Nessa wakes up with her hair in a tangled mess, swearing at me to close the curtains I just opened. I don't close them however, instead I walk over to her bed and pull the covers off of her. This earns me a few more choice words and a few pillows to the face.
"Nessa, get up," I say gently.
"Okay, okay. You don't have to yell," She mutters. She's obviously hungover.
Rolling my eyes, I hand her the glass of water and the Advil I had placed on her nightstand. "Thanks. Now close the curtains and get out."
"You see, I would do just that if it weren't two in the afternoon and your boyfriend hadn't called to say he's coming over." At that, her eyes widen and she bolts out of bed into her bathroom.
No cure for hangovers like that line, I think, smiling to myself.
It takes her until after she showered, brushed her teeth, got fully dressed and did her hair to realize that I lied to her.
"Lyn, you.....you...ugh!" She stutters. I can't help but double over in laughter as she comes downstairs fuming. After a few minutes of me laughing I notice she's staring at me, smiling. I sober up, knowing where this is going.
"I haven't seen you laugh like that in weeks." I sigh. Seeing my discomfort she changes the topic. "So tell me, how drunk did I get last night? My head is killing me."
"I'm not sure. How drunk would you call someone who drunk dialed their boyfriend at one in the morning singing Celine Dion songs, danced on the bar top for a good fifteen minutes, kissed one of the bouncers- who was really cute by the way, swore at an old woman for a taxi-"
"Stop!" She exclaims. Her eyes are wide. "Oh my gosh! Lyn, why didn't you stop me, take me home?"
"I did."
"I meant before I did all of that. From the moment you saw how drunk I was," she whines, plopping down in her cream colored couch next to me. "I kissed a guy. A guy that's not my boyfriend."
"It's not like he hasn't kissed women who weren't his..." I trail off when I see the death glare she's giving me. "Sorry. It was on his cheek, though. I wouldn't let you do that."
We spend the next few minutes talking about last night including my little chat- if you could call it that-with Nick, then we decide to go shopping.
"Wait. You said we took a taxi to get home," she says, looking at her car in the driveway.
"We did. Neither of us were in any state to drive. Nick had it sent over shortly after." I shrug. At the mention of Nick's name she opens her mouth to say something but then decides against it.
Good. I really don't want to hear thoughts on the subject.
By the time we get to the mall it's already three o'clock. Nessa drags me in every shoes and clothes store she can find and do not doubt that there are a lot of those at the mall.
We go into a store called 'Fashion Express' where Nessa buys two pairs of pumps, another store called 'The heart of Jewels' where she buys necklace and about half a dozen pairs of earrings and so many clothing stores where she tries on what seems to me about a hundred dresses, pants and tops. It is absolutely ridiculous but I'm used to this after being best friends with Vanessa for years now.
"Can we at least stop and get something to eat? Honestly, are you even human when you're surrounded by clothes?" I complain as we walk out of a store on the fourth floor. Our hands are full of shopping bags. Nessa could hardly carry hers so I offered to help her with her load.
Half the bags I have are hers.
"Honestly," she starts, mimicking my tone. "Are you even a woman? Shopping is a rite of passage. One you must go through at least every month. You hardly shop at all!" She is being such a drama queen at the moment. I resist the urge to roll my eyes. "But fine. Since you have to eat. Let's take these to the car and grab a bite from the food court."
"Thank you, oh queen Nessa," I say sarcastically.
After struggling with the bags down to the parking lot, we go back upstairs. Thank goodness for escalators. My feet are killing me and I'm so hungry I could eat a cow and drink its milk. I shudder at that thought.
We finally reach the food court -which is mostly filled with teenagers as expected on a Saturday- and take a seat while pondering what we want to eat. Well......Nessa ponders. I already know that I want a double cheeseburger with fries and a chocolate milkshake. After a few minutes of my complaining she decides to go with the same.
Even though she loves the thought of fitting into her clothes, there's no denying that she's a big eater like I am. I join the line- which thankfully isn't so long- to order our food. When I look back at our table, it looks like she's talking to someone but I can't see clearly from where I am. It's probably some teenager hitting on her. By the time I get back to Nessa I am bone tired.
"Next time, you're definitely joining the l-" I stop dead in my tracks as I see who she's talking to. It's no teenager.
