6:59 by Nonye Acholonu, Kelechi Acholonu Page A

nonchalantly, but she smiled anyway. “Mila’s in the kitchen baking some cookie thing for dessert.”
    â€œCan’t wait,” I said but my voice sounded hesitant. How was I going to eat all this food and the dessert in less than a half hour? I had to somehow excuse myself from the table, say goodnight to Anjolie, and then end up in my bed before I was out.
    And I had to do all of this without looking like an idiot host.
    â€œDid you hear what I said?” Anjolie asked, placing her hand on my arm. She stared up at me with her concerned gray eyes and I instantly felt like crap for not listening to her.
    Anjolie noticed my expression and repeated what she’d said. “I invited Armando and Hudson. They said they’d be here soon.”
    â€œWhat?” I couldn’t help but cry out. Why would Anjolie do that? They couldn’t come over! I was about to blackout any minute now! What was I going to do?
    The doorbell rang. Crap!
    â€œI’ll get the door,” Anjolie said, smiling at me. I couldn’t help but smile back.
    Armando and Hudson walked into the house, setting their coats onto the coat rack. “It smells so good in here!” Hudson said, closing her eyes and smelling the aroma. Armando agreed with her as he draped his arm around her shoulders.
    Anjolie shut the door and joined us. “Everyone to the kitchen!” she cried out and then she bounded away like a fairy, her hair bouncing around with every step.
    â€œHi, guys,” I greeted. “Thanks… for coming.” I was in no mood to play polite right now but I knew I had to. It wasn’t their fault that I blacked out every night. As far as they knew, I just didn’t get out much.
    I had twenty minutes left before blackout time.
    â€œThis looks great!” Hudson said, admiring the food on the table. “I can’t wait to dig my paws into this fantabulous meal!” She sounded so perky and innocent as Armando pushed her chair in.
    We all took a seat.
    The dinner party-thing was going okay once everyone began talking like old friends. But still, everyone sort of ate and talked awkwardly. I mean, could you blame them? Hudson almost never came to my house and neither did Anjolie. I’ve never hosted a dinner party before and by the looks of things, it looked like this was a double date.
    As if noticing this at the same time I did, Hudson asked, “Where’s Olive?”
    Hearing Olive’s name instantly had me thinking about her again. I hadn’t really spoken to her for a few days now even though I had no clue why she hated me. Even Abby doesn’t greet me whenever we run into each other. Olive must’ve been saying things to her that were no doubt false and I had to just stand around and watch.
    â€œShe’s not joining us today,” I said quickly, shoveling mashed potatoes into my mouth.
    Hudson stared at me skeptically with her mahogany-colored eyes. “Why not?”
    â€œShe’s mad at me,” I said, not really wanting to have this conversation right now. Of all people who should know why she wouldn’t be here, it should be Hudson, her best friend. Definitely not me.
    â€œWhy?” Hudson asked, not picking up on my irritation.
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œShe didn’t tell me.”
    â€œWhat did you do?”
    â€œHe doesn’t know!” Anjolie piped up, dropping her fork on the table loudly. “Clearly Olive is having some issues. She decided to be a girl about it and not even confront him. None of this is Cameron’s fault so give it a rest.” She stared harshly at Hudson for a few seconds before turning to her meal.
    Hudson stared back at her, shock in her eyes. “Wow, Anjolie, chill,” she finally said, and then she, too, went back to her meal.
    After a few more minutes of awkward talk, I looked at the clock. Six-fifty.
    When I looked at everyone’s plate, I realized