With Grayson's sudden absence from her life, Mia tries her hardest to carry on as normal; to continue as though she had never met the man who turned her world upside down in only a short amount of time.
With the help of her best friend Hailey, and...
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"Mia?" The voice sounds again, only louder and closer this time.
In the minuscule amount of time it takes me to move my head from the left to right, my blood runs cold. Even through the alcohol that courses through my veins, somewhat disguising my nerves, I don't think I'll ever be prepared to face who I think is stood behind me. Yet, I so badly want it to be him.
My heart thumping uncontrollably against my chest, my head reaches my right, and, almost instantly, my anxiety is replaced with unexpected relief—and a smidgen of disappointment.
Anderson.
The familiar calmness of his soft face, the reassurance of his grey eyes, the small gold hooped earring in his ear and the silkiness of his light brown curls lifts a smile onto my warm lips. Before my intoxicated brain can even catch up with the situation, I find Anderson's tattooed arms reaching around my back.
"Mia, hey!"
I return the gesture, gripping my small arms around his shoulders and closing my eyes as I inhale the freshly washed laundry scent lining his short-sleeved blue shirt. "Hey Anderson," I murmur, gently pulling back to study his childlike expression. "How are you?" I'm aware my voice is overly loud and high pitched, but it matches every other drunken student surrounding us on this cobbled street right now, so I don't particularly care.
Hailey lingers behind me, smiling menacingly as she flicks her eyes up and down Anderson's slim yet muscular body.
"I'm good!" Anderson shrieks, grinning from ear to ear, his hands still firmly gripped onto my bare shoulders. "But how are you?" I don't think he even notices Hailey's gawking.
It takes me a long moment to realise that Anderson and I haven't spoken since before Grayson and I broke up, and that's mainly down to the fact that I've been avoiding him—and pretty much everyone—since that happened. My work days have consisted of keeping my eyes fixed on my computer, staying at my desk to eat lunch, and scrambling out the building as soon as possible when the clock hits 5.p.m. I realise how anti-social I've been, but quite frankly I haven't been in the mood to speak to anyone—until now that is.
I sigh and hiccup simultaneously. "I'm fine!" I sing, lying. "Who are you out with?" I try my best to move the conversation topic from me to him.
He smiles, his eyes twinkling against the many nightclub lights that fill the street. "Just some old friends from school." He gestures to a group of young men stood talking between themselves against a wall behind him. "It's so good to see you, I haven't seen you about work in ages." A flicker of disappointment flashes across his eyes.
My mouth hangs slightly ajar as I search for an excuse for my absence, but that proves a hard task when my head is already spinning from the amount of liquor I've consumed. "I—Uh, I've just been really busy." I cock my head to the side, trying to bypass my failed attempts at lying and allowing Anderson's soft beauty to fill my view. He really is a nice guy, and I hadn't properly recognised that before.
