Many Miles Apart

21. Zoe

Alfie rang the next day, saying that he had news. He sounded a bit frustrated, and his words were rushed and all that I managed to catch was,
"New York...last minute...idiot...always making comments...I wish someone would tell instead of throwing things like this on me"
Even though I hadn't understood much of what he had said, I added a few 'mm's and 'yeah's in.
"Wait, New York?", I quickly asked once he'd finished, realising what he'd just said.
"Yeah, I'm leaving tomorrow morning", he huffed.
"And that's a bad thing because?", I said, confused.
"It's not that, I'm really looking forwards to going, it's the fact that I only found out last night. They're not really telling me what's going on half the time, the schedule keeps changing, and to top it all off, I'm being escorted by some random American woman that I hardly know".
Suddenly I was interested.
"What woman?", I quizzed. I knew that I was starting to sound jealous and overprotective, but I couldn't help it.
"Urm, just some girl called Rebecca. About our age I guess. She kept staring at me, what do you think that means?"
If I hadn't been so worried, I would have laughed at Alfie's cluelessness.
"Nothing, she's probably just a bitch", I retorted, the words just spilling out of my mouth before I could stop them. I must have sounding more annoyed than I had wanted to, but I didn't care. I trusted Alfie, but for some reason the idea of this random American girl made me feel really uncomfortable.
"Wow Zoe, calm down", he replied, clearly taken aback by my sudden outburst. I took a deep breath before saying something.
"Well I have to go, Joe and Caspar have just arrived, I'll talk to you tomorrow", I said, making up a lie on the spot.
"Wait, let me have a word with them then?", Alfie said, clearly not catching on. "I haven't seen them for ages"
"No, you don't want to", I rushed, before adding, "they've just arrived and their really tired"
"Oh, ok, well I'll see you tomorrow, metaphorically speaking", he laughed.
"Yeah ok", I said, hanging up straight away. It was stupid, I was being totally ridiculous, but I couldn't get the image of a blonde American barbie with really long legs and a perfect tan, standing with her arms wrapped around Alfie's neck out of my head.
Still holding the phone in my hand, I rang Joe. I needed to talk to my family, and he always seemed to understand me better than anyone, except for maybe Alfie.
"Hello Zoella4786536088", Joe said, sounding as cheery as ever.
"Hi Broseph", I replied, trying to muster as much sarcasm into my voice as I could.
"What's wrong?", he said almost instantly. Clearly I hadn't tried hard enough, or maybe he just knew me too well.
"Nothing's wrong exactly", I said, trying to avoid the question. "I was wondering if you an Caspar wanted to come and stay at some point soon?"
"Yeah sure, let me ask him", Joe replied still sounding concerned.
"Caspar?", I heard Joe shout. He paused, but I couldn't make our Caspar's reply.
A minute later, Joe came back on the phone.
"Hey you still there?", he asked.
"Yeah", I said.
"So we're not doing anything for the next few days actually, so we could come down tomorrow maybe?", said Joe.
"Sounds good", I replied, happy to be seeing my brother again.
"So Zoe, are you going to tell me what's wrong or am I going to have to force Caspar to talk to you?", Joe questioned.
I sighed, knowing that I needed to talk to someone anyway.
"It's complicated", I started, making sure that Joe actually wanted to know.
"I don't mind complicated, as long as I can keep up", he told me. "But don't expect me to give you any advice. We both know how bad I am at that"
"It's to do with Alfie", I started.
Explaining everything to Joe was actually easier than I'd expected. It just seemed to flow out of me, and once I'd finished talking, I suddenly felt so relieved, like a weight had been lifted off of my chest.
"I see", Joe said.
"And that's it?", I questioned.
"No, I'm just trying to make sense of it", he told me. He sounded like he was trying to figure something out. "And Alfie definitely is clueless about the meaning of this girl giving him the look?", he questioned.
"He seemed pretty oblivious yeah?", I answered, unsure of where he was going with this.
"Zoe, I reckon you should survey the situation, keep an eye on this Rebecca", said Joe.
"And how exactly do I do that, when he's in Florida and I'm over here?", I huffed, frustrated.
"You do what any good girlfriend would do, and keep in constant contact with him, through texting and calling. Make sure you know exactly what he's doing, all of the time. Oh, and see what you can find about this girl, if you can give me a full name and a description I can try and get some info on her"
I couldn't help but smile.
"You sound like you've had experience?"
"Well Caspar has had a lot of dating issues", he laughed
"You are the best brother you know Joe?",I told him.
"You know that this is because I'm incredibly bored at the moment, and as we both know, I am the king of stirring things up", he said. "So find what you can, and I'll get looking too. Share what you find tomorrow"
"Will do", I said.
"Oh, and by the way, could you have lunch ready for when we arrive, it's just that we will be very hungry after such a long journey and you kind of owe it to me...", he tried.
"Fine", I moaned.
"A nice cooked dish would be nice..."
"Don't push it", I laughed, hanging up the phone. I instantly felt better, knowing that there was something that I could do.
I quickly texted Alfie to ask where he was, and he replied saying that he hadn't left the apartment yet.
Tell me when your leaving x, I sent in reply, not even worrying about what he would think.