Our Scars

Count On Me

62

Count On Me (Title by The Lone Bellow)

"Birds with broken wings, often try to help each other fly." (Matt Baker)

Stella had expected to see her friend still somewhat subdued and lying low due to having had surgery only a week ago. It seemed she should have known Rianne better!

When coming over to keep her company and finally have time for a girls-only-talk, Stella found her pacing the apartment, only stopping to let her in with an impatient wave and an annoyed gesture to the phone she was currently on.

"I. am. good! Stella just arrived. Yeah, we're just gonna hang here and talk and..."

While rolling her eyes to the ceiling at something the other person apparently said in return, she signaled for Stella to go make herself comfortable and mouthed:

"Tea or coffee?"

Rianne then busied herself in the kitchen with her guests coffee order, phone clutched between ear and shoulder:

"I'm hanging up on you now Jay! Get a grip!"

She immediately threw the phone down on the counter with a succession of Spanish expletives Stella was pretty impressed with.

"Sorry, about that," Rianne smiled a little strained when she caught Stella looking at her with wide eyes.

Did she detect trouble in paradise?

"I guess that wasn't the first time you talked to Jay today?"

"No... and this time it was only because I didn't answer a text from him within the first 15 minutes he send it!"

"Trying to keep you in line during recovery?"

"Yeah, you know how I'm taking to behavior like that..."

"Yep," Stella nodded devotedly. She actually knew from her own experiences.

"Right! And because it is apparently advised to skip caffeine for the time being and I have to get used to a different kind of diet, I'm extra sensitive to things annoying me. So Detective Overprotective and me are dancing very closely towards a full on fight concerning boundaries!"

Rianne always claimed she couldn't function without caffeine. Stella remembered how that had been during her pregnancy months with just one obligatory, mainly decaffeinate cup of her so called 'life-saving liquid'. Until those cravings had been dealt with, everyone had better kept their distance from Rianne's mood-swings. Since having been on a self-inflicted and excruciatingly strict diet with Chief Boden only last week Stella very well knew how to forgo things one truly loved could affect one's mood.

The abandoned phone on the kitchen surface vibrated again and already got someone into a rant without looking at it:

"You've got to be kidding me!"

Getting the coffee ready, she asked Stella to pick it up. It was only a text this time:

"It's considered rude to hang up on people! Followed by a 'shrugging, thumbs down, bomb emoji." Stella didn't need to say out loud who had send the text.

"Oh, I'm gonna show him really rude when he gets home!"

Stella made a face, picturing what that would look like. It seemed to be a pretty funny expression, because Rianne suddenly burst out laughing, when she noticed it. Stella joined her in her amusement, while following her friend into the living room, glad that her mood wasn't really as bad as she first had thought. Rianne was clutching her still healing stomach because of the strain the laughing had put on it and settled down on the couch again. It was her 'place-to-be' for now with everything one could possibly need in her range: Tv control, iPad, books and journals, pencils, some architecture plans, catalogues and what looked like a contract, as well as snacks, tea and an assortment of painkillers and antibiotics.