"What were you planning to do?" I was shocked when I saw the kitchen table was covered with a newspaper. "Are we doing pumpkin carving already?"
Ivy laughed. "No, silly. I got these super cute mugs and plates, and we are going to paint them. I've been dying to try this."
I glanced at the ceramics she mentioned, then at the paint, and nodded. "Wow, okay. I suck at painting."
"Have you ever tried painting?" Nova appeared behind me, wearing the cutest checked dress and cowboy boots.
"Love this outfit," I complimented her before shaking my head. "Actually, never."
"Come on, ballerina," she nodded towards the table before handing me the drink. "Since you don't like wine and you're underaged your choice of drink will be lemonade. I put some strawberries in it, so it looks fancy."
I chuckled and nodded. "Thank you. Sorry for crashing your..."
"No, no, no," Ivy cut me off. "I'm so glad you texted. I wanted to text you... But you usually say no, so I didn't want you to feel like I was pressuring you."
Contemplating her words, I nodded. "Oh... I never thought that's how it comes across. I think I'm just bad at maintaining relationships."
"I don't think so," Ivy shrugged. "You and Daisy are close, which is great!"
I gave her a puzzling look as we settled around the table and each picked an item. I took the mug because it seemed the easiest, but both girls chose a plate, so maybe I was wrong.
"You do know we suck at this, too, most likely?" Nova asked, already dipping her brush into the paint. "This is just supposed to be fun; it doesn't have to be perfect. We want to make them silly and funny and give them to the guys."
"Max will probably say it's amazing," Ivy giggled. "He wouldn't admit, even if you tortured him, that I most likely have no talent for painting."
"So just let your perfectionism go, stop the wheels in your mind spinning, and just have fun with it."
A small smile pulled on my lips. "I'll try."
And that's what we did, most of us used blue and white for the Titan colors and tried to make something fun. Ivy waspainting letters that spelled captain and Nova was making it all green like a soccer field. I decided on a Titan's blue background, with soccer balls on top. It was neutral enough that I could give it to Dex or Aaron, and that smoothed some of my anxiety.
"Soooo," Nova started after a couple of minutes of quiet, where only the music blasted while we worked. "What made you reach out?"
Staring at her, I almost painted the table. "What do you mean?"
"You don't usually hang with us," Nova pointed out the obvious. "Out of the fifty times when we invited you, you only joined like ten times. And all those times it was because you had your own agenda." Ivy tried kicking her under the table, but it didn't help, and Nova finished her sentence. "I'm not saying this to be rude, I'm just curious."
I shrugged. "That's fair. It was brought to my attention that I'm not a good friend, so I'm trying to improve that. I didn't mean to come across so cold and unbothered."
"We know you're going through a lot," Ivy jumped to my rescue. "We totally get it."
Nova rolled her eyes. "Yes, we get it. But that's what friends are for, to help you. Unless you know, you're perfectly fine having just Dex help you out."
I gaped at her, and this whole honesty coming from Nova was getting on my nerves. "Dex and I are friends."
"Exactly, you actually text him and talk to him. You act with us like an uninterested guy."
Despite my best efforts, I laughed. "That's rude.”
"Have you tried texting a guy who's not interested? It's really fucking hard," Nova muttered, taking a sip of her wine. "Sometimes that's how it felt texting you."
"I'm sorry," I said, hoping she could hear sincerity in my voice. "I'll work on this."
"We are just happy you reached out," Ivy smiled. "And we should totally do pumpkin carving next time."
I chuckled. "Thankfully, I at least know how to do that."
Nova laughed. "It's good to step outside of your comfort zone and do things that scare you."
