"PASS THE POTATOES."
Anne jumped at the sudden voice across the table and her eyes widened when she realized Liam was waiting for her to do whatever he had just asked. She straightened and smiled awkwardly, before cocking her head to the side.
"Sorry, what was that?" she asked hesitantly. Liam smiled at her fondly before repeating the question, to which Anne quickly grabbed the potatoes and shoved the bowl in Liam's waiting hand. Liam looked at her strangely, the same smile still on his face but it was a bit hesitant this time.
"So," Mark started from beside Liam, noticing the hesitant awkwardness practically wafting off of Anne. Ava looked up from her pasta, not having noticed the strange vibe coming off her best friend. "how was work? I heard you had just gotten home from a meeting when you came over here."
"I wasn't at work all day, I, um, stopped for groceries first but work was, yeah, it was okay. My manager wants me to date my ex from college but-" Anne hadn't realized her slip-up until Ava started choking on her water. "EX FROM COLLEGE!?!?!"
"Crap," Anne muttered. Liam and Mark looked very confused, alternating from looking at each other, to the shouting girl, and the other girl who seemed to be sinking into her seat as though sitting in quicksand. "YOU DATED OLIVER IN COLLEGE AND I NEVER KNEW?!?!?!?!"
"We didn't really date," Anne murmured in response, inching away from Ava who was now starting to flail her arms wildly like a mad duck. She was starting to feel fear?
"Avani, why don't we finish dinner and then Anne can tell us about Oliver later," Liam suggested, giving Anne a pointed look when she was about to protest. She knew what it meant. 'Don't make me call your brothers' Liam and Mark were her older brothers' friends from years back, and when Ava and Anne had moved to New York, they gave the girls their other condominium which was right next door.
Since both her brothers Mark and Anthony lived across the country, Liam and Mark took over.
Funny how there's a Mark in each pair. But while one pair is siblings, the other pair is a married couple.
They managed to finish dinner without Ava exploding.
As soon as they were done, Liam and Mark ushered the girls over to the couch in the living room. Liam practically dragged Anne over, seeing as she was incredibly unwilling to talk about her past relationship with Oliver.
"Spill," Ava said as soon as Liam got Anne to sit in the small love seat across the other three. Anne felt like she was back at the psychiatrists'. She moved around in her seat, looking at Mark pleadingly but he merely shrugged. He wanted to know as much as Ava did.
"It wasn't really a relationship," she started, mumbling and fiddling with her fingers. "We were just each other's, um, stress release, you know? It only actually happened once or twice, those being the first times I went over to his house. After that we ended up just spending time together, like watch movies or play games on his roommate's Xbox.
We were never really a thing, but I ended up, very cliche I know, falling for him. But I went to his house one day and there was another girl there, and they were, um, doing their thing. I left, and I didn't want to make a mess, cause we were never actually in a relationship, so it wasn't like we had to break up or anything and we never spoke again after that, uh, eventful evening."
Anne looked up from her hands to peek at the people sitting across form her. To be honest, she expected Ava to be screaming by now but if anything, she looked quite impressed.
"I'm surprised you hid that from me," she inquired, stroking her chin falsely, mimicking whoever does that. "Now that I think about it, you did leave the apartment a lot that year. And one day you came back crying, and you told me you dropped your ice cream."
"You know, I was really surprised you fell for that."
"Wait, hold up." Anne looked over at Liam, who was massaging his temples beside Mark, who looked in awe. "You were friends with benefits with this guy, then like a cliche book character you fell for him, and now, almost 10 years later, your manager wants you to date him."
"Yeah," Anne replied, gauging their facial expressions carefully. "Please don't tell my brothers. I'm begging right now. If you tell them, they're gonna call me, then they're gonna yell at me, then have me tell them Oliver's address, phone number, and all that crap so they could beat him up."
Mark and Liam looked at each other indecisively. Anthony and Mark had trusted them to take care of Anne when she got to New York, and keep them updated on possible boyfriends, strange activity, etc. Did they really want to break her brothers' trust?
Not really, but Anne did have a point.
"Fine. But next time-"
"I know! I know, I'll tell you guys and you can report me to my brothers and all that fancy shite, we good here?" she asked. She was ready to leave, honestly, this was way to much drama for a day. She thought she was engaged, for God's sake.
"Go, go. You don't need us to walk you to your door, right?" The four stood up, heading to the door. Anne and Ava grabbed their phones from the counter where Mark and Liam kept them lock and key during dinner.
"We'll be fine. Thanks for dinner. It was great," Anna and Ava hugged the men goodbye before walking to their door, unlocking it, and heading in. Ava immediately went into her room, mumbling about a shower and sleeping with the dogs.
Funnily enough, the dogs were already fast asleep together on the couch.
Bucky leaped from his spot on the couch and sat on Anne idle feet. "Wow, Buck, you're making this really difficult." In the end, she picked him up with both hands and headed to her room, plopping on the bed.
She unlocked her phone and scrolled through her social media accounts. Twitter, meh. Insta, meh. Snapchat, meh. Suddenly a thought came to her.
Texts between:
Annie<3 and Harry-Beary <3
Annie <3:
soooo, what did you do with Ava today
Harry-Beary <3:
not much, just had coffee and talked about how
insane you are
mhmmmmm, i dont believe youuu
of course you dont
if you did, i would be worried
shes cute
and very
quirky
did ya'll make out
she wont tell me
she probably didn't tell you cus it didnt happen
awww how disappointing
since when did harry knox not make a move on the
first date?
shut up
it was one time
one time too many
do you want her number?
yes please
(XXX)-XXX-XXXX
always so polite
~Sarah
YOU ARE READING
new york city
General Fiction"new york city please go easy on me tonight" she's just a city girl with a broken heart and a broken mind.
