Somewhere Else

Chapter 19: Friends

"You have got to be kidding me," I mutter under my breath.

Is Helsinki really this small?

Almost right on cue, I hear Zuzi's exclamation behind me. "Is that––"

"No," I snap, and before she can say anything, I've lowered my head and bulldozed my way to the front of the crowd.

Where the hell are Ludo and Frederik? Now I'm standing in the way of other people, swivelling my head this way and that, in hopes of a familiar face that has nothing to do with Aksel.

I think Zuzi is still behind me, but I refuse to turn back to check.

I hope he's not still looking at me.

Someone seizes my elbow, and I jerk around wildly. It's Priscilla, and she's reaching past me to point.

"They've found a table," she says. She grasps my hand. "Come on, before we lose each other again."

"Where's Zuzi?" I ask.

Priscilla glances over her shoulder. "Shit."

"She'll find us," I say, already forging ahead. I can see the guys now – they're seated somewhere close to the toilet sign, and Ludo is waving us over. Frederik is lounging back, looking like he's ready for a beer or two.

Zuzi reaches me and Priscilla before we get to the table.

"Emi," she all but shouts in my ear. She's bouncing lightly on the back of her heels, eyes bright as if ready for a particularly interesting episode of her favourite show. "Was that––"

"Look," I interrupt, "the guys have found a table."

Zuzi shoots me a look that tells me I haven't heard the last of the topic from her, but she does at least shut up.

As we get to the others, Priscilla and Zuzi each take a chair on opposite sides of the table.

"Sit with me," Priscilla says, gesturing to the empty seat next to her. "We'll have our own alcohol-free party here."

On the other side of Priscilla, Frederik groans. "I need a drink," he says – predictably, I think to myself, pushing back against the twitch of my lips. "I'm not joining your little club."

"I'll get the drinks," I offer. Not because I really want to, but because I don't want to be there when Zuzi announces to the group that Aksel and his friends are right here.

"I'll come with you," says Priscilla, but the look on her face tells the story of her reluctance to venture into the drunken crowd.

"No, it's okay, it's faster if I go alone" I smile at her so I don't offend. "It'll be faster to squeeze through the crowd if it's just one person. Now who wants what?"

The rest begin shouting out their orders, while I try to commit them to memory.

A lager for Frederik and Ludo each, a rum and cola for Zuzi, and a ginger ale for Priscilla.

"Sure you don't need help?" Ludo asks, in a rare show of chivalry. He's already halfway out of his chair.

Waving him off, I plunge into the crowd.

It's not the worst thing to run into Aksel on a night out, I reason to myself as I head for the bar. We barely even have to acknowledge each other. Why would we? We're here with different groups of people.

Besides – in all honesty, seeing him with his friends isn't as bad as I thought it would be. It had been far more awkward sitting with them, back when Aksel and I had been together, than running into them now that we are broken up.