Walking back through the threshold of 1255 Bud Ln, I felt like a different person and it didn't help that the waxy faces of Pearl and Perry were looking at me like they didn't know me either. They looked weird. Quiet and pensive as they sunk into the white leather couch, side-by-side. Perry's blonde bangs hung over his uncaring eyes. The air smelled sharply of cleaning supplies and I was reminded that the maid service came yesterday. Grey-toned wood floors shone.

Pearl's doe-eyed stare on mine used to be a source of comfort, an indication that she saw me and could either read my mind or had my back, but now my vulnerability in her presence was anxiety-inducing and unfamiliar. An x-ray from an unkind source. My knees shook as Sam and I sat as far as humanly-possible from them, while also sharing the couch.

"I'm sure that the gay fiance and the new weirdo best friend love the new look but how exactly are you planning on hiding the skunk stripes from Mom and Dad?" Perry started and Pearl elbowed him in the ribs.

Nope. Not doing this.

I stood up and looked down at Sam, silently beckoning her to leave with me. Telling Perry about Dean was a mistake and it always had been, but it got hard to hide it from him when we were the only two real residents of our family home in RiverCrest. Mother went on trips with the other wives and Mark traveled for work a lot. Perry quickly noticed that Dean came and went during the day, rather than at night, and when he caught me fondling the pool boy, the truth came out.

"Wait! Wait! Please don't go!" Pearl cried out, rushing over and grabbing ahold of my arm. I shook her off reflexively. "June, can we talk? Just us? Give me one hour to explain myself and then after that I won't push it. Please."

Her face was strange but the pain in her eyes was real and screaming to be seen. Wide-eyed and weeping. It plucked the harp-strings stretched across my beating chest. I pulled my gaze from her.

"Is that okay, Sam? I'm sorry about Perry. He's an ass," I spat the last word in his direction, rather than Sam's, but otherwise my tone was gentle. Her head nodded, bouncing the burgundy twists and clacking the green ceramic beads at the ends of each twist together. The sound was muted and earthy, like the floor-length forest green dress hanging from each thin shoulder. She was kind and he was not. It was that simple.

"Yeah, I'll be alright. I'm gunna go wait in the car."

She floated out the front door and disappeared, all proof of life except for the distant thump of metal in her parked car gone. I was outnumbered and annoyed by the dead-eyed stare I was getting from an unmoving Perry.

"You're leaving too, I assume?" I asked, crossing my arms against my chest.

"Yes, lucky me," he replied, standing and moping into his bedroom, slamming the thin door behind him.

"Follow me," Pearl near-whispered before leading me through the kitchen and out the back door. My feet moved silently. Sadly. Until we were at the bench. The bench with the aloe-plant and the cutesy little corner that I loved was a bittersweet comfort.

We sat side by side. Silently. Sadly.

"I missed you," she started, sniffling.

"Yeah."

"I have a lot to tell you and I should've started a long time ago, and I'm sorry," she continued. Her body was turned towards mine but I ignored the gesture, staring instead at the leather-black boots and the way that my fishnets disappeared into my ankles. This was torture.

"Okay."

"Perry and I slept together for the first time when we were both fifteen years old."

What?

"What the fuck, Pearl?" I exclaimed, jolting to my feet but Pearl grabbed hold of my wrist, yanking my shoulder down and I cried out in pain.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She sobbed, holding both trembling hands up beside a beet-red face. Dark, angular features were downturned in sadness and remorse. I believed it, because I wanted to. "I didn't mean to hurt you. Just please, please let me explain!"

I said nothing but I sat.

"June, you have to try to understand what it was like to be your best friend. What it was like to be the only fucking charity case family living in RiverCrest? Too poor to go to school with everyone else and too much of a sore thumb to bother going to the community events. I had you, and only you. For so many years of my life."

"And that's my fault? So I deserve to be lied to for seven years?" I sneered back, insulted. Above-head, the clouds echoed my sentiments. They were dark and stirring. Brewing and angry.

"No! Of course not! But I think that somewhere along the way, I grew to want something that was just mine. I don't know if it started from rebellion or what but I love Perry, June. And he loves me too!" Her brown eyes were brimming with emotion and the yellow porch light clicked on.

I laughed into my hands.

How the fuck did I get here?

"What is it?" Pearl asked, clearly insulted.

