Pure Belleza | ✔️

(62)

"How did your first night at home go?" Alex asked.

Her face was all that I could see on the screen in front of me. Behind her it looked like she was in the commons lounge at the clinic. But as for background noise, I couldn't hear a lot. I figured she must have been alone.

"It was fine," I sat on top of my bed and smiled. I hadn't been up long but I could hear Max and Amalia out in the living area.

Max must have been getting ready for work. Amalia and I had plans this morning but I wasn't exactly sure what those plans consisted of.

She said she had Wednesday's off and wanted to hang out. I knew I was being watched. But whatever.

"Did you call him?" Alex stared at me.

I stared back

"Abby," she exhaled.

"It's been seven months," I murmured and twisted the white gold chain that hung around my neck. A gift he'd given me at graduation. "He's moved on. I've moved on. I don't have the right to resurface and tip his world upside down."

Her stare became bored and disbelieving. "He's moved on? You've moved on? That sounds like a blatant lie."

"How could he not have?"

"How could he have?" She threw her hands up and the screen lagged for a second, pausing on her outraged expression. "For starters, he's crazy about you. Second, that'd be so rude. You were in rehab for chips sakes. Who would be so low?"

"I told him to move on. I told him to forget about me."

She held up a finger with matter of fact all over her smug face. "You're an idiot. And he'd be one too if he listened."

Growing tired of having the same conversation, I groaned. "It'd never work. He'd be worried. All the time. I'd get frustrated because of his concern and we'd argue. Alright? It just wouldn't work with the level of mistrust."

"That's what you've told yourself as a justification, Abby," her face was close enough to the screen that I felt like I'd be able to reach out and  pinch her nose. "That's all it is. Fear of letting them down. Which is natural. But don't you think it's worth a shot? Was that relationship not special enough to at least give it the second chance that it deserves?"

That relationship was the reason that I believed love still existed in this world of transient connections.

"How are you?" I asked her, smiling. She rolled her eyes and shrugged.

"Same old, same old. Smarter, wiser and better than the rest," she winked. "I miss you. It's quieter around here now. You keeping off social media?"

I nodded.

"Call him."

"Ugh," I groaned and waved at the screen. "I have to go."

The screen went blank. I felt confused for a moment considering I hadn't been the one to end the call. But a text blipped on my phone a moment later and it was Alex letting me know that she'd hung up on me before I could hang up on her. I laughed and wandered over to the closet to find the clothes that I would wear today.

It was hot out at the moment. So I laid out a sundress, a hat and some underwear before I slipped off to the bathroom to shower. The fact that Max had a mirror opposite his shower was the worst thing in the world. Who could stand to stare at themselves showering? Oh right, girls with flawless figures. Not that such a girl existed.

Except she did.

A lot of them did.

Proportionate figures, flat stomachs, small waists, defined legs, slim arms.