Say Hello For Me

t h i r t y - e i g h t || friends 'til the end

Before Liam leaves, he turns around in his step and heads back over to Vy who is completely unaware of his intentions. For the last time, he wraps his arms around her body even though he knows that it's going to take more than just a hug to fix her broken heart. He contemplates whether it's appropriate to address Nessa, his eyes locking with hers from across the room. The golden specks in her eyes scream caution, so they leave it at wordless glances.

"Damn it. I'm such a mess," Vy curses, smacking her forehead. "I forgot my pillow in my car. I'll be right back. Would you mind pausing the movie? We're getting to my favorite part."

"Yeah," Nessa says, reaching for the TV remote on the counter. She's slightly taken aback by Vy's demeanor—the way she's acting like nothing's changed when in reality, everything had.

When more than ten minutes have passed and Nessa still hasn't seen Vy walk through the front door, she grabs her keys and an umbrella before heading to the ground floor. As she pushes the front door open, she realizes that the umbrella wasn't needed after all. The ominous clouds have cleared, only a drizzle remaining.

The hurricane has passed them.

Nessa spots Vy's car almost instantly after stepping onto the pavement, a skill she's sharpened after years of hitching rides and karaoke singing to the radio in the morning. The faded red paint of Vy's sedan is almost impossible to miss even with the dim streetlights. When she reaches the parking spot, she knocks gently on the window.

Behind the glass, there's a dark silhouette. Vy leans forward and unlocks the side door from the inside.

"Do you mind if I join you?" Nessa asks, poking her head inside the car.

Instead of saying anything, Vy scoots over and makes room in the back of her sedan, the car she's had since she was a sixteen year old girl still trying to navigate the perils of the complex world. At twenty-one, two months from being twenty-two years old, she's still trying to figure out the world, the people around her. Some things will never change.

"You've been out here for a while now."

"Sometimes I just like to listen to the rain fall," Vy says, staring outside the window at the passing night. "We can't really hear it from inside your apartment since you don't live on the top floor, but it's quite relaxing when it's not accompanied by thunder. Listen."

Huddled in the back of Vy's car, the both of them listen to raindrops fall steadily, each drop colliding with the roof at different instances. It's like multiple heartbeats.

"I don't think I could ever handle living on the top floor," Nessa realizes. "What if there was a fire? How would I ever make it downstairs in time?"

"Your apartment building only has three stories, Nessa," Vy reminds her, laughing at Nessa's fear of heights and building fires.

"I know I keep asking, but are you okay?"

"I will be," she promises. "We've never liked the same guy before, Ness. In the seven years we've known each other, we've always had our types. I always had a thing for boys that were never good for me in the first place and you . . . you were waiting for your match. Liam's a good guy, though. He'd be good for you. You'd be good for each other."

"Do you remember the guy I told you about from AskAway?" The question immediately grabs Vy's attention. "The one whose girlfriend was cheating on him with his younger brother."

"How could I forget that? It was k-drama potential!"

"Do you remember his name?"

"Didn't it start with an L or something? Was it Lionel? Linus? Li-Liam? Oh my God. Was it Liam?"

"His name is Liam," she replies. "Our Liam."

"Holy shit," Vy shouts, shaking Nessa back and forth by both of her shoulders. "You're basically living in a k-drama right now, Ness. Why doesn't anything like this happen to me? Why do I have to be so boring? The highlight of my life has literally been leveling up on PokemonGo, and I've been stuck on this next one forever."

"You're anything but boring, Vy."

"Well, what are you going to do now? Do you love him back?"

"No!" Nessa responds a little too quickly, pushing any second thoughts past her field of vision. "Of course not. That wouldn't make any sense! I don't even know his favorite color. How could I possibly love someone if I don't even know their favorite color?"

"His favorite color is forest green. It looks like the problem is solved!"

"Not solved."

"Nessa, you don't need to lie to me about this. I'm happy for you."

"But I'm not lying to you. At least I don't think I am."

"Then you're just lying to yourself."