I'm at a loss for words. Every feeling that I felt when he and I were together overwhelms me like a flood and I wasn't prepared. I stand there with my mouth open, staring at him like an idiot. Our eyes meet and I can't look away, not even for a second, not even when I hear Nessa calling my name.
"Evelyn," she hisses. He gives me a ghost of a smile then he looks away. I feel so stupid. With shaking hands I put the tray down on the table and sit down next to Nessa.
"Sorry. I uh...." Not knowing what to say I let the sentence hang.
The silence at the table is palpable as it is awkward.
Nessa clears her throat and begins. "So, Marcel, what brings you to the mall today?" Of all days, I add mentally.
"I'm actually meeting up with Lee. Just for a little while though. He was planning to drop by your place," he adds the last bit quickly as Nessa's eyes widen at the sound of Lee's name.
"Lee's coming here? Now?"
"Uh...yeah?" By Marcel's reply I could tell he's confused as to why Nessa seems more horrified than pleased to hear that she's about to see her boyfriend. No doubt feeling guilty about what happened last night. She begins to get up, saying something about having just remembered that she has something important to do but is cut off by none other than Lee himself.
Nessa let out a high pitched sound as she jumps. Then plasters on a smile. After greeting all of us, Lee sits through some pretty weird questions from Nessa. Like, "So how did you sleep last night? Were you interrupted in any way by anything?" That, I'm guessing, is her way of finding out if he heard her voicemail. And from his answers it's obvious he didn't. After taking his phone and subtly deleting the message she breathes a sigh of relief.
Good for you, I think bitterly. It's like she and Lee has totally forgotten about Marcel and I- who by the way looks fascinated by his shoes all of a sudden. I, on the other hand, am too overwhelmed to eat, even though I'm really hungry.
Suddenly he looks up at me. "So, how are you?" His question not only has me raising my eyebrows but draws the attention of our best friends, who stop talking and start staring at us as if they had truly forgotten we were here.
I open my mouth to answer but I can't seem to form an answer. Nessa answers for me instead.
"She's been great. How about you? Are you sleeping now?" Nessa asks with a hint of bitterness in her tone.
"Nessa," Lee warns.
I look from Marcel to Nessa to Lee then back to Marcel. What does she mean?
"Let's go take a walk."
When they leave the table, I finally gather the courage to really look at him. "What did she mean?" But I get my answer myself. There are bags under his red-rimmed eyes. The bones in his cheeks are too visible and he looks a little pale. "Marcel, are you sick?"
He gives me a half-smile and scoffs. "I suppose you could call it that." As if sensing my confusion, he goes on. "Don't worry about me, Lyn."
Lyn. Even the way he says my name has me melting. I desperately love the man sitting in front of me and here we are acting like strangers.
"Worrying about you is one of my hobbies," I blurt out before I could stop myself. His eyes widen. Why does he look so surprised?
"Lyn, don't."
"You can't just say 'don't' and expect me to suddenly stop caring about you," I say, exasperated.
"Well you should." I bite down on my bottom lip to stop myself from saying something stupid again. "Damn it, Lyn. Don't you get it? I don't want you to care. I don't want you to love me. Not anymore. Just let go."
I can't believe this is really him saying this. I can't say I expected him to pour his heart out and tell me how much he loves me but neither did I expect him to tell me that I need to let go. Can I?
"Did you?" I whisper, but he hears.
"Did I what?"
"Let go." My voice cracks on the words.
I hear him draw in a ragged breath and say the words I never thought I would hear from him. "It's over, Evelyn."
I don't look at him as I get up and run from the food court. It's too much to try and hold back the tears. But as the warm air outside greets me, something else takes over.
Anger.
I am so mad at him for everything. I'm tired of moping around over him. He doesn't even want me.
I reach into my bag for my phone and dial a number I never thought I would have to. But this day has already had an unexpected turn of events. So why not?
"Well look who decided to call," he says on the other end of the line.
"Hey, Nick. Got any time for me in that busy schedule of yours?"
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*tears* I apologize to #TeamMarcel members for the sad turn of events. But what do you think? Can they work it out or nah? Can Nick help her through this as a friend or does he want something more? ;) Only way to find out is to keep reading.
Thank you guys for the votes, comments and follows! Do continue to show some more love. :D
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