4
The bell above the door made a 'ding' noise when I entered Grumpy's. I was ten minutes late for my lunch date with Annilee.
I was about to look around for her when I heard her laughing.
"Always late, eh Brae?" She ran up to me still giggling and gave me a hug.
"Hey, I'm getting better with my timing. I'm only ten minutes late today," I said as we walked to the counter to order.
Ann laughed again before ordering a roast beef sub. I ordered a hot grilled chicken sub, and we sat down while we waited for it to be made.
"So how has life been lately? We haven't talked in so long!" Ann huffed.
Annilee knows all about Brian and how I love him, so I will definitely be asking her for advice today.
I looked at the clock on the wall to see how much time there was until I had to go back to school. "My last class starts in an hour, so we'll have to make this quick. I-"
"Are you kidding?" She snorted, "You telling stories will never be quick. You take like a year to tell something I could've said in two minutes."
"You interrupt me every two seconds; of course it's going to take long!"
We laughed and our numbers were called letting us know our food was ready.
While we ate, I told her about Lindsay and Jase. I realized that I never touched my sub during that whole story - I talk way too much.
When I finished what I was saying, Ann stared at me for about 15 seconds before I cracked. "What?!"
"Why aren't you jumping for joy right now?" She asked with her eyebrow raised. "Brian is single. Brian that you love is available. Tell him!"
"I don't want to ruin our friendship. If I love him and he doesn't love me back, I wouldn't be able to look at him again. I'd be so embarrassed. And he probably would feel awkward around me," I sighed.
She went to say something, but I was starting to feel depressed about my situation so I stopped her. "What about your life? How are things with Kris?"
"Well our fifth anniversary is coming up!" She squealed, completely forgetting she was about to say something. "He wanted to take me out to dinner, but he and I aren't all romantic like that. We decided on having a party instead. Only some of our closer friends will know that it's because of our anniversary. Anyone else will just think it's a big party for no reason."
I smiled knowing I was one of her close friends.
Annilee and Kris have been dating since grade eight. They broke up for a month in grade ten. That was right after I met her. She and I became close during that month. She shared how much she regretted breaking it off with Kris - her friends said they'd been dating too long and she listened to them - and I confessed my love for Brian.
I convinced her to tell Kris that she still loved him, and she tried to convince me to tell Brian but I couldn't do it.
I still can't. I feel like a coward.
I took a bite out of my now cold sub and she said, "Brian is obviously invited as well. I doubt you'd go if he wasn't there."
Rolling my eyes I said, "It's not like I can't do anything without him. Jeez."
She chuckled as she finished her sub. "Not too sure about that."
I looked at the time and saw I only had ten minutes to get back to school which is ten minutes away. "Ugh, gotta go. I'm going to be late!"
