February 3rd, 2018

     Julian was officially ungrounded and un-probationed, so I invited him and Kila to my house. They both agreed and got permission from their parents. While he was on the phone, we stood by my car and waited.

     "Si, papa . . . Si, lo prometto . . . No, non mi metterò nei guai . . . Si, sarò a casa al tramonto. Lo prometto. Ci vediamo presto. Addio." Julian hung up. 

     "I need to be home by seven," he said to Kila and I.

     "Cool," I replied, "We'll leave my house around six-thirty, then?"

      "Yeah."

     It was 5:30pm. We were sitting in my room, talking.

     "What is the word in English," Julian randomly asked, "for that weird bacteria-looking mini lobster?"

     "What?" Kila responded.

     "You know," Julian said, sitting up, "the naked-looking miniature lobster fish. It has antennae and it's like . . . Pink."

     "A shrimp," I said, without missing a beat.

     "That's the little fucker!" Julian exclaimed under his breath.

     I snorted.

     "Hey," Kila said randomly, "Do you guys want to play a game?"

     "What game?" I asked suspiciously.

     Kila's eyes flashed mischievously. "Spin the bottle. No kissing, though. The people the bottle lands on have to trade secrets."

     I groaned.

     Julian frowned. "What's spin the bottle?"

     Kila gasped. "What's spin the bottle? Only the stupidest most amazing stereotypical teenager game ever!"

     Once Julian understood the rules of the game, we started to play Spin The Bottle: Secret Addition.

     The first spin landed on Kila and I. I went first.

     "I'm bisexual," whispered I, knowing full well that Kila already knew.

     "Well duh," Kila laughed, "I read your diary. Anyway, what secret should I tell you? Hmm," Kila grinned with malice. "I ship you and Julian," she stage-whispered.

     My face felt hot. I was probably blushing. "What the fuck, Kila?" I exclaimed. "I did not hear that. Nope. Nuh-uh."

     "Would you like me to say it again, a little louder this time?" Kila smiled with mock innocence.

     "No. I'm good. Let's spin it again."

     Julian, who had been staring at us like a confused puppy was glad to have something to do. He spun the bottle. Of course, it had to land between him and Kila.

     "Don't tell her anything important," I warned, "and don't think about whatever she tells you."

     Kyla, in response, grinned.

     Julian looked nervous.

     When their turn was done, it was around six-twenty.  Julian, at course, needed to be home by seven. Kila could be home whenever, as long as it was before ten. 

     After we dropped Julian off, Kila and I decided to run by Baskin Robins to eat some unhealthy, multi-flavored ice-cream. Kila got a cone with half peach ice cream and half brownie batter ice cream. I had a bowl of mint chocolate chip because I wasn't a complete psychopath.

     "Kila," I started, "why on Earth would you mix chocolate with peaches?"

     "Because I can and I want to."

     "Why do you want to?"

     "Because I can."

     "Fine," I sighed.

     We had our normal, semi-deep conversation for thirty minutes. Finally, I worked up the nerve to ask her a question.

     "Why do you 'ship' Julian and I?"

     Kila smirked. "I knew you were going to ask that," she said. "You always need to know everything."

     I raised an eyebrow at her.

     "What?" She smiled. "It's true."

     My eyebrow went up even higher.

     "Well," Kila said, "if you must know why I think you two would be the perfect power couple, I will tell you. You guys accent each other, Julian beat up a guy for you, you've gotten so close in just the past month . . ." Kila went on to list twenty-seven more reasons why she shipped us, each more bizarre than the previous. I will not burden the reader with them, as she burdened me. Let's just say, by the time she was done, it was time to drive her home.

     "We're just friends," I told Kila on the way to her house, "and he's not gay."

     Kila snorted. "Neither are you, but you're attracted to men."

     "That's different," I said.

     "No, it's not. Did he tell you he was straight?"

     I didn't answer.

     "Exactly. Why is straight the default, even for you? There's at least a one-in-four chance that he's gay. Stop assuming, Sam."

     "I'm not-"

     "Yes, you are."

     "Even if he is gay, that doesn't necessarily mean he's attracted to me."

     Kila sighed gloomily. "I know."

     "And I've only known him for a month, so-"

     Kila interrupted. "I read somewhere that it takes only four minutes to fall in love with someone."

     "You've also read that Samsung users are more likely to be serial killers. You shouldn't trust everything you read."

     Kila pouted. "You're no fun."

     "And you're a sap who will ship any pair of people who've met."

     "That's true, but-"

     Suddenly, something hit the car from the side. The impact made my head lash into the side window . The airbag inflated on both the driver's and passenger's sides. Kila's long, coiled hair flew everywhere. I felt a sharp pain in the side of my head. Something warm was trickling down my cheeks.

     Kila. Was Kila okay? I turned to look at her. Her eyes were closed tightly.

     "Are you okay?" I asked.

     "Yeah," Kila grimaced, "I think so."

     "We need to call 911."

     "On it," Kila said, reaching for her phone.

     On the ambulance ride to the hospital, people kept fussing over us. Especially Kila.

     "I'm fine," she said, "I'm just a little scraped up."

     In the hospital, the rushed us in, despite our insisting that we were fine. Apparently, I had glass embedded into the side of my head and Kila had a fractured kneecap. That . . . Wasn't good.

      Both Kila's and my parents were at the hospital within ten minutes of us calling them. They were lucky not to have gotten in an accident themselves. There were lots of hugs. So many. At one point, a nurse had to ask our parents to stop hugging us because we were injured.

     Kila and I were taken to separate rooms. In my room, they injected me with a numbing shot of some sort. Then, the removed the two shards of glass that were embedded into my cheekbone and forehead area. Luckily, they weren't embedded into my skull. That could have caused some intense damage. A doctor then stitched up the deeper cuts and prescribed an antibiotic so the stitches wouldn't get infected. After that, I was free to go.

     Kila, however, had to stay much longer than I. She had to be X-rayed, fit for a cast, and a bunch of other fun stuff. She was lucky her kneecap wasn't displaced, or she would've had to had a surgery. Kila wouldn't be able to walk without crutches for another six weeks, at least. I was not going to hear the end of it.