four words [the fangirl ii - a.i]

41

A C E

I wanted to rush over to Sarah to demand where she'd been. Honestly, I thought I just wanted to know if it really was her. I mean... It was obviously her but I couldn't touch her. I wanted to but I won't because I can't.

     It was like I was overwhelmed by her presence tonight.

    Its been hell of three years.

     I was nervous and words won't come out from my mouth. I still don't know what to say even though I've been planning and practicing when she was gone. I'm still hearing what Sam was saying over the phone at the back of my mind. She had gone after lunch for Mitch Albom's launch for the new book at the next state from ours. She said she'd come back as soon as Mitch exited.

     She said, 'Say hi or how are you. Simple.' I sighed, as if it was that easy. Then she replied with rage,'Talk to her like you used to. Why are you acting this way Ace? You like her, don't you?'

     I told her no! I don't like her. She's our bestfriend.

     "Ace, how are you?" she was walking towards me. Her eyes were swelling. Was she crying? Why? Did Ashton told her to stay away from me, again? "Where is Sam?" She asked, even the way she talk changed. She was kind of fluent in some other accent. Australian? I wouldn't know. I didn't want to know. Was it because she's with them for a long period of time?

"She..... she.... she's out. Next state from ours." I stuttered.

She knitted her brows, "Why? Is she working there?" She gained distance, she's literally in front of me, breathing the same air.

I shook my head.

"What is wrong with you?" she asked then pat my shoulder and invited me to dinner. Rina cooked a meal as like what she used to do. She always has been a cook but today the meal was different, not unfamiliar but there was more meal and extra special.

     "Why is there a lot of food?" Sarah asked as she increase her pace towards the kitchen.

     She's wearing high heels now. The sound of it as she walk clangs into air.

     Her feet turned around just in time when I put my face up. I smiled, "Why?" I asked.

      "I know. I will never gain height Ace so I wear high heels now," She walk towards, next to me and said, "Now we're in the same height." She said and took my arms to sit next to her.

     I wanted to mess her hair up. To throw pillows at her face again and put those make-up away. I wanted to break those heels and put converse shoes on her feet. I wanted to tear her dress into pieces and put skinny jeans and comfortable t-shirt on her.

     I want my Sarah back.

***

She left the neighborhood and now she came back, maybe not as a different person, maybe she just grew up. She's still crazy and clumsy. She still cross her legs at the couch and chairs. She still laughs with her mouth wide open and throw her head back.

She was now laughing with Sam. We were at the front porch. They were sitting at the white wide wooden chair. I sat by the fence. Sam told her when she came to Albom's just ended book launching and people's reaction when she came in because guess what? She scared the shit out of them. She banged the door open and everyone jumped from their seats and Mitch himself. "Mitch laughed though," Sam said, laughing in between words, "but man, the expressions of people are priceless. We might have laughed out loud if you were there."

"Why didn't you bring Ace with you?," she asked Sam and then look at me, "Mitch could use a hand to your company. You could've talked to him and made a contract that only you, your company, could publish his books. I mean... You could've told him that you could be the first to publish AKA the originals with his signature on."

I was confused, a writer won't do that. "He won't do that and for sure he already have that kind of publishing company and another thing, I can't, I mean.... How? Writers always aims for a better future and would never stick to only one publishing company." I said, "Its no use."

She knitted her brows at me for the fifth time, "You underestimate Mitch's behavior. He's nice."

"Who knows? Right?" I said, I felt like an adrenaline rush welling up, like a fight might come up. "Anyways, this isn't about my company. How are you?" I said.

She smiled, brightest than the sky above. Moon was up, it lit the sky. It was so ironic that moonlight could illuminate the night. "Well, I'm good. Great. I don't know how to define it." she shrugged, "The boys are crazy like really, they're addicted to pizza. And life have taught me a lot of things. And rumors and God, whenever I knew someone was linked to Ashton..." she curved her lips down, "it just hurts but at the end of the day he would snuggle me at his bunk where we sleeps."

Ashton Irwin. Maybe he was the luckiest man in the world not just because he had Sarah but because she was the perfect package that any guy could ask for.

The next day we were out, the three of us. We went to the mall and we never thought that she would be identified as Ashton Irwin's fiancee.

She herself was shocked too. She agape her mouth when a fan told her this: "When are you two getting married.?"

     She respond with, "No, no, you must be mistaken. I am not his fiancee."

      "Just a girlfriend?" another asked. They must be a group of teenage girls who likes One Direction and 5SOS and Little Mix kind of bands.

     Sarah laugh it off, "You guys are drunk, you should go home. Bye. Nice to meet you though."

     She took my arms and Sam's.