If you haven’t read February 10 yet, you can do so here.

If you stumbled onto this post by accident and haven’t read any of the other stories, head over to this post to find out more about this project.

“Let’s go check out that choir thing. It sounds fun.”

“Oh, I was hoping to do some reading. Maybe you could go by yourself?” Yasmin kind of expected the answer as soon as she suggested it. Pippa hated doing anything alone. 

“I thought the whole point of this trip was to spend time together.” Yasmin hadn’t expected the anger that came with Pippa’s response though.

Yasmin shrugged. “Of course. I love spending time with you, but I just thought it’d be nice to get some reading done today.”

“But you read every day.”

Yasmin sighed. An argument they’d already had way too many times. She was sick of compromising what she wanted to do. 

“No, Pippa. I say I want to read every day. You may not have noticed but I started this book weeks ago. This is only my second book since we got on the ship. If I was reading as often as you think I am I’d have read at least 20.” Yasmin paused for a breath and Pippa looked like she was gearing up to say something but Yasmin ploughed on finally saying the things she’d been thinking for years.

“This entire trip has been all about things you want to do. Did you ever stop and ask me if I wanted to go to that painting class, or go on the temple trip, or even to the choir thing? No. You have not asked me once what I want to do, you’ve just thought about what you wanted to do and suggested we go along to it. I say I want to get some reading done every day because I don’t always want to go to those things but I don’t want to hurt your feelings by saying no. Then we end up doing them anyway because I know it will make you happy.” By the time she finished, her volume had risen to a dull roar and she fell into silence huffing and puffing with the exertion.

“But… you had fun at all those things. You loved the painting class, and the temple… at least I thought you did.” Pippa sunk onto the bed, her voice coming out in tiny squeaky bursts, the opposite of Yasmin’s rant.

“It’s not necessarily about whether I liked it or not. I just… I want to do something I want to do sometimes.”

“But, you never suggest anything.” Yasmin already regretted mentioning it. She should have just gone to the stupid choir thing and done some reading after. It wasn’t worth the argument. Even so, she wanted to make Pippa understand. 

“I mostly enjoy the stuff you come up with, but…” she trailed off.

“All you ever want to do is read.” Pippa jumped in as if she hadn’t heard Yasmin’s half finished sentence.

“Yeah. I love books. I love reading. I want to sit down and read a book. That’s relaxing to me.”

“I know. But… what am I supposed to do?” They’d made it to the crux of the whole issue. Pippa hated doing anything alone.

“I don’t know.”

“Well. That’s no help.”

Yasmin sighed. “Come on. Let’s just go to the choir thing. I’m sure it’ll be fun.” Pippa nodded, though some of the hurt remained in the creases of her forehead. Truthfully, the idea of anything choir related sounded like the worst parts of high school, but for Yasmin, she’d do it. 

You can read February 12 here.

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