My stomach is doing back flips as I pace back and forth in my small room.

I told my mom about my new friends inviting me to the fair earlier and her eyes had gone wide in shock.  She was shocked that I had friends and hadn't told her.

Well technically I only have one friend, which is Levina.  Except I like to think of Owen as a friend too. Even though he has made it very clear that the feeling is not reciprocated.

The only reason I didn't tell my mom about Owen is because it's really not a big deal, he finds me annoying anyways. And she wouldn't be very pleased to hear that I converse with boys.  She made is very clear from when I was very young that she doesn't want me mingling with the males of the species.

Whatever.  Boys don't even look at me so it's fine.

She immediately said yes and allowed me to go to the fair because she wants me to leave the house and "live" a little.

Now I'm currently freaking out in my room.  I've never hung out with friends before, what if I mess up or something? What if I fall off the ferris wheel and die? What if I choke on cotton candy and everyone watches me die?

Oh my god that would be humiliating.  I would die from exasperation and then die again from embarrassment.

Suddenly my phone starts ringing.

I switch my gaze to the phone sitting on the bed, an incoming face-time call from an unknown number.

It must be Levina, because she is the only one other then my mom who has my number.

My shaky hands reach for the phone and press the answer button.

Levina pops up onto the screen, a white crusty looking dog is staring into the camera as well.

"Hi!" She begins to pet the ugly-cute animal.

"Hey." I sound nervous, my voice is shaky.

She notices my anxiousness and reassures me, "Girl don't worry.  It's gonna be fine." She sets the camera up, it's propped up against her pillow. 

I'm holding my phone so that the only thing that's showing is my nose and up, and part of my ceiling.

"I'm scared.  This is gonna sound pathetic, but this is my first time ever hanging out with people." Her eyes go wide.

"What?!" She looks shocked.

"Yeah...I dunno I just never have." Why did I say that? I'm embarrassed now.  I sound ridiculous.

"I'm not gonna lie, same.  Owen is my only friend, so I feel you." The dog sticks it's big black wet nose in the camera and starts sniffing.  "Carlo.  Fucking.  Move." She gently pushes her dog out of the camera.  I let out a laugh.

"How long have you and Owen been friends?" I've been wondering this for a while, I wonder if Owen has other friends too.

"A few years.  I think from the beginning of high school." She gets up from her bed with the camera and walks over to another part of the room.

Realization hits me.  "Oh my god...are you the girl Owen has dated?" Oh.

Her eyebrows pinch together and she looks amused.  "I'm lesbian."

I snort, "Oh...so I'm guessing it's not you-" She starts choking on her laughter.

"Whats so funny?" A smile breaks out across my face and small laughs erupt from the back of my throat.

"I'm sorry- It's just that the thought of me- me and Owen dating- is so- funny." Laughter interrupts her sentence every other word.  Tears are starting to form in her eyes.

My cheeks begin to hurt from chuckling. She has one of those contagious laughs.

She takes a deep breath and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Girl.  I like tits.  Not dicks." She sets the camera up on her desk and takes out a bag of makeup.

Before I could say anything she starts again, "You know...if Owen wasn't so difficult, you guys would look cute together."

My mouth hangs open.

Me and Owen?

Owen and I?

No.

Just no.

"What the hell makes you say that?" A look of confusion washes across my face.  What the fuck?

"You guys are both hot, you'd look even hotter together." She makes a conjoining motion with her hands.

"Owen hates me.  And he doesn't like me like that.  And I don't like him like that." She looks at me through the camera while holding an eyeliner pencil.

A "girl really?" look forms onto her face.  "Girl...trust me.  He doesn't hate you.  He just tends to be kind of stand-off-ish." She intently stares into a table mirror as she applies the black eyeliner to her eyelids.

I hum in response, not sure how to respond to that.  I'm still not convinced that he doesn't hate me.  He has told me several times that I am annoying, which indicates he isn't very fond of me.  I can't blame him. I can say for myself that I am indeed annoying at times. Many times.

Except sometimes my annoying behavior is intentional.  It's fun.  One of my guilty pleasures.

Probably one of the reasons I've never had an actual friend.

"Wait...why are you getting all dressed up? I thought the fair was sort of a casual thing?" I say redirecting the conversation.

"I'm tryna pick up some hot chicks.  Gotta look smexy.  Ya know?" She then lines her plump lips with black pencil lip liner and places lip gloss over the top. Woah, she looks really pretty.

"What are you gonna wear?"

