Somewhere Else

Chapter 18: The Night Is Young (ii)

"You're smiling," Zuzi observes. "Who are you texting?"

Frederik laughs. "Who else?"

I put down my phone, feeling the heat in my cheeks and willing it away. "What? I'm not."

"You are," Priscilla says, but she sounds a bit more subdued than the others, who have all adopted a teasing tone when it comes to Aksel.

"How is it going with him?" Zuzi wants to know.

I shrug. "Nothing is 'going'," I say, turning to pick up one of Priscilla's bottles of ginger ale. While the others have brought beer for our Friday night gathering, she has prepared ginger ale for the both of us. "We're just texting. We're friends now."

"Sure," Zuzi turns to Frederik, raises an eyebrow, and laughs.

"Okay," I roll my eyes. "We're trying to be friends now. It's not that easy, I admit, but it's not what you all think."

The problem, though, was that we were never friends – not really. Back in Edinburgh, we had started off almost hostile to each other, before it had morphed into a fling of sorts. After that, we had transitioned straight into a long-distance relationship, right up until our break up.

We have never been friends, and it shows.

How are you? he would text.

I'm okay, I would reply. How are you?

Fine.

And then we would come to a standstill. Even so, he always keeps texting. And I keep replying.

"I don't even know what we are talking about anymore," I say. "It's like we're talking about nothing. But, somehow, we're still texting."

Ludo snorts.

"What?" I turn to him, but he just shakes his head and takes a swig of beer.

"You kids figure it out," is all he says.

"You're such an old man," Zuzi laughs, distracted from teasing me for a moment.

"I'm past thirty," Ludo says, "I've earned the right to act like one."

Now it's Zuzi who is rolling her eyes.

"It sounds like neither of you want to stop talking to each other," Zuzi says.

I shrug again.

"Is this really the best way to get over someone, though?" Priscilla asks.

"No way," Zuzi says. "I could never get over someone I'm still talking to regularly."

"I could," Frederik says. "I'm still friends with a few of my exes."

"A few of your exes," Zuzi repeats, the disdain in her voice oozing through her words. "How is that possible?"

"It's not a big deal." Frederik shrugs. "Just because we didn't work well as a couple, doesn't mean we don't like each other as friends."

"Maybe it's a nordic thing," I say. "I think Aksel feels this way, as well."

This time, Ludo isn't the only one who snorts.

"Maybe it is a nordic thing," Frederik says. "We're quite relaxed about such things. It's completely fine to stay friends with someone you used to date."

"Maybe, but that's different from Emi's situation," Zuzi interjects.

"What? How is it different? It obviously didn't work out between us, but we can still be friends."