"Year 11 Prom is happening." Loralie walked into the convention just as Tara began to gush to Elle, who Loralie avoided walking in with. "Loralie, sit! Hurry."

Elle smiled at her, Loralie pretended not to notice. Elle gave an odd look but focused on Tara again. "Oh my God. Prom?"

"I'm so excited!" Tara gushed as she looked over at Darcy, that loving look that always lingered. "You could totally wear a suit. You'd look amazing."

"Ouu, the orange dress I wanted for the Eras tour is still in my closet." Loralie gushed with wide eyes, smiling at Tara with knowing look. "Can you do my hair?"

"Is that even a question? Of course I can!" she grinned as Loralie smiled back. Elle was waiting for Loralie to try and include her, she'd always been good at that, but she never did.

"You mean we can't be Fiona and Shrek?" Darcy frowned her eyebrows.

"And Imogen can do my makeup." Loralie planned it all in her head, nodding quickly. "I better order shoes now, so hard to get two different sizes!"

"Don't let Tao overhear that." Elle chuckled. "You know he never misses an opportunity to talk about your two different sized feet."

Loralie gave her a half smile, only meeting her eye for half a second. "True."

Darcy and Tara both sensed that tension, sharing a look in the corner of their eye. How they met Loralie was literally her hyping Elle up, they'd never seen Loralie ever miss an opportunity to be, to put it bluntly, absolutely crazy for Elle Argent.

"Hey, are you guys talking about prom?" Sahar came in at just the right time, looking at the four girls in questioning. Tara quickly agreed. "Oh, so Miss Greenwood's put me in charge of organizing it, and i'm kind of looking for some help."

Loralie gasped as her entire face lit up. "I can help you! Please, pick me! I've got plenty of experience in organizing and planning! Look deep in my eyes, you can see my brain always planning something."

Sahar laughed when Loralie leaned in real close to her so she could look into her eyes. "Sold, just don't pull that move on Miss Greenwood."

"What move?" Loralie blinked in confusion, the girls laughed at her oblivion behind not knowing her behavior wasn't necessarily the most normal.

"Me too! I'm so in." Tara gushed in agreement. "Do you want to meet with us for lunch? We can start making a mood board?"

"I could run across to Truham, bat my eyes at the librarian, see if he'll let me use the printer to get photos off." Loralie demonstrated her flirty eye blink, earning a giggle from each of them. "Impossible to say no to."

"That would be very helpful." Sahar agreed but was holding back a laugh. "Lunch would be great. I've got loads of ideas already. I'm thinking classic."

"Loralie!" Elle ran out of the school before she had the chance to go over to Truham after the lunch bell. "Wait."

No one else had been out there, all at lunch or their current period. Just Elle, Loralie, the falling leaves, and many unsaid thoughts. "I have to go get those pictures printed for the girls."

"I know." Elle caught her breath as she stood infront of her, dropping her bag so it wasn't weighing her down. "What's the matter? You have avoided me for two days now."

"I'm not avoiding you." Loralie lied to her.

Elle gave her a weird look, an intimidating one at that. "So, you're being yourself? Not answering my text, not calling me every morning while you get ready, not walking to school with me, not even saying anything to me in class?"

Loralie exhaled, she looked away to not meet her eye. She felt leaves crumbling around her. "Maybe we shouldn't do so much of that anymore."

"So much of what? Being friends?" Elle laughed in disbelief. "What happened? Why are you suddenly thinking this way?"

"Jesus, Elle." Loralie huffed and gave her a look, a knowing one. "Come on."

"Come on, what?" Elle caught her arm as she tried to walk away. "Loralie."

The Flowers girl had no choice but to stop, Elle let her arm go. The wind picked up, Loralies hair blew through her orange hairband as she stared at her. "Elle, I can't do those things with you anymore. Not in the same way, not like that."

"What are you talking about?" Elle was lost and Loralie wasn't doing the best at explaining it. She tossed her hands up slightly when she talked, floored with Loralie, of all people, saying something like this.

"I'm talking about putting distance between us." she blurt it out, because what was the point of hiding it all. "Elle, I can't keep pretending over and over. I am so confused all the time!"

"Confused abour what? Our friendship?" she gave her a crazy look in response.

"Exactly." Loralie agreed, tossing her hands up to motion around her head. "You are confusing me so bad and I can't keep questioning it all the time. I don't know what to think anymore and if we keep on with how we were, it's just gonna get so much worse."

Elle was the one to be confused now, grabbing her shoulders and leaning
to her level some. "What did I do, Loralie? Why are you so upset with me?"

"Why didn't you just tell me you were into Tao?!" Elle saw how her eyes watered, Loralie walked out of her grasp and stared at her with sadness. "How could-I don't get it. I thought that-"

She didn't finish what she said, but Elle knew it was something she needed to say by how a tear escaped her eye. "Thought what, Loralie? Just tell me."

The bell rung, girls began to trail out of the school. Loralie wiped that tear and shook her head. "It doesn't matter, Elle. I don't know what I thought or what i'm even saying...I just want to pretend it didn't happen."

"Well I can't just pretend you didn't say all the things you just did." Elle argued, Loralie walked away. "Loralie."

She kept walking, the lip trembling creeping up on her as she decided to skip the rest of the day.

Tao overheard his Mom gushing from downstairs, indicating someone was here. He pulled his earbuds out and looked toward his door when he overheard the footsteps coming up the stairs. The door opened up as he rose his eyebrows. "Lori."

She gave him a smile. "Hey."

"I didn't know you were coming over." he glanced at his phone to see if he missed a message from her, but nothing awaited him.