Her eyes go wide in excitement from my question. She quickly gets up and grabs a piece of clothing off her bed.

"This." She holds it up to the camera.  It's a green top, looks almost like a bra.  I can already tell she is going to look fabulous in it.  (Photo below.)

I make an "o-ing" sound showing that I like it.  "Me like-y." I give her a toothy grin.  She gives one back to me.  "But won't you get cold?"

"A hoe never gets cold." She smirks at me.  "Hold on, I'll call you back in like five minutes I'm gonna change." She grabs her phone and hangs up before I could respond.

I shrug and resume my overthinking.

Within not even five minutes she calls me back.  Well that was quick.

"Boo!" She screams at the camera with her face extremely close.

I jump and drop my phone. She begins laughing at me. I pick up my phone and flip her off to which she flips me off back.

"Okay, now show me your outfit please!" She nods her head and then places her phone on the windowsill. She backs away and spins around.

She is wearing that cute green top with low rise black jeans and converse. Several pieces of jewelry adorn her fingers and neck. Hair jewelry is also on her butterfly locs that match the other jewelry she is wearing. The color of the shirt looks pleasant against her dark skin. I also notice the belly button piercing glistening from the sun shining down through her window.

"Omg- You're gonna pick up so many hot nenas!" I quietly scream into the microphone. (Translation: Chicks.)

She smirks, "I know right. Now send me your address so Owen and I can pick you up at seven." She walks closer and grabs her phone off the window. Her fingers begin to fiddle with her septum piercing.

"Mkay." I exit the face time app and send her the address. I also change her contact name to '"Levina :)" and I change her picture to a picture of the color green. The same shade she is wearing on her nails.

"Let's invite Owen to the call.  I want to bother him." A hint of mischief is in her eyes.

Before I could even speak, the top of Owen's hair shows up in a box on the screen.

"Hey bestie!" I give him an annoying bright smile.

"I'm not your bestie." His voice is husky, it sounds as if he has just woken up from a nap.

"Whatever." I roll my eyes and start picking at the worn edges of one of my books.

"Owen get the fuck up we are gonna be leaving soon." Levina brings the camera extremely close to her face. It reminds me of when Edna did that in The Incredibles movie.

He finally adjusts the camera so now his grey eyes are on display, "Shut the fuck up and give me a second."

"Owen what are you wearing? I need to make sure you don't look like shit if you're gonna be seen with me." Levina brings her fugly cute dog Carlo into the camera.

"I'm wearing a hoodie and jeans.  That good enough for you?" Levina nods and smiles in approval at his response.  "Get that ugly thing out the camera." My mouth drops open.

"Don't be rude to the poor dog." I interject.

"I don't give a fuck.  Cats are better." Suddenly he turns the camera to a cute multi-colored cat curled up on his lap.

I gasp from it's cuteness.

"You're nuts.  Dogs are so much better than those evil little rats." Levina scoffs at him and starts petting Carlo. He starts low growling, his yellow teeth showing.

"You're dog is hideous." His voice comes out flat. Owen obviously isn't a fan of dogs and is taking it out on poor Carlo.

"You know what? Luna are you a cat or dog person?" Levina points her finger at me through the camera.

"I'm a frog person.  Omg have you seen those cute little ones that hop on the lily pads in ponds.  I saw one once except then I accidentally stepped on it and I got frog guts all over the bottom of my shoe.  I cried for hours after that.  Poor frog." My mood dampens when I think back to that day.  I don't know why it didn't hop away when it saw my foot.  Maybe the pobrecito was blind.  Tears begin to well in my eyes from the memory.

Levina breaks out laughing.

"Luna...that wasn't an option.  Cat or dog." He just completely ignored my sob story.

Is he heartless and has no remorse for that cute little creature that I brutally murdered years ago with the bottom of my sneaker?

"Fine." I blow out a breath of irritation, "Um- I guess- sorry Levina, but I'm gonna have to say cat person."

She rolls her eyes so far back I'm surprised they don't get stuck in the back of her head.

"Fuck both of you.  Carlo and I will live happy together and you bitches could suck my dick." She shows us both her middle finger. Carlo continues growling and side eyeing her. I guess he doesn't like to be pet on his back. She doesn't seem to notice his behavior.

Owen replies with his own middle finger.  It's long with a dark grey ring on it.

"Owen, fuck off." She then kicks him out the facetime call.

"I feel bad for poor Carlo." I frown.

