temptation «:|:» the weeknd

fifty-three

fifty-three

Valerie stirred the straw in her glass of water around as she waited for Zaria to arrive at the restaurant. Things had gotten serious between her and Drake since the announcement of her pregnancy so the couple decided to move into the crib he owned in Beverly Hills while he worked on new music. Even though Valerie and she had grown apart a bit, they were mutually beyond grateful to accompany each other in a new country together. It was no secret that the two girls had high hopes to revive their friendship into how it was before they stopped stripping. But, of course, there were many stops along the way preventing them from getting to their destinations.

Xenia's death was the hardest thing Zaria was ever forced to deal with and not having her best friend there to console her made things worse. She didn't talk about it enough on account of the guilt she truly felt for not being her sister's keeper. For all that, she and her sisters had been split up most of their lives yet Zaria vowed to herself that she would always protect them. She couldn't bear the pain of seeing Xenia lose herself and due to her being the oldest of siblings, she was too prideful to run to Amani for help. Now they had to live with the fact that their baby sister was gone forever and even though Amani did a great job concealing it, Zaria knew that she was deeply hurt on the inside.

Amani was usually the best at holding things together for herself, however, the girl that seemed to be so perfect had surely fallen apart. After finding out about Xenia, she became distant with her boyfriend, J. Cole and avoided taking as many appointments as she usually would. On the upside, she spent more hours on the phone catching up with Zaria as she had learnt the importance of giving loved ones their flowers while they could still smell them. Amani felt just as guilty, if not guiltier for her role of absence in Xenia's life. She felt that if she wasn't so consumed with trying to be above her sisters, things wouldn't have ended up so awful. The past was the past for a reason and she and Zaria knew they couldn't go back so it was pointless. They could only move forward and work to be better day by day.

Valerie's drug addiction and personal insecurities prevented her from being there for her childhood friends during the troubling time. Instead of staying in Toronto to confront everything going on, she figured leaving back to Montreal would be the best choice for herself. Boy, was she wrong. Thanks to her therapist, she realized running away from your problems didn't make them go away, it only made them progress. Valerie didn't deserve most of the negative things brought onto her, but one thing she always valued was a useful lesson. She needed to handle things within herself before trying to help her friends.

Their love lives were the last thing that interfered with their friendship. Both of them were in relationships with celebrities and it was new to them so it could be a bit difficult getting adjusted to. There was so much going on back in Toronto but with the girls being in LA all alone, they concluded it'd be nothing to spend more time catching up. Girl time was essential given the men they were dating. So there Zaria was, making her way into the luxurious steakhouse in Calabasas with a black off the shoulder dress that complimented her maternity figure and matching wedge sandals. Her hair was pulled up into a half-up half-down style which exposed her large gold hoop earrings and her neck was supported by a beautiful necklace that spelled 'A' in diamonds. She looked around until noticing the hand Valerie was waving in the air and proceeded to their table.

Valerie smiled, standing up to embrace her best friend with a hug before she would sit back down in their booth. "Hey, beautiful."

"Valerie, baby... Sis, I really missed you."

"I've been missing you too, Z. So much." She grabbed Zaria's hand and brushed her thumb across the back of it repeatedly, curious to how the girl had been holding up after all that had happened. "So, how is everything?"