Evelyn's Pendant

25.

Hannah and I part ways after checking in at the university. I speed walk to my apartment, bags in hand. I fumble with my keys to get me in, and finally I get the door open, throw my bags on the ground and let out a long breath. I turn on the lights and- "SURPRISE!"

    I let out a shriek and my hands fly up to my mouth. The first face I see is immediately recognizable with her striking blue hair and big doe eyes - Mia. She blows a party horn and wears a silly cone hat. I was almost expecting more people here, but it's just her. It's honestly pretty adorable.

    "Welcome back, Lil!" she beams as I give her the biggest hug. "I was gonna invite the whole school for your arrival, but I figured you wouldn't want that kind of attention right now, plus I didn't know who to invite."

    "You're so thoughtful, Mia. Thank you!" I say as I squeeze her tiny body tight.

    She pulls away from me quickly. "Your hair!" she almost screams. I laugh and flaunt it for her. Her wide smile sparkles and she claps her hands together. I look up and notice that she decorated the whole loft with streamers and lettering that says "Welcome Back" along with balloons scattering the floor.

    "This is quite the welcome, Mia, thank you," I say sincerely. It really does mean a lot to me that she cares this much and put so much effort into my return home.

I take out my phone and take a picture of her holding two of the balloons under the Welcome Back sign.

She takes me to the kitchen and pulls out a box of pizza. Good timing - all that traveling made me hungry.

"How are you?" she asks while we eat. "Is that a dumb question? I think that's a dumb question. Never mind!"

"Relax, Mia!" I chuckle. "I'm doing okay. Glad to be back."

"Yeah, umm - speaking of, I never ended up doing what you asked me to," she admits.

"Okay... Why?"

"That group scares me, how was I going to dig up dirt on Hazel when all of them look like they could murder me in any second?"

I almost spit out my pizza. "Them? Murder? Ha!"

"I'm serious, Lil!"

I put my hand up to stop her. "It's totally okay, Mia. I'll do it myself, no worries." I give her a smile.

"I don't mean to disappoint, I know you've been going through a lot, and it's probably gonna take a lot out of you to do this but I just couldn't do it myself. I'm too much of a coward," she frowns.

I grab her by the arms. "Don't say that! I still appreciate the shit out of you. Thank you, Mia."

She smiles. "Here, let me help you unpack your stuff."

Mia and I spend the next hour unpacking. I focus on hanging up my paintings and setting up my easel as Mia makes my bed and puts away my clothes. I open up the window as it starts to get stuffy in the room from all of our hard work. Mia takes a break and checks her phone while I light a cigarette and feel the cool breeze come out of the window onto my hot face.

"Oh!" Mia exclaims.

"What?" I ask as I blow smoke out the window.

"I guess they're having a party Saturday night."

"The Dissidents?"

She nods, "That's all I know now." She puts her phone back in her pocket and goes back to folding my t-shirts.

"Hmm," I mumble and turn back to my cigarette. Tempting, I think to myself. To see Asher's face when he sees me would be priceless. I've rehearsed what I'm going to say to him almost a dozen times in my head. I'm going to tear him down and make him feel just as terrible as he made me feel; it's going to feel so damn good for me.