STORY OF THE CHUBBY

STORY OF THE CHUBBY 49

'Now are you sure you're not too tired for this?' I asked Alex as I started my car and pulled off the curb and into the busy street.

'Are you kidd'n me?' she asked me, looking out of her window. 'I'm anyth'n buh tired!'

'I shouldn't have gotten you that 7up,' I murmured. 'I shouldn't even have allowed you to eat my caramel popcorn. The doctor said...-'

'Blah, blah, blah,' she cut me off with a laugh as she turned to switch on the radio and browse through the stations. 'I had fun. Tha's all tha' matters!'

I smiled reluctantly. 'I guess you did.'

She jumped up excitedly when she heard Omen by Disclosure ft Sam Smith playing.

'...I was blinded, I'd not envisioned. The same face in a different frame...' we sang at the same time then laughed at how bad we'd sounded.

'I wuved tha movie,' she said after a while. 'I mean...I'll oways wuv the Faul' in our stars...but Paper Towns was ah-mazin'!'

I chuckled at her enthusiasm, 'Yeah, because it didn't make you cry.'

'You cried, too!' she retorted.

I stuck out my tongue at her.

'Real mature, Gwacie,' she laughed, before coughing a little.

'Are you okay?' I asked in concern. 'We should just head straight home-'

'Shuh up, Gwacie! It was jus' a cough,' she said, rolling her eyes, frustrated.

I frowned a little. 'You need to understand that we are just concerned.'

'Yeah,' she sighed. 'I know.'

We stayed quiet for a few minutes, the radio filling up the silence, before she spoke up again.

'Heard from Chwis?'

I felt mt heart clench the tiniest bit and my frown deepen. 'Nope.'

'Oh,' she said sadly. 'Are you mad at him?'

I thought about it for a minute as i switched lanes. Was as I mad at Chris? He'd left without saying anything to anyone except his ex and he hadn't bothered to contact anyone since Thursday. I was between worried and hurt and angry really.

Worried that he wasn't okay. Hurt that he hadn't told me he was leaving but he'd told Debby. Angry that he'd told Debby of all people. Don't get me wrong...I don't exactly hate Debby. But I don't exactly like her so much either. I couldn't help it. The girl was his ex and was almost everything I wasn't. I hated how I felt when I compared myself to her. That couldn't be helped either.

'I am. I'm not sure...I'm sad and mad at the same time,' I said with a shrug.

'So you're smad,' she said with a giggle.

It took me a little to realize she'd been quoting Oh from the movie Home. I was sad-mad. Smad.

'That's right, silly,' I said laughing, reaching out to tickle her a little bit.

***

I'd been to Sammy's place twice and the size of he house always stunned me.

I heard Alex release  a low whistle as I stopped the car and I laughed. 'Impressive, right?'

'Def'nitely,' she muttered, opening her door, her mouth wide open as she continued to take in the huge mansion. Sammy's dad was from old money and also owned a chain of restaurants around the state while her mum was a successful lawyer. Therefore, when I say Sammy was rich...I mean just that. But you wouldn't know that by looking at her. She was definitely the most humble person I knew.