22

                                    

                                          
After spending the weekend with Oliver, going around the town, and genuinely having fun, I was not ready for Monday. Maybe that was why I was sulking the whole morning, not even smiling when I realized that I had gotten an A on my physics quiz.
Oliver and I had spent the whole of yesterday in the town of Balmont – just the way we had planned. Holland wasn't happy to stay back and leave Oliver to go on what she thought was a date with me. I won't lie, it did make me cringe when she referred to our outing as a date. I didn't even cringe as bad when I saw the tattoo studio where I had drunkenly gotten my tattoo the day before.
For his part, Oliver looked annoyed at the suggestion, and snapped at her, asking her to shut up. She just laughed as if she had said the funniest joke in the world and even though I knew I saw the sting behind her laugh, I didn't say anything. I didn't know how to react, and hence I didn't. I still wasn't able to find a perfect balance on how to act around Holland, and I think that wasn't going to change anytime soon.
As lunch hour rolled around, I walked down out of the main building towards the direction of the dining hall with Evie and Lacey on either side. They were both fighting. Something about their cousin coming to visit them in two months – though neither of them liked the said cousin, they needed to tolerate her for a week. The cousin, whose name I forgot as soon as they had said, had the habit of pushing into both the girls' boundaries, using their stuff, and most of the time not returning it either. When I pointed out that it was essentially stealing what she was doing, Lacey gave me a wide smile while Evie glared. 
The disagreement between them now was that Lacey along with her brother was planning to pull a prank on the said cousin. According to Lacey, it's going to be humiliating for her and hilarious for everyone else; she wants to take the she-witch down, her words. And Evie being the goody-two-shoes that she was, was pretty against the whole prank setup and didn't want their cousin to be the victim of whatever it was. She was putting her foot down there.
I decided that while I wouldn't say it out loud, I was glad that I didn't have a cousin like Evie and Lacey do. Or maybe I did have cousins like theirs and I just didn't know. Jo, Elias, and Carson were the only cousins I was close to and the only cousins I talked to. The fact that they were all sweethearts didn't help the case either – I couldn't relate to Evie and Lacey. Sure, my cousins were annoying too, but they would never call me names, or steal my things or do anything to deliberately hurt me.
And while Evie and Lacey kept talking, I realized with a start that they were related by their fathers. Both their fathers were brothers and even though they had been no contact for a few years after Evie's dad completed high school, they've now mended their differences and rebuilt their bond from the scratch. They stay in houses right next to each other's now and did everything together. That meant, Lacey was Piper's cousin too as much as she was Evie's. The thought made my stomach turn. Great. One more person I'm friends with was related to my ex-best friend.
I wasn't very hungry by the time we had reached the dining hall, the thoughts of Lacey being Piper's cousin too had filled my mind and had taken away my appetite. I know it shouldn't bother me as much anymore. I mean, I have lost so many things in my life because of and for Piper, I shouldn't be losing my appetite too, but for some reason, I couldn't help it. Forcing myself to take in a deep breath, I decided that I would get a bowl of salads.
Lacey having picked her lunch filled her tray with food, and walked ahead of Evie and me towards the table where we sat. Evie glanced at Lacey over her shoulder, before turning back to me, "You okay?"
I forced a smile. "Yeah," I said, "I'm fine."
She sighed, obviously not buying it, "Addie, there's clearly something wrong. You can tell me anything, you know. I won't judge you."