Ma looked at me, her eyes big and bright, as if she had no clue of what I was talking about.
"Sure, hon, what's on your mind?"
"Ma, Kimberly? Since when's she your new BFF?"
"Well, Em, it's a small town and you know we all..."
"Good morning my loves!" Dad yelled and opened his arms, waiting for us to embrace him. Bell and I ran to him.
"God, I missed you" I said when we broke apart.
"I missed you too, sweetie. You look tired, though. Did you get enough sleep?" he furrowed his eyebrows with concern.
"I'm fine, dad. I'm not here to get sleep."
Dad laughed.
"How was your flight?"
"Long" I said.
"But it was a lot of fun, right mommy?" Bell smiled and I couldn't help but laugh at her cuteness.
.
.
.
Paula came over at two with Amanda and Johanna, my childhood best friends. I hadn't seen them in over a year, so it was a pretty crazy reencounter.
"You've lost so much weight!" Jo grinned, patting my stomach once we were sitting in the floor in my old room. We had chips, coke, and cookies.
"Yeah, that's because last time we saw her she'd just freaking had a baby!" Amanda tried to slap Jo, but she immediately ducked.
"Hey, Bell's almost four now" I told them. "It hasn't been that long since I last saw you."
Jo stared at my stomach one more time.
"I guess you were just fat then" she said, and they laughed.
I rolled my eyes, but laughed too.
"I'd forgotten how stupid you guys were... That's probably why I stopped hanging out with you guys" I joked.
"For real though, you like, completely disappeared from the Earth. Where the hell were you? Hanging out with that Santi guy, huh?"
I choked on my cookie.
"What? We're just friends" I said, a little embarrassed by the thought of dating Santi. They look at me, their eyes wide open.
"I'm mean... I just wish you found someone, Em... you deserve the world, but you're single... You should give love another chance" Amanda said.
"Single by choice" I said, remarking every word. "Boys suck".
"Especially Luke" Jo joked, and I forced a laugh. "Sorry, that was so bad, I didn't mean to..."
"No, yeah, it's fine..." I answered, looking away.
How come I came to Colombia, away from him, just to see his sister hours after landing and having my friends talk about him.
"Is everything okay? I didn't mean to say what I said" Jo apologized for what felt like the hundredth time.
"I just don't like talking about him" I shrugged. Not the whole truth, but I wasn't exactly lying.
"Does Bell know about him?" Paula asked this time. Dammit, they're my friends, I shouldn't have felt uncomfortable answering their questions, but just the thought of him caused me to shiver.
"She doesn't, but I'm scared she'll find out eventually" I confessed, the words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
"Why would she?" Jo asked. "I'll admit, the kid's smarter than me, but she's three, Emma."
"He's in New York right now" I said under my breath.
The girls looked at each other, concern clear on their face but no sign of shockness.
"You knew?" I asked and felt stupid right after. Everyone knows each other in this town, of course they knew.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, a little hurt. It'd been nice if someone had warned me 'hey, Em, lock yourself inside your house, Luke's in NY'.
"Haven't you guys talked or anything yet? He's been gone for a while now" Jo said, and shoved more chips in her mouth.
"No, New York's a big city, Jo. It'd be almost a miracle if we ran into each other" But you did, my subconscious reminded me, and I pushed her back.
"He went there for you, Emma" Amanda said sweetly, and I choke on my Coke this time. Did I hear right?
"What?" I asked.
Amanda looked away, almost as if saying 'I've said to much'. I really wanted to change the subject, completely erase Luke from my life the way I'd tried to for the past four years, but I had to know.
"Emma, Luke's never stopped talking about you" Amanda said. "He went to look for you" she's so sweet about it, makes him sound like a decent human being for once.
I stood up immediately. Enough, I told myself.
"I'll be right back" I told my friends before shutting the door behind me, running towards the front door and shutting it behind me.
