Speechless: REWRITTEN

16. Petunia

Gianna

Weirdest....fucking...New Year's Eve...ever.

No idea what I'm talking about? Let me run it down for you. First off, I get up and get myself situated before entering the kitchen. Once I do, there's plates upon plates of different breakfast dishes laying on the table. It smells great and I was so prepared to dig in, but then my phone rings. I look at the caller ID and my heart drops to my feet.

Cheyenne.

I have to take it. I've been calling Cheyenne with no answer for the past few days, and now she's finally calling me back. So I excuse myself out of the room and into my bedroom to take the call.

"Dude, I've been calling you," I chastise her. I know, not an optimal response after not speaking to her for a year, but what else could she expect? She can't just insert herself back into my life like that.

"I know," I hear her sigh. "I'm sorry, I've been busy unpacking and getting ready for the opening—sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Um...how have you been, Gianna?"

My rhythm comes to a standstill. I take a breath, resuming it. "I'm fine. Good. You know I moved in with Roscoe. I'm still at Juilliard and the YMCA. Everything's fine. How are you?"

"I'm good. I'm...in a good place." There's a couple seconds of silence. "I'm sorry."

"For?"

"Not keeping in touch. I've been so busy and New York just had bad memories for me for a little bit. I didn't want to associate myself with this place for a while, and I...I made the mistake of thinking you were a part of that. And I'm sorry for that."

So essentially, she did the exact same thing Mordecai did. Dropped off the face of the planet to 'get their life back' . I'm thinking about throwing my phone into the lake and starting over.

"Okay...it's okay, I forgive you. Um...how are you?"

"I'm...it's been so hectic. I guess I should tell you the news before I go any further or it won't make sense."

"Oh?"

"Yeah! Um...AMDA opened a Manhattan location. They know my Dad was still living here, so they wanted me to transfer here to finish my degree and to help open up the school for dance majors."

I blink a couple of times. "Wait, Cheyenne, what does this mean?"

She breathes out a chuckle. "I'm back in Manhattan. At least until I graduate."

She's back? Oh...

"Wow, that's awesome!" I cheer. "We should totally get together and catch up!"

"Yeah, definitely." There's some shuffling on the other side. "I have to go, but let's plan something."

"For sure! I'll text you!"

We say our farewells and I hang up, hitting myself in the forehead with my phone. My best friend is finally back in town after a year and a half. I'm excited about that, but I can't help but think about Mordecai. How is he going to react if he sees her? Roscoe and I are constantly around him, and if Cheyenne wants to rekindle our friendship, she'll want to be around me a lot, too. It won't take long for the stars to align and they're caught in the same place at the same time.

All I can think about is back at Cheyenne's graduation party at her house when Mordecai was exposed. When their relationship was exposed. And how messy their breakup was. You could hear them arguing from the backyard. Cheyenne was so fucking distraught and Mordecai lost his sanity for a good week or so.