The phone was ringing. Elizabeth unwillingly made her way downstairs and picked up.
"'llo?" she said with a bored tone, sitting on the first step of the stairs.
"Hi Effy! It's Pandora!" her best friend's cheerful voice pierced her eardrum through the device.
Effy subconsciously perked up a bit, feeling a faint blush heating her cheeks.
"Hey," she laconically replied.
A short awkward silence followed before Pandora talked again with hushed voice, "So tonight we're going in the woods, mh?"
Effy smiled a bit, "Yep."
"And, uh…do you mind if I come to yours in a few? You know how my mother is, she'd pester me with questions if she saw Cook picking me up," Pandora pleaded. Effy closed her eyes and chuckled, knowing fair too well the stupid rules going on in that house.
"Sure, no problem. I'm gonna tell Cook."
"Oh, thank you," the other girl sounded so relieved, Effy had the impulse to kiss Pandora's round cheeks if she was there.
"See ya later, then," the brunette hung up without waiting for the other girl's reply.
She stared at the telephone and stomped upstairs when her mother asked who was phone.
Shortly after Mrs Stonem left again for work, the doorbell rang and Effy flew downstairs, but stopped in front of the door to check through the peep hole to be sure it wasn't her mother who was back for some weird reason: luckily it was Pandora with her duffel bag and her trademark rather air-headed face. Mrs Moon's car was parked right in front of the Stonems' house and the woman was wildly waving an arm to greet Elizabeth, who hesitantly raised a hand and smiled tightly at her.
"Hey, come on in," Effy urged, closing the door behind Pandora and straining her ear to listen to the car engine loading and going away. Finally, the anxious woman left.
"Thank you so much," Pandora smiled brightly, making her best friend's cheeks pink lightly.
"Don't mention it," she scoffed, turning sharply to hide her blush, and made her way to the kitchen.
"When are the others passing by?" Pandora asked while following the other girl, sitting at the table and accepting the glass of coke she was offering.
"In an hour," and that was the end of the conversation on Effy's behalf, who let Pandora blabber on to fill the silence.
Elizabeth threw side glances at her best friend, finding herself smiling back shyly whenever Pandora smiled brightly at whatever she was talking about, enjoying the colour that rose on her pale cheeks, tearing her eyes away whenever Pandora glanced at her.
An hour passed quite painstakingly slowly, but the other friends eventually arrived: Cook and JJ were the first, followed by Thomas. Ten minutes later they were joined by Emily and Katie, who was tightly linking arms with Freddie – Effy looked at them for a short time but preferred to ignore the couple, with Katie's dismay. When Naomi finally arrived, the group packed in Effy's car and drove away.
After many wrong turns-both of the car and of the map-the nine youngsters arrived at the designed forest and walked further through the woods, finally arriving in a clearing where they used the last hours of light to set the tents and collect stones and branches for the bonfire.
While the others were busy, Effy walked away, aimlessly, until she spotted a cave trunk and sat on it, fishing a joint out of her leather jacket and smoking it to relax and collect her thought.
Does she still love Freddie? Does she really care that Katie isn't subtle about her satisfaction for her relationship with the boy? …Does she really like Pandora more than a best friend?
Elizabeth sighed and sat on the crunchy coat of fallen leaves, leaning against the slightly scratchy surface of the trunk, and closed her eyes, enjoying the fresh blows of air and the silence of the woods. When she stood up and brushed leaves and dirt off herself, she spotted some little mushrooms growing in the humid shadow of the fallen trunk. She picked them up.
When she reappeared in the clearing, cries of "There she is!" accompanied her to the bonfire, where the other guys gathered to ask her where the hell she's been.
"Where were you? You worried us!" Pandora bawled, so close to cry if the pinker cheeks and lucid eyes were an indication.
Effy took her time looking at her best friend, and instead of replying she opened the folds of the jacket she was holding in her arms, revealing her little harvest of possibly hallucinogenic mushrooms.
"Oh, shrooms! Awesome!" Cook exclaimed, immediately picking and eating one; Freddie took one as well, smiling at Effy who shot him one of her tiny smiles. One by one, the other guys ate a mushroom, minus Katie and Pandora.
"They can be dangerous! You don't even know if they're psychedelic or not, they might be poisonous!" Katie argued.
"It's worth a shot…Take it like Russian Roulette," Effy shrugged, sitting with the others and inviting Pandora to do the same.
"…Aren't they dangerous?" Pandora asked with a tiny voice.
"Apparently not," Effy jerked her head in their friends' direction, picking one of the remnant mushrooms and holding it in front of Pandora's face, "Wanna try it?"
The blonde girl nodded sheepishly, raising a hand to take the shroom from Effy's hand, but the girl gently batted her hand away and fed her. Pandora blushed and made a face for the raw pattern of the vegetable on her tongue.
The group smoked its way to the night, telling stories or complaining about parents and teachers, giggling at every nonsense. They finally called it quits when the moon was up high and bright, but only half of them managed to make their way in the tents: the others were either too high or too lazy to stand up, they'll endure the chilly night and fuck that.
Effy was sprawled on the cold soil, looking through half open eyes at the stars and the treetops swinging imperceptibly–but maybe it was the weed; Pandora was at her side, her blonde left pigtail invading Effy's space. Elizabeth eventually rolled on her side to face her best friend, "So," she started very eloquently.
"So," Pandora replied, staring with her smiling blue eyes into Effy's deep blue ones.
"Yeah…Well, I'm pretty sure I finally got over it."
"Over what?"
"My thing for Freddie."
"Really? Good…at least you won't suffer anymore, I mean, looking at him and…Katie…" Pandora whispered.
"Yes…And I think I have to thank you."
"Me? But I didn't d—" Effy interrupted the girl putting a finger on her lips.
"You did something. You made me fall for you."
Pandora blinked, she couldn't believe her ears. She was going to retort when Effy straddled her in a smooth move and put her hands at Pandora's head sides, leaning closer and closer murmuring, "Thank you, Pandora," before linking their lips in a soft kiss.
At first, the blonde girl was so shocked she stood there petrified, but she soon melted in the kiss and kissed back, she even wrapped her arms around Effy's neck to pull her closer. The brunette then made her lips linger on Pandora's jaw line, her lobes and finally her neck line, licking and sucking intently the soft pale skin of her best friend. Pandora choked a tiny moan when Effy bit her neck lightly: she was loving the attention her best friend was paying to her and let her do whatever she wanted.
They all woke up stiff and hangover, the woods aren't a particularly good place to fall asleep in. The few lucky ones who slept in their sleeping bags emerged from the tents and stirred under the sun, collecting their stuff while the others shook the coldness off their bones and any kink in their necks.
Effy blinked her eyes open on Pandora's blonde nape, noticing only then that she was the big spoon who was hugging Pandora. Smiling, she stood up and shook the other girl awake, receiving a sleepy beam in return.
When they were all awake and their things where packed in the car, Effy took Pandora aside before getting in the car and kissed the hickey she left that night.
"Mine," Effy whispered and squeezed the other girl's hand, heading to the car without another word.