LYON, FR.
( you're still the boy
that'd i'd pick in a line up of like 30
hot guys. )
"rima? karima? wake
up."
the girl groaned, tossing &
turning away from the hand on her
waist.
"leave me alone!"
mirlandé shook her again,
karima responding with a groggy
moan.
"get dressed, plane
leaves in 20." she said, finally
accomplishing her
mission of waking her best friend.
"fuck that" karima groaned
"i'm not going."
ever since the gossip girl blast
had gone out about her rehab, she took the first flight out of new york.
there was only 1 place
she could think of going, & that
was her happy place-
france.
the de haan's vacationed there
with the bergmann's every summer when
they were kids, so being
here with mirlandé was a little nostalgic
for her.
it wasn't like manhattan, it
was full of people who did not know her
problems therefore they could
not judge her.
which is something she loved.
mirlandé, the wonderful
friend she was, made sure that karima's
trip was all good.
she might've hated paris, but she
would die before her best friend spent her
16th birthday alone.
her parents were developing
a new hotel there anyway, so she could
monitor that while she was there
also.
"you haven't show your
beautiful face in the upper east in
ages cherié-"
my ak <3. top of
the morning. will i be seeing
you at school today?
"aw." mirlandé smiled,
"i take it mr. menzies misses
you?"
"shush" karima blushed
lightly, picking up her phone as she
separated herself from the
silk white sheets.
"karima de haan out
of bed? i will alert the press!" the girl
joked, clapping.
karima chuckled as she
dismissed her friend's antics. her
phone vibrated again,
my ak :)). is that a yes
or no?
pretty girl <3. sadly no, me &
laney are still in france
my ak :)). ugh come back obie
and zoya are like constant PDA it's so awkward
pretty girl <3. i could argue
that we're worse
my ak :)). love that
"akeno! your friend obie
is here!"
the boy looked up from
his cellphone at his mother's calling. he
contemplated hiding in his
closet to revert going to school, but atlast
jody was bound to be at his
door in seconds.
he just wanted to text karima
all day not go to a place were eyes are on
him constantly.
audrey spread around some
rumor that they'd broken up & that's why
karima was not at school, but aki
did not oppose it.
he thought that if people
thought him & karima were over they'd
stop staring and making fun of
her like they did.
ultimately he did not to cause
karima extra stress than how much she
has already.
with everyone knowing this
information comes the thirsty nobody's
at constance that constantly
threw themselves at him. a specific one
was-
you guessed it, audrey hope.
"just because camila lets
her daughter leave town i miss school
for 3 days does not mean
you can also" she stated, shrugging.
aki was startled out of
his thoughts, facing his mother.
the boy let out a sigh.
"mom please-" "akeno."
he grabbed his backpack &
skateboard on his way, angrily waving
bye to his mother.
"bye jody, i promise
i'll take care of him!" obie
shouted.
as soon as the 2 boys
got out of her sight, aki was
stunned at a sudden hit
to his chest.
"bro, it's been 3 days
since that gossip girl thing and you
still haven't confronted
audrey! dude i'm not gonna lie, if you
don't do anything soon you're
gonna be out of a relationship." obie
shrugged.
aki chuckled to himself
as she looked at his best friend. "that
might've been the case with
you & julien, but karima doesn't care
about that stuff."
"that's what you think. laney
told me she has gotten out of her bed in
2 days" obie shared.
this information was new to
aki, but he had to make it seem like it
wasn't.
"ditto."
he began to walk faster, noticing
the incoming traffic. aki realized he could go faster with his skateboard, but
was surprised when he was kicked off it.
a pile of paper were
now on the ground with him. "fuck,
fuck, fuck!" a shout was
heard.
he looked to see where it came
from, face with the familiar blonde which caused him to sigh.
he stood up from
his position of helping her pick
up the papers as he rolled
his eyes.
"you should watch where
you're going" aki muttered, walking
past her.
obie felt second hand
embarrassment from the awkward
interaction, catching up with
aki.
"not the confrontation
i was expecting, but it'll do for
now."
_______
UPPER EAST SIDE, NY.
"god i hate going to these
things."
obie & aki stood in the
somewhat crowed elevator to be
exited onto the fundraiser
floor.
the pink-haired boy
flatted out his sunday's best
suit, blowing a breath.
a "ding" was heard, revealing
the crowded location. aki had been to
many of these before-
they all had,
but this was different.
he was not talking to
any one his "friends" except for
one & his favorite person
was not there.
she was somewhere in
paris high off that post-crying
hallucination.
"i'm gonna try to find
zoya. meet here in 30?" obie
advised.
a simple head nod from
aki let the two part ways as he was
now looking for someone
to conversate with in efforts to not
look lonely.
