“Milo,” I hear my dad outside my bedroom door, knocking before he enters the room. He looks at me, clearly annoyed that I’m still hanging out on my bed, not ready to leave the house anytime soon. “Why aren’t you ready? We’re leaving in 30 minutes.”
“Do I really have to go?” I whined, rolling over in bed.
“Milo,” my dad simply said. I sighed, still not getting up from my bed. “It’s for Mollie’s birthday.”
“Who cares,” I said, getting up from the bed to sit at the edge of it. “It’s not like she’ll show up for my birthday next month anyway.”
“I don’t like this whole feud you got going on with Mollie,” my dad said, crossing his arms along his chest. “You’ve been best friends since you guys were little.” I looked over my dad’s shoulder when Jennifer passed by. I don’t say anything. I know Jennifer has to know something about Mollie and me not talking anymore, but I really didn’t want to get into it with her. My dad turns around to look at Jennifer walking by with the twins. He looks back at me. “You don’t think she knows you guys aren’t talking?”
“I don’t care,” I said, sighing and looking down at my phone.
“Well you’re not just going to stay home by yourself all day, so get ready because we leave in 20 minutes,” my dad said before leaving the room. I looked up from my phone, annoyed.
“Why can’t I just stay home?!” I shouted out. My dad turned around to face me once more time before leaving the room for good.
“Because the last time you stayed home, Sophie and you were alone together,” my dad mentioned. He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. I sighed and began to drag myself toward my dresser. Well, you don’t have to worry about me being here alone with Sophie, she fucking hates my guts.
Sophie and I haven’t spoken to each other since the night of the showcase. She would pass by me walking in the hallway and she barely looked my way in band class. What was my favorite class of the day is now the one I dread the most; I just want Sophie to talk to me and hang out with me again. It’s like I go to school and get by without talking or hanging out with my friends. I refuse to talk to Mollie after what she did, but I can’t help but miss even talking to her at school.
I sighed and began to get dressed; something told me today wasn’t going to go the way that my dad and Jennifer thought it was going to go.
…
Lydia opened the front door and greeted Jennifer before greeting us all. Lydia has always been nice to me, even when Mollie and I would argue and not speak to each other.
“I’m so glad you guys were able to make it today,” Lydia said to Jennifer and my dad. “It’s been quite some time since the holidays came and went.”
“Mom, of course, we wouldn’t miss Mollie’s birthday,” Jennifer said as we all began to walk into Lydia’s house.
“You were once a teen yourself, Pep; they all hate these types of celebrations,” Lydia mentioned as she helped Jennifer with the bags in her hands. Lydia looked at me before saying else. “Right Milo? Your birthday is coming up.” I exaggerated a smile, just to be polite.
“Yeah,” I simply said, proving her point. Lydia laughed as she nudged Jennifer’s shoulder.
We entered the living room and immediately saw the place decorated in pink and orange birthday decorations. Mollie hates the color pink. Jennifer walks over to the table to drop off the gifts she got Mollie. Once everyone moves toward the kitchen, I sit on the couch in the living room, scrolling through my phone and minding my business, not going upstairs to hang in Mollie’s room like I usually do. It sucks; I just wish that Mollie didn’t make the dumbest decision of her life and choose Aaron to call her boyfriend. All those damn guys in the school and she decided he was the one she wanted to date. Some fucking best friend.
“Milo, Mollie’s upstairs if you want to see her,” Lydia said, poking her head into the living room.
“I’m okay,” I answered back, not trying to give her a reason to question anything… even though she probably thinks I’m a piece of shit if Mollie told her anything about the argument. Lydia doesn’t say anything back, she just slips back into the kitchen, which makes my face instantly turn red. I know they’re talking about me in the kitchen. I sighed, getting up from the sofa and walking toward the front door to sit outside. Thankfully, it wasn’t too cold today.
Before I was able to grab my coat and walk outside, I could hear Jennifer and my dad greet Mollie in the kitchen.
“Happy Birthday, Mol!” Jennifer says first. “My baby sister is 15 years old!”
“Was the hug really necessary?” I hear Mollie say.
“Girl shut up,” Jennifer says back. It’s sometimes weird to hear Jennifer talk to Mollie in a sibling way after seeing her be motherly towards my siblings and me. “You get a little crush on a by and all of a sudden you think you’re grown.”
“A crush?” Lydia says, interrupting the conversation. “Mollie is too young to be having a boyfriend!”
“I don’t have a boyfriend, god!” Mollie answers back, sounding defensive. I roll my eyes, about to walk out of the house.
“Well, Milo’s in the living room if you’re looking for him,” Lydia says.
“I’m not,” I hear Mollie say. “I don’t hang out with self-centered people.” I hear Jennifer and Lydia react to Mollie’s words, but I immediately shut the door behind me and walk down the front steps. Me?! I’m the one who’s self-centered?! It’s something that Mollie said, but I remember Sophie saying the same thing the night of the showcase. Am I self-centered? Do I only care about myself? I knew that wasn’t true. I know for a fact that I really cared about Sophie. I still care about her. A lot.
I don’t know what came over me, but I found myself immediately dialing Sophie’s number. I don’t know if she’s even going to pick up, but I’m hoping she sees my number and she—
“What do you want?” Sophie immediately said after picking up the phone. I feel like I wasn’t prepared to actually hear her voice talk directly to me, even if she was still mad at me.
“I, uhm,” I began to say, trying to piece together a proper sentence. “How are you doing?”
“I don’t have time for this,” Sophie said, trying to dismiss me and this conversation.
“Wait, Sophie!” I quickly said, trying to keep her on the phone as long as possible. “I… don’t want to have this conversation over the phone, but I was wondering if you wanted to hang out later today and talk.”
“What is there to possibly talk about, Milo?” Sophie questioned. I know Sophie was trying to give the cold shoulder, but I couldn’t help but think, well if there was nothing to talk about, why would she have picked up the phone?
“I want to apologize, for real,” I admitted. “I’m sorry for hurting your feelings and for only thinking about myself the night of the showcase. But you deserve a conversation; in person.” Sophie only sighs over the phone, which doesn’t leave me too hopeful that she’s willing to talk to me.
“Where do you want to talk?” Sophie asked. Again, I was at a loss for words; I didn’t expect Sophie to agree to this conversation. I wanted to have this conversation with her at a place that meant a lot to the both of us. I just didn’t want us to talk in some pizza place or somewhere random.
“The treehouse at 6 tonight?” I asked.
“The treehouse?” Sophie repeated. “We’re not allowed to hang out there anymore; remember?”
“No one has to know,” I reassured Sophie. “Just meet me at the treehouse at 6; it’s okay.” It took Sophie a while to say anything after that.
“Fine,” Sophie agreed. I couldn’t help but smile; I was finally going to talk to my best—
I turned around when I hear the front door open. I turn around with the phone still to my ear. I see it’s Mollie standing there. She rolled her eyes as she passed me on the front steps.
“I’ll talk to you tonight,” I softly said to the Sophie. I hung up the phone once we said our goodbyes; it was time to tackle this mess of the friendship.
“Happy birthday,” I simply said to Mollie. She stopped where she was to turn around and look at me. She crossed her arms along her chest before she said anything.
“Fuck you,” Mollie spat out.
Letters From Liz. 