Sunflower

Chapter 2

Lucy

Annie and I sit down at the table. As soon as she makes eye contact with me, a sob rakes through my body. I grab a napkin from the dispenser at the center of the table and quickly wipe my eyes before I ruin my makeup.

"Don't you dare cry," Annie hisses. "If he chose not to go for himself, that's not on you. You can't feel responsible."

"How?!"

She looks around before looking back at me. "You don't want to do long distance. No matter what, that's your choice. Not his. Not anyone else's. End of discussion. That puts the ball in his court. He can go to Australia or he can stay here with you. His choice. His life. His consequences."

Before she can finish, Andrew, Cole, Chris and Sam join us at the table. Sam takes the seat on the other side of Annie and Cole sits across from me. That only leaves two empty seats at the table and since I'm almost positive Andrew will want to sit next to his boyfriend, that means Chris will have no choice but to sit next to me.

As expected, Chris takes the seat next to me. At first, we converse as a group, catching up on each other's lives over the past week. We're mostly talking about Annie and Sam's wedding plans and Andrew and Cole's apartment hunting. No one knows Chris and I broke up except Annie, so we're really going to deliver a blow when we tell them.

"So Chris, you have to tell us, man...what happened to the internship?" Cole finally asks, making the air in my lungs deflate and my skin go ghostly pale.

Chris clears his throat to buy some time. "Well, I've decided to put it off for a few months. There's still some things I'd like to take care of here and they didn't leave me with a whole lot of time to do that when they made me the offer."

"So you'll still go? Eventually?" Andrew asks.

Chris nods.

"That's great," Annie smiles, glancing over at me.

"Yeah, maybe you and Lucy can get in some more freaky-leaky alone time before you go," Cole smirks.

"Just don't break anymore mirrors," Andrew adds, making everyone laugh.

Chris and I have always had a very healthy sex life and a few times, we got a little out of hand. While this doesn't seem like the time or place to reminisce, I can't help but let my mind wander back to the days when our relationship wasn't so complicated. We just enjoyed each other; physically and emotionally. He was my best friend, my partner in crime, my most comfortable pillow, my personal therapist.

"You remember that time you two got locked out of the library because you were getting it on in the alley out back?" Andrew laughs.

Cole nearly spits his drink across the table. "What?!"

"I remember that! It was pouring rain and Lucy showed up to our apartment all wet and satisfied," Annie smirks, nudging me with her shoulder.

My heart is about to beat right out of my chest. Normally, this kind of playful banter from my friends wouldn't bother me. But Annie knows this isn't the time to bring this up. Like, at all.

"Mrs. Stephenson was so mad at you," Andrew chuckles. "All the lights were left on, the computers. I think you were mid-way through check-ins when you decided to check out for the night."

"Ah, good one babe," Cole laughs, giving Andrew a pat on the back.

Wow, thinking about the start of our relationship has me feeling all sorts of things. I haven't thought about those days in such a long time.

Chris and I met in college, at Penn State. That's where all of us met, actually. Well, other than Annie, Andrew and me, who met back in high school when we lived in Staten Island. We befriended Cole not long after moving into our co-ed dorms and then just a few weeks later, Chris and Sam entered our little group.