2024: my digital diary

03.28 The Cairo's Cross weekend

Last time I wrote here it was the Festival  of Light. A week past, I had my History of English Ideas exam (scored a 9.68/10), I attended classes... tbh I can't remember much after this weekend.

Julie had suggested I went to Cairo's Cross -her hometown, Mike's, Archer's, Van's...- but the plan wasn't really defined yet at the beginning of the week. Some days before the 28th, she confirmed that I could go and so on Thursday at 17:30 I left in the car with Julie and Luke.

Luke listened to a podcast about the Roman Church and I read Dubliners, riding shotgun. It was beginning to rain lightly  and the mood felt quite good. It was about to be a rainy weekend in Cairo's Cross.

We arrived in Cairo's Cross at 20 and something.

Luke insisted that everybody was already at his place, and that we should tag along directly, without stopping home, but Julie and I wanted to take things slower. We went to her house and took a long time to go out because we were busy having dinner, drinking wine and talking in her kitchen. Her parents have a beautiful designer apartment in the centre of town.

Julie's hometown home (bedroom, living room, kitchen)

We went out at around 00. We went straight to Classics, a famous bar with a terrace looking out into the old town of the city, which was all illuminated with lights and the drizzling rain in the alleyways.

Nobody knew I was going, only Luke and Julie, so when we arrived, Mike and Mac automatically became very happy to see me and came to give me a hug. Mac said he wasn't expecting to see me so soon, since we had just met last week, and Mike told me a story about the magic mountain that could be seen from Classics.

Then appeared Van, who also gave me a hug and seemed happy to see me, and then followed Archer, who I had not seen in the longest time.

His smile and eyes became the warmest and he gave me a long hug and told Julie "You brought Mads?!" happily. I felt very welcomed. We talked for a long time, there also was Montez with a bell that he had stolen, ringing it all around. He also was happy and surprised that I had come and we talked for a bit.

We left Classics and walked in the street to another bar, next to the riverside, where we sat.

On our way there I remember Van performing a very long magic cards trick as we roamed the rainy streets of the old town, stopping in stairs, streets and everywhere we could just to look at him perform his fun magic trick.

Then we walked to a drinking area, where we spent almost all night just talking and messing with people. I approached Archer a second to ask for something and he said "let's take a walk", and we went walking around the park catching up about life. He told me about books he's read, learning chinese and studying in Maddox City. He said to me "because of that book you gave me for my birthday 3 years ago, I now read". I knew this already but it was so heartwarming to hear him say it again. I didn't feel tension between us, it was all very friendly and happy. As we were walking he took a turn to a darker area and he said "don't worry, i'm not trying to lead you into making out with me". We laughed and he added "just kidding", which, I mean, okay, mmm, I don't know what to say, I don't even know if he likes me anymore, but I'm fine so far with the friendship we've kept despite our past. Tho I can feel there are definitely some things to talk about.

We ran into our friendrgroup, who were moving to a different drinking area. I remember Mike jumping from up high and some guys picking him up in the air and everybody screaming. Among all the people, I suddenly saw Ray among everybody.

I approached him and he automatically gave me a hug and asked "what the hell are you doing in Cairo?". I told him I was with Julie and he was surprised about how much my 2-month situationship with Archer had given place to so many other friendships, such as Julie, Mike, Van, Mac, Montez, Rocci... I often think about that too, and about how much of a silly chance it was that we met and that all this was happening.

Ray, who was Archer's flatmate when they lived in Sun Valley, and I, caught up for a little. He said he was going to Yves Ile for the summer to work, with Sergei, who I haven't seen in years. Then he started introducing to me every one of his friends, who were absolute crackheads and very very funny. One of them asked how did we know each other and Ray answered "let's just say that when I lived with Archer she used to come home really often".

I talked to random strangers and people in our friend group for almost all of the night. Since I was not drinking that night because I didn't feel like it, at around 4 I was very tired and Julie and I went home, which was just around the corner. Her sister Lucy came home then and she seemed sad about a heartbreak, which we talked about as we all drank milk with biscuits in the kitchen aisle.