Love Will Wait ✓

chapter two

CHAPTER TWO

MAEVE

Ten minutes later, just as I begin to worry about her, Aimee trods out of the cramped bathroom. When she notices me watching her, sat at the sofa with our hot cups of tea, she sports her famously adorable, toothy grin and if just for a moment, I can relax.

            I shuffle to one side of the sofa, tapping the empty space. I'm not sure why she seems reluctant to join me, but I promise myself to stay patient. Patience is the most important thing she not only deserves, but needs. I might not understand the ins and outs of what has happened to have left her in such an awful state, but I appreciate Aimee and our friendship enough to wait until she's ready to open up in her own time.

            It's an honour that she thought of and came to me. Bravely, in her former, distraught state, I was the person she ran to. Our friendship is the biggest, most precious gift I've ever known.

            "It looks better on you than me," I tell her, nodding to the baggy t-shirt that swarms her small body. She looks so small, so innocent, it makes my heart swell.

            Aimee settles into the spot beside me. "It's a bit big but I like it all the same. Comfy."

            I reach forward to the coffee table, pushing the cup nearest to her across the space with a soft smile. "As promised."

            Her eyes are full of quiet but knowing thanks as she picks up the cup with caution and sips. Puffy, dark circles sit beneath her hazel eyes, serving as a reminder why we're drinking tea together at five o'clock in the morning on a school night; watching through the dirty windows as the sun begins to peak its way through the caravan park.

            "You seemed pretty distraught earlier," I begin, wary with my choice of words and their tone. "It hurt to see you like that, Aimes."

            She tucks a leg beneath her body and begins to jiggle the other anxiously, avoiding my eyes and purposely staring into the warm mug she holds in both hands. "Yeah, sorry about that."

            "If you wanted to talk—"

            I can barely start my sentence, let alone finish it.

            "Things aren't going well with Steve... think he's gonna end it with me."

            Students at Moordale Secondary have always known Aimee. She's infamous; possibly best recognised as a former-member of The Untouchables, though her past relationship with Adam Groff is a close second.

            Perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise that, when their relationship had ended and Aimee moved on—pretty quickly—to Kyle, a sap with porridge for brains who somehow caught her attention, what should've been a relationship between two people was entertained by hundreds who grace the very corridors and classrooms as us.

            Steve followed on from Kyle. Initially, they seemed like the perfect match. Granted, his ability to give the bare minimum isn't the straightforward green flag my best friend thinks it is, but at least he treats her with the care and resignation she deserves.