said with a deadpan that didn't last long as she burst into a laugh, "You are too much. Please never be those friends that bring me balloons or decorate my locker. I do not need the entirety of Midtown High knowing my birthday is next week."

"Maybe not, but I bet you'll want Peter to know," Melody teased, causing the dark-haired girl to roll her eyes and begin to walk towards their first class even though the bell hadn't rung yet. "I'm kidding!"

"No, you're not! And you know you're not!" Lyra exclaimed as she walked away, "I'm going to math early because I can no longer stand you guys, toodles."

"Did she just say toodles?" Lyra overheard Archie ask as she laughed to herself, walking towards their class. She turned for just a brief moment to see Melody and Archie chatting without her, which she didn't mind.

When she walked into the classroom no one was in there except for the teacher and of course... Peter Parker. Lyra sighed, recalling her friend's taunts as she took her seat next to him, offering a small smile at the boy before slouching back in her chair and pulling out her phone.

"No Melody or Archer?" Peter asked, disturbing the silence of the classroom and surprising Lyra who hadn't expected him to speak to her. Normally all they talked about was homework answers and that was usually only within the realm of class. Well, within the realm of a class that had started.

Caught off guard, she stumbled over her answer, "Uh, no, they're here I just came early because they were being annoying."

"About what?" another thing she hadn't expected -- for him to continue the conversation. This was uncharted territory and she wondered if maybe Melody had a point. No, no, she was reading far too much into this.

"Uh, my birthday," Lyra answered, a little more smoothly, "Melody wanted to throw a party or something, but I'm not really..."

"A party person?" he finished and she nodded. "Yeah, me neither. I didn't know your birthday was coming up."

Lyra shrugged, "I don't like to talk about it, uh, my mom's birthday is around the same time and she died not too long after she had me so... like, ya know. Sore subject. Sorry, that's like totally oversharing, I'm super tired and not really thinking, I'll shut up now. Sorry."

"You uh, you don't have to apologize," Peter said with a laugh and a shake of his head, "Well, I, uh, won't tell anyone then, but I hope you have a good birthday, whenever it is."

"Six days," Lyra gave him the answer to a question she wasn't sure he had been asking, "That's, uh, when it is."

Peter nodded with a smile, "Then I'll be sure to wish you a real happy birthday six days from now."

Lyra bit her lip gently without realizing it before she nodded and turned to face the front of the classroom. Internally, she was screaming. Shit, okay, maybe Melody had a tiny itsy bitsy point, but the baby blooming of a crush meant utterly nothing considering Lyra had the world on her shoulders at the moment. Peter Parker had no choice but to mean nothing to her. At least, until six days from now when she would know if she even had a chance or not. Ugh, being cursed fucking sucks.

Lyra and Peter's awkward flirting that's not really flirting is giving me life these two are such nerds I love them so much anyway it's not gonna be cute or sweet for very much longer so you guys enjoy it while it lasts!