The Girl From Spain (girlxgirl)

Day 3: Sally

"I'd rather stay in bed and eat than socialize," Sally grumbled.

Jake sighed and rolled his eyes. He was sitting on the foot of her bed, letting his eyes wander over the empty bag of crisps, the half-eaten bar of chocolate, and her disastrous appearance. For that evening, he had invited some of their college friends and was currently trying to convince her to even remotely look forward to it.

Technically, Sally would love to see their friends again. But she truly wasn't in the mood for anything and she was sulking. After all the years spent together, it had hurt how fast they had lost contact.

Jake was still talking to them regularly. Other than her, he had effortlessly managed to keep all his friendships intact. Apparently, he texted them whenever he thought of them or missed them which resulted in long conversations at least once a month.

For Sally, telling people who she hadn't heard of in a while that she missed them was absurd. Where would her power be?

"Who is coming?" she asked. "Just Viraj and Freddy?"

"And Chrissy."

Sally groaned. Did he even realize how much confidence she had needed to fake during college to manage hanging out with Chrissy after first having the biggest crush on the woman and then rejecting her in the most awkward way and never mentioning it again?

"Fine," she still said. "When are they coming?"

"Around six pm."

Sally glanced at her phone. "Fine," she repeated.

Jake left her room with a triumphant smile and a comforting pat on her arm. Sally sighed deeply, left her bed, wiped all the crumbs away and made her way towards the bathroom to take a shower. She would need to look breathtaking to get through the day.

An hour later, she felt like she had very much achieved that goal. With her shortest shorts, lowest cut top and her favourite dark red lipstick, she finally felt a little like herself again.

With some time to spare, she decided to clean up her room. The bag she had taken to the beach a couple of days ago was still untouched in the corner. Sally pulled out the towel they had sat on and tossed it into the laundry basket. She then found the empty bottle of wine and, to her surprise, Mila's copy of Pride and Prejudice.

She had taken the book along but hadn't remembered to give it to her. Being provided with the perfect excuse to start a chat, Sally made a picture of the book in her hands and sent it to Mila. You forgot something, she wrote. I hope you're okay.

A couple of weeks ago, Mila had spent the day reading the book in Sally's bed while she had been busy with work. More often than she cared to admit, Sally had looked up from the laptop and to catch Mila smiling at the words she had probably already read a dozen times. She had been so excited upon reading the end, Sally still didn't get it. But she hadn't needed to get it to have been infected by her happiness.

That morning, Sally had again done some work before ultimately getting up. It wasn't any fun to do work on a Saturday morning without Mila brightening up her day.

Two minutes of cleaning were sufficient, she decided and she settled down in the living room. Longing for some sort of connection with Mila, she opened the book. After two pages, she was already bored. More than once, she had already pulled out her phone, checking for a reply.

Nothing.

Sally quickly closed the book when the doorbell rang. A couple of seconds later, Jake entered the living room, their friends following.

"Nice place," Viraj said, looking around with an appreciative nod. He was a rather small fellow with brown skin and the most colourful clothes possible. His hair was longer and in a messy ponytail that admittedly looked kinda cool. He should reconsider the beard though.