Across the living room, Mia walked bare feet. The soles of her feet kissing the soft carpeted floor. With a bowl of nacho cheese dip in her hand, she plumped down beside Brienna, who was nestling a beer she almost didn't touch. It was almost as if for some reason during the entire night they hung out, the girl was flung out of space which she ultimately ignored.
"I don't know why but it feels like I haven't been around you guys in forever. I know, I know but I just feel that way," she defends before anyone could say anything
"Awww," Brienna coos, tossing a look over at Christopher who was sprawled out on the couch.
"Then I could only imagine how you feel haven't heard from Ava in a hot minute,"
It became silent for a moment as Mia's mind ran with thoughts of the girl. She'd tried not letting the little thing between Ava and herself to get to her head. Not only was she ignoring her, but all of their friends. Neither Brie nor Chris nor even Trisha had heard from her since that night at the party and that was over three weeks ago.
At work she'd taken a shift change without them knowing until they heard it from a coworker, meaning they really didn't get to see her at all.
"I don't know what her deal is," she confides and Brienna is the first to jump into care mode. She reaches out and throws an arm around her neck, pulling her closer as they snuggled together.
Brie had literally become the keeper of her sanity and her shoulder to cry on when she felt a little down and it was ironic how the universe works. Almost two years ago she was in the same position, consoling her friend over her heartbreak and tragic tale or just being present in her life. Now how suddenly the shoe had slipped on the other feet.
"I wish I could've been able to say what exactly Ava's deal is but I'm not an expert on women,"
"This has nothing to do with gender Chris. Ava is just being weird," Brienna replied softly, still keeping her arm around Mia's neck with her head laying on the chest.
"Okay." He said sitting up and fluffing his silky hair as he rang his fingers through it. "What if she's ashamed, have you thought about that?"
"Ashamed of what?"
"The whole thing Mia. What if she's ashamed that she was exposed like that? Not everyone could be as laid back as you. Some people actually have inner demons and monsters they fight with,"
Mia squinted at him, she was ready to tell him off, maybe even roast him a little but she didn't due to Brienna realizing and quickly interjects.
"Chris has a point but I don't think he placed it over correctly. What he was trying to say was maybe Ava isn't coming around because she's still uncertain about her feelings towards you and what happened that night made her ashame to face us all in general. You did say after all you were the first girl she slept with. Though it's new to her, it's not with you. The only thing that's new is you sleeping with a very close friend."
"And whoever said that was new?" Asked Mia and Brie gasped.
"Mia!!" She exclaimed covering her mouth. Christopher started chuckling, already intrigued by the sudden change of their discussion. He enjoyed hearing his friends little anecdotes about hoeing out as he no longer had any to give.
"Tell me," Brienna says playfully pushing her shoulder which causes the girl beside her to chuckle heartily.
"It was a long time ago, I was in high school."
"Whatever, just tell us,"
"Okay," Mia responds, taking a sip of her own drink before placing back on the table in front of them.
"It was my senior year of high school and this guy I had been friends with for a while decided to flirt with me in a friendly way but I took it as something else. One thing led to another and we ended up fucking the shit out of each other throughout the remainder of high school,"
"You dirty hoe," Brienna says before laughing, Christopher joined in eventually.
"Whatever! This is different. Ava isn't this guy, this is not random anymore. I actually like her but she chose to go ghost on our asses."
"Just give her time, she'll come back around eventually."
"I hope so." Answered Mia with such a real look of hope and fear within the depths of her being.
"Enough about Mia, what about Raye, when's she coming out of the hospital?"
"In a few days. I'll take some time off of work so that I could be there for her."
"She's one lucky bitch," Mia said, placing a few chips into her mouth and chewing a bit loudly.
"I wish I had what y'all had, minus the action and the guns. Scratch that, gimme the guns. I'm into that freaky shit."
Chuckling, Brienna frowned trying to garner what freaky things could possibly revolve around guns.
"What freaky things?"
"I don't know but I'd be down for all of it. I like a thug is what I'm saying, they're often very meticulous and freaky in bed."
"True," Christopher said and Brienna gazed at him. To this day he never told the rest of their friends that he was also part of a gang. They often took his attitude and way of conduct as him just being street smart but there was more to it and Brie was never going to out him, not ever. It was always going to be his decision to make only.
"See, even Chris agrees. I could only imagine what she's like. Is she freaky-freaky?"
"I'm not even gonna answer that,"
"Why not, we're bonding Brie, don't be a pussy. You basically know all the dirty things I do."
"I'm not saying anything to you,"
"I bet she is," Mia grinned so hard that it made Brie blush, together they erupted into a fit of laughter.
"But on a more serious note, I'm so happy she's okay."
"Yeah, me too. Thought for a hot second that we were going to lose her." Replied Christopher.
"If you guys felt that way could you imagine what I was going through?"
"I understand. I would've done the same things you did, the only difference was that it wasn't going to end so pleasantly. I was going to beat somebody's ass and I don't just mean that as a joke."
"Well, I did fight Luca and a few of the hospital staff which I'm not proud of by the way."
"Still not good enough, I would've bitch slapped everyone in my way for my boo."
"I know that's something you would've done for real and I admire that."
"Thank you, " Mia responded, smirking at Brie.
"At least it ended well, not only is she okay but she pro-" Brienna caught herself just in time and her smile faltered. She quickly placed her hand to her lips and glared at her friends. They were observing her with complicated stares which made the pace of her heart quicken.
"She what, promised you something, what did she do?"
"Nothing, she just promised to be extra careful."
Christopher seemed a little more sceptical of her answer and had stared at her for a while as if he genuinely knew what happened. Eventually, Mia started to glare at her the same, with squinted eyes but hiding behind it was a bubbly smile that wanted to jump out.
Throughout the entire ups and downs within the last weeks the only one who genuinely knew the severity of a lot of things was Christopher. He was the only one who knew about the attack on her sister, about the situation with Craig and her overall fear for all of them. Brienna's parents were oblivious to a lot and so were the rest of her friends and her brother Bran.
Raye wanted them to keep it that way because the amount of confusion each of them could cause would be a burden to them all. Keeping most of it hidden to avoid the unwanted drama, was necessary at this point.
Most of their little get together, they complained about the awful duties of adulthood and all the heartaches that came with it. Mia stressed that she'd been hanging on by a thin thread lately and that stripping was looking more and more appealing in her sight. Christopher seemed to be the only one holding it together perfectly, while everything that could've gone wrong in Brienna's life had already occurred but things were going to look up and she knew it.
She felt it in her heart.
