The Comeback

Chapter 16 - Her Guy Best Friend

Chapter 16 - Her Guy Best Friend

I blink still confused before I throw my cup away and run after her. I push the shock of what happened to the back of my mind and I only listen to the voice in my head saying hurry up, you idiot! So I run. I haven’t run in so long, but now I can say that finally all the sessions have actually helped. I feel pain at my side, where the big scars of my emergency surgery are, but I ignore them. I’ll be fine, it was two months ago. I’m just a bit out of shape.

I have to catch up with Cass, I can’t let her go. I don’t know what happened, but I must apologise. She clearly didn’t like where I brought her.

It’s my fault, my inner voice says and I groan. I know it is, I know!

I keep running until I can see her. Damn, she’s fast.

“Cassie!” I shout and she hears me because she looks back and slows down a bit. “Wait!”

She stops and I keep running until I catch up with her. We are both panting and she still has tears on her cheeks, her eyes red and her body shakes, although I don’t know if it’s because she just ran three blocks, or because she’s been crying. Probably both.

“I’m so sorry. I thought you were gonna like it but I— I’m sorry,” I blurt out, my hands on my side, on top of my scar that really hurts.

“It’s not that,” she says, wiping away the tears. “You didn’t know.”

“I didn’t know what?” I ask, utterly confused and she looks away. I know she’s fighting more tears. “Cassie, please.”

“You don’t know what that place means to me,” she finally says.

I’m sorry, Cass, my inner voice says and I shake my head. “I’m sorry, Cassie,” I say out loud and she takes a deep breath.

She doesn’t say anything else, she just jumps into my arms and I catch her, a bit taken aback, but I overcome that the moment she starts crying again. I hold her tightly, without saying a word. I just hold her and let her cry, for whatever the reason is.

“I miss him so much,” she says between fits of sobs and I freeze.

“Him?” I can’t help but ask.

Cassie pulls back and wipes away the tears, I still keep my hands on her shoulders, just in case she breaks down again and I need to hug her. Also because I don’t want to break contact. She meets my eyes and I can see so much sorrow in hers, a broken heart and I don’t understand what exactly triggered that pain in her.

“Come, let’s go into the shop. Over some tea and biscuits you can tell me what happened, okay? It may help you a bit,” I suggest and she thinks about it.

Cassie finally nods and she looks so small, so fragile, so broken. I bring her closer to me and I lead her to the same shop we were before. The barista sees us and looks confused, but I just motion to a table and he nods. I keep leading Cassie and she is in silence, still slightly trembling. We sit one across the other and I hold her hand, just to give her some support. The barista comes to our table and ask for what we want, so I just ask for two cups of tea and some biscuits. When he leaves I squeeze Cassie’s hand.

“What’s wrong, Cassie?” I ask and she takes a deep breath.

“I told you about my best friend, right? The thing is that we used to come to that very park every time we got the chance. We found this place when we arrived to London and it became our place,” she tells me and I blink surprised. That’s just like my dream. “I’ve come here again, just to feel closer to him.” Him? So her best friend was a guy? And all this time I thought it was a girl. “I cry every time I come here, I can’t help it. It’s not your fault, Liam. This place was just Jake and I’s.”