She wasn’t laughing at me.
She came, she actually came. And she’d brought food. For me.
For a second, I didn’t know what to do, like my body had short-circuited at the sight of her kindness, genuine and unforced.
My throat tightened, the words I could never say pressing up against it anyway.
She really came.
Aly held one of the sandwiches out toward me, arm extended, smile hopeful. My eyes flicked from the neatly wrapped food to her face, then back again.
My fingers twitched against my side, but didn’t move.
She tilted her head, her smile curling into something softer, almost pleading. “Come on, take it. Like…” She tapped her chin dramatically, pretending to think. “The beginning of our friendship. Starts with you taking this and forgiving me?” Her eyes went wide, playful, almost puppy-like.
She looked ridiculous. Ridiculous and kind.
My chest squeezed. Forgive her? She thought I could be angry? She thought being late was enough to make me hate her, like all those other times before when people showed up late—if they showed up at all—and the joke had been on me. But Aly wasn’t laughing. She wasn’t lying. She kept her word. She came.
Forgive her? I’d forgiven her the second I heard her voice. Maybe even before that. Not even close, I thought, biting the inside of my cheek to keep the smile from giving me away.
Not even close to mad.
My hand finally moved, hesitant, slow, like I didn’t quite believe this was real until the sandwich was actually in my grasp.
She let go, grinning like I’d handed her something precious instead of the other way around.
“Great,” she chirped, clapping her hands once before gesturing down the hall. “Let’s eat. I have so much to tell you about the girls. They’d be so jealous that we’re friends.”
Friend. The word rang in my ears, unfamiliar, heavy, but not in a way that scared me.
We walked to a bench under a maple tree, the campus noise receding into a soft hum. Leaves whispered above us, and a cool breeze threaded between the branches, lifting strands of my hair and making the world feel like it had softened around the edges.
Aly sat first and patted the spot beside her like she’d been saving it. I sat down carefully, clutching my sandwich as if it were something fragile and important. It was the beginning ofsomething new… something I’ll make sure to cherish, so I can keep it.
She nudged me and grinned. “I did some digging,” she said, making my brows pull together in curiosity. “You’re Aurora Mae Campbell.” I blinked, not expecting her to know my full name, including my middle name, too.
I simply nodded, and she clicked her finger, proud that she got it right, but then again, she did say she did some digging.
“I knew it was Aurora from psychology since a random dude told me, but your teacher told me the rest. She was so happy to know we were friends,” she said, unwrapping the sandwich. “Well, I said we were friends before I asked you, but luckily, you agreed.” She smiled. Soft and gentle.
I slowly started to let my guard down and relaxed my shoulders as she kept going on about something else.
I listened more carefully than I ever do with anything. She talked in a rush, the kind of talk that bounces from one thing to the next and somehow ties itself back together by the time she breathes.
She told me about how Jenny made her late because she wanted to join, but Layla reminded her that I might not be comfortable, and to let Aly come test the waters first, and I couldn’t help the tiny laugh that escaped me.
She stared a bit longer before smiling. “In case you didn’t know. Jennie is actually with an ‘ie’ and not a ‘y’. People mess it up a lot.” She smiled.
Oh… right.
“She’s the little blond one with blue eyes. I call her little because she’s shorter than me but taller than you.” She chuckled as my face flushed up.
I’m not tall but not short either. But I do notice that I’m just about an inch shorter than they are.
“And Layla, the little sweetheart, is the brunette one. Those two are the same height, around 170,” she said, waving her hand like she couldn’t remember the exact measurement, and just threw out a random guess.
I chewed slowly, the bread and cheese grounding me in a way that felt almost sacred.
