Shivley: A Now United Story

Ch 38: Old Friends

Her Lyft was now forty minutes away. LA traffic really was awful. She decided to head back down main street for a quick walk while waiting for the car. As she was walking, she saw a crowd gathering on the street and paparazzi standing by with their cameras.

Normally Shivani would've wanted to catch a glimpse of what celebrity was being surrounded, but right she wasn't feeling great. Taking a step back with Noah was exactly what she needed to do because it wasn't fair to him that she wasn't ready for a relationship yet. Besides, it would hurt less if they ended things now than if they took things further and ended up not making it into Now United.

She decided to cross the street to avoid the crowd. Instead of paying attention in front of her, she was looking at the crowd that seemed to have doubled in size in the past ten seconds. 

"Shivani!" She heard a voice calling her and she turned to see Hina running towards her. What was Hina doing here?

"Hey!" Shivani walked a little faster to meet Hina halfway. She wasn't really sure what she should be ready for given how they had left things.

Hina pulled her into a big hug. "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry? I'm the one that should be sorry. I'm really sorry Hina for everything. For being an awful friend to you this week, for blowing up your relationship with Ylona, for being so caught up with my own drama...I'm sorry." Shivani could feel the tears starting to come up.

When they pulled away they both started laughing because of how pathetic they both looked. Both teary-eyed and standing across from a giant crowd of paparazzi hugging each other. 

"You have no reason to be sorry for Ylona. What she did was her fault and I told her that when we broke up. Don't worry I didn't say anything about Bailey...I just said that we were too different and we needed to end things."

"How did she take it?"

"Honestly? Not well. But I was prepared and I'd already ordered a Lyft before breaking up with her so as she started having her meltdown I ran out and into the Lyft and came straight here."

"How'd you know I'd be here?"

"Bailey texted me. Actually he's been texting me all day to check up on me and in case I wanted to come out and join you guys. I didn't know exactly where you'd be, but I was just about to call you when I saw you walking while looking in the wrong direction which is sort of a hazard by the way."

Shivani laughed. "Yeah I was trying to see which famous person was over there...," she gestured across the street, "...but actually I was just waiting for my Lyft because I was heading home to come see you. I felt bad that I left you alone after everything."

Hina smiled. "You know honestly I was pretty mad at you for ditching me for Bailey then Noah then Bailey and then Noah and...I've lost track of the order by now, but then I realized it's not like I wasn't completely wrapped up with Ylona, so to speak."

"I am really sorry about that. Back home whenever my friend Kinjal started dating anyone, she would always ignore me and I always promised myself I wouldn't do that to a friend. And then I did exactly that. Wow I'm a bad friend."

"I'm a bad friend too." 

"Want to spend the day together?"

Hina nodded. "Absolutely. I need this and I promise that I will listen to you talk about Noah or Bailey or whoever is taking up all your brain space right now if you promise to not bring up Ylona at all."

"Actually...I sort of just ended things with Noah and things with Bailey have never really been a thing so how about we agree to not bring Noah or Bailey or Ylona today?"