Soul Harbour

0.19|when waiting for a friend|

0.19|from Sabah's tape-recorder: when waiting for a friend|

"Uh no, Anthony is kinda thin if you haven't noticed," Auburn said, as nonchalantly as she could, while wiping the crockery dry.

I was washing the last few plates at the sink, "He's a footballer, Auburn, he works out so yes, I definitely feel he has abs."

"I know he is a footballer and so I agree he must have intense leg muscle but six pack abs? No way," Auburn laughed. "He has a fragile body. I like him for not overdoing it."

I turned around smiling, "Bet you a week's dishwashing he has a six pack."

"I don't do bets."

"Because you'd rather do Anthony." It was hilarious how she walked into that one. Haha.

She rolled her eyes but I could see her cheeks rise up into an uncontrollable smile.

"Are you chicken or do you want to bet?"

She turned around, hands on her hips, "I'm not a chicken!"

"Really?" She was walking into it again, I just knew it. "Because all I can hear right now is puck-puck-pucawk!" I proceeded to take out all the possible intonations of a chicken-voice and within five minutes Auburn had had enough.

"Fine!" she threw the cloth at me. "If he doesn't have a six-pack, you stop your constant hints, your matchmaking and general embarrassing us."

"So you're an us now?" I never let opportunities for sass slip. Clever me.

"And you stop doing that smirk you do when you refer to Anthony," she added to her list of bans.

"Which smirk?" I asked innocently. "I don't smirk when I refer to Anthony."

She groaned, "Exactly that smirk you did right now. The one which says 'I know something's going on between you too'." She smiled evilly, "So are you betting or are you chicken?"

I never ever lose, okay? Especially not when it comes to matchmaking and the human body. So, I smiled confidently and shook her hand, "Bet."

There was silence for some time as we measured our bets in our minds. Outside the restaurants switched off their lights, homely sounds dimmed to a murmur and soon the last plate was being washed-the drip-drip of water drumming on the sink and the trilling of a grasshopper starting the concert of the night.

"Where is Anthony?"

I looked at Auburn. She looked tired. There was school next day and she probably had to meet batches of kids who disliked her and talk to different teachers who joked about her in Spanish. Her ponytail was a mess. Not one of those stylish messy ones but genuinely a mess with hair sticking out from weird places and falling over her ears and eyes, violet-grey eyes that were slightly pink from sleep that danced around the heavy eyelids. For once I resisted the urge to slyly comment that she missed him.

"Maybe he got held up?"

"Maybe, now that he is uber famous and everyone knows about his talented, successful Madrid debut, he's found a girl at the after-party. You know, some blonde model with hair that shines across the room and eyes that maybe mirror his mysterious blue ones. Some sickly thin but somehow, under the male gaze, an incredibly sexy specimen of humanity. She probably has long legs that she's showing off underneath her extra short and tight black dress which does justice to its name."

I could not believe my ears. Auburn Ivy was jealous. A voluble jealous. Jealousy is often the most obvious sign of love. I stared at her for a whole moment and she looked sadly at me, "You know, 'little black dress'?"

"Yeah, I do know," I tried as calmly as I could. Was this a sign that she was accepting her attraction towards the adorable boy for real? Because you see until then, I had been acting on intuition and instinct. I knew, you'd be blind not to know, that there was a kind of fatal attraction between the two future lovebirds but I was never sure if they knew it themselves. Whether they knew that they smiled thoughtlessly when they were around each other, that Auburn forgot to check her papers and Anthony forgot to drink his coffee when they sat together.

I pictured their meetings and smiled. Did they know? I couldn't be sure, couldn't be sure whether they knew that their fingers unconsciously inched closer to each other's. Whether Auburn knew that Anthony never really cared what coffee he ordered for because he disliked coffee but pretended that that was what he came for. Whether Anthony knew that Auburn had this special expression for when he talked and that she had started wearing earrings since Anthony had begun to show up.

"He'll probably message that he's busy. That he couldn't find time for his friends. You know, the ones who believed that he was perfect even before the rest of the world. Or maybe he'll be too busy with that model and just forget to inform us," she frowned and pulled the ends of her top. "Yeah, he forgot us."

I was silent because I did not want to stop this sudden reveal of Auburn's pent-up feeling brought on by the drowsiness of the night, half-parts-longing for the boy she had been cheering loudly for and half-parts tiredness that would naturally come from such a hyper activity.

I may have wiped a stray tear. No, it something probably went in my eye. Don't snicker, Sabah.

The door chimes tinkled very slowly as Auburn finished speaking and we turned our heads to see, a very flushed-looking Anthony sneak inside, "Its got pretty cold out there."

The clock showed forty minutes past eleven and the minute Auburn saw him, all her tiredness, all her pessimism vanished, as if it had never been there.

"Anthony!" she jumped off the counter, smiling that smile she reserved for him always, and ran to him. "You were amazing. You were magical. I'm so proud of you, idiot."

He giggled softly, breathing deep into her hug and I laughed, "I suppose, I'll make a pot of coffee then."

You'll be happy to know my mind was already working towards de-shirting the poor, unsuspecting boy.

[say you missed me coz i missed you so much.

sorry for not updating sooner. college just got shittier :/ buuut, this chapter's length hopefully makes up for the long wait and i'm so excited because this is the longest csl chapter up to date and OMG COMMENT WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF IT PLEASE. and, and vote if you liked the chapter.

ofc, you get a nice warm, ginger cookie bc #winteriscoming

I MADE A NEW COVER. THOUGHTS? LIKE? LOVE?

gosh, i missed writing this fic, i'll update soonest, i promise and the shirtless Anthony scene is going to come in the next chapter since you all nicely asked for it. YAS SHIRTLESS HOTTIE.

ilyall and i'm not high]