A Different Time, A Different Place

Shivers

[A/N: Thought after last chapter's bombshell, I won't leave you hanging for too long waiting for the next one... Hope you'll enjoy!]

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Absent-mindedly she stared into the depth of the golden liquid that was failing to provide the numbing effect she'd been hoping it would while an all too happy Christmas song was blaring out of the loudspeakers. And slowly but surely she came to realize that it might have been a noble intention, trying to get out of the house and get distracted, but it had been a dumb idea nonetheless. After all, the one thing she was hoping to get distracted from sat only a few chairs away from her at the bar, looking just as miserable as she must have herself.

After an uncomfortable moment of silence, Bex sighed. „Dare I even ask?"
Lana shook her head and raised her glass to take another hearty sip. „No."

Her friend looked over to where Colin was just receiving a seemingly never-ending monologue from Sean about God knew what.

„You know, usually this would be the moment where I say ‚I told you so'. But... looking at your sour face I can't even enjoy my triumph properly, so you know what? Screw you."

When Lana didn't react at all, she sighed again, this time with a little more empathy, scooting over a little and wrapping her arm around her, giving her a squeeze.

„Is it... over?"

„What does it look like?", she mumbled.

„Well, you two hardly spoke or even looked at each other all night, while the last time I saw you, you could barely be separated, so... yeah, that would be my educated guess."

„Well then", she sighed, „I shouldn't have come tonight. This was stupid. I mean, what was I trying to prove, and to whom? That we can still be buddies, as if nothing happened? This is exactly what I was afraid of! Ruining the friendship we had..."

„Yeah, well", Bex sighed, „Again... don't wanna say ‚I told you so', but..."

„I mean, maybe we'll be that again... friends. Probably. Eventually. Just not... right now."

„May I ask... what happened? You were so in love, both of you? In Paris and when we spoke after we were back? And that was barely a month ago?"

„I know, it's just... let's just say I had a change of heart."

„You... suddenly stopped having feelings for him?"

„No, of course not."

„No, wouldn't have thought so. That's not you."

„I just remembered an old rule of mine."

She looked at her, took a deep breath as she realized what it was, nodding. „Never date a guy with kids again."

„Damn right", she replied, bitter.

„That's true, I was wondering, initially..."

„Then why didn't you remind me?", she cocked her head and looked at her sharply, almost accusingly.

„Oh, I'm sorry! I'm not your babysitter, Lana! It can hardly have been a surprise for you to find out that he has children, after all you've known both of them their entire lives. It's not my job to remind you why you shouldn't be dating someone. It's my job to let you know why -I- don't like you dating someone because it makes MY outing with my gang uber awkward, like tonight, or it might even break up the gang entirely, thank you very much for that, by the way! I'm sorry, but everything else... is on you. And for the record, I don't think you ‚forgot' that rule of yours. I think you knew, somewhere deep in your heart, but you subconsciously ignored it. Or even chose to ignore it. Which one, you know best."