Runaway Man

Chapter 16: The Big Picture

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY LOVERS. #FOREVERLONE

Chapter 16: The Big Picture

It was late evening when our sleepover really felt like one. We were stuffing our mouths full of chocolate and throwing popcorn at each other like we were little children again. As if though, there was less drama was a kid. I kind of missed those times looking back on it all. I remembered how much I wanted to grow up back then and how in my teens, I dreamt that time would wind backwards. I would take back so many of my mistakes if I could: relive my life with the life experience that I now had.

"You and Mason earlier?" Diana rolled over onto the double mattress that we were sharing and nudged me gently in the ribs. I rolled my eyes and Jessica just laughed because she didn't know what's going on... well yet. Knowing Diana, it wouldn’t be long until she did.

Boom. I was right.

"Who's he then? One of Joey's goons?" Jessica giggled. I shot Diana a glare. It was another one of those I-will-stab-you-bitch-until-you-bleed glares but it was no way as piercing as Linda's evil expression.

"Florence has another crush, oooh lalalala," Diana repeated loudly. Playfully, I threw my pillow at her and it wacked her around the face like a trout slapping someone under interrogation, "You're turning into a big heartbreaker now." She made a tutting noise with her mouth that made me shudder.

"I haven't broken anyone's heart," I mumbled loud enough for them both to hear. Diana bit her bottom lip, trying to conceal her laughter but it wasn't long until she was roaring like a lion.

"Not even Billy... when we were seven at most?" She suggested with raised eyebrows when she had calmed down (which sure did take its time). I widened my eyes, forgetting about that time. It was ages ago: what could I say?

Basically to cut to the chase, this Billy kid was obsessed with me when we were less than a metre tall. He would follow me around the playground; let me share his colouring pencils, the typical pre-school romance type thing. At the time, I didn't think much of it but looking back on it, it was creepy. Like, really creepy. No one could understand love at that age; it's like knowing surds, algebra or whatever you want to use as an example.

"It wasn't real love," I argued back, "So, that doesn't really count."

"Did you know Jess that Joey's with Linda?" Diana swerves the subject almost too casually.  I mentally face palmed.

"I saw it coming," Jessica shrugs her shoulders carelessly like it was nothing when it probably wasn't. Diana looks at her to press her onto an explanation and she does, "I mean, Linda's like that. She has been listening to our conversations about him and when the band wagon came to pick people up, she went for a ride."

"But so quickly?" Diana asked as if she read my mind.

"Of course. Whores can manipulate men into whatever. Besides, man-whores are always easy targets for those type of people aka her." Jessica explained. Her body flung backwards onto the sofa and she wiped her hand across her forehead.

There's a silence so I took the opportunity to snuggle into my sleeping bag. I was on a double mattress with Diana (that's on the floor). She only had a dog living with her and her mum so there was only a two seater sofa and an armchair in her house and considering that Jess dominated the sofa, we had no choice but to share the ground.

"Men are annoying, Diana blurted out randomly, "I sometimes wonder why us girls try because they are hot with us one minute then cold the next," I faintly smile, knowing the truth behind those words, "I mean, no one's really ever hooked up on me in the last six months.”

"You can't rush love," I complained, "It just happens."

"Easy for you to say," Diana teased.

"Yeah Flo, men are hitting on you girl 24/7 and you love getting attached to the wrong men." Jess adds. I'm pretty sure that she was doing some sort of Shaniqua gesture with her hand. Diana let out a snort.

"I'd be happy if you took them away from me," I faked a laugh, folding my arms over my chest.

"Anyway, Grease or Titanic?" Diana asked. I scratched my head and sat up. Then, I realised that she was going to put a movie on. Her hands held up the three boxes, revealing their cheasy covers.

"Titanic."

"Grease."

Me and Jessica said at the same time.

"Grease because Titanic is like three hours long," I pointed out, "Plus, I die inside watching Leo sink into the freezing cold sea."

"But the Titanic... is so noglastic," Jessica shot back.

"And Grease isn't?"

"Yeah but whole idea of it is based off an actual event. Grease has stupid men smoking in it whilst driving cars!" Jessica argued. There was no way I was prepared to watch Titanic, especially on a day like today. I didn't want to end up bawling my eyes out with tears and using all of the tissues like always.

"What other movies have you got?" I questioned Diana. She scanned through the rest of her CD rack for something suitable to watch. Knowing her, we'd start watching The Bee Movie or some other shit. That movie was awful. How the hell could a bee fall in love with a lady?

"The Last Song? Hunger Games? Mean Girls? Kung Fu Panda? Bridget Jones? Angus thongs and perfect snogging?" She suggested, reading out the list of names as she read them off of the labels on their boxes.

I yawned. We had watched all of them movies countless amount of times. They were all great but I'd seen them all like three times during the last Summer holidays. I wanted something that wasn't fresh on my mind yet absorbing. Maybe something that wouldn’t make me fall asleep but also wouldn’t make me have nightmares because of the horror genre.

"Oh, I do have one movie that I've been meaning to watch," Diana squealed like a child, "I love watching a bit of Justin." She hopped up from her squat position and sprang upstairs. I could hear every single step she took… I wondered what her mother would say.

A moment later (when she had been shouted at for being loud) she returned. I prayed to myself that we weren't going to watch Never Say Never because documentaries were awful and should have been illegal at sleepovers.

But no…

We weren't watching anything like that... we were going to watch Friends with Benefits.