"He does not love you, Pearl. If you think that he hasn't been sleeping with other girls the last seven years then you're sorely mistaken. I live with the guy!" I shook my head as I spoke. Her face grew redder and redder until-

"He does! I know that he does! The other girls - That was before we were exclusive. We're calling his dad tonight and telling him that he's serious about me and that they're just going to have to learn to deal with it!"

"Oh yeah? And when they threaten to cut him off and he ends it with you?" I stood back up, reaching up with my left hand and removing a blonde and red strand of hair from my nose, where it was obstructing my vision. The wind was picking up.

"He wouldn't do that!" She yelled over the distant rush of waves and the screech of seagulls, fleeing the oncoming storm. She was foolish. So, so foolish that I pitied her. I loved her enough to want to give her the benefit of the doubt, despite the natural world around me screaming not to. I didn't listen, so it made me feel.

The rumble of thunder. The shake of wood underfoot.

"I'm not going to sit here and argue with you. If you think that you know him better than I do then by all means - give it a go! If this is a lesson that you have to learn for yourself then fine! But I'm done being walked all over in your pursuit of that relationship with him! I don't even know you anymore! One year of college and you're completely unrecognizable!"

"You never did know me! My half-assed present versus Sam's multiple personalized presents? You care more about a girl that you barely know than your supposed 'best friend'-"

Bitch.

"I went off to school and met people who actually give a fuck and who actually keep and take care of not only the gifts that I spend my hard-earned money on, but me! Their heads aren't so far up their fucking asses that they can't see anyone else! That's what changed me. And what about you? Hanging out with that pick-me weirdo? Dying your hair and wearing eyeliner and fishnets? Why are you pretending to be someone you're not? And why would you want to anyways?"

Rage boiled in my pressure-cooker of a stomach. I was at risk of exploding, both physically and mentally, and I choked down the bile at the back of my throat. Lightning flashed, lighting up Pearl's dimming face and she flinched.

"Don't you dare talk to me about pretending to be someone that you're not! And if you don't keep Sam out of your fucking mouth, I swear to God you will regret it." My voice was serious, strong but shaky. Mournful tears streamed down my cheeks: mourning the person alive and breathing in front of me. The angry, angry person in front of me.

Why does the worst case scenario always happen?

"I won't! Honestly, it's so clear now; it's a wonder it took me so long! You are what is wrong with my life! Perry was right about you! The only thing I'm sorry for is wasting both of our time!" Standing with a visible stiffness, her pink floral dress rippled violently in the wind as the sky grew dark. A grey-toned warning. It was a moment that I knew that I would remember and it was strange to know that as I was living it.

"I think that I should leave."

"Yeah." She said simply. Thunder shook us again, together.

"We'll work out an arrangement with the rental and the car later. Let me know how the phone call goes," my voice was steadier than I felt. I could barely hear or breathe over the painful pounding in my chest. Processing a death. Hers or mine, I wasn't sure.

"Okay."

My fresh corpse walked back through the rental on wooden peg-legs, watching the world through blurry pin-holes. Nothing felt real, not even myself and I wanted to smoke. But nothing else.

"Goodnight, June," she said simply, holding the front door open for me. The frown on her face was unrecognizable.

"Bye, Pearl," I replied and my vision jostled as I descended the spiral staircase. The hum of Sam's SUV was an oasis in the desert and my tired feet stumbled there as the first raindrops began to fall, crying onto the apples of my cheeks. At least I wasn't mourning by myself. At least there was water.

"That good, huh?" Sam asked carefully as I slid back into the passenger seat. Her kind face wore a sad smile and soft eyes. I felt safe again.

"Apparently, they're hopelessly in love and have been hooking up since we were fifteen, which is crazy because she's been the proud 'the virgin' friend for longer than that. They're in for a rude awakening when they tell Donna and Mark, but whatever. I'm just gunna stay out of it for now. Thanks for letting me stay a while longer, Sam, and I'm sorry about how they treated you. I think that I'm done with her. I think that I'm done with a lot of things," I trailed off solemnly.

"Care to elaborate?"

"No."

"Fair enough. I'm thinking of making an ice cream run. What time is it anyways?" Sam asked, craning her head over to my lap, where something had caught my eye on my phone, freshly pulled from my back pocket.

7:08 PM

Moose

Hey wyd