"Owen's just mean.  Anyways I'll be picking you up from your house in ten minutes. Be ready. See you later lovely!" She shines a bright smile at me and I wave through the camera. She hangs up.

I'm too lazy to change my clothes. I'm just going to wear the dress I wore to school, it's pretty enough. I just add a few pieces of jewlery such as random dainty silver rings I own along with thin silver necklaces.

Should I wear makeup? I don't have much but I can try.

Going into my night stand I pull out my hidden small light pink bag. Opening it I grab the brown pencil eyeliner along with some lip gloss.

As steady as I can I put a thin line of the eyeliner as I stare into the mirror. It's not perfect but it's decent. She is going to be here in five minutes I can't be stressing about how clean the eyeliner is. I then grab the lip gloss and squeeze it on my lips. It makes my already medium sized lips look a little bigger.

I look kind of pretty.

Before I can start over thinking things again I grab my phone and run out of my bedroom. I'm a walking ball of nerves right now.

Trying to calm down, I fake a few deep breaths.  I don't know, I heard that helps.

My mom has her reading glasses on as she sits at the dining room table, looking at the bills and a bunch of other random papers.  She is sorting through them except once she notices me walking into the room she looks up at me through the top of her glasses.

"Mija are you excited?" A smile creeps it's way onto her face and she starts spinning the blue pen on her hand.

I walk over to her and take a seat in the chair across from her.

"Yeah but I- uh- I'm kind of nervous." I start spinning the few rings on my fingers. My palms are sweating.

She rolls her eyes, "It's gonna be fine. Have fun and relax."

The sound of a Roblox character dying makes my head spin to where Camila and Mateo are sitting on the couch. I see Camila hit Mateo up the backside of his head. He flicks her nose and she grabs his hand mid-flick and whispers something to him, gritting her teeth. He slowly retracts him hand, fear in his eyes.

I'm not sure where dad is. I'm not complaining though. Hopefully he doesn't come back from wherever he left off to.

Mom gets up and looks out the window. "Your little friends are here. Have fun." I stand up and she walks me to the door, and latches her arms around me.

"Adiós ma." I kiss her cheek and soon am met with the cool evening air. The sun is starting to set.

I walk to Levina's black car.  She must have money because this thing is nice.

I see Owen sitting in the front seat, watching me walk to the car, resting his chin in his hand.  He is leaning his elbow on the side of the door.

The car is cold when I sit in the back seat.  The AC is blasting.

"Hey!" Levina glances back at me and starts driving before I could even buckle my seatbelt.

"Hey guys." I grin.  Owen mumbles a hello.

"Well Owen, you seem very pleased to see me." Tonight I won't be as annoying as usual.  I'll let him have the night off.  Maybe.  Just maybe.

"Very." I sense the sarcasm laced through his voice.  I begin tapping my fingers on my thighs.

"Luna what you wanna listen to?" Levina passes her phone to Owen, the music app open.

"Anything but country." Sorry to all the country lovers in the world, but I just can't like it.

Owens starts typing on the phone and suddenly Wants and Needs by Drake starts blasting in the car.

"I like this song." A ecstatic smile spreads across my lips.

Owen's glances back at me, "Good." He then turns back towards the road.

Levina stops short, I jerk forward a little.

Levina lowers her window and starts screaming, "Suck my dick you ugly bitch! Fuck you, fucking cunt!" Anger is running through her veins.

She then brings the window back up and continues driving.

Owen and I start laughing.  He has a nice laugh, it makes my smile get bigger.

"The fucker thinks he could just cut me off and get away with it." She is gripping the steering wheel so tight that her knuckles have turned to a lighter shade of brown.

"You have awful road rage." Owen comments.

"Yeah no shit." She starts humming to the tune of the song.

I begin mumbling the lyrics.

Owen looks back at me, "I'm surprised you listen to rap.  You seem more like the type of person to only listen to indie music or something like that." He starts typing away on his phone.

"Well you assumed wrong. Now can you please play Nicki Minaj?" I request.

"Okay Ms. Bossy." Annoyance is in his tone. Dammit, I'm trying not to annoy him. Except maybe that's just impossible.

Fractions starts playing and Levina and I start singing along. My singing is awful but I don't care. Hopefully Owen's ears start bleeding. Just kidding, I would feel bad if that happened.

As we are singing along Owen glances at the two of us and I see a sly smile resting on his face. He looks like he is trying not to laugh at us.

All my nerves have disappeared.

I feel like tonight is going to be fun.