Her Road|Book 2|

The Phonecall

"Harry freaking Malakai, huh?" Célia snorted through the line as if she couldn't believe it.

"The same one." I answered just because, watching our street from my window.

"Still," She huffed. The conversation was filled with awkwardness and uncertainty. It was really the first time we spoke since I left Charringfall. ", you really fell in love?"

In an attempt to keep her here before she just dropped the call (which I would understand of course), I told her everything. The minute I got to Ridgeway until what happened a few hours before. After everything, I figured even if our relationship had changed she was still interested in a good story.

"I don't blame you. Becket was a pretty shitty boyfriend." Some interference came through as if she was moving.

A few seconds passed as I contemplated if I should ask my next question. "How is he? You know, after everything.

"At first, it was all about you.'I can't believe Alice isn't here. I need her.' Blah, blah blah." I could imagine her rolling those cocoa eyes I secretly missed so much. "He's fine. Moved on. I think it was the idea of having you in the end. Not really... You know?"

I couldn't tell from the phone if there was a hidden undertone but it wasn't new to me. There was just something missing there with us. We kissed and hung out but there wasn't any arousal. There wasn't any... How could I put this? Like? The thing that become love? Maybe a crush at first but...

"Célia-"

"You're an ass, Alice."

"I know." I sighed, pulling my knees to my chest.

"You left me without even a goodbye." She continued angrily.

"I know." I repeated.

"Is he cute?" My eyes widened, unsure  if I heard correctly but when silence rang, I knew it wasn't a mistake.

"Hot." I admitted, biting my lip to contain my smile. Who would've thought of Harry as a light topic?

"Beautiful?" Now I could hear that smile.

"Beautiful." I confirmed.

"I've seen him online a few times." She was kind enough to inform me. Of course she had. "He definitely isn't what I pictured when I first heard."

"They showed his picture after that night?" I guessed, having seen a glimpse of the media coverage around him some time ago.

"No, I'm talking about that video of him fighting that clerk or something. Think it was a pharmacist." I stopped my fiddling. How'd I forget?

I arrived after that but with the angry mother, beach day and Jace, I hadn't given anymore thought to it. It become part of Harry's, so called, cruel streak. I didn't realize that that too had traveled across the country.

"I heard about that." Was all I said. Not a lie but not the full truth.

A few cold seconds passed slowly by. "Listen, I don't know what this is. What we are. It's gonna take time to figure it out. It's not that I can't forgive you... It's just that you live so far that a relationship is hard to maintain. Much less a fractured one."

"Jeez, you make it sound like we're in a long distance relationship." I joked or at least attempted too. She was right. It was hard to repair a relationship with this much distance between us but somewhere in me, I had hope.

"But I'm glad I picked the phone up... This time, I mean." She continued quickly, rushing her words. I was glad too.

"I'm glad you're doing well, Célia." Even though she couldn't see it, a smile blossomed as I stared at my feet.

"I'm glad you found someone, Alice. Be safe, okay?"

/Authors note/

Bit short but with the darkness of the last few chapters, I thought something like this was overdue before I snuff out the light again. 😇

We're also casting some peeps next chapter 👀👀