Summer Nights -- Bojan Cvjetićanin

xiv

Bojan's pov:

I arrived at the airport fairly early. Our flight was leaving in two hours, Kris and Jure were already here too. I stepped out of my car, grabbing my bags out of the trunk. I walked up to them, Kris was looking pretty grumpy. He doesn't like early alarms. We greeted each other. None of us say much, as it's 7 in the morning. 

I still haven't told Kris. Nor Jan. I haven't told Nace or Jure either, but they don't even know about the whole story. They don't know that Florence is the girl that broke my heart. I don't even know if they remember her. They'd seen her in the cafe that first day, but they never knew her name, or saw her properly. I wonder how they would react if I told them. It's weird to tell them now, too. We've already known her for two weeks, so why would I suddenly bring it up now? 

They don't talk much about the girl anymore. The first year they'd bring her up constantly. They would point at random girls and ask me if it's her, or just make jokes about how she broke my heart. It would make me mad, which they found funny. Eventually they stopped. I don't remember when or why, they just did. 

As if she could read my mind, Florence walked up to us. She was holding on to the strap of her backpack, I noticed she does that a lot. When she saw us, her smile grew. It hadn't changed much, except her eyes didn't light up as much as they'd used to. I couldn't figure out why exactly. 

She hadn't changed much in general. Her hair was a darker shade of blonde, but I could imagine it was the lack of sun in the winter. Her features looked more grown up, her face lost a bit of baby weight. Not that she used to have much of it. She'd gotten more piercings in her ears. Where she used to have one in both, she now had four in both, a few in different spots. I'm pretty sure she also got a tattoo, although I couldn't see it very well. I haven't seen her in things other than sweaters and long pants, which makes sense as it's winter. The tattoo is one on her ancle, but I'm not yet sure what it is, I've only seen a flash of ink. 

Florence waved at us, Jure and I waved back. "Goodmorning." She greeted. Kris grunted something in response. "Not a morning person, huh?" She asked him with a grin. "Goodmorning. No, he isn't. None of us are." I chuckled. "You seem pretty cheerful for such early hours." Florence commented. She looked at me with a perceptive look in her eyes. "I prefer nights, but I have had coffee, I'm guessing Kris didn't." I smiled at her, she smiled back, but her eyes didn't seem to be joining the smile. 

She looked tired in general, her hair was tied up in a loose bun, and she had dark circles under her eyes, although she'd attempted to cover them up with make-up. Why was she wearing make-up to an airport this early? She looked good, that wasn't the problem. It's just interesting that she'd wake up even earlier to put on make-up, when I was pretty sure she didn't care if we saw her without. We'd hung out multiple times when she wasn't wearing any make-up, or at least less than this. 

Florence turned around, which pulled me out of my thoughts. Mark, Jan and Nace walked up to us. They all greeted us, some of them more cheerful than others. We all walked in together, Nace and I were walking in the back. I watched as Florence was talking about something with Mark. I suddenly noticed that she brought the same backpack as five years ago, and still brought both that and another bag. 

We got through security fairly quick, and dropped off our luggage. Kris and Jan went to get coffee for all of us, the rest of us sat down on one of the benches there. I sat next to Florence. Mark, Jure and Nace all sat on a bench across from us. Mark and Nace were chatting, Jure was on his phone. So was Florence. She had taken off her coat, she was wearing a green wool sweater that looked very soft.

"How many books did you bring this time?" I asked Florence, soft enough that the guys wouldn't hear me. She looked up from her phone, her face not hiding her confusion. "Sorry?" She asked. "How many books did you bring this time?" I said again, it looked like it finally clicked in her brain. "Oh," She said, the kind smile on her face slightly dropped before she put it on again, but I noticed. "I brought two." She told me.