SAGE POV
Surprisingly, her driver did not ask me any questions this time, or maybe I should not be surprised, he's obviously used to this by now and since he pretty much gets the same answer from me everytime, he probably doesn't really care.
whether he believes me or not.
When I think about it, Delilah has never actually told me to lie for her, so why do I?
Maybe it's the look she gives me, her eyes so empty, but not dull, it just feels like the shine in them is hidden and it's gonna take a lot to get it out.
Maybe doing crazy and dangerous escapades like this might be an outlet for her, considering she never tells us her problems, (if she has any, though technically every living, breathing thing in this world has problems), but she listens and like a professional therapist, she'll only speak a little but that would be the greatest advice you would ever need, though most actual therapists speak too much and very little actually helps.
Since indirectly or not she does a lot for us, maybe I lie for her in hopes of feeling like I did something for her too.
What am I if not a good friend?
And yet Delilah is not the mom of our group.
Sarah is.
Just as I was thinking about Sarah, I get a message in the group chat.
"I'm not gonna be home for a while, so if my driver calls you, tell him I'm with either of you"
"Delilah, i just lied for you, besides you just went into the forest and you probably just reached home"
"I never asked you before, did I? I'm asking only this once and no I did not go home I told my driver to drop me off at a convenience store"
I suddenly feel guilty though I have no reason to be and she's not wrong, this is actually the first time she's asking me to lie for her.
"But...fine, i'll do it but you still have to tell us where you're going"
"No, but I'm sorry and thank you for lying for me" and my guilt eases a little bit.
"But why can't you just tell us" texts Sarah
I quickly text Sarah back,
"Sarah, where were you?!"
"Uhm home, where else would I be"
"Why were you not replying or picking my calls"
"Oh about that, well my mom is making me take an extra course, so I had an orientation for that"
"Where is Sloane?" I ask no-one in particular just hoping Sloane herself would answer. Hoping she would see the message.
"Yea, where is she?, hasn't started pestering me yet" says Delilah out of nowhere.
"Also Delilah, if you aren't gonna tell us where you are, you have to continue to text us a 'im fine' message every ten minutes, okay?"
"Okay, bye" and she's offline. I won't be able to sleep tonight since if something happens to her, which won't right?.
Right?!
"Sage?" a private message comes from Sarah
"Yeah?"
"You okay, won't be able to sleep tonight?"
"Yep"
I told you she was the mom of our group.
She just knows when to be there for us even when we push her away sometimes, though we only became close not too recently, she knows us inside out except Delilah of-course, no-one really knows her at all, she's very - I don't know the right word but maybe she's like - you might think you know her - but find out you don't know anything - type of girl.
"What course by the way?" I ask Sarah shifting back to group chat, trying to bombard the chat with a huge conversation hoping Sloane would notice, or even Delilah would just go home and join our conversation.
Hoping.
I must be delusional at this point.
"It's a little hard but it's also a little fun, but the fun isn't enough to make it less hard" and my question is left hanging.
"Is it a subcourse again?"
"Yes, but as soon as i'm done with this, I'll be forced into another big course with thousand sub courses"
"How you holding up with this one"
"Business as a topic itself is hard" ok got my answer.
"Why business though, you're only seventeen"
"Yea, according to my mom i'm already too old and late to learning business"
"Which subcourse now?, you just finished with uhm I forgot, wait, let me think"
"FM?, also 'I'm fine'" says Delilah.
"Yea Finance management and now I have to do MM which is marketing management, besides these courses are online and take way too long and teach me very little and after all this I have to study these courses again through a degree and then master degree, ugh, how are you so good at it Delilah?"
No response.
Obviously.
But we know why, she's been learning all that since she learnt the alphabet and since she gets bored easily, she likes to finish learning it quickly instead of giving up on it and moves on to another, that's also why she gets top marks in class in every subject, while barely studying.
"You'll have to wait ten minutes to get your answer Sarah" I say , sending a winking emoji to which she replies with a laughing one.
We still don't know where Sloane is but I'm not worried much because she has a protective brother and she's not very might-die-while-having-fun like Delilah but I would actually say Delilah is more might-end-up-killing-someone-while-having-fun type, but you get the idea right? Basically suicidal.
Though Sloane loves parties and goes to a lot of them surprisingly some with the permission of her brother and some while sneaking into them, doesn't drink alcohol or anything and returns home late but safe, she's only seventeen like Sarah and me and quite the law abiding citizen, she would either be picked by her brother or her driver or sometimes, would leave a message and location in the group chat and Delilah would go since she can drive even though she's only sixteen, she drives really well so you will never suspect she's actually underage driving, but she only does drive very rarely so I guess it's okay, or she would just take her driver obviously who luckily doesn't really care what any of us do except Delilah herself.
She's also very curious about parties, but never attends them, she even disguises herself with a literal wig sometimes, just to pick Sloane up.
This one time I went still remains in my memories. She was wearing a blonde wig that honestly makes her stand out more and sunglasses and a mask and she would not step out at all, when she does spot Sloane, she would roll the windows just a little, and Sloane would immediately spot her because of course she knows her car and it's parked a little near the entrance.
Sloane would immediately get on and we would be off in lightning speed as though we're trying to escape someone till we reach a road with less people where she slows own a little, that is on the way to Sloane's house, drop her off, after making sure her brother knows and then Delilah would drop me too and then she would say she's going home but I doubt she actually is most of the time.
Where could she possibly be? She didn't mention she was going to a party today. Besides, today is still Thursday, if she does go to a party it's usually a friday or a sunday or when she wants the club a little less crowded she goes on a monday.
She always only goes to some really expensive clubs and these clubs are always super crowded, people will do anything to pay up to get into one of these clubs just to take pictures for social media, well I'm not complaining, I do that too, when I go to a restaurant or any place, I take pictures for social media too.
But then there's Delilah, she doesn't even have an account on any social media platforms, she does have the latest phone but all she has in that phone are violent games and some really disturbing movies downloaded, she has lots of pictures of animals and pretty skies and a few pictures of us together.
She only uses that phone for texting since she almost never picks calls, unless we text her first and then call, she surprisingly is a fast replier to texts though again not always of course.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think about spam texting Sloane but then I doubt that would help much if a call itself went unanswered.
I finally decide to give up and go to bed, since I have school tomorrow.