Unexpected

Wedding plans

Chapter 9

Sora slept surprisingly well that night, though that may have been due to the half bottle of Nyquil she drank when she got home that night. Her limbs felt heavy and she was groggy, on the plus side her stomach seemed to have calmed down, but she wasn't taking any chances and decided to skip breakfast that day. She slowly made her way to the bathroom to brush her teeth and noticed the dark circles under her eyes yet again, and she did look a little pale, at least the crew had a day off, she was sure some could use the recovery time.

Sora put on a light green t-shirt and a pair of gray shorts; she dug her sneakers out of the bottom of her closet and tied her hair back into a ponytail. Having a cold was no excuse to slack off so she decided to go for a run; maybe the exercise would actually help. The weather was beautiful but that was a given considering it was the first week of July in southern California. Though it was still relatively early in the morning the heat was still pretty intense; Sora had barely gone a mile down the beach and she was doubled over trying to catch her breath. Her head was pounding again and she began to question whether or not it was a good idea that she had gone running that morning.

Oh well, she thought, I need to stay in shape, cold or not. And she continued running. She made it about another mile when she saw another runner in the distance. She couldn't quite tell who it was. She brought her eyes back down to the ground and continued running, counting the miles in her head.

"Sora?" She heard someone call in a thick accent. She looked up and realized that the other runner was closer than she thought. The other runner's long platinum hair shone in the sunlight from its ponytail. Annette smiled as she slowed to a stop.

"Hello Annette." Sora said with a tight smile. She looked positively radiant even when jogging and Sora was sure she looked like Hell warmed over.

"We missed you at ze party last night." She said with her French accent, Annette was learning English very quickly but her French still hindered her pronunciation a bit.

"Oh, yeah, I left a little early…" Sora said, suddenly the sand seemed very interesting.

"Why is zat?" She asked, her eyebrows furrowed. She stepped a little bit closer.

"I was feeling a little unwell." Sora brought her gaze back to meet Annette's.

"Are you okay now?" She looked genuinely concerned.

"I'm fine." Sora smiled for real this time. She just couldn't think badly of Annette. "I don't want to keep you from your run, so I guess I'll leave first." Sora said with another small smile and a quick wave.

"Wait." Annette said, causing Sora to pause in her tracks. Sora turned back to Annette, the French girl shifted from one foot to another, she almost seemed unsure of what she wanted to say, "Well, you see… How do I say zis," She muttered to herself.

"Yes?" Sora looked at Annette expectantly as the blonde tried to put together a sentence.

"I was wondering if you might like to join Leon and I for lunch uh, today?" She smiled and stared at Sora, waiting for an answer.

A cold feeling spread through Sora's chest. So they had a date, she should have expected this. The cold feeling slowly changed to a familiar tightness that she seemed to be feeling pretty often lately. Her nose started to sting and her throat began to hurt, a sign that she was near tears, though she couldn't quite understand why. Her vision got a little blurry.

"I'm sorry, I can't," Sora said quickly, not wanting to shed tears in front of Leon's girlfriend. "I have plans," she added hastily.

"Okay," Annette seemed a little disappointed, "Zen we shall have a, how you say, rain check?"