2 | ONE MORE | MINIMINTER

TEN

TEN

"Hey, you coming out for food tonight?" Violet asked, looking at Dallas over her shoulder from where she was curling her hair in front of the dusty mirror. Dallas shrugged her shoulders in a vague resemblance of a response, causing her to huff and turn back to the mirror. "Come on, you can't avoid going out forever."

"Yes, I can," Dallas replied. "I can and I will."

"That's ridiculous." She set down her hair curlers and turned to face Dallas. "Will you come if I promise to keep an eye out for her and promise to warn you if I see her? If we see her, I'll leave with you and we can come back here."

"I don't know," Dallas said, rolling onto her front, careful of her wet nails. "I can't explain why I can't just face it, but I can't face it yet."

"What if I told you it was Nando's?" Violet raised an eyebrow.

"It's always Nando's," Dallas muttered, pretending to analyse her hot pink nails. They were probably dry by now, but risking it could be fatal to having the perfect nails. For so long, she'd had her little cousin Willa to paint them for her, but now she was miles from that sweet girl and all she had was Violet, who always got hers done professionally and had probably never painted them herself in her entire life.

"What if I told you that Simon was going to be there?" She hummed between her berry lips, her warm brown eyes singing right along with her tone.

"I'm not desperate, Violet, don't make me out to be some lovesick puppy. I'm a grown woman and there's a lot of years between us now and what we used to be. Besides, I don't even like Nando's."

"You're the worst liar I've ever met." Violet laughed, picking up her curlers again. "Look, maybe it would be good for you. Have you even left the apartment since you've been here?"

"I-"

"Getting food doesn't count."

"Then, no, I haven't," She said quietly.

Violet let out a loud laugh and looked at Dallas in the reflection. "What has happened to the party animal I used to know?" She wound a lock of hair around the hot curlers, steam rising into the air.

Dallas watched her for a moment. She was right, like always, and it was time for her to take the plunge. The only thing holding her back was the past, but her dad has always said that the past is the past and the past doesn't matter, so maybe it was time to indulge in a little bit of the future.

"Alright," Dallas said, standing from the bed. "I'll come."

"It's about time you got your head in gear, even if we are only going to Nando's."

"You're unbelievable."

"Be quiet and sit still so I can curl your hair."

"Unbelievable."

-

Dallas began having second thoughts when Violet was about two thirds of the way through carefully curling her hair. Her mouth was dry and she could feel her heart racing in her chest. Overthinking meeting her mum again did that to her because she knew it was going to happen eventually.

It was just a matter of time.

Luckily, she had Violet to pull her back.

"Right, almost done," Violet said, biting her lip with concentration. "You know, I'm glad you're back. Not just because you're coming out for the meal tonight, but because I missed you all these years."

"We spoke every single day, Vi." She laughed. Dallas had missed her too, but she'd been so focused on getting better and becoming the person she terribly wanted to become, there hadn't been much time for visits. Not that she would've done if there was time for that, not with her mum hanging around.

"That's not the same. I've missed this,. She gestured between them. "I've missed getting ready with you for some party where we'd end up having to hold onto each other because, no matter what we told ourselves, we always drank to much too quickly. I've missed talking about guys with you, even if I'm taken and pretty smitten." She grinned. "What I'm trying to say is," She said as she put the curlers down and switched them off. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too," Dallas replied with the warm feeling spreading through her. "I'm sorry I didn't come back sooner."

"That's ok," Violet said. "We have all the time in the world to catch up with everything we missed."

"All the time in the world," Dallas agreed, nodding her head slightly.

-

so, simon will be in the next chapter. i know it's been a long time since they've interacted/ he's been in the story, but hopefully he'll be in it a lot more from now.