See You on the Other Side | ✓

34 | Heart to Heart

"To all the days we were together, to all the time we were apart of each other's lives, heart to heart." - Mac DeMarco, Heart to Heart

~~~

Brielle and Avery's friendship disintegrated. The confrontation happened over the phone since Avery was opposed to talking to her in person. She claimed that looking Brielle in the eye would only make her even angrier than she already was. To keep it short and simple, she wasn't trying to lose her shit so, she forfeited an upfront argument. I wasn't around to witness what happened, but I did witness the emotional aftermath.

I was able to see the cartilage that a broken friendship created. She was torn to pieces wondering how the hell a supposed good friend had attempted to disrupt something that made her happy. Furthermore, the questions that had been raised in my mind before suddenly got answered.

Brielle's mean demeanor had been a front. She was only nice to me because she had a crush on me.

Now it was just me and Avery against what the world threw at us. Based on the beauty I'd seen in her, I thought she'd be more popular, but I was wrong. According to her, she was known within dance and school, but never really fostered friendships with anyone. Just a lot of acquaintances and as evident through Katelyn, a few enemies too.

In the absence of Brielle, that Saturday became a day at the retirement home. Saturday night was going to belong to Avery's parents. I was absolutely ecstatic about the latter obviously, but that was to come later.

Avery and I walked into the old folks' home with our hands locked. Allowing my hand to leave hers wasn't on my mind. Once again, she'd brought me comfort that I didn't know I needed. She calmed anxiety that I didn't even know was there. For some reason, this building was giving me a sense of discomfort. I questioned myself about why I was feeling that way and I couldn't find the answer.

"Is everything okay?" Avery asked, looking down at the tightening grip of my hand. "You seem nervous."

"I'm fine. My nerves are just all over the place."

"Aw, why?" She questioned. "Sylvie's not gonna kill you for dating a black girl."

I laughed, not even letting "That wasn't even a thought in my mind, but now that you say that, that just makes things worse."

"C'mon, Adrian. I'm serious. Just before we officially started dating, she told me that we would be a good couple," she informed, making me recall the memory. I remembered when I stood outside Sylvie's room, eavesdropping on their conversation. Avery, of course, had no knowledge of my creeping.

"Really?!" I rhetorically asked in what was meant to be disbelief. "I guess not all old people are stubborn."

"You knew that Sylvie isn't like most elderly. She's actually got a brain so, there's nothing to worry about. Remember that she likes us together."

"She hasn't seen us in a while though," I reminded her. "What if she feels like we were ignoring her?"

"Well, once she sees your hand in mine, she can see that we've been somewhat busy."

I didn't find that to be an adequate explanation for our absence, but I was willing to use that excuse. We walked up to the sliding doors. I was hit with the smells that I didn't miss and the ailments of the elderly. It had dawned on me that a break from this place was good. Death shadowed that place and I didn't want to think about that.

Usually, I walked down the hallway as soon as I entered the building, but I thought I'd follow protocol this visit. Avery approached the check-in counter, gave the worker both of our names and then gave them Sylvie's name. The response we got was unanticipated, but not too surprising.

"Sylvia van Bismark has been in the hospital recovering from hip surgery. I don't know when she will be back, but I'd give it a week or two," the receptionist informed, barely removing her eyes from the computer screen.

Well, there went my Saturday. Talking to Sylvie about my relationship was supposed to prepare me for Avery's parents.

I knew I was screwed.

~~~

I took another shower, deciding that it'd be beneficial to be the cleanest I could be. My dark brown hair was still wet, strands clinging to my face. I had about ten minutes until I needed to be at her house, and it was apparent that my hair wasn't going to dry in that time frame. My outfit hadn't been selected either. I'd worn a sweatshirt earlier, but I couldn't wear that. To me, plaid conveyed professionalism while the stained sweatshirt conveyed slob.

I wasn't even a slob, but Avery's mom wouldn't know that; she'd only know what she saw. I stood in front of my mirror, smoothing out any small wrinkles that had survived my half-ass job of ironing. My grandma entered the room, which was conveniently whenever I was stressing out over something.

"I see you're getting ready to go on trial," she chimed in.

I chuckled. "If you can call it that."

"Listen, son. This is just one of these things that you have to go through. It gets easier the more you see them."

"You say that grandpa's family is insufferable every time you see them."

"Okay sure," she admitted. "But my relationship with them is a whole lot better than when I first met his folks. I had to see them a lot for them to understand why I thought the way I thought about the world. I was this frizzy-haired girl with little regard for authority or the government. The stereotypical hippie. Meanwhile, your grandfather had served in the army and for a spell, he had thought that the government could do no wrong. As you can probably tell, there were some differing views."

"But, you were anti-war while he was for war. You can change ideologies. I can't change the color of my skin."

"True, but just show them who you are. Avery didn't care about your race when she began dating you. She cared about how you treat her and others. She cared about what made you different from everyone else, and I'm not talking about your skin tone. If they don't like you because of something as insignificant as what you look like, then you don't need them."

You don't need them.

She was right.

All I needed was Avery. I could get through anything as she was still constant in my life.

A/N

I can't believe I actually updated two days in a row. I plan to keep this streak going for as long as I can.