Paper Folds | On Hold

Gem

6.Gem-RAY

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel when my best-friend decides she's coming to Zircon for the first time, and meet my post-injured self two months after an accident.

I ought to be happy, but well, I wasn't. Mom probably thought it was because I was angry about Sara's sense of friendship since she was coming two months later, but I know Sara was held up by work. No. It was simply because I wasn't very keen at meeting people now, where my doors were left open for only one person.  

Shayne. He wasn't being able to talk to me. He kept telling me, he was being held up due to his training. The poor guy couldn't even call me up, he was so busy. I simply knew he couldn't help it, training was training, and it was so damn important. So I taught myself patience, and called myself an understanding girlfriend.

And I was tired of 'resting' at home. Two months after that stupid accident, I was more than ready to go back to the way things had been going like before. But damn, neither Scar would let me move a muscle, nor would mom. Mom had decided to stay back for as long as she wanted, while dad had gone back to Amethyst, to handle things in his business. 

I was so close to weighing my options as to whether kicking your own mom out of your apartment was accepted behavior. I was growing insane! I felt like a criminal, jailed up in my apartment, with the only missing detail an orange jumpsuit. 

I hadn't even been allowed to step out of my building, not one step. How long would I need to rest, really? My scars were now faded memories, my body jumping in anticipation to feel the outside world accept me under it's wings. But one step out of line, and they went fussing over me!

God! I wanted to jump out of my window out of sheer desperation. So, the idea of Sara coming to meet me was definitely a welcomed idea. Even now, when I should have gone and picked her up from the airport, I was holed up in my apartment with food to 'babysit', while mom and Scar had gone out to get Sara. Though a part of me was glad Sara was going to be on the other side of my door any moment, a part of me wished it was Shayne. But I had promised myself, I'd be his understanding girlfriend, so I straightened my shoulders, and went back to glaring at the cooking pie inside the oven.

And before I knew it, I was being strangled from behind.

"Ray? Am I strangling you?"

Oh. Well. Crap. I must have voiced my concerns in being strangled, aloud.

"Sara! That was a joke. We both know we were enjoying the hug."

She had an eyebrow raised, her bags strewn on the floor near her feet.

I quickly got up from my chair, and hugged Sara, who looked exhausted, but her happy smile came up into her face, just like always.

Sara just hugged me back, and well, it was in that moment that I knew I had surely missed her, and that I felt glad she was here. All my past irritation just washed away with her presence. I knew what I now felt, and it wasn't confused sadness about her not being Shayne. It was joy, in at last having the girl that could tip my world to balance with a roll of her shoulder and a couple of crass conversations. 

It was her who broke the hug, and the short moment of silence.

"God, Ray. It's been so long. Like, really fucking long! I missed you. And you've lost weight!"

I cackled, my eyes welling up with joy.

"Yeah. Quite long. Missed you too. Mom's feeding me so much, I'm sure I'll become double of what I was. Room's that way. Go get a bath, and then we'll talk over lunch. Or you can sleep the exhaustion off, and then we can talk. Just take a bath first."