Beautifully Flawed

"I hate you!"

"Rhea....." he says breathlessly,trailing of as he looked behind me.

Following his gaze, i look over my shoulder at my friends, and their expressions snap me back to reality.

"Oh...." i mutter embarrassed.
I hop off Dray, but he pulls me against his side and holds me firmly in place.
Ace looks so shocked and confused; Mira is not so subtly checking him out; Jeff looks curious , Shawn has a small frown on his face and jake doesn't even bother to hide the look of utter disgust on his face.

Dray and i walk up to them as I'm still pressed to his side. Dray looks down at me with a knowing smile on his face, he's taller than me, but not too much.

"Umm guys...." i say before awkwardly scratching the back of my head and quickly wiping the tears that had managed to escape.
"This is Dray"i say pointing at dray with a smile on my face.
Ace reacts first, he extends his hand and dray takes it in a firm handshake
"I'm Ace,Rhea's best friend and confidant" he says with a playful smile.

" yeah, keep telling yourself that."i reply with a chuckle.

"I'm Shawn, nice to meet you.....you look very familiar though...have we met?" Shawn asks looking very confused.

" I don't think that's possible, Dray has been out of town for a few years now" i answer.

"I'm Jeff, Rhea's boyfriend, you may also know me as the love of her life" Jeff says with mock seriousness. Everyone snorts, knowing fully well that that's a horrible, horrible lie.

" yeah, and I'm Miranda....Rhea's very SINGLE friend...as in currently without a boyfriend and in NO relationship"
Dray takes her hand and offers a charming  smile. "Nice to meet you" he says , his deep voice that I'm so familiar with reverberating around us.

"Jake .....and i suppose you're the boyfriend?"  Jake says lastly, barely even managing to be polite.
At his question,Dray and i stare at each other then burst out in laughter.

"Oh my God!! Jake are you stupid?" I say managing to comport myself.

"Dray is my bestfriend....we've been best friends since we were toddlers,he's basically my brother now."
"Yeah" Dray says with a distant smile.
"Oh" is apparently all Jake can come up with at the moment.

"How's Phillip, it's been so long" Dray asks
"Dad's just fine, he's out of town for a while though"

We all finish shopping,and we are about to pay when the boys start arguing over who gets to pay. In the end they split the bill. As we're on our way to Ace's car, i turn to dray realising that i have to say goodbye once a gain to my long lost best friend.

"Don't even start, Dad's work brought him back here. So thankfully we're back in town. So no goodbyes okay?plus I'm eighteen now,that means I'm old enough to live on my own. Don't worry about losing me again Ree" i grin at the use of his nickname for me.
"Wow, that's the best news I've had in a while" i reply ,unable to wipe off the stupid smile from my face.
"I actually planned to surprise you on the weekend, i didn't think i would run into you today. I take it that you're all having a sleepover or something?" He asks as we continue strolling towards the car.

"Yeah, our school had to take an emergency break for a week, so we decided to just make it a sleepover, and look at you still being as observant as ever..............
i guess i have to go now, but we are still going to have to meet , we have so much to talk about, thankfully you know where i live"

"Definitely, so i guess i will see you around" he leans down and gives me another bear hug, God I've missed those so much, planting a quick peck on my cheek , he pulls away. With a small wave and a nod he turns around and walks to the other side of the parking lot.