⌞ long live ⌝

⌞ eight : old friends ⌝

"Do I have permission to fuck him over?"

___

I woke up the next morning to a note on my pillow from Jules. It scared me when I accidentally rolled over onto it, the crinkling of the paper scaring the shit out of me. But his familiar scrawl was easy enough to read without reaching for my glasses. 

Lu, 

Be back later, had to run some errands. Card is on the table, do as you wish. 
Je t'aime. 

-Jules 

I snorted at it. Only Jules would leave his credit card to a fifteen-year-old girl and tell her to do as she wished. I think he knew I wouldn't actually spend more than I needed to but it was still funny. 

I rolled the paper up, sitting up to throw it into the can near the door. I missed. 

"Yeah, that checks." 

I laughed to myself and got out of bed. The sun was peaking around the blackout curtains and I pulled them open, blinking away the shock from the sun. After my eyes cleared, I could clearly see the city. The morning sun glinted off the soft waters of the coast and there were barely any clouds. Perfect day. 

With a content sigh, I padded over to the table to grab my glasses and phone. I had a few messages from Carmen asking me how everything was and wanting updates on everything. I sighed, telling myself I would respond to her after some coffee. Had a couple from Arty, mostly filling me in on his day and sending me pictures as if I had already forgotten what home looked like. Charlie was just sending his "check-in" message. In reality, it was his way of saying I miss you.

I typed my responses to Arty and Charlie as I walked out of the room to get to the kitchen. It was fully stocked with things that I would enjoy. If I was honest, when we were unpacking everything last night, I don't think I saw anything that Jules would have picked for himself. He had shopped for me. I chuckled at it, setting my phone on the counter and going over to the radio to start some music up. 

I could very well just connect my phone to the speaker system but something just felt right about listening to that old radio, with whatever tape Jules had left in it. It started up, resuming on whatever track it had been stopped on. I hummed along, pulling everything I needed to make my coffee and breakfast. 

It was nice to have the house to myself, softly singing whatever song played under my breath as I got to do whatever I wanted. My coffee finished pretty quick and I added all my extras to it that would make Jules tease me, more milk than coffee. It always made me chuckle when he would steal some of my coffee if he was rushing. He liked to act tough but in reality, he probably added more sugar to that cup of black coffee than my little vanilla latte. 

A knock on the door almost made me drop my mug. Who the fuck would be knocking on my door this early? I looked down at my phone, it was barely nine am. I sighed and set my stuff down, walking over to the door to open it. 

"Can I help you?" The person turned around and the smile made me realize who it was. "Mako?" 

"My little Ei. I was not expecting the rumors to be true." 

I snorted, opening the door far enough that he could walk in. Mako and I had been friends since he and his family had moved into the flat below Jules. He was a bit older, seventeen and most of the time, he only cared about Charles. But if I was here alone, he would pay attention to me. Jules and Lottie, Mako's mother, always joked that he had some crush on me. I didn't see it.