Tadhana

elle and max: friends

໒( ◉ _ ◉ )७

I lay in my cousin's bed, head dangling off the edge as I wait for him to finish getting ready. I'd been finished ages ago, but he's taking his sweet time picking out what shirt he wants to wear. "How much longer, Charles?"

"However long I want to take, okay?" he continues pulling out shirts and pressing them up against his torso before ultimately discarding them in the pile of clothes forming beside me on his bed. "We're already taking my car there, just wait a little longer."

I lay there in silence, watching him upside-down, for a while before I speak. "You know, sometimes, I wonder why I had to have a stupid crush on someone who's already in a happy relationship. And I hate that it's because I always think I want what they have... but I want it with him, you know?"

"Eleanor Louisse, you do realize that there are so many people out there who are willing to do anything to be with you, right?" he glances at me for a second before turning back to his clothes.

I am painfully aware. "I know that. It's just that whenever I try to move on, and whenever I think I'm finally moving on, I realize I can't."

"If I haven't established this enough already, it's because you're in love with him, Elle," he acknowledges.

"It's a crush, Charles," I clear up.

"You can be in love with your crush," he reminds me. "And so what if you do love him? That's why I'm taking you with me tonight, so you can find someone to be your rebound!"

Sitting up, I frown. "I'm not using people to get over Max. That's selfish on my end, and I would hate to hurt someone because of that."

"Then a one night stand!" he suggests. "You'll never have to see them again. Just take a night and let yourself feel anything about someone else. It's been years since you've met my friend and years since you've been told he has a girlfriend, who you've also met, by the way. You have to learn to get over him. For your own sake."

"I know."

໒( ◉ _ ◉ )७

We arrive at the club that one of Charles' friends owns. There's a line starting to form outside, but Charles pulls me to the front where the bouncer is and speaks to him before grinning and taking me inside. Loud music controlled by the DJ up front blasts through the speakers all around the place.

"They're over there," I point out to my cousin when I see Max and a couple more of their friends who I've gotten to know over the past few years. They're all single, why couldn't I have just fallen for one of them instead?

I follow his lead through the sea of people getting wasted on the dance floor and up the stairs to the second floor of the club where everyone is.

It is when we get to the table and I've greeted everyone that I realize I left my phone in Charles' car and mentally curse at myself for forgetting to put it back in my purse after charging it for a second. I tap his shoulder before he can sit.

"Can I borrow your keys?" I basically scream into my cousin's ear. "I left my phone."

He rolls his eyes before tossing me his keys. "Make sure you lock it after."

"Hey, where are you going?" Max surprises me as I turn around and come face-to-face with him.

"Max." My eyes widen at the proximity and I immediately step back. I had no idea how he got there when he was just sitting a minute ago, but I can't even think about that when my heart was beating out of my chest. "Just getting my phone from Charles' car. I forgot I was charging it."