Adore

Chapter 8

"Do you still have some of my clothes at your place?" I slumped in my seat.

"Yeah, I do. What happened?" My friend asks.

"None of your business," I snap.

"The one person that I know has always been happy is sitting in my car acting like she's been forced into privacy, into a cage," his voice is low and slow and he speaks but I stay silent. "You've always been like an open book, always talking about your problems when you're hurt."

"Fuck, why did I even call you!" I yell, sitting up now. My focus remains steady out the window in front of me.

"Because no one knows you like I do."

"Did. Like you did."

"So you're saying I don't?"

"People change."

"You haven't," his voice is still calm. "I'm taking you to get some drinks."

"I don't want drinks."

"You'll thank me later."

"Take me back to your place. I want to sleep."

"Nope, drinks first."

"Don't you have some at your place?"

He stays silent for the rest of the ride until we pull up to this ratty old bar. Not just any ratty old bar though. It had some significance to me but I pushed it away to grow dust in the corner of my mind. I marvel at it from my seat in his car, remembering the time I've spent here. I feel a breeze hit me breaking me from my trance. "Come on," he holds his hand out to me and I take it. "You remember this place?"

"Why did you bring me here?" I whine as we walk through the doors.

"Old times sake, I guess." He lead me over to the bar where an older man was standing.

"I didn't think I'd see you two around here again," the man says placing two drinks in front of us. "At least, not together." Between the three of us we exchange smiles. "I still got your drinks memorized," he pushes the drinks a bit closer to us. I take mine and manage to drink about three-fourths of it. "How've you been, Audrey?"

"I've been good. I got my shit back together, working two jobs right now. They're bringing in pretty good pay," I nod to the man.

He raises his brows. "Is that why you don't come around?" I nod again. "You know, if you're ever looking for a third job or some extra money, you're always welcome here."

I laugh at his offer. "I can barely handle college drunks."

"What brings you back here?"

"Him," I say pointing to the guy next to me.

The bartender refills my cup and I down that as quickly as the first one.

"I told you, you could use a drink," my friend laughs in my ear.

"Shut up," I scowl.

"Still dysfunctional as ever I see?" The bartender pipes back in, earning a laugh from the two of us.

"We never were," I manage to say.

++++

I sprawl out onto the couch back at my friends place and he walks past me into his kitchen. "Liam," I call. "I'm ready to talk."

"No, you're not," he calls back to me.

He was right. I didn't want to talk still. Damn, he knows me too well. I hung around him for too long. I met him at that bar we went to tonight. I wandered in there on my first day in California and he was the first person I met. The bartender was right. We are dysfunctional and two people like us shouldn't get along but we do. It's how our friendship worked out.