Will You Keep Me Alive?

Neyla and Morgan were in town for a week. Funny how they can have the same length of break in the exact dates. The three of us with Camilla were meeting up in front of a smoothie stand in the downtown. Morgan was there first when I arrived and we squeezed each other in a big huge hug. Neyla was next and Camilla was the last.

We bought four tickets to see Sex And The City 2 and we still had two hours until the movie starts so we decided to see clothes in the shops around downtown. It’s funny now that we’re doing this – four years ago we didn’t do this a lot because we didn’t really care about how we looked and maybe that was because we hung out with boys too much.

But after the boys left for LA, things changed – especially since college started. We started hanging out with more girls and less boys which was why we started to care about how we look. Four years ago we probably wouldn’t want to see movies like Sex And The City because it was about clothes and how they lived such a luxurious life.

We entered Zara and scattered in the store. It was summer so the clothes were mainly about shorts, floral, denim, tank-tops, jumpsuits, and long dresses. I pulled out a cute floral long dress and Neyla giggled when she saw me.

“What?” I asked.

“Years ago you wouldn’t want to touch that kind of clothes. Floral and girly,” she answered as she went through a rack of tops.

“I wore skirts and dresses!”

“Yeah but not as girly as that one,” she pointed at the one I was holding, giggling. I rolled my eyes and put it back. We reunited with Morgan and Camilla. We went to a bunch of other stores after that: Topshop/Topman, GAP, American Apparel, Body & Soul, Victoria’s Secret (I didn’t know why we entered in the first place), and a bunch of more.

I bought a blue-white plaid shirt, two v-necks (dark purple and light blue), a denim highwaist skirt. Neyla bought a red-white striped short jumpsuit, some makeup and a pair of bikini. Camilla bought a pair of gladiator sandals, some bangles and a necklace (she said she was more into accessories than clothes). We found this cute vintage store around the corner and Morgan bought herself a Beatles t-shirt, a pair of ripped jeans and a leather jacket.

We saw the movie after buying some popcorn and drinks. Right after the movie ended, Kennedy texted me.

“Hey guys, Kennedy asked if we want to have dinner with them,” I said after reading his text. Neyla and Morgan immediately accepted the offer. Camilla had to skip – she was going to see the premiere of her friend’s movie.

Thank God the Japanese restaurant was just around the corner because if we needed to go there by car, we would have a difficulty choosing whose car we should use. They were already there when we arrived.

I was sitting between John and Pat, Neyla was across me, squished between Jared and Kennedy. Next to Kennedy was Morgan and next to Pat was Garrett. We ordered some sushi and foods and chatted while we were waiting for our foods to arrive.

Our foods arrived and we dug in. Pat had a hard time using the chopstick and we couldn’t resist our laughter. He surrendered and ate the sushi using his hands instead.

“Nice thinking, Pat,” I laughed.

“Where’s Gabi, Kennedy?” Neyla asked.

“And Lauren?” I asked Pat.

“And Tessa?” Morgan asked Jared.

“Gabi has a reunion with her highschool friends,” Kennedy answered.

“Lauren’s parents are having their anniversary today,” Pat answered.

“Tessa’s cousin is getting married,” Jared answered.

The three of us mouthed ‘oh’s and nodded.

“Lookie, ex-girlfriend is so nice asking about current girlfriend,” Garrett childishly muttered as he was picking on his inari sushi.

We fell into silence as we all turned to Garrett. Things hadn’t been going on too nice between Garrett and Neyla still. Neyla wanted to be friends with Garrett again but Garrett was too damn mature to not to think of what happened few years back.

“Garrett, would you just fucking drop it already?” I said sharply.

“Well literally she was the one who cheated on me and I knew but Kennedy didn’t know—“ he started muttering.

“FUCK, Garrett!” John shouted, throwing his hands up in the air and slammed it against the table. “Fucking drop it, okay?! Fucking grow up!”

I saw Neyla stared at Garrett who was still picking on his food childishly. I stared at Jared, hoping he would understand what I was eyeing him for. ‘What’s up with him?’

Jared caught it. He only shrugged with a confused face.

“You know what, I gotta go,” Neyla said, taking her phone from the table. Her voice was shaking.

“But you’re not even finished,” Kennedy insisted.

“No – I gotta go.” She got up and left the place. We all turned to Garrett again.

“Nice job, jerk,” John said before getting up to go after Neyla.

“Yeah, nice job,” I agreed with John and continued eating. A few minutes later John came back without Neyla. We stared at him in hope.

“She said she just remembered she has some work to do,” John answered. It was obvious that she lied.

“Working as a prostitute,” Garrett muttered.

“OH FUCKING SHUT UP, GARRETT!” Morgan yelled. We stared at her wide-eyed. I’d never seen her like that – yelling and cursing in a loud voice. She was the calm and neutral one all these years. “Can you just get over it already? You’re twenty, for God’s sake and what happened between you three was FOUR years ago! Kennedy here was the one who got hurt the most but he gets over it, moves on and has a girlfriend again!”

Garrett pursed his lips. We continued eating in a cold, awkward silence.

- - -

“I just don’t understand why Garrett doesn’t want to forget it,” Neyla muttered as she played with her fingers. I went to her house after the dinner and decided to stay for the night there. She might need someone.

“We don’t understand either,” I said. “Look, let’s just forget about him tonight and watch DVDs and eat ice cream all night long! How does that sound?”

She smiled. “That sounds great.” She got up to leave the room to get a pint ice cream. I went to her closet and changed into her Jack’s Mannequin t-shirt and a pair of shorts. She came back a few minutes later with a pint of s’mores Ben & Jerry’s. She let me choose the movie to see as she was changing. I chose the very first Bring It On with Kirsten Dunst in it and situated myself on her carpet.

She came back in a The Hush Sound t-shirt that was too big on her – it reached her mid-thighs. She sat next to me and handed me a spoon before digging in to the ice cream. I had previously tuned off the light so it was only the television lighting the room.