In The End

Free Fallin

"Hey."

My face instantly relaxed into a warm smile as Eden appeared on the screen. "Have you been working out?" I blurted out noticing her sweaty hairline and on paying more attention the black Nike sports vest she was wearing.
My eyes narrowed in response to her controlled twitching lip. I knew my friend very well, like a favourite book I'd read from cover to cover, I knew exactly what that hidden grin meant.

"I met a guy at work," She finally blurted out. "he's an artist... from London." Her eyes twinkled with that excitement and promise of a new romance.  I stayed quiet as she filled me in on Nathaniel the photographer, his holistic lifestyle and their early morning date which ran over and made her late for work. "and we hiked the trail so we could take some pictures of the sunrise. It was so beautiful." She continued to gush. "I don't know Liv, this kinda feels like something, you know."

"Well they do say when you know you know."  My face showed my happiness for her, but inside I felt a twinge of sadness , followed by annoyance as I couldn't quite justify to myself why.

"So how is the big apple?" Her familiar tone was warm and soothing making me feel even further from her and sad that she wasn't here to explore the city with me. It was on our list of places to visit and speaking to her made me realise that part of my reluctance to come here, or want to travel with the band when they go on tour, was a lot to do with feeling guilty about her not being with me to experience it as we'd always planned.

"Hey airhead, tune in." She clicked her fingers at me through the screen bringing my attention back to her and not my tailing thoughts.

"Sorry, its been insane. My mind can't keep up with everything that's happened, and keeping on top of everything that still needs to happen.

"Oooh! Sounds juicy." Eden's eyebrows danced comically. "I've got 15 minutes left before I have to get changed and start my shift so spill that tea honey."

I could see through the screen that she was in the back room of the gallery, and was now relaxing back into the brown antique looking chair she was sat in.

"How has Mr tall, dark and broody been treating you?" She continued with several other questions, firing them in quick succession as I tried to keep up.

"He's been ok, actually." I felt my lips twitch slightly at the corners.

"Liv..." she dragged out my name. "please tell me your not." My action did not go unnoticed by her, she can read me just as well.

"Not what?" My face contorted as I took a sip of my water.

"You're sleeping with him are you?"

"What, no!" I spat my water out in equal parts shock and disgust. "Jesus Christ Eden. Do you not not know me at all, I may as well class myself as a virgin again it's been that long since Lucas."

Truth be told Edens confidence when it came to men and sex was another thing on the list of many things I was envious of her about. She was by no means a slut, in fact she was extremely picky, but she knew exactly what she wanted and made sure she got it, where as my lack of experience boiled down to a prom night disaster with Zack Brennan who was too drunk to go any further than a blow job, and couple of further disappointing nights of tepid passion with Lucas Green in college, and that was only because we made a pact to not leave college as nerdy virgins.

Edens eyes drilled through the screen. "Then what's going on, Liv, because that flush of colour in your cheeks, and those goo goo eyes are telling me a very different story."

I nonchalantly brushed off her concerns. "Nothing Eden, nothing is going on, I'm just surprised by him that's all. I think I misjudged him and maybe he's not the asshole I painted him out to be." I took another sip of water to give me time to gauge her response. "Don't get me wrong, he still irritates the fuck out of me with that arrogant smirk of his, and his inappropriate jokes, and the way he just fucking gets everything right, but underneath all that he's quite..."