Back on Track

Chapter 5

Kinsley's POV

"Well, this is... nice."

There was no other way to describe our hotel room as we pulled the key card from the door and stepped inside. While it was significantly less impressive than our last stops, it was certainly livable for the night, and seeing as we were in a small city in the middle of Nebraska, it was the best we could do without pulling into an empty lot and sleeping in our cramped car.

"Sure it is," Louisa trailed sarcastically, dropping her bag next to the only double bed in the room. "You're not the one that'll have to deal with someone kicking you during the night."

A flush of embarrassment flooded my cheeks. "I'm not that bad."

Louisa rolled her eyes teasingly. "I lived with you for three years, basically four, and you really are."

I averted my gaze towards the chipped spots on the walls, mumbling a string of incoherent words under my breath as I tried to veer off topic. "It's been over a year though," I spoke moments later, clearly and slowly. "People can change."

Louisa looked at me for a moment, her eyes scanning my facial expression as she attempted to decipher what I was really trying to say. "You're right." She paused. "They can."

A nervous feeling began to bubble through my veins, feeling as though this was leading towards the conversation that I was trying to put off. It was clear that our year apart had changed us, and that although we'd tried to keep in touch, the both of us hadn't been completely honest with the other. There were things that we concealed - insecurities that had been kept hidden due to the ocean that separated us.

Winding my hands together behind my back, I took a seat on the edge of the bed, and just as I looked up to meet Louisa's gaze, a ringtone that wasn't mine began to sound.

My first thought was that the hotel room walls were incredibly thin, but when I saw Louisa rummage quickly through her purse, my eyebrows rose in surprise. "Someone's calling you?"

"Yeah, I got an international plan," she replied with a nod, not explaining any further as she answered the call and disappeared into the washroom.

Collapsing back against the pillows, I sighed. Of course, just when I'd finally worked up the confidence to talk to her, to get everything out in the open, she would get a phone call. It was like fate was trying to force us apart – interrupting the chances that we had to talk, and even before that, by making Louisa deal with the diagnosis of her mother's breast cancer and tearing the two of us apart.

I'd been terrified all those years ago when I'd started at NYU, thinking that I'd get eaten up by the big city, but those fears had dissipated as soon as I'd met Louisa. This past year without her however, saw the return of all those buried fears, and without expecting it, it'd been one of the loneliest times of my life.

I missed the daily chats and the constant support, and I knew it wasn't just because of the distance that Louisa and I seemed to have grown out of sync. I had kept my emotions hidden while talking to her, not wanting her to have anything more to worry about as she lived out her life across the ocean.

I needed to do something about this, and now. I needed my best friend back.

Although the digital clock on the small nightstand had one or two lights not working, I was still able to read the time as I turned my gaze towards it, realizing that Louisa had been talking for almost half an hour. Biting my lip, I knew there were two possibilities. Either she was paying an arm and a leg to talk to her family, or she'd long since ended the call and was simply staying hidden in the bathroom.