Selcouth

32.

Mallory

"I did not have a crush on him!" I explain to Joey as we walk out of the grocery store.

"You so did. Every time you both were in the store you guys couldn't keep your eyes off of each other." She fires back. Well, she might be right. But I'm not going to tell her that.

"Whatever. We should head back or else Rosie will freak." I retort and she laughs at the comment.

Joey is the youngest of them all. She's twenty-five. The next sibling is Mike, the one I'm supposed to have a crush on. Which again, I don't. Mike would now be twenty-seven. He arrives a little later but he should be there by now.

Then there are the twins, Ross and Phoebe. Let's say I'm not the only friends' fan around here. And then the oldest sibling is, of course, the wisest one, fucking Chandler.

Man's a fucking lawyer.

Chandler Bing and Chandler are actually so much alike. Their humour, their interest, and a lot of other things.

We pass a street that still gives me nightmares. This is my street. The street my house is built in. The street where lived. The streets I see in so many nightmares I still have from then I lived here in that house.

I take a deep breath before I take my eyes away from the street, fear street. If a street would be a horror story, it would be this street for me.

Joey puts her arm around my shoulder. She knows. She always has, I allowed Rosie to tell her and it was quite helpful. So right now as we pass fear street she knows exactly what is going through my mind. She knows how scared and mad I am.

Maybe it was a bad idea to walk here, but to be honest, I wanted to see it. I needed to, I needed to see the how of terror and the house I grew up in. I wonder how he's doing. I shouldn't, but I care for him. I hope he's okay.

When the street is out of my sight I dive back to Joey and try to get another conversation out of our walk. It's never awkward, but my mind just seems so empty right now like I can't even speak anymore.

"It's okay." I say after seeing Joey look at me with a concerning frown formed on her face, knowing she is probably very worried about how I feel.

"You sure?" She asks me as we cross the street.

"Yeah, don't worry about it." I inform her, and she nods and wipes her worried expression off of her face and a smile soon appears.

I see an Italian man walking on the other side of the street, which reminds me of something. Well, of course, it reminds me of Mateo, but I told him I'd text him when I'd land. I landed hours ago and I didn't text him back.

I quickly grab my phone from my back pocket and I look at the time. It's almost 6 pm. Should be somewhere in the morning right now over there, so I'll just send him a quick text not to bother him.

We have a group chat with the four of us, so I'll send the message in there so I'll take the worry away from all the three men and not only from Mateo.

Me: Hi guys, I arrived in Australia earlier today :)

As I'm about to put my phone back into the back pocket of my jeans I hear a sound coming from my phone, assigning that I have a message.

Elijah: Good girl. Are you alright?

I can just see his worried face right through this screen, he's so obvious about it but I really like that about him. He's very considerate.

Mateo: Your flight arrived hours ago, why didn't you text then? I was fucking worried.

Me: Sorry