Sticks And Stones

Day 9

[Day 9]

"My dear!" The exclamation was sweet in my ears as I turned to find the woman running through the crowd, waving enthusiastically. Everyone was giving us strange looks as Lydia barreled through the busy weekend crowd, and hit into me with the force of a car.

My time with the Heathrow Basketball Boys definitely did me well as I stumbled back a few steps, closing my arms over the back of my favorite friend, her perfume making me feel as if I was back in the dorm at Sogano with her.

"It's so great to see you again, Lydia." I greeted, pulling back to look carefully at the beauty that was my best friend. It was her birthday, and yet she'd taken the trouble to come all the way down from Sogano just to spend her special day with me. Her surprise visit had been such a surprise that I hadn't had the time to properly prepare for her arrival, and so was just planning to wing the celebrations.

"Oh my! You have slimmed down very much since the last time I saw you! What have you been doing? Fighting for the bathroom?" Lydia squeezed my cheeks, as if it was a measure of my health, eyes of pretty green glittering under the sun. She hadn't changed a bit -her pink dyed hair still tied up in a high haphazard ponytail with cute bangs all on the front.

"We have our own bathrooms in our room, Lydia. Besides, Ronin has been taking care of me very well." I excused quickly, self-consciously removing Lydia's naughty fingers from my cheeks.

"Well enough to have you lose a couple inches on your waist?!? He has been mistreating you!" Lydia's hands went no-nonsense flatly on my stomach, as if that was the measure of how much stomach fats I'd lost. For sure, she wasn't going to measure my hair length next and declare that I was abused?

"No, no!" I jumped to save my brother's reputation. "It's just that I joined the Basketball Team in Heathrow, and they're pretty hard workers."

"This coming from a National Athlete in Basketball Girls?" Lydia pulled back, almost as if in utter shock, then a disgusted expression drew on her face. The people who didn't know Lydia well always assumed her to be a pampered brat with the way she usually acted, but I knew that the despising, disgusted expression she kept was always hiding the amusement and sarcasm she always used.

"Junior National Athlete." I corrected, then captured her hands in mine, making sure they didn't stray anymore. "I'm doing just fine in Heathrow, Lydia. I'm standing here proud and tall, aren't I?"

My friend seemed to give that question a thought, looking me up and down as if this was the first time she was seeing me as a whole.

"Proud and tall in those jeans and T-shirt? They look too big for you, darling Shainey." The fashion critic was immediately in the scene as I put on my best awkward face.

"They're Ronin's. I couldn't find any nice clothes, and these are Ronin's most unisexual clothes." I admitted, scratching the top of my head in embarrassment. While Lydia wasn't a walking trend machine, she usually frowned upon people not making effort to look nice. Even with the guys back in Sogano, if they showed up in obvious house clothes, she would throw a tantrum and have them change.

"I'll forgive you this once since you're on your quest to fulfill your heart." Lydia announced, then grabbed my hands. "I've got a million questions for you, my dear girl. Do we have somewhere to sit?"

My answer was interrupted by the clearing of throat, and I turned in surprise to see Ronin making through the crowd towards us. There was little doubt that he had already scanned Lydia up and down a few times to make sure that she wasn't a danger to his baby sister.