KEEP DRIVING - H.S

Chapter 27

December 22 2021, Los Angeles

"LET'S DO KARAOKE!" Rudy begged. "It'll be fun! I'll even let you do Taylor Swift."

Alliah sighed, nodding. She yelled over the music, "Fine! But I will sing Taylor Swift and Taylor Swift only."

Rudy whooped, patting Alliah on the arm before disappearing into the crowd of people. Meanwhile, she simply stood there, looking for someone she recognized.

And then Alliah saw her. She didn't even hesitate to make her way through the insane amount of people in the room, and managed to get to her destination. Alliah tapped her on the shoulder.

"Alliah!" Sarah exclaimed, hugging Alliah. "It's been so long! What are you doing here?"

"'M here with a friend of mine, you?"

Sarah nodded. "Invited by a friend of a friend."

Alliah smiled. "If I'd known you were in LA, I would've called you up! We could've gone out for lunch or something."

"I'm going to be here a while, so we should definitely plan something."

Alliah felt someone tapping her shoulder, and she whirled to find Rudy with Madelyn in tow. Rudy whispered into Alliah's ear, "Some of us are going out to some food trucks nearby, want to come with?"

"No thanks, I think I might stay here a while," Alliah said, and she glanced at Madelyn, "Can you drive Rudy home? 'Cause I'm the one with the car, but, y'know..."

Madelyn smiled. "Yeah, of course, no problem."

"You'll be alright, yeah, Rudy?" Alliah double-checked.

Rudy nodded. "Yep, you?"

"Perfect, I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Have fun!"

***

"But then he ended up jumping off of the roof!" Sarah said, laughing in bewilderment.

After a while of standing around in the crowd of people, they'd made their way to the porch that wrapped around the house, so they could talk without trying to yell over the music.

"I mean, ridiculous."

Alliah laughed. "When was this?"

"It was the day before the New York show," Sarah explained. She furrowed her brow. "Actually, Harry called you after he jumped from the roof."

Alliah frowned, racking her brain for a memory of Harry calling her. They hadn't talked since... well, since their fight a month ago. "He did?"

Sarah nodded. "Called, but you didn't pickup so he left a voicemail. I heard the whole thing, he just told you the story of how he jumped off the roof, and said not to be angry at him."

"Did he apologize or something?"

"No, nothing like that, just the roof thing," Sarah answered, too tipsy to process Alliah's insistence. She took another swig of her beer.

Alliah scrunched her nose up, throwing her head back in exasperation. "I never check my voicemails, that's the problem."

"Mhm. So have you talked to Harry much?"