"aki, audrey! how are
you both tonight?" davis greeted,
startling akeno.
he looked to his side
at an angered audrey hope. "depends
on my fucking mom"
he raised his eyebrows
at her sudden cursing, but waved
it off bc she wasn't his
problem anymore.
"good to see you sir." he
responded with a smile, "it's good
to see you both are good
again. send my regards to kiki"
after julien's father walked
away, aki pulled audrey aside. "um, since
when have you talked to david
like that?"
"oh boo hoo aki. what?
your lost puppy isn't here to
follow you around?" she
spat.
"karima isn't important right
now, are you okay?" he consoled, resting
his hand on her exposed arm.
she scoffed, taking it
straight off. "like you care."
"i loved you too
once audrey. you can tell me
anything" aki reassured.
she laughed sarcastically,
looking him up and down as the girl
strutted away.
aki let out a sigh.
he found a seat overlooking
the manhattan view. looking out of the
window at the city lights
compelled him to pull out his phone.
my ak :)). miss you
if he knew he'd be
this lonely if he got the girl he
wanted-
scratch that, he still would've
done it.
pretty girl <3. we sharing feelings ofc :(
my ak :)). it's so awkward obie left & audrey just shut me out this is so embarrassing
pretty girl <3. should've accompanied
me to paris like i asked 🙄 could've
been eating crepes by the arc de triomphe by now
my ak :)). i wish
pretty girl <3. stop you're making
me sad
"crêpes pour 2 s'il vous
plaît!"
(crepes for 2 please!)
"careful, it's hot"
mirlandé handed karima
the pastry which caused her to shut
her phone off and shove it in
her pocket.
"merci, monsieur"
(thank you, sir)
the 2 girls walked
away from the cart, sitting on
a nearby bench.
it was 2am & karima
was craving something sweet. so, being
the friend she was, mirlandé
awoken from her slumber to be her
best friend's translator.
this trip had reminded
mirlandé about the actual karima de
haan & not the one she
constantly read about on social
media.
the girl was sweet when
you got to know her (aside from her
bad abandonment issues).
no matter the constant lies that were
being spread about her, it
warmed karima's insides knowing that she had at least 1 friend to fall back
on.
"gosh it looks the same
as when we were kids." mirlandé professed, turning to the girl.
instant memories flooded
her brain. from her, karima, monet, &
obie ice skating at the eiffel
to their little rendezvous at the hotel
lobby.
sometimes it was nice to
get away from the luxuries new york
city had to offer to the upper east
side's elite.
my ak :)). so wyd rn??
my ak :)). karimaaaaa
mirlandé pointed at her
friends vibrating phone, "you gonna
get that?" she inquired.
karima waved it off, "nothing's
more important than me & you right now laney."
my ak :)). omg don't ignore me now
my ak :)). okay call me when you
see this and tell me about everything you've done so far.
"fuck"
he forcefully shut the phone
off & shoved it in his suit pocket. after
looking around for a few
minutes, he spotted joke other than katherine hope.
granted, she looked beautiful.
just by looking at her you
could tell who audrey got her stunning
looks from.
a part of him yelled, "nooo don't
go over there! what about karima?", and the other spoke, "you haven't seen
her in a while. at least go over and say hi."
he decided to wave off
the comments about his girlfriend &
mustered up the courage to
talk to her.
of course he wasn't expecting
it to go good because of his father's recent actions though.
"ms. hope, you look stunning
might i say."
a fake smile was put on
her face as she responded "lovely
to see you akeno"
he followed her fast steps,
stopping when she excused herself to
the bar.
"looks like she already
had a few" he muttered to the blonde
girl.
for the second time
tonight she scoffed at him, "what
do you want aki?"
"you know how i am
at these things audge. please, can we
be cordial?"
the girl was lost for words
as she walked away again. he prided
himself at atleast asking for
a compromise.
akimenz: @gossipgirl tagged you in
a post!
gossipgirl: oh my! what do you have
here? penthouse prince as lonely as ever with no karima on his side. after several attempts to chat with our dear hope, he is left at the alter with no one at his ready. don't worry rima, this post is one of many, so you can check on that precious boy toy of yours ❤️.
______
AUTHOR'S NOTE.
love love LOVED writing this
omg i am literally amazed at how i
transferred between nyc & paris by
the text messages ughhh
i tried to follow this girl on
here bc i rlly liked her aki menzies
book & the fc was black too but
ig they be seeing me as competition
bc she did not follow me back after
2 weeks 😩 i've never unfollowed
a bitch so quick yall