ADDICTION | BMLA

thirty two.

Arabella Easton

A jingle was heard as I entered through the Starbucks door. I quickly scanned the room for Mark, gaining the worry that he left due to how late I arrived. I finally spotted him in the corner of the shop, where he took a sip from his pink toned refresher. I walked over to the lonely table and sat down on the opposite side of him.

"Ara!" Mark smiled, "I thought you would never come." He began to get off his chair with open arms, but I quickly stopped the action.

"Mark I'm just here to ask why you came okay? No funny business," I informed.

"Listen I just wanted to come to say sorry. I know it took me a long time to come to that conclusion but I'm actually in another relationship right now and it made me think about all the times I treated you bad."

"Right...."

"This person told me about how they felt being cheated on and it made me feel really really bad about all the times I spent cheating on you and making you feel like shit."

"This girl must be really close to you if she made you feel that way."

"About that..."

"What?"

"Ara I don't like girls." My mouth dropped wide open as Mark turned completely stiff.

"I'm so sorry I was thinking that you came back to my house to hit on me when in reality all you wanted to do was say sorry and tell me that-"

"Hey don't worry about it," Mark grinned. My look softened as Mark took another sip from his drink. "Can I get you something? Like a drink or some food?"

"No you're completely fine," I laughed.

"So how about your boy?" Mark asked.

"Brandon?"

"Yeah I think... the one that nearly killed me the time I came to your house."

"Yeah I guess we are something? But we aren't dating, but we act like we are."

"He's one of those guys."

"I love him though, he's good to me." Something about that sentence made me feel different but I shook it off.

"That's great Ara. I'm glad we both moved on and I'm hoping you forgive me."

"Of course I forgive you, it's all in the past and it doesn't matter anymore." Mark and I continued to talk about our lives and how different it was compared to back when we dated. It turns out Mark moved to New York for a graphic designing job right after he broke up with his ex and met his new boyfriend there too. We talked for almost thirty minutes before Mark got a call. He placed his phone down and stood up from his chair.

"I got to go but hey it was nice seeing you again without being attacked by Brandon," Mark smiled. I stood up from my chair and I wrapped my arms around him for a quick second. "I gotta go, my boyfriend and I want to explore LA before we go head back to New York."

"No worries, hopefully I can see you again before you leave."

"Of course! Thanks for coming out to see me and if you need anything just text me." I flashed a smile at the boy before he left through the doors of the coffee shop. I sighed and sat back down, opening Instagram stories. A ring of orange, pink, and purple wrapped around Brandon's Instagram profile picture, indicating that Brandon posted on his Instagram story. I quickly clicked on it, noticing how it was posted just a minute ago.

Starbucks. The same location I was in. He was here a minute ago.

I quickly scanned the room, looking for a four eyed boy with messy hair. No Brandon. I replayed the picture and squinted my eyes. In the very corner of the picture I could see myself, my back facing towards the camera while Mark's face was covered by my head. I swiped up on the picture and texted Brandon.