"We became fast friends. We shared the same fate, born on the delirious minds of our parents, to name us after... water. Different forms of water, but water nonetheless. Our lives were tangled together until its roots, and I knew that's the way I wa...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It had always been my mother and I growing up. My parents divorced when I was a little kid and he moved away. He called from time to time, on my birthdays, but we never had a strong relationship. My mother had some money so it was comfortable - being the two of us.
We got through my teenage years staying out of each other's way, I didn't bother her acting up and she basically let me do whatever I wanted. That mostly meant staying for days at River's house and have her dad pick us up at parties. What she didn't know couldn't hurt her. The years had drifted my mom and I further apart and I could barely call the place she lived in my home. That probably made moving away for a new job much easier than it should have been, yet we still called each other though once or twice a week to see how everything was going.
We were similar in that way, none of us cared much about family or holidays, we were pretty much lonely rogues in a world where everybody loved big family gatherings for Christmas. Can't say I wouldn't have liked to have them, but we simply didn't have a big family and every time we tried to have something special, it got ruined. So eventually we stopped trying and I spent the holidays alone or crashing on River's family like I usually do.
They had pretty much adopted me in every way possible - but it was way harder for River to pick up her bags and move with me. She had her own reasons for coming to the city but it was out of the question that we would eventually live together, we were flesh and blood after all. Over the years we made our apartment a cozy place to call home and along with our cat (who was mostly mine), Lee, we formed our little family. It was all I could have asked for.
***
It's been a few days in row that I've awoken more tired than when I went to bed. My job was stressing me out and I couldn't get enough sleep. I worked at a Vet Store, but lately more and more animals were left at our doorstep and neither my boss nor myself had the heart to leave the poor guys alone. We cleaned them, healed them and then worked time and time again to get them a safe caring home. Sometimes they came in so damaged that my heart almost couldn't take it - what kind of person could hurt an animal like that!
Also, River had a new friend-of-the-month and banged the wall like there was no tomorrow. That bitch. Eating in front of those who starve.
Actually I wasn't that jealous. I liked my solitude, but my libido kind of missed someone else other than my hand to take care of it.
"Morning, Rainy." River met me in the kitchen, still in her underwear and a sleeveless tank top.
"Is she gone already?" She wouldn't be up if there was still someone in her room. River could be easy to get a new partner but she usually sent them away pretty fast as well. "You two really got to it last night."
"It's just your jealousy talking, little miss lonely!" She teased me, setting my usual cup of coffee in front of me. That thing was bigger than my face and was the only thing that could give me some life in the morning. "But yes, she had to work. Oh Rainy, I can't even start to tell you how awesome her fingers are!"
"Stop! I don't want to know!" I say covering my ears and getting up, hurrying my coffee. "It's too early and that's too much information."
She cracked up, "Your loss. You should start experimenting with girls too, I tell you! It's lots of fun."
By the look on her face, I didn't doubt it. But River had always been the most outgoing of our little party-of-two. I honestly didn't see myself with anyone -male or female- anytime soon.
"What happened to Ethan?" I asked her, fearing it still was a sour spot.
She shrugged, "the bastard isn't returning my calls. I'm kind of tired of him anyway, I couldn't stand his jealousy. That's like, the worst thing he could do to me. It was so annoying."
"Yeah, he was too controlling for my liking too." I took a sip of my coffee, even if we were well into our twenties now, we still took care of each other, specially when it came to dating douchbags, we both had our fair amount of them in our pasts to know better.
"Are you ready to go?" She asked me. We went to work together as usually as we could. One would say that after living together for so long we would be sick of each other by now, but it wasn't the case at all. River was my sister.
"Yeppers." I grabbed a toast and put it in my mouth. I caught my bag on my way up and followed her to the door. Honestly, it was a relief River was there to take me as I didn't have own car. It's safe to say my job wasn't as fancy as hers.
While I worked at a small shop (doing the care-taking of our animals), River worked in one of those fancy buildings and was a successful leader. I'm not as jealous as I sound (yes). I kind of hoped my veterinarian degree would be more useful but my own beliefs didn't let me work at most places offered. I liked this small shop because they truly cared about our little ones and didn't aim to make money out of people's (and animal's pain). We treated dogs from the street and always tried to make them live a longer healthier life. My boss was an old man who managed to keep the store open for almost thirty years - but it's not like I made a lot of money there. River on the other hand worked on floor 50th and had a degree on business with a minor in English Literature. She was head of the creative department of this huge firm that did all kind of publications. She made more in a few months that I would probably make in a year. No pressure at all, living with a friend like that.
The stereo blasted like every time we set on a car together. Honestly anything could come up from this playlist because we had the most eccentric taste in music. Thankfully nothing that should make me (too) embarrassed came up today and we rolled through the busy streets singing our lungs off with the chorus of "I will always love you". Not minding that none of us had that kind of love for anyone in our lives, except for each other.
As the final notes passed, and a red light got us to stop, we finally had the chance to talk again. "Hey, do you want to do something tonight?" River asked, looking at me.
"Eyes on the road, please!" I was very demanding when it came to being a safe driver. I didn't have a good history with cars. "What did you have in mind?"
"I don't know." She shrugged. "My sister is in town, so I have to pick her up from the station. I thought we could go with her to get some drinks."
"Nothing too crazy?" I was a goner for parties really, but not as much on work days.
"I promise! We can go early, have a few beers and come back home. Maybe have a movie night?" It was always a blast when River's sister came to town and stayed with us. She was just a few years younger than us so pretty much followed us in our adventures as part of the team. Josie was a mini version of River in the outside but totally her own person on the inside, it was very nice to be around her.
I honestly doubted we would come back early (we said that every time) but I felt in the mood to have a girls night out, get drunk and forget about the million things that clouded my mind everyday. It really bumped my confidence up to be in a dark place and be in my own world. The loud music made it easier to ignore awkward silences and gave you the option to be quiet and just dance.
"Do you want me to go get Josie up with you? When does she get here?"
"You'll probably be working still. I'm leaving early to get her, but do you want us to pick you up later?" She offered. Not tearing her eyes from the road this time. "We can go back home, get ready and leave again around 7."
"Sounds like a plan." Right after that we got ourselves invested into singing Set Fire to the Rain at the top of our lungs. I felt the song very personal to me, not only because it had my name in the tittle (which usually lead to many inside joke between us) but also because I aimed for that kind of bravery, to rise and threw yourself into the flames. I needed time to heal and forget, I needed to be stronger to face everything thrown at me. But as for right now I needed to forget, and having a girls night out, including alcohol, movies, and lots of love from my friends was exactly what I was looking for at this time.
Little did I know that not everything is meant to be, or perhaps not to be better.
