Where did you go?

14

I sipped on my water, salty about the lemon in it because lemon water sucks ass.

'You want to apologise to me?'

I sighed and let go of the straw. 'Eden, you were insensitive and, yes, a dick. But that doesn't mean I'm not in the wrong, too.'

'Oh,' she said, her tone surprised. 'Well, I'm sorry, too.'

I nodded. 'Cool. Glad we got that ironed out.'

'Is it, though? Ironed out?'

'I just said it is. Unless you've got something on your mind?'

She bit her lip. 'I know I was out of line, Milo, and I've been feeling really guilty about it. I shouldn't have gone all the way with Grayson all of those times and I shouldn't have rubbed your face in it and I shouldn't have locked you out of the room and I'm just really...really...sorry.'

I paused, drinking it all in, and decided to take a few more sips of my gross lemony water.

'It's all water under the bridge.'

'Honest?,' she asked.

I nodded.

'Okay. Now that we've got that sorted,' she bit back a smile and leaned forward, 'Grayson and I are dating.'

I choked on my beverage. 'Sorry, you're what?'

'Yeah, I asked him out on our first official date right after him and Ethan had that falling-out. Do you know what happened with that, by the way? Gray just keeps saying that Ethan flew off the handle for no reason.'

'It was because of me. Kind of. Grayson is being weird and E isn't into it so he's staying in our room that we share.'

'You're sharing a room? Oh my god, are you twin hopping?' She was genuinely excited.

'No, I'm not twin hopping. Are you for real? We're just friends. He's completely in love with Grayson's ex, anyway.'

'No. Way. That's so wild!'

I frowned at her explanation but she continued.

'Ugh, Milo, I missed this. I know it was only, like, a day but it felt like a million years.'

'Yeah,' I lamely agreed, staring off to the side and zoning out.

Something was off. I don't know if my argument with Ethan had just sent me a bit topsy-turvy or if something here was just wrong.

I chewed my straw, thinking about what Ethan had said. He wasn't wrong. In fact, he was spot on. Well, excluding the "strangers" thing. We weren't strangers...probably.

Maybe a crucial part of our friendship was missing. Eden and I, I mean. Her excitable nature seemed more gossipy. Her gossipy side seemed more bitchy. Her funny bitchy side just wasn't funny anymore. It felt like a switch had been flipped and we no longer clicked.

Huh. Maybe that's what growing up is.

Or maybe I'm just bored of her.

Yeah. That's probably it.

~•~

Chat numero dos. Let's see if we can nail two out of three.

'This is too formal, it's skeeving me out.'

'Ethan, just...shush.'

He tilted his head back. I watched the muscles in his throat work for a bit before I snapped out of it and got back on track.