One less kiss

Spill.

Betty:

Although men had never really played much aspect in my life, I could not remove 'the camera man' (which is what I had resorted to calling him) from my thoughts. I had scoured the whole of social media for months in attempt to see that beautiful face again. I had even scoured photography studios and websites to find that man.

I had slumped down on the sofa with a bowel of cereal one night as it was all we had left in the apartment to eat,when my best friend walked in. "Betty? What the hell are you doing?" She had asked staring at me from the front door. "Wallowing in my own despair." I had groaned before shoving another spoonful into my mouth and with that Veronica shut the door and walked into the kitchen. A few moments later she came back in with a glass of wine for the each of us. "Spill." She had ordered.

I told Veronica everything, leaving out the part that I had seen the man take a few photographs of me. Who knew what she would have thought of him if I had mentioned that detail. I can still imagine her now, "Jesus Betty, he is probably some creep trying to find beautiful women to add to his 'late night' collection." I stared at her as she took in the story I had told her and I waited for her to make a comment about me "wasting my time" but it didn't come. Instead, Veronica clapped her hands giddily and squealed, "we have to find this guy!" In a high pitched tone. I felt my shoulders relax as if keeping the secret to myself had really been affecting me.

*                *               *

Veronica and I had become friends when I had moved into her apartment. The advertisement had popped up when I was scrolling through my phone and I decided to take a leap and message her. It was undeniable that Veronica was a gorgeous girl, she was so confident and outgoing that I looked like a lonely stranger stood next to her. I had been relatively quiet when I first moved in, not talking often and avoiding Veronica at any given opportunity. "I'm so tired of this sitting area, it looks so outdated." She had sighed as she stood staring at the room. I had laughed at her comment and she had smiled at me before heading out to work. I decided that day I would try and do something nice for her, so I headed out to the shops and came home around an hour later.

I changed my clothes and tied my hair out of my face. It had taken me a good half an hour to move all the furniture into other rooms and to take down everything from the walls. I painted the walls white but made the feature wall grey. I looked at the outdated patterned carpet and wondered quietly what was underneath. When I ripped it back I saw that there were wooden floorboards which I had suspected. I spent the whole afternoon sanding and oiling the floor, wanting to be done by the time Veronica got home, which I was.

"Oh my god!" I heard Veronica scream and I rushed out of my bedroom to see what had happened. "Did you do this?" She screamed again staring at our sitting area. "Do you not like it?" I panicked and she turned to face me. "Betty, I absolutely love it! And I love you too!" She had squealed while running over to hug me. The hug was so tight she had pushed the air out of my lungs.

From then on we had become the closest friends and she had even come home with me to my hometown Riverdale to visit my family, and obviously they loved her just as much as I did from then on. I had even come home sometimes to Veronica on FaceTime to my mother. "Yeah Alice, Betty's just walked through the door." I had heard her say the first time and I raised my eyebrow quizzically. "Mum?" I asked as I sat on the sofa next to V. "Hey sweetie, I was just talking to Veronica, I was asking if she wanted to come down with you in a few weeks," listening to that for the first time made me realise how Important V was to me and how much I had grown to love her.

*               *               *

"I should give up with this guy," I sighed as I emptied the last of the bottle of wine into my glass. "You're admitting defeat?" Veronica questioned, "it has nearly been a year, V. I can't search forever." I stated and she nodded but placed her hand on my shoulder. "You'll find someone, Betty, you're beautiful, inside and out." She smiled. "Now how about another drink?" She questioned and I pointed to the empty bottle on the table. She put her arm behind her and pulled out a new bottle from behind her back. "You sneaky little-" I began. "I think you mean thank you," she grinned. "I met someone..." she told you quietly, almost as if she was afraid. "That's great!" I smiled. "I want you to meet him at new year, at our party, if that's okay with you?" She questioned and I nodded happily before jumping towards her for a hug.