"Lils!"
He was tired, real tired, having practised until way too deep into the night and then not getting very much sleep, because he was too busy worrying about Todd. And now, of course, he was late. But just the sight of his friend, slight and angelic, her jet-black long hair floating out beside her as she got up from the table, made his spirits lift.
"You're late, Eddy." she said, but he knew her stern grimace wasn't real. She was just teasing him.
"Sorry."
"Sit, what are you having?"
"Lemme look at the menu."
He pulled up his chair and beamed at his friend. A cola was in front of him on the table, and he knew straight away she had ordered it for him. She had probably seen his tardiness coming, right?
"I haven't seen you for years, it seems! Tell me everything! How's things?"
"Oh my God, the stories I could tell you. Ballet school is full on, man, you have no idea."
"Really? What happens then?"
Lily's pretty face scrunched up slightly.
"God. Where do I even begin. Dancing eight hours a day is a lot, anyway. But it's brutal, too. I just feel... some of the girls are ridiculously competitive. The teachers are harsh, apart from this one teacher I really like. We have to do all styles, also stuff I've never done before."
"Whoa." He let go of the glass of cola, reached over the table and took her slight hand. The very pretty hand, that made such nice shapes when she danced. Other people, looking in, would surely think they were a couple again. It almost made him grin. There was nothing new about that, was there?
"Are you alright with it all? I mean... are you enjoying it?"
She looked up now, her dark, dark eyes soberly on his.
"Yeah. I mean... it's all I ever wanted, right? I'll be fine, I guess I just have to get used to the change of pace."
How was it that sometimes people said one thing, but their eyes said another? How could he explain to her how much he loved it at the con, that it was like a little space had always existed for him there, a space that was shaped exactly like him, and he had now finally been allowed to crawl into it? To exist?
Was it even like that for her? He cleared his throat.
"As long as you're happy, Lils."
"Of course I am." she said, and her dark eyes spit fire. "Anyway, tell me about you. How's it at the con? And are you liking the apartment?"
He saw her smirk before he even realised that a Cheshire cat smile was spreading on his face. And he couldn't help himself, he started grinning.
"Erm, yeah, pretty much."
She giggled.
"Does wonders for your sex life, 'ey?"
"Oh, fuck off." he said, but not before his cheeks got a chance to colour, hard. "Speaking of which, how's Matt?"
She giggled again.
"He's adorable. Did you know he could have gone to Sydney to study, but stayed here? He didn't say it was because of us, but..."
"Wow, for real?"
To be honest, he didn't quite now how to feel about that. He looked at his glass of cola. His fingers had left openings in the condensation and he swiped at them absentmindedly. So Matt was really choosing his friend, now? Well, that guy had better be on his best behaviour. He would quite happily smack Matt around the face if he ever thought about hurting her again, but then somehow he really wasn't sure that that would be quite the right thing to say to her. So instead he sat quietly, stroked her hand with his thumb and hoped she knew.
"It's all a bit different from sitting on our bench at school, right?" he said gently.
She gave him a sweet smile as the waiter turned up by their table.
"Yeah. But at the same time it's exactly the same." She looked up at the waiter and switched to Mandarin. "Hi! Can I have some har gow, siu mai and lo bak go, please?"
A/N. Hi guys! So... yesterday I woke up with an idea and suddenly found myself writing down a whole bunch of words. And I guess this means that I'm now writing a seperate little book (insert monkey with its hands in front of its eyes here ;-)
The book is called "Straight", and you can find at the link that will be in the comments, or through my profile!
Of course, I love you all, thank you as always for reading, for all your lovely comments, for your stars, I love this little online community of ours!