begin again [reus]

zehn: start over

MARCO

"No." Cathy said.

I stared at her blankly, not expecting her to say no so quickly. I glanced at Mats who was sitting down on the couch beside her, but all he was doing was eating his 2nd bag of chips in the last half hour.

"Why not?" I groaned.

"Because Mia's my friend!" she yelped. "If I were to set you up with one of my friends, it'd be breaking the sister code. She'll hate me forever, and I'm not risking our friendship for this." she said firmly.

"But this is what she wants, Cathy. She doesn't want anything to do with me anymore and she'd prefer it if I moved on from her. In a sense, you'd kind of be helping her out." I said weakly, not realising just how painful this situation was. I swallowed the lump in my throat and continued reasoning with Cathy. "Look, you don't even have to tell her that you're doing this."

She shook her head, "None of my friends are single anyway. They're either dating someone, married, too old for you, or too young for you."

"You don't have any single friends your age? That's hard to believe."

She thought about it for a while before grinning, "I have gay friends if you're, you know, into it..." she suggested.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, grabbing the bag of chips from Mats' hands. "Thanks for nothing. See you guys later." I said before leaving their house, followed by the sound of Mats screaming for his chips but I knew he had a special cupboard stacked to the top with chips.

It was late. Around 8:30 PM. I spent the day laying in bed with a broken heart and a massive hangover. The worst combination in the entire world. After nearly overdosing on Advil and trying all the cures I could find on WikiHow, I decided to just take a nap.

Now all I could think about was Mia. Her blue eyes, her soft brown hair, her pink lips, her rosy red cheeks, her laugh, her smile, her voice...

This definitely wasn't healthy.

I contemplated on going home and going to sleep for 10 hours but decided on going to the bar instead. Pining over a girl who clearly had no feelings for me whatsoever wasn't going to do me any good.

I parked my car in front of the bar and grabbed my jacket before getting out of the car. I pushed the door to the pub open and waved at the bartender who seemed to know me. I sat down at the bar and ordered a beer which the bartender quickly got for me.

The bar was full tonight. The tables were mostly occupied and so was the bar with only a few seats left. Music was playing loudly, giving me an even bigger headache than I already had. I took a few swigs of the beer and bobbed my head along to the music.

When I put my beer down, I saw that the seat beside me was now taken. A girl was sitting there now. She was wearing a leather jacket and had her hair tied up in a messy ponytail atop her head.

"Can I get a beer please? Thanks." she said to the bartender over the loud music. He got her the beer and set it down in front of her. She took off her jacket and tied the sleeves around her waist before drinking the beer.

I guess she must've noticed me staring at her, because she set the beer down and looked at me awkwardly. "Can I...help you?" she asked.

She had blonde hair and startling blue eyes. Her face was flushed from the beer and her eyeliner and mascara were slightly runny under he eyes, making me think that she just cried.

"Oh, sorry." I murmured, looking away from her to start drinking my own beer in silence again. From the corner of my eye, I could see her madly typing away on her iPhone and rejecting every single caller that called her phone. At one point, she sighed loudly and turned her phone around, setting the screen face-down.