Found it! [ girlxgirl ]

||TWENTY-FOUR||

It's the first day of September and it's a beautiful day.

I thought I wouldn't be able to sleep, yesterday, but I was. It was not easy to fall asleep, but once I did, it was peaceful and uninterrupted until morning.

When I was having breakfast, and talking with Sarah over the phone, telling her all about yesterday, I got a text from Avery. She asked me to meet her for lunch at a restaurant near the park.

We ordered and ate our food while having a small talk that lasted the entire time. We talked about the weather, about my flight back to the USA, about her next classes and my thesis, about her dance show that I missed... We talked about a lot of small things, never touching two subjects: what happened during the summer and what will happen from now on.

I didn't mind that, and I'm sure she didn't either. I think we both just wanted to have a nice lunch where we were able to eat what we ordered. And we did.

After lunch, we decided to eat ice cream in the park, and that's where we are now, sitting on a bench in front of the lake, eating ice cream.

She looks beautiful, as always, and I still can't believe she sitting next to me. Most of all, I still can't believe she found the energy to fight for us...or to try at least.

We're both silent, eating the ice cream and looking at the swans in the lake. We both know what's coming.

The heavy conversation can start now.

-"I've been meaning to ask you, but I feel like I don't have the right to..." I start, still not looking at her.

-"Just ask." She says.

In the corner of my left eye I can see that she turned her head to look at me, so I shifted my body and turned to face her.

-"Rose..." I let the sentence drag, hoping she'll understand me and give me the answer without having to ask.

-"What about her?" She frowns her eyebrows in confusion.

-"Is she..." I regret starting this conversation this way. I start stirring my ice cream, looking at it intensively. "...never mind."

-"Emma." She calls me out with a half-smile on her face. "If we're doing this, we have to ask the uncomfortable questions."

-"You already know what I want to ask, don't you?" My eyebrows rise, seeing the amusement in her face.

-"She's my flat mate. I told you about her before." She says, now with a full smile on her face.

-"Yeah, I knew that." Since I'm already blushing really hard, I say everything that's on my mind. "Okay, I didn't remember her name was Rose. When I saw you in the park I thought she was your girlfriend."

-"Well, she's not. And she was just being protective, I guess. I told her about us and...let's just say she's not your fan right now." She purses her lips.

-"Oh..." I think about it for a second. "Well, for now I'm just worried about how you feel about me. I'll worry about Rose later. Your turn to ask an uncomfortable question."

-"I'll just go with the flow and ask you if..." She hesitates and as she looks at me I notice sadness and fear in her eyes. "...if you left a girlfriend in Italy?"

-"No. I didn't get involved with anyone during the summer" I answer immediately. "You?"

She doesn't answer me right away, and that can only mean she's thinking about the best way to tell me that she did.

Suddenly my heart is pounding really hard. I knew this was a possibility, but having the confirmation is way more painful than I thought.

-"You can say it, Avery. I can handle it."