Moving Forward

Chapter Fourteen

I hear Charlotte slurp the end of her wine through a plastic straw, which is my excuse to get up and move. Taking off the cucumbers, I toss them onto the cutting board as I collect the wine glasses. With them in hand, I go to the kitchen and fish the bottle out of the fridge and refill them.

When I return to the lounge room, Tori and Charlotte have also discarded the cucumbers and begun a deep conversation about their partners.

I place the wine of the coffee table and resume my seat – glass of wine in hand.

"Jude can be just as annoying," says Tori. "He leaves all of his crap around the house for me to clean."

"Sounds like his brother." I giggle.

"You think that's bad?" Charlotte sarcastically laughs. "Kyle runs into the room and throws a massive fart and then pins me down." She shivers at the thought which makes me laugh. I don't think he's ever done that to me, thankfully.

"So gross," I agree.

"And he's all yours." Tori laughs.

Awhile later, my phone buzzes which catches me off guard. I grab the device from the coffee table and check the screen.

'What are you doing right now?' – Axel.

'What are you doing? ;D' – Ava.

'Nothing much, you?' – Axel.

'Maybe the same?' – Ava.

I put my phone away and settle back on the couch. Charlotte sits on her hands to avoids scratching the mask off. Tori on the other hand, she dives into a conversation about something Jude related.

"When do we get to take these off? Mines gone hard and gross," whines Charlotte.

"We can take them off now." Tori hands each of us a damp cloth to remove the face mask. As I drag the cold cloth over my skin, there's a knock against the front door. The alarm bells inside my head start ringing as I ponder who it could be. My parents have gone away for the weekend, so it can't be anything to do with them, well, I hope not.

"Who's at the door?" asks Tori.

"Hopefully a magical fairy bringing more wine," I reply.

Getting up from the couch, I walk to the front door and open it up. To my surprise, I see Axel standing on the worn out welcome sign. If my cheeks could go red, I'm sure they would, but under this layer of cracking mask, you'd never know.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"I wanted to surprise you," he admits.

"You've certainly done that." I chuckle.

"What are you actually doing?" He eyes off the face mask.

"Having a girl's night with Charlotte and Tori," I explain.

"Is that your friend?" Tori calls out.

Before I have a chance to discard Axel, Tori wanders into the room, a bright cheery smile on her now clean face. She pokes her head around the door and quietly stares down Axel. I nervously wait to the side to see what she says.

"This is Tori, Tori, this is Axel," I quickly introduce.

"It's nice to meet you," says Axel.

"You too." She grins.

"How do you know each other?" Axel questions.

"I'm Blake's ex too," she says, the answer never faulting her appearance. I suppose she's used to it by now.