Weddings, Pizzas & Paris | HIATUS

Thirteen

Okay, before you ask me why Sarah was washing her mouth repeatedly to remove the taste of blood, let me tell you this - do not wake me up using an alarm clock. Plus, I'm not sure I regret punching her in the face for doing that. She deserved it.

"Well, fück," she said, after the cut on the inside of her cheek had sort of stopped spurting blood. "You have a mean punch."

"Heh, thanks," I said sheepishly.

"Aren't you going to apologize now?" she asked, looking at me with questioning eyes.

"Uh, no? I think you deserved it." I said, smirking. I half expected her to stride across the room and punch me back. She was really tiny back in highschool so whenever she hit me it didn't really matter but now she was equipped with a pair of heels kept two feet away from her and I was pretty sure she wouldn't hesitate to use them.

To my surprise, she laughed. A genuine, honest-to-God laugh that I hadn't heard for seven years.

"Still Queen Bitch, I see. You've become, dare I say it, a little more of a bitch now." she said.

I couldn't help but laugh, and it felt good to do that again. Not that the boys were depressing or anything, but boys just don't have the same sense of awkward-slash-lame humour which girls seem to have.

"So," I said, as I got out of bed. I was wearing the stark white pajamas which the hotel had, making me look more like a patient than anything else. "Do you think we could go get some breakfast?"

"I'd just thought we'd get room service," said Sarah. "I'm a bit lazy today."

"Oh, yeah. Sure. Anything. I was just wondering if we could, like, talk, or something." I stammered. I wanted this to be casual, okay, but she was just difficult and who was I to change her decisions.

"Talk? What about?" she asked, squinting a bit.

"I don't know? About why you came here? Or like, where you were for so many years? Don't you want to talk about what happened to us?" I asked, a little miffed that she didn't even want to know what changed.

"Heavy topics," she said simply.

"Well, yeah," I said.

"Let's go out then. I feel like some fresh air would do us good." she said, her lips pulled tightly into what I'd classify as a smile.

"Yeah, okay." I said. Anything to get her to talk.

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Half an hour later, we walked out of the hotel, me in a red checkered mini-skirt which was totally not for the weather as it was the starting of November and I knew that my knee caps would freeze over by the time we were back. Sarah was wearing a suede trench coat, God knows she came prepared.

"Starbucks?" she questioned, pointing over to one right round the corner. Well, I don't know about it myself, but Haden keeps complaining about how the European Starbucks were just not as good enough as the ones we had back in New York.

"I guess?" I said, walking up from behind her.

"Come on," she said.

❄

"So," said Sarah, eyeing my drink. "Typical white girl drink, huh."

"Oi," I said defensively. "I like pumpkin spice lattes."

"Ugh, whatever," she smiled. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"Why are you here?" I blurted, suddenly feeling like I was being pushy and that I should just pack up my things and leave. Sarah's eyes turned cold and all the emotion drained from her face. 

"That's not something you should be worried about, Avery." she said with an air of finality.

"Sarah, you ran away. Your wedding is in four days. What in the world are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm not answering that, Avery. I told you, you don't need to know." said Sarah sharply.

"Why are you being so difficult?" I said, exasperated.

"Avery, you're asking me to talk about things I don't know about. And look, I want to know how long you'll be leeching on to me." said Sarah, her tone stark and cold.

"Leeching on to you? Sarah, what are you saying?" I asked, tears threatening to appear in my eyes.

"Why did you follow me here? What are you trying to achieve? I'm not going anywhere from here now." she said, folding her arms over her chest.

"I'm just trying to look out for you!" I yelled, not caring that people where starting to stare now.

"Well, I don't need that anymore. I'm not five and I don't need a babysitter, Avery. You need to know that." said Sarah.

"Doesn't our friendship mean anything to you?" I asked, trying to keep my tears from falling. Seven years and my best friend's turned into a complete stranger.

"What friendship? Five years of telling each other about crushes isn't friendship, Avery. Why are you so immature?" spat Sarah.

With that, I lost it. This woman - I didn't know her. She wasn't that bubbly, cheerful thing she'd been seven years ago - she didn't deserve to be cared for. I'd always imagined what it would be like if I ever met her - we'd cry and say how much we missed each other - not this. I've had enough of her, and I was going back to my boys. I loved them, and I knew they loved me back - just as much, just as unconditionally.

"I'm leaving." I said, slamming a ten dollar note on the table, though I knew that currency wouldn't work here, but I couldn't just leave like that.

I turned around and walked out of the door, huffing and walking all the way back to the hotel. I had a spare key -thank the Gods - and I threw all my stuff into the duffel bag and walked out. I left the key at the front desk, the woman behind it scrunching her nose at the smudged make up on my face. I didn't care - I didn't even know that my two-thirds of my eyeliner was wiped about my face till I got into a little café to collect my wits.

Once I'd calmed down and done my make up again, I sat down and ordered a strawberry smoothie and a blueberry muffin while I called Haden. I'd never been away from home without one of the boys around, and I felt terribly homesick.

"Hey, bird," said Haden, his voice thick with sleep. I realized suddenly that we were in two different places and there a time gap of at least six hours between us. Damn Earth doing the fücking pirouette.

"Hey, H, how are you?"  I asked. The noise in the background told me that Logan had woken up as well.

"I'm good, bird, what's wrong?" he asked. I felt guilty telling him what had happened but I had to do it anyway, so I told him while I ate the muffin which had just arrived.

"Ave," sighed Haden. "It's okay, bird. I'm coming to Paris in two days. I'll be there for a week so we'll have a blast, yeah? I'll book your return ticket today. Hang in there for two days, could you?"

I was so relieved I could dance. He was so fücking nice to me. Like the muffin which I just inhaled.

"Thanks, H. I love you. So much. More than Logan, probably." I said, laughing.

"Oi," said Logan from the back. Everybody knew that Logan was my favorite, because we did crazy stuff that could "probably get us killed" together and we were crime partners since the beginning of time. Well, at least ever since I caught him eating Nick's cereal in the middle of the night that I came to steal.

"I love you most, Logan," I smiled.

"That's better," he said, with a little grunt which meant he'd probably flopped down on the bed again.

"Okay, bird. You go find someplace to stay, and give me the details. I'll get your transactions done from here, bless the internet." said Haden.

"Thanks, H, you're the best." I said, tearing up.

"Shut up, you," laughed Haden. "Go find that place up fast. I need to go back to sleep, else I'll fall into someone's salad later today."

"Aye aye, captain!" I said, laughing.

I love him.

❄