Triphilia - together forever | one-shots

Apart |3|

They had forgotten him.

Avi didn't know what to say, didn't know what to do.

He felt empty.

He took his phone, thought about texting them. But he didn't want to.

He wanted to... not be alone.

"Hey. Are you up for dinner for three? I have everything prepared and... can I just come over? Stay the night? Please?"

Only minutes after sending the message, his phone beeped with a reply:

"Avi? I thought you had plans with Mitch and Scott... whatever, just come over, we're at home. We won't cook then, thank you!"

~

About forty-five minutes later, Avi parked his car in front of his best friend's home and got out. He carried the food he had prepared and his duffel back over to the porch and ringed the doorbell.

It was Leigh who opened the door for him. She was wearing sweatpants and an old PTX merch hoodie. "Hi, Avi. Come on in. Please excuse the looks and the mess, it's been a long day..."

"It's okay..." Avi replied. "I just don't want to be alone..."

"You won't be. Shall we go into the kitchen and prepare dinner? Kevin is putting Leila to sleep so hopefully we'll have the evening to ourselves" Leigh explained while leading Avi into the house.

"Yeah..." Avi replied lamely. "We'll need the oven preheated to 350 degrees. Salad is done and rice just needs a quick warm up."

Leigh nodded. She quickly turned on the oven and then turned back to Avi. "So... do you want to drink anything? Or do you want to talk? We could wait for Kevin...."

Avi shrugged his shoulders. "Tea? And wait for Kevin?" He knew that he had to explain to them what happened, but he only wanted to do this once. It just hurt too much.

"Of course." Leigh smiled slightly. She didn't ask any more questions but got three mugs out of the cupboard and opened another one, which held their assortment of different teas.

"Choose one, Avi."

Avi chose an herbal tea that promised warmth and harmony.

"That bad, huh?" Avi turned around and smiled weakly when he saw Kevin behind him. Somehow he hadn't heard him, probably because he was too lost in his thoughts.

"Mmhm..." the bearded man hummed. He shrugged his shoulders. "Just a shitty day. How's Leila?"

"Asleep. Finally" Kevin replied. "And if we get lucky, she'll sleep right through the night.

Avi managed to smile slightly. "She does now?"

Kevin nodded. "Yes. Not every night, but more regular than before."

"That's good... so you finally get to have some time together with Leigh..." Avi faltered. "Which I am interrupting... sorry, I can leave..."

"No!" Leigh said immediately. "You're not interrupting anything." She smiled at the bearded man as she poured boiling water into the three mugs.

"True. You need a friend and here we are" Kevin said. "Now, shall we go to the living room with our tea and you tell me why your day has been that bad? Although I might have an idea, looking at the food you brought..."

"Yeah..." Avi looked at the oven once more, but Kevin shook his head.

"It'll take another ten minutes to reach temperature" he explained.