I'll Be Your Friend, I'll Help You Carry On

six

The car was silent as the radio played softly. Troy, Trina, and Taylor were sitting in the back seats, their bags and luggage behind them in the trunk. It was Friday; the day they had to leave. The week, at first, had seemed as if it would last a lifetime. It was never ending. As it went on though, everyone started warming up to each other.

The day before, they had decided to stay home and have a barbeque for themselves, just enjoying their last day together. It was also the day when Taylor had gone and knocked on Sidney and Chantal’s bedroom door when she knew that Chantal was getting dressed.

Chantal had quickly pulled up her jean shorts and tied her black bikini top tightly before opening one of the double doors and smiling at Taylor. She was standing there with an orange sun dress on, her bathing suit underneath, and her brown hair in a ponytail.

“Can we talk?” Taylor asked, chewing softly on her lip.

Chantal, dumbfounded, quickly nodded, “Yeah, sure. Of course, c’mon in.”

Taylor walked into the master bedroom, a beautiful room with beige walls and green highlights, and walked over to the small area to the side with a few seats and a book case. She sat down and folded her hands in her lap, waiting as Chantal pulled a loose purple tank top over her bikini clad chest.

Taylor played with her fingers as she tried to think of what she could possibly say to apologize to her brother’s girlfriend. It had become obvious just last night how much her brother loved the young woman standing in front of her. It was mostly the little things; putting her burger together for her, placing his hand on her back when he walked by, giving her a quick smile when he thought no one was looking. It all added up, and Taylor finally understood.

“I wanted to apologize for my behavior when I first got here. It was completely uncalled for,” Taylor said quietly, looking up at Chantal.

Chantal nodded, a small smile coming to her face, “Oh, don’t worry. It’s not a big deal. Believe me, I understand.”

Taylor looked at her confused. How did she understand? “What do you mean you understand?”

Chantal shrugged and leaned back in the chair, “I have an older brother too. He’s a lot older than me, and we were close when I was really little but he left for university and eventually got married. I don’t see him very often, and actually to this day, I still don’t like his wife very much. I suppose I should probably get over that now.”

Taylor gave a small laugh and nodded, “Yeah … that’s pretty much how I felt, well, I still kinda feel that way.”

“I figured. I didn’t want to pressure you into liking me. It’s your choice, and obviously nothing I do is going to force you to like me,” Chantal said, “Actually, it would probably make you dislike me even more.”

Taylor nodded and pulled her finger nails up to her mouth, biting on them softly as the conversation stopped and the air filled with stiff awkwardness.

“So, yeah. I just wanted to apologize and hopefully there are no hard feelings. I just… I judged you before I got to know you, and you really are nice and very pretty,” Taylor said, standing up from the seat and playing with her sun dress.

Chantal stood up as well as she fought the smile coming to her lips, “Oh, well, thank you. Believe me, there’s no hard feelings.”

Chantal opened her arms wide, laughing at the confused expression on Taylor’s face, “Hug and make up?”

Taylor nodded and gave Chantal a quick hug. It felt like all of the animosity coming from Taylor had just melted, and a mutual feeling had settled. They weren’t going to be best friends, but they understood each other.

“I’ll let you finish getting ready then,” replied Taylor, walking over to the door.

Chantal nodded, “Thank you. Oh, before you leave, remind me to give you some of my extra makeup. I’ve been meaning to ask if you wanted it for the past few days. It’s stuff I don’t really have a use for.”

“Oh, sure. I don’t have a lot, so that’d be nice,” Taylor perkily said.

Chantal smiled and nodded as Taylor walked out of the room, turning around and walking over to her vanity where she pulled her hair up into a high ponytail and plucked a few stray eyebrow hairs from the perfect shape.

As she walked down the stairs all she could think about was how happy she was that Taylor didn’t hate her.

Sidney slowed down as he entered the lane off of the highway to head straight into the airport’s parking garage. The car was still silent and as Sid looked in his rearview mirror, to see his parents and little sister, he immediately noticed the sparkling silver on his mother’s wrist. He had given it to her yesterday and was thrilled to see his mother absolutely freak out upon seeing the expensive piece of jewelry.

For Sidney, the week had gone by too fast. Normally, he had the entire summer to see his family and just a week of the 3 months he normally shared with them was entirely too short to be satisfying.

Sidney quickly parked as the other unbuckled their seatbelts and started to get out of the truck. They went around the back to take out all of the luggage and they all walked towards the elevator, each with some piece of luggage.

“Are you okay Sid, sweetheart?” His mother asked him as they all stood in the far too small elevator.

Sidney gave a small smile and nodded, “Yeah, just sad that you guys are leaving already.”

Trina gave her son a smile as she patted his arm, “We’re only a phone call away, and you know that.”

Sidney nodded and sighed as Chantal wrapped her arm around his waist, pulling him flush against her for the comfort she knew he needed at that moment. The elevator door opened and the five them quickly pulled the luggage out and into the front of the airport.

They all walked along, searching for the correct gate. As they walked up to it, everyone put the luggage down and Trina walked over to Sidney, gathering him in her arms and pulling his face down to whisper in his ear.

Troy walked over to Chantal and pulled her into a large bear hug.

“You’re absolutely perfect for Sidney. I’ve never seen him happier,” Troy told his, hopefully, new daughter-in-law.

Chantal swatted his shoulder playfully, “What about winning all of those awards? I’m sure those made him happier.”

Troy stared at the young woman and shook his head, “To him, that was just work. You’re his life.”

Chantal bit her lip as Troy patted her shoulder before moving onto his son. Trina walked over to Chantal and pulled her into a motherly hug, rubbing her back.

“It was so nice to meet you, Chantal. You are a wonderful girl and Sidney is so happy with you,” she said, rubbing her thumb over Chantal’s cheekbone.

Chantal blushed, “Thank you, Trina. It was great to meet you too. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I see you again.”

“Maybe if you have enough time for Christmas you two can come up to Cole Harbor for a few days. I don’t know when the last time we spent Christmas with Sid was,” Trina said, looking wishfull.

Chantal smiled and nodded quickly, “That would be lovely.”

Chantal could see Taylor standing behind her mother and Chantal quickly waved to her, walking over and giving her a hug.

“Did you get all of the makeup? I left it in your room,” Chantal said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Taylor nodded as a sly smile came to her lips, “Yeah, I pack it. Thank you. It was really nice meeting you.”

“You too,” Chantal whispered as Taylor walked over to Sidney.

The family of three eventually headed over to customs as Sidney and Chantal waved to them until they couldn’t see them any longer. Sidney grasped Chantal’s soft hand as he sighed and they started walking back to the elevator.

The ride down was silent, as most of the day had been, as Chantal leaned into her boyfriend’s chest, wrapping her arms around his thick waist. She pressed her lips to his t-shirt, staring up at him through her eye lashes.

“What are you thinking about?” She asked, pulling herself away from him as the elevator door opened.

Sidney grabbed her around the waist, pulling her into his side and pressed a kiss into her hair, “You.”