Page 16 of Alice & Meg

“You’re going to sit through all of the boring meetings today?” he asked.

I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t really want to, but…”

Jonas shook his head. “You’re not coming to the meetings.” He nodded over my shoulder.

I turned, expecting to see Lo and Lennox, but was surprised to see Alice, Wrecker, Nikki, and Pipe headed our way.

“Something tells me you are going to be hanging out with Alice and Nikki sooner than you thought,” Jonas whispered.

“Hey,” Nikki called.

“Babe,” Lo called. “I need a pen. This one ain’t working.” He held up the pen while the woman behind the counter searched for another one.

“Oh, uh.” I dug into my purse, pulled out a pen, and handed it to Jonas.

“You’re kidding me,” Jonas laughed. He held up the pen, but it wasn’t a normal pen.

“That’s a bird,” Alice laughed.

“You have a bird pen in your purse?” Pipe asked.

I nodded to Jonas. “Give that to your dad.”

Jonas shook his head and ran it over to Lo.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Lo called.

“That’s what happens when you borrow my pens all of the time and never give them back to me,” I called. Lo was notorious for stealing my pens and never giving them back. I figured if the pens were something crazy that he couldn’t steal, I wouldn’t be constantly buying them.

“I’ll just leave this here,” he countered. He signed the receipt and handed it to the clerk.

“I bought twenty-four.”

Nikki and Alice busted out in laughter, and Pipe shook his head.

“Don’t get any ideas,” Wrecker grumbled to Alice.

Alice held up her hands. “I just want one so I can pull that sucker out anytime I need a pen.”

I fished around in my purse and pulled out two more bird pens. Purple and blue. “Here you go.”

Nikki grabbed the blue one, and Alice snatched the purple one.

“Score,” Nikki cheered.

“Do I want to know what else you have in your purse?” Alice asked.

I held up my finger and dug back into my purse. “I’m always forgetting shit, so I have these handy dandy little notebooks in my purse.” I pulled out two and paged through them to make sure I hadn’t written anything in them.

“Better write this down because I’m forgetful AF,” Nikki read off.

“We were just coming over to see if you had the list of ingredients for the banana bread, but now it’s like Christmas,” Alice laughed.

Lo walked over with Lennox next to him.

“Where’s my pen?” I asked.

Lo rolled his eyes and handed me my coffee. “I should have left it at the register, but the clerk insisted I didn’t.” He reached into his back pocket and handed it back to me. “You can have your crazy bird back.”

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