Enemy Beloved

56 | all is well

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C L A I R E

Two months later:

"I'm happy to volunteer as the Godmother for the prettiest baby in this world."

"No way! Claire knows that only I can be that. Don't you, Claire?"

"That's so rude! You're already a Godmother to your niece. This one's for me."

"That's unfair. My niece doesn't even live here."

With my palms on my cheek, I look at my best friends as they throw each other relentless comebacks. They have been at it for the last 5 minutes and 20 seconds exactly, going back and forth over who gets to be the Godmother to my unborn baby. We are at Hot Cup Brews, sitting by the round table beside the fireplace. It feels like the perfect place to be in considering the weather outside is too chilly for a walk.

Sitting between Jesse and Nina, Chris looks between them too. His big brown eyes observe the two adults fighting like children. He has a milkshake in his hands, the straw in his mouth as he sips while staring. He looks at me often in between, his eyes asking me why am I not stopping my friends.

The child has a leather jacket on, along with boots that Dad bought for him. They are not even out on the market yet. The kid's little jeans-clad legs tucked inside the boots make him look eerily similar to his dead father. My parents are starting their parenting process again, forcing an image of Christopher Hill into Christopher Willows Hill's head.

I don't know what to say to him. I am actually loving the little bit of hold my friends still have between each other. We haven't been our normal selves for the last two months.

It took Nina days to finally realize the gravity of what her fianće did and now she tells us that she hates him, although I can see how her eyes spark when anyone mentions his name. Not that we do so willingly but sometimes, we have no choice but to make Nina keep attached to reality. We are afraid to let go, afraid that she will drift apart. Her pain is visible with just one look at her.

Jesse, on the other hand, is still coping with the loss of her grandma. Although she survived her first attack, she died a month later due to another. It's just her Mom and Jesse in the family now, both giving each other a shoulder to cry on.

On the table in front of me, our final year project sits inside the folder, all complete and sealed only to be opened later by our professors. Around it rests our empty cups of drinks and the cafe's menu card, making the table look cluttered.

I pucker my lips when Chris looks at me again, sticking my tongue out at him. I don't get it but there's something about the boy which makes me love annoying him. We haven't been on friendly terms yet but he gladly tagged along after I offered him a peace treaty with a chocolate bar.

I am his least-liked newfound family, according to Mom. I don't blame him though. I am still struggling to process that he is suddenly a part of our lives and that I have had a nephew for almost four years.

"Claire...Claire!" A light slap on my arm makes me look up from Chris to see Nina staring at me. "Are you listening?"

Instead of answering, I find myself studying Nina. No matter whatever excuses she gives us, she has thinned over the last two months. Ever since Noah's sentence of seven years imprisonment was passed, her last bit of feelings for him died. Before that, she was stunned to hear what had happened and didn't want to talk to me anymore. But times changed and she came along a month ago, apologizing to me while crying for him.

I only felt my heart grow heavy for her. She is my best friend and I know that she loved him truly. It wasn't a hopeless affair as she called it later. Noah freaking proposed to her. She had dreamed of marrying him and then he crushed her dreams with his bare hands. He got so blinded by his hate for Vaughn that he forgot that he was dragging an innocent in the middle of his revenge.