Kissing Is the Easy Part

Chapter 32 The winter wonderland

"We're going to be trend-setters, and after this the only definition of cool parties will be non-alcoholic ones," Flora said.

"We're old-fashioned people who think there's no party unless we can get free booze and embarrass ourselves after we get wasted," Jake said. "But yeah, we'll drop by to support you."

"Actually I'm going to need you to do more than that," Flora said. "Can you two be bouncers? I'll need you to be on the lookouts for gatecrashers and confiscate wine bottles if you see one, and possibly do a bag-check at the door."

"What?" Dylan asked. I was fairly surprised myself at how far Flora was taking this. A bag-check seemed pretty extreme.

"It's not even going to be a BYOB party?" Jake sighed.

"Flora, if anyone's going to sneak in a wine bottle and cause trouble, it will be these two," I said. "Don't worry, I'll do it myself."

"Sean, you can't do everything yourself. In times of need this is what friends are for." She gave the guys a pointed look.

"We are the kind of friends who laugh at him when he fails," Dylan said. "Not the ones who celebrate his baby sister's birthday wearing party hats."

Flora heaved a sigh. "Hear me out first." She went on to describe her winter theme and her dessert table which was no doubt a very bad idea because I knew these guys wouldn't humor her like I would.

"Hmmm. Flora, it sounds fantastic, but you know what else you need to go with your fairies and enchanted forest?" Jake pretended to be munching on the idea. He raised his head as though hit by epiphany. "A unicorn."

"And we need to play spin-the-bottle and set up a booth for painting toe-nails," Dylan added.

"I love fortune-tellers too," Jake continued. "Ooh please tell me you're going to hire one."

"Come on guys, cut it out." Beside me I could sense Flora's temper rising up. If it was Janet I might have put in a snarky remark too, but this was Flora, and I knew she hated being made fun of when she was being serious.

"Jake, I don't need a fortune-teller to know where you'll end up in five years," Flora said hotly. "You'll be pumping gas for my Porsche."

Jake laid a hand over his chest, pretending to be hurt. "That's harsh, Flora. I always thought we would be flipping burgers side-by-side at McDonald's."

Dylan laughed in support.

"Hey, stop. It's not funny," I said, although it was a little funny and I was tempted to laugh myself. I didn't want to hurt her feelings. "Flora is only doing this because I begged her to."

Dylan shook his head. "Dude, that's what you get for asking a girl to host your party for you. You can throw one on your own. Just buy some pizzas and order a few kegs and you get yourself an awesome party."

"I did order some kegs, Dylan, just so you can have that illusion of a keg party, but I'll be serving root beers," Flora said in a menacing tone. "You guys can try pretending it's real beer. With your IQ it really shouldn't be hard."

"The non-alcohol part is my idea," I interrupted quickly. "Flora was against it too but she went along with it and is trying very hard to make it work. I know it's not cool but with so many underage people I really don't have a choice, and if you don't want to come it's really fine with me. But she put a lot of effort into this so give her a break."

"Are we being uninvited?" Dylan gasped in feigned hurt, then he turned to Flora. "Sean always gets super pissed when we pick on the girl he likes."

There were just so many things to protest to I didn't know where to start. "I'm not pissed. You're welcomed to come and laugh at me if you want. Just remember to bring your own unicorn." And that was the girl I liked but either admitting or denying seemed like a mistake.

"We're just kidding, Flora. You know that, right?" Jake said. "Any party you throw will of course be the best."

"Yes, and we'll even do your stupid bag-check for you," Dylan said and Jake nodded beside him in agreement.

Flora's face broke into an instant smile. "Thanks, guys! I know if I dig hard enough, under all that false pretense there is a heart of gold."

"Really? After digging for all these years I haven't managed to find anything," I said. "But during the process I've gotten myself really filthy."

They all laughed. "We only have positive influence on you," Jake said. "You'd be even lamer than you're now if not for us."

"We'll just drink somewhere else before the party and numb the pain," Dylan said.

"Why are you so uptight about underage drinking anyway?" Jake asked. "I can't count how many times you've played beer pong with us."

"And you nearly passed out on Alan's couch last year. We almost had to carry you home," Dylan added. I wished he didn't bring that up. I was in a very dark place then because it was when Flora and I broke up. "That was actually a lot of fun, I mean, some of the things you said-"

He needed to be cut off fast. "I have to be more responsible because it's going to be a big party and it's held at my house. If anything happens my parents would be held responsible. I really don't want to cause trouble for them," I explained and smiled. "How's that for being lame?"

"I think I have to make a confession at Church Sean," Dylan said. "I forgot to kiss my mom this morning and tell her I love her."

***

After lunch break was over, I stayed behind with Flora ritually and waited for her to walk to history class together.

"You know what's amazing about you?" Flora started, tilting her face toward me. "You really don't care about people finding out how boring you are. You seem so comfortable being yourself that you do all these very uncool, embarrassing things like studying all the time, throwing your sister a party, defending me, worrying about your parents and being responsible...aren't tough guys like you supposed to act like they don't give a crap about anything?"

Was she telling me I was amazing or uncool? I lost track. "Flora, if you're so bad at giving compliments, maybe you should just stick to telling me I'm cute or something."

"You are just so good."

"You make good sound like a swear word."

She smiled. "My point is, you can totally pull it off! You make these things seem like the cool things to do, and you have friends who like you for it."

"I don't really think about if certain things are considered cool, and I'm not sure that's what my friends like about me."

She nodded. "Yeah. Maybe they like you for the same reason I do. Because you're cute or something."

I chuckled. We walked in silence for few seconds, then I said, "You know what's so amazing about you?"

"What?"

"That although you think I do uncool things, you always support me."

It was true. I thought of all those times before when I had to study, she would defend me and tell people she believed I would do awesome things in life. She stayed up studying history saying she didn't want to disappoint me. She took care of my sister more than I did, and she respected my parents. She hated throwing a party where everyone would be sober but she stuck to her words (and my pathetic budget) and worked on it.

I felt so lucky to have known this girl.

Flora shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah, that's me. The supportive girl-" She stopped, and a rare look of embarrassment crossed her face.

"I mean, friend. I'm a very supportive friend," she corrected and looked away.

For the first time in a very long time, I had the delicious illusion that Flora wished we were something more.

***

I uploaded a photo in the media section to show you what Flora had in mind when she talked about her dessert table. She really put a lot of thought into this.

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