She ignored what he said and sat down on his bed. "Is everything okay?"

"It's okay." Loralie nodded her head as she frowned her eyebrows at him. "Do you...are you- What do you think of me?"

Tao rose his eyebrows and laughed. "Is this a trick question?"

Loralie didn't find what he said funny, he realized she was serious. Tao shut his laptop and sat up better, Loralie crossed her legs infront of him. "Well, I think you're a strange little thing. Two different sizes legs and feet, still trying to figure out if your eyes are the same size."

Loralie cracked a smile as he grabbed her face to get closer, examining her eyes. "Tao, be serious with me."

He still held her face but nodded slightly, exhaling in silence for a second. "What do I think of Loralie Adaline Flowers? I happen to think she is one of the smartest people I've ever met, even though it sometimes doesn't seem like it. And she's so passionate about life, with a type of joy I pretend annoys me but deep down admire. And the way she loves people so much, how it's hard for her to see the bad in others, it's just lovely."

Loralie stared right into his eyes, a soft smile rested on her face. Tao really looked at her, really really looked at her. His thumbs brushed against her cheeks slightly, frowning his eyebrows together like something weighed on him right then and there. "And then- And then I think she's just so absolutely..."

Loralie held her breath as she kept staring at him, Tao laughed as he let her face go and leaned away. "-a great friend. Why did you want to know?"

Loralies face fell as she sat there. Tao rose his eyebrows. "Are you doing another one of your surveys?"

Loralie let it all set in. Elle liked Tao, not her. And Tao thought she was just a great friend. Two people she was so confused about, hoping that coming here would help, only made it worse. It was one thing to ignore it, but then they happened, and now she had no choice but to accept it all. Tao, who she always sorta had feelings for deep down, didn't think of her that way. And Elle, who she recently developed feelings for, was pinning after someone else. That was it.

"No." Loralie answered as she stood up. "I was just asking."

"But I-" Tao began, but she already had left the room. Tao listened to her feet travel down the stairs, then the door shut. He stood up quickly and went to his window to watch her go, walking into the night far away from him. His head flooded with confusion, huffing as he laid on his bed and squeezed his eyes in confusion and regret.

Loralie weeped softly as she walked home, rubbing her eyes to try and rid the tears before she walked inside. Her gaze casted through the window, watching her mother slow dance with a man that wasn't her father. It made matters worse on her, exhaling as the cry formed from something so much worse than just a few weeps. She fished her phone from her pocket and kept walking, dialing Nick Nelson's phone number.

Nick kept his arm around Loralie as she cried, the pair sat on the edge of his bed. He rubbed her back soothingly, explaining it all. "I just don't understand why I'm feeling this way."

"Well, that's feelings. They aren't always the best." Nick was honest with her, Loralie kept her head on his shoulder and used her hand to wipe the tears that continued to escape her eyes. "Explain it again to me."

Loralie came off his shoulder and crossed her legs, Nick faced her as Loralie braced herself to not say it all in the process of sobbing at his front door again. "Elle likes Tao, and I don't know if Tao likes her too but he definitely doesn't like me."

"So, you like Tao and Elle liking him upsets you?" Nick pieced together, by her last comment, she liked Tao, but was trying to understand what Elle liking him had anything to do with it.

"No-yes- I do like him but that's not all of it." Loralie knew she was confusing Nick, she was confused herself. "I like Tao. Yes, you're right. Yes, it bothers me Elle likes him because of that, but that's not the only reason. I think I like Elle too. I just, seem to like them both."

Nick nodded as his eyes got a little bit wide. "Glad you finally realized that. I have been waiting."

"Nick." she whined.

"What do you mean they don't like you back? Yes, they absolutely do." he shook his head with a crazy look on her face. "Loralie, i'm fully confident that they both have a huge thing for you. Literally everyone sees it."

"Elle said, with real life words, that she liked Tao." Loralie pointed her finger, he tried not to smile at her choice of wording. "And he friend zoned me so bad, Nick."

"The way Tao is with Elle, and the way Elle is with Tao, is exactly how they both are with you. I've seen them together and then i've seen them with you and it's the same. Especially when it's all three of you are put into one." Nick eased her racing mind, about the only one who probably wouldn't be having a heart attack with her. When she ranted to Charlie and Issac was a prim example of how they also panicked and agreed with her, while Nick chose to disagree. "You've dated two people at once that were also dating. What's so different about this?"

"Tao and Elle aren't like that." Loralie shook her head. "And they only like each other. They don't like me."

"How do you know they aren't? Have they said so?" she didn't answer as he rose his eyebrows to make his point. "As for them not liking you back, I really just don't think that's true. They're probably just as confused as you are...but pulling away from both of them isn't gonna help anything."

Loralie exhaled as she frowned, nodding her head. "I know you're right, I shouldn't be angry at them no matter what. I think that's why i'm so hurt, because they both have acted so much like they like me. So much, I was really convinced they both kinda did."

"See." Nick gave her a knowing look. "That's what i've been saying this whole time."

Loralie threw herself at him in a hug, her arms secured tightly around his neck.

Tao stayed up on his laptop, typing away. what to do when you like two people.

Pick the second one you fell for. If you really loved the first one, you wouldn't have fallen for the second.

Tao exhaled and nodded, stress somewhat leaving him with that answer. He didn't quite know what to do, he didn't know how to just choose one. But, the internet didn't seem to know how Polyamory worked. But, neither did Tao, and Loralie seemed to think it didn't apply when it came to her best friends.

•

kylie speaks

LORDY LORDY LORDY!
YK THE NEXT CHAPTER
IS FONNA HURTTTTT