Twelve Days of Hawtness

Day 8 | Before the Mountain (1) | Emily S Hurricane

I

Lyla had been away for two weeks, and I missed her. She was going to be overseas until the end of May, which was three weeks away, and I didn't know how much longer I could hold it together. I was happy for her—this research project was a great opportunity for her. But this was the longest we'd spent apart since that one time her parents forced her to go on vacation one summer in high school. And the guys and I had missed her so much that Archer stole his dad's car and we drove five hours to see her. We got in so much shit for that... but it was worth it.

Stupid Sapphire, I thought to myself as I scrubbed a dish with more vigor than I maybe needed to. You can survive without your best friend for a little while. Why are you so co-dependent?

The other ridiculous thing was that I still had Archer and Damien. I mean, they were around most of the time and even though they shared an apartment a block away from mine and Lyla's, it was almost like they lived at our place. Really Lyla should have been the one going crazy without the three of us. I still had the guys around.

But the world just never felt right unless the four of us were all together.

The guys felt it too, I knew. Archer had started probably twenty books in the last two weeks, and instead of finishing them, just left them laying around to grab new ones. Damien had spent a ridiculous amount of time at the gym, more so than usual. We were all out of sorts without our lady, our rock.

It sucked.

My laptop bleated a notification and I leaned out of the kitchen as far as I could without dripping soapy water all over the floor. The screen displayed a picture of Lyla making a ridiculous duck face and I giggled.

I dried my hands and darted into the dining room, leaning over to hit the accept button for her video call.

"Hey, bitch, miss me?" Lyla asked, her smirking face filling the screen. I rolled my eyes and picked up the computer, carrying it into the kitchen with me. I set her on the counter so that I could still look at her while I finished up the dishes.

"Oh, you know, life goes on," I replied with a shrug.

She barked a laugh. "Right, I'm sure you're just going on with life as normal and not thinking about me at all," she batted her long eyelashes at me and I wrinkled my nose.

"Nope, not at all," I said, realizing that Archer or Damien must have told her how lame I'd been since she left. Too much cleaning, too much working, not enough playtime. "So, how's it going in Venice? You getting a lot of sightseeing in?"

"Ha, no, not really." She shook her head, dark hair flapping back and forth with the motion. Her cinnamon skin almost seemed to glow in the sunlight streaming in through her window. "All work and no play makes Lyla a dull girl." She stuck her tongue out and I pulled the plug from the sink as I put the last plate in the drying rack.

"Poor baby," I said, pouting at her as I rinsed the sink. "I have like zero work to do without you messing up the apartment all day long."

"Oh, now you're just being a brat." She clicked her tongue. "I think you're going to have to pay for that, naughty girl."

I rolled my eyes and dried my hands before planting them on my hips. "Yeah, I'd like to see you make me, all the way from Europe." Anticipation fluttered in my belly. Maybe we could make the next three weeks interesting, after all. Promises of punishment and anticipation for her return could turn from agony to something a little warmer given the right mindset.

"Is that a challenge?" she raised a perfectly sculpted brow, her dark eyes twinkling with mischief. The apartment door clicked open, and I realized multiple things in that moment.