Sixteen

                                    

                                          
“So what are we going to do today?” Akina asked. “Are we going to stay here? Or go to your place? I really want hot cocoa and to sit by a fire, but I also want to play in the snow. Normally, on snow days, Lindsay and I-” she cut off, and gasped. “Oh, Lindsay!” Akina ran to the bedside table, pouncing on the bed and snagging it quickly. “She called me last night when I was waiting for you to call me back, and I never called her again.” 
                          

                          
“Why would Lindsay be calling you at one thirty in the morning?” I asked, but Akina was not listening. She was nervously biting at her fingertip, her cell held up to her ear. 
                          

                          
“She isn’t answering,” Akina sighed, and dialed again. After a few more attempts- each of them failing- she set the phone down. “That’s alright, I guess. It was probably an accident that she called me anyway,” she mumbled distraughtly, sinking against the headboard of her bed. “It isn’t a big deal.”
                          

                          
“Why do you sound so sad?” I asked, walking over and sitting on the edge of the bed. “Lindsay is your best friend, isn’t she?”
                          

                          
“She was. But I’m pretty sure she hates me now,” Akina told me, shrugging. “We got into that fight at the cafe, and I think she took it really hard. I don’t know, she can be kind of dramatic, but maybe I really hurt her. It’s alright,” she repeated. “She was being rude, and she needed to check herself.”
                          

                          
“You did not have to ruin your best friendship for me,” I told her, shaking my head. “That is ridiculous.”
                          

                          
“It isn’t though. She said things that she should know aren’t acceptable, and she needed to see that it was wrong,” Akina defended, crawling towards me. She smiled lightly. “And you understand me more than she does. It makes more sense for me to be friends with you over her; being the popular, gorgeous girl she is.”
                          

                          
“What, because I am not popular and gorgeous?” I feigned hurt. 
                          

                          
“Well, that’s a discussion for another day,” Akina told me lightly, sliding off the bed and walking into the bathroom. “For now, we need to get ready to go play in the snow.” 
                          

                          
“Oh, do we?” I chuckled, and watched her as she slipped into the bathroom. 
                          

                          
“Mhmm,” Akina said, and closed the door. Through the barrier, she continued to talk to me. “It’s very important that we maximize the time we have off, as school will probably be back tomorrow, and with the forced family vacations out of state coming up in winter break, we won’t have much time to hang out! You know,” there was the sound of water rushing down a drain from a faucet. “You only have about a month to ask me on a date before the holidays.” 
                          

                          
“Now, is that so?” I grinned, laying on my back on her bed.
                          

                          
“It is,” she told me in an informing voice. “So you better get a move on.” 
                          

                          
“Well then, how about today, after playing in snow, we go out to lunch, and then to the park to ice skate?”
                          

                          
The door opened, and a wide eyed, thin, tan girl, with long black hair and pink lips, grinned out at me. “That sounds great! Wow, I’m so shocked. Who would’ve thought; you asking me on a date?” She teased.