Would You Believe Me If I Said I Didn't Need You?

I used my GPS on my phone, and arrived at Sora’s Mum’s shop about half an hour later. From the Internet café it turned out to only be a short walk, however if I were going from home I would need a bus.

I walked into the shop, feeling relived from the air con. Most florists had the a/c on 24/7 for a good environment for the flowers, and being at the tail end of summer definitely made it a good environment for people too.

I decided I would ‘surprise’ mum.

“Hi Mum!” I said loudly to my mother, who was behind the counter looking quite bored.

“Scarlett! Honey what are you doing here? Oh well, it doesn’t matter. Good news. Your father has put some money into your account. I said you would need some money for clothes and entertainment expenses. He put in $500, and said he’d put in more when it is needed.” Mum explained to me.

“Oh mum, why’d you have to do that?” I groaned, “Now it means I have to keep in contact”

“It’s important to keep contact with your father, Scarlett. He may clean up his act one day, and be an important figure in your life again.” Mum scowled.

“Would you go back to him if he did?” I asked her.

“I certainly would not. But he’s your father. That’s different.” Mum argued.

“How so? He broke up this family, and had an affair with a girl MY AGE. He can’t want to be a father figure towards me if he’s sexually attractive to girls my age, right?” I spat at her.

“I can see where Scarlett gets some of her personality traits.” Sora said, jumping into view.

Mum gave her a confused look, whilst I gave her a glare. Sora kind of looked uncomfortable, stepping down a bit.

“I totally mean when you, Angie didn’t question Scarlett’s motives for being here, seizing the opportunity to tell her some good news. That’s something Scarlett would do, and has done in the past. I would have said so earlier, but I didn’t want to interrupt.” Sora meekly explained.

I dropped my glare, and gave her a smile. Mum’s confused look turned into a smile as well.

“Mum, as you already know, this is Sora one of my best friends. She’s the one from the summer camp when I was twelve.” I said, re-introducing Sora to Mum.

“Oh wow, YOU’RE Sora?! What a small world. What are you two up to this afternoon?” Mum asked me.

I looked at Sora, we never specifically made plans.

“We’ll probably go to the house out back and just catch up. We both have a lot to talk about.” Sora replied.

“Great. Well your mum is coming back from her lunch break soon, so I better get back to work, so I won’t hold you girls up. Have fun.” Mum beamed.

Sora and I bid goodbye to her, as we walked into the back part, which led us into Sora’s house. We went upstairs, and landed in Sora’s room.

Her room was fairly plain. It just had the essential furniture and the walls were painted blue. The only thing that gave this room character was a few photos dotted around the room. Otherwise the room looked fairly unisex.

“So um, where to begin our catching up? We’ve been emailing each other over the past few years, so we both pretty much know everything. Not much to catch up on.” I said to Sora, jumping onto her bed.

“Um…did Matt say anything to you?” Sora asked, looking awkward and not sitting down.

“Nah, he was silent the whole night. We did speak. Why?” I replied sarcastically.

Sora still looked a tad awkward, but my sarcastic reply made her lips tug into a small smile.

“About me in particular?” She asked, narrowing it down.

“Hm…let me think…nope! He did say Tai acted like a jerk, but that’s it. No mention of you. The closest he came was when he said everybody will be at his gig on Friday night. Why do you ask?” I asked her, getting a little curious.

“I never mentioned this because, well I thought you may get angry at me and I really liked him at the time, I didn’t want to hear any negative things about him. But well I started liking him when I was fifteen or so. At sixteen we dated, and earlier this year we broke up.” Sora mentioned.

I could see she was nervous telling me this information. She wasn’t making direct eye contact and was fidgeting with her fingers less than subtly. Not only was she uncomfortable, she seemed terrified.

“So? Big deal, jeeze. You had a teenage relationship with Matt. Why would I care? Good on you, and sorry to hear things didn’t work out.” I shrugged, honestly not caring that much.

“But you…you and Matt never really got along at summer camp! Don’t you think I could do better? Aren’t you going to berate me for dating him?” Sora stuttered.

“I can if you want? If it’ll make you sleep better at night?” I offered.

Sora looked at me seriously, but then lightened up and cracked a smile.

“I needed someone like you, I completely forgot how much of a comic relief you were. It’s awesome. When Matt and I broke up everyone just felt sorry for me and offered apologies. I needed somebody like you to remind me who I was and kick my ass back into gear.” Sora explained.

“Damn straight. So just so I can know for Friday night…what’s the go with you and Matt now? Hate each other? Pretend to be civil but you really wish you didn’t have to see him again? Friends? Decided you’d be better off best friends?” I asked her.

“Um…in between ‘pretend to be civil’ and ‘friends’ like, we’re nice to each other and acknowledge each other and I don’t dislike him, but it’s awkward. We went out for a year and a half, that’s classified as long term at our age.” Sora explained.

“Alright. Then that’s how it will be with Matt and I. I’ll be civil to him, but won’t let a friendship build. You’re probably the best friend I have at the moment, and I’m going to do the right thing, which is stand by you.” I stated.

“Thanks Scarlett, that means a lot to me. I’m so glad you moved to Odaiba, and we get to be close friends. You’re a very loyal person, and hard to come by. I can tell we’re going to be such good friends, and be very loyal.” Sora beamed.