Living In The Past

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

This is a dream, this is a dream, Yasmine repeated over and over in her head. There was no way that person was their neighbor. It just couldn’t be.

            “Aaron?!” Hailey gasped, looking over to Yasmine to see how she was dealing with it. She knew Yasmine still had somewhat “feelings” for Aaron. The girls had told each other everything. “You live here?” ‘

            Aaron stood there in a black t-shirt, black pants, and a black watch on his wrist and some black shoes with the logo Vans. Had he gone goth? Well he had always had a unique style. “Er, yeah, don’t you remember Yasmine?”

            All heads turned to Yasmine. “What?!” she yelled. “What do you mean? I’ve never been here.” She waved her hands trying to push down the issue. She didn’t want James to think they secretly met or something behind his back.

            “Remember the group project thing?” Aaron reminded her.

            “Oh, that,” Yasmine said, remembering now. She blushed thinking he meant she had come over and they had hooked up or something. “Oh yeah! You do live here. I knew this place was familiar!”

            “So,” James started, jaw clenched, “he’s going to be your neighbor?” He glared at Aaron, sending grenades through his eyes. “Your ex boyfriend will be living across from you?”

            “James,” Yasmine said, tugging his hand then grabbing it. “Its not like that.” She looked at Aaron. “I have no feelings for him … at all.”

            For a moment, Aaron’s face fell but quickly was masked by indifference before anyone could notice. “Same here,” he replied coldly. “I have a fiancé.”

            Silence fell upon them. There was one word to describe the moment: awkward. It felt like a cliché soap opera moment where everyone just stood there, staring at each other. You could almost here the dramatic music in the background.

            “Well,” Hailey piped up, breaking the silence. “We got to go move in now. See you around, Aaron.”

            “Of course,” Aaron nodded, sending a last glare towards James before closing his apartment door and walking down the hall, and into the elevator. He waved goodbye before the elevator doors closed on him.

            “Well, that was pretty awkward,” Hailey said. She pushed open their apartment door open. “Well, come on guys. Are you going to just stare at the walls all day? We have things to unpack.”

            Yasmine nodded and tugged James along, who was visibly mad.

“And this is the last one,” Hailey announced, pulling out a vase wrapped in bubble wrap from one of the cardboard boxes. “This is the last thing.”

            “Thank god,” Yasmine said. “I’m so tired.” She plopped down on the couch next to James and put her head on his shoulder.

            “Hmm, where should we put this?” Hailey asked. “We don’t even have flowers.”

            “Oh!” Yasmine suddenly jumped up. “I have the flowers James gave me at graduation. I’ll go get them from his car.” She ran over and grabbed the car keys from the kitchen counter before dashing out the door. “Be back soon!”