The Honesty Rule

7:: Late night calls

After I got home from the tennis courts where I coached kids three times a week, I had a shower in record time, and threw on a pair of yoga pants and a warm hoodie, and brushed my wet hair back into a messy bun. If I hurried, I'd probably only be one hour late to Chloe and Hunter's place. The boys were going out with a few of Hunter's friends from work, and us three girls were going to have a girly night, watch movies and paint our nails and crap like that.

I knocked on the door of Hunter and Chloe's apartment, and it was opened immediately by Hunter, as if he was waiting by the door. "Hey, Kate! You're just in time to say goodbye to Harry and I, we were just about to leave."

"Oh, good!" I said, stepping in the door. "You're both looking great."

"Why thank you," Hunter said.

Harry wrapped his arms around me, leaning down to kiss my forehead. "I'll miss you, Katie."
"I'll miss you too," I said, then looking up and standing on my tiptoes so I could give him a proper kiss. He hugged me tighter, than let go.

"Have fun, okay?" I told him.

"You too," he said, wrapping his fingers around mine and squeezing them, something he did when I was sad.

After the two guys left, we got into our pyjamas. A girl named Elly who had just started working with Chloe was also there, so there was the four of us. Chloe was the personal assistant to Sabrina Harris, a fashion designer here in Melbourne, and Elly had just been employed by Sabrina to help source materials or something, I think she said. Their jobs sounded exciting, but I didn't envy them. Sabrina sounded like she was constantly over stressed and always took it out on those around her. But Chloe loved fashion, and this was a good job to get her into the business.

We put the movie Bridesmaids on, and sprawled out on the couch and the floor in Chloe and Hunter's living room. Hunter had made triple chocolate cookies for us, and they were as amazing as you'd expect cookies from heaven to be. Hunter worked at a restaurant on the other side of Melbourne as the sous chef, and dreamed of one day owning his own restaurant. Needless to say, he was an amazing cook.

By the time the movie had gotten to the scene where they're on the airplane, we had muted it and were just having a good old fashioned gossip session. It turned out Elly had dated this guy, Christian, who was in our year twelve class and he thought he was above everyone else. Elly had said he seemed like a really sweet guy, but dumped him after only three months because he was getting way too clingy. "He even asked me how many kids I wanted! Like, hello? We were eighteen," Elly said, and we laughed.

"That is so weird!" Chloe said. "He was the most snobby, stuck up person who thought we were all beneath him." She paused, then added "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!"

"No, no, it's fine," Elly reassured her. "To be honest, I'm not surprised. He was sweet and all, to me anyway, but damn could the boy be a jerk when he wanted to," she laughed.

***

We woke up to the sound of Chloe's phone ringing. It was black outside. It could be midnight, it could be five in the morning, I wouldn't have a clue.

"Sorry guys, I thought it was off," muttered a sleepy Chloe, grabbing her phone off of the coffee table. I shrugged, and turned over, closing my eyes. I'd ask who it was in the morning, but right now, I wanted, no, needed, to sleep.

"Who is it?" Madeline yawned, clearly not feeling as dead I was right now.

"Unknown caller," Chloe said, also yawning, which in turn made me yawn. Why are yawns so contagious?

Chloe answered it, and I could hear the muffled voice on the end of the line saying something.

"Yes, this is she," Chloe replied, sounding wide awake now. I opened my eyes, and sat up slowly, blinking. The other two were also sitting up, and we were all watching Chloe, waiting to see who would be calling and why at this time in the morning.

"What? How?" Chloe asked, sounding distressed. I glanced at Madeline and Elly, who were both still looking at Chloe, concern covering their faces in the low light.

"Yeah, we'll be there as soon as we can," Chloe said and ended the call. She sounded near tears.

"Hunter and Harry were in an accident."