"What are you waiting for?” Amber asked Krystal who’d ridden home with her but was now just standing on her doorstep looking nervous. “A printed invitation?”

Krystal compressed her lips and finally tipped across the threshold. They still hadn’t come up with a solid plan for their art project so they’d decided to discuss it more outside of school hours since they would need to turn it in the next day and trying to work it out through text and phone calls just weren’t working. It was even harder when Amber hadn’t completely forgiven her yet. It made their discussions very tense most of the time.

“Take your shoes off,” Amber tossed over her shoulder. “Put them on that rack.”

Krystal toed off her shoes and placed them next to Amber’s.

“Living room’s this way.”

She followed Amber’s voice into what turned out to be a fairly plain living room decorated in shades of brown with family photos around the room. She sat down on the floor next to Amber at the low, glass coffee table, placing her backpack beside her.

“Who’s that?” She asked pointing to one of the larger family portraits next to the television.

“My older sister, Jackie. She’s off in college in California.”

Krystal noted how much they looked alike, expect the length of the hair and height.

“She’s pretty.”

“I’m prettier,” Amber said with a scrunch of her nose, making Krystal smile. She quickly looked away. “Anyway, we need to get this done.” She pulled out her sketchbook and her art book and Krystal did the same.                                                                                                                          

“Mom will be home in a bit and she’ll fix us some snacks if we get hungry. Unless you want something now?”

“No. Thank you, though.”

The living room was filled with the sounds of them turning pages as they looked over some of the ideas they’d brainstormed in class and searched for inspiration in their textbooks. Krystal was surprised when after a few minutes, Amber pulled out a contacts case, slipped her contacts out, then put on some round-framed glasses.

She felt an odd sensation somewhere in her chest and couldn’t seem to stop looking at her out of the corner of her eye.

Her lip quirked up into a smile when Amber had to slide them back up her nose with one finger.

“Cute.”

"What?” Amber asked, turning toward her.

Krystal’s jaw dropped open. “Did I say that out loud?!”

Amber tilted her head and propped her chin on her fist. “You think I’m cute?”

“No! Shut up!”

Amber laughed, tweaking Krystal on the chin with her pencil. “Whatever.”

Even though Krystal was embarrassed, she was glad the atmosphere between them thawed after that.

“Maybe we could do a mural.”

“I don’t think th