crescent [h.s]

68

Aurora Styles

Having weekly lunchtimes with Deli again makes me feel incredibly nostalgic of our time together before we had kids, husbands, families.

When it was just us.

Sometimes I miss it.

Breaking the silence of us watching Brooklyn 99, of course for Deli's benefit, I turn my head towards my best friend, "We should've lived together at some point."

The TV doesn't reduce in volume, but the sounds of 9 characters arguing back and forth drowns out into monotonous nothingness as Deli answers me, "We should've... I never lived with anyone after uni was over, and I never lived with a best friend."

Thinking about it for a second, I shake my head, "I never lived with anyone after moving out at 18."

Her eyes go soft and she puts her hand on my wrist, "Yeah, because you made that vow to yourself. You weren't about to live with anyone else who could mentally and emotionally torture you after what you had put up with for so many years." She shrugs as she leans forwards to pick up her glass of water, other hand rubbing her very slight 13 week baby bump, "You weren't stable enough to live with someone before you made that choice with Harry, and that's okay. We'll live together in another lifetime."

"Yeah?" I softly question, "You really think so?"

She hums and situates herself into an uncomfortable looking position from my perspective, but she looks as comfortable as ever, "In a life where I'm a journalist for Vogue and you have no idea what you want to do with your life; bouncing between many jobs in the creative industry, yeah I think so. Come and find me Rora, I'll be waiting to re-tile our rented bathroom pink, a pop of yellow from some sunflowers in the corner of the room to have a sunset colour theme going on."

A smile overrides my features as I feel content with the reassurance that this is what our life will look like in another universe, knowing it's not for us right now, but will be then. "Who's gonna move out first?"

She points between us, lifting up my left hand as she does the same with mine, "Who got engaged first this time?"

I laugh, shaking my head, not quite sure where she's going with this, "I did."

She shrugs, "Yeah you did sexy mama, and you're going to next time, too. You'll move out when you're ready, leaving me for your Harry in that lifetime."

I feel myself starting to tear up, "That sounds really fucking fantastic."

She pulls me into a hug, tapping my shoulders and nodding, "You're my soulmate Rora, we have thousands of shots at this whole life thing before the end. We'll do everything together before the universe rests our souls, I promise."

"I promise, too." Blinking away the tears that have formed, I memorise the details she gave me, trying to burn them into my soul so a future version of me remembers, "Why a Vogue journalist?"

Her lips curl up, out of sudden cheek rather than explicit heartfelt emotion, "Because there's a chance I had four tickets to the release party of Harry's Vogue issue waiting to be opened on my desk this morning."

I jump onto my knees, the cream cushioning of the sofa beneath me rippling around the movement, "What! What the fuck– does Harry know?"

She laughs and shakes her head, "No, but it's at the end of the month, ready to be released in October. So, me, you and the boys need to find black tie outfits."

My jaw drops open, shaking my head to the side, "Fuck... the last fancy event we went to was when I was pregnant with my Dovey girl."

Deli's eyes widen, "Fuck me that was a long time ago! You're lucky, I know Harry despises the creative design events so I get you out of them, but this one is non negotiable."