We Should Talk. (Book One)

Fearless

"So you want to get back together with Avi?" Ziggy asks me, eating her French fries like they're popcorn in the climax of an action movie.

"I don't know. Maybe I do, maybe I don't."

"That's so vague; so mysterious." She says it like she loves every second of it.

"I guess it is."

"There it is! Vagueness again!"

I laugh. "I just think Avi and I need to try something not planned. That's it. Everything we've had so far was "Is this real, is this pretend?" Or "Do it because I need it for something." And I just want us to see where this goes, with no if's or but's."

She nods. "I get it. You want the Hollywood romance."

"I don't want the Hollywood romance! I just want... Something remarkable, with someone extraordinary."

"... So the Hollywood romance." She says, and I laugh.

Theo comes in the door, with Mayla on his right arm, hanging around his waist.

They come to sit with us at the usual booth.

"Hey, Z." Mayla greets her.

"Hey, May."

"Who are you?" She asks Ziggy and Theo, looking at me like I have an infectious disease.

"I'm Toby. I was at that party with you the other night..."

"Oh." She says, unimpressed. "I don't remember that night."

I really don't care. "I figured."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"What do you mean you figured?" She insists.

And as I see she demands an answer, I reply, "You were really drunk that night, so I figured you wouldn't remember anything." As I see her there, next to Theo in an intimate manner, I can't help myself. "Also, you were being nice, so you must have been really drunk." Ziggy and Theo open their eyes wide, surprised.

"I was being nice?" That's what she got out of that?

"Not really."

"Good. I have a reputation to maintain." She answers.

Ziggy drinks a sip of her water carefully, as if by doing so she were disarming a bomb; and Theo looks uncomfortable, looking around the room even though there's nothing to see.

"Two thunderstorms in one place? That's not a good combination, Ti.. You know it." The blonde girl tells Theo, and I don't quite understand what she means by that, but don't ask for an explanation.

"Anyway!" Ziggy says, trying to bring the mood up. "Tell me more about Avi." She tells me.

I look at Theo. I wish she hadn't said that in front of him.

"Oh, uh... Nothing."

"Are you and Avi getting back together?" Theo asks me leaning forward on the table so he can get closer to my face, ignoring Mayla's touch on his relaxed arm.