Only In It For A Minute

“Hello?” A dark haired guy answered the door.

“Um, hi. Sorry, I was looking for my friends, Lizzie and Lucy,” I said, confused as to who was answering the door.

“Yeah, they don’t live here any more,” he said, very bluntly.

“Oh, it’s just I used to share this flat with them and I came to see them,” I explained.

“And what part of ‘they don’t live here anymore’ did you not understand?” he asked, slamming the door in my face.

“OH!” I cried, shocked as the door closed in front of me. “You could at least tell me if you knew where they were!” I shouted at the door in front of me. I turned and walked back out of my old building, pulling my phone out of my pocket. As much as I wanted to surprise them, I couldn’t turn up at their door if I didn’t know where either of them were, so I decided to call them.

“Tash?” Lizzie answered “Is everything alright? Why are you calling me at what is...6 am your time?”

“Because it’s not 6am where I am right now,” I told her.

“What?”

“It’s about 2 o’clock in the afternoon and I’m a bit confused right now since I just went to surprise my friends, only to find that they moved without telling me!”

“You’re in Reading!?” she asked, sounding excited.

“I’m in Reading!” I told her. “Now where the fuck are you?”

“We moved. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you,” she explained. “Where are you right now?”

“I’m stood on the street outside our old place.”

“OK, and how well do you remember the area?” she asked.

“Pretty well, I’ve only been gone 9 months you know, and I did live here 3 and a half years,” I laughed.

“Well, we moved more into the city centre and away from the university,” she told me, and continued to give me the directions.

“Hey, Lizzie, do me a favour? Don’t tell Lucy I’m here and let her answer the door, I need to at least surprise one of you!”

“Sure thing, can’t wait to see you, Tash!” she said.

As we hung up, I called another taxi which arrived quickly and I grabbed my suitcase and told the driver the address. It was only 5 minutes away but with my huge suitcase, there was no way I could walk it. Once I got out, I looked at the building in front of me, there were several buildings in a row that were made up of flats. After deciding which one was their building, I made my way to the first floor where their flat was located, dragging my suitcase behind me and knocked on the door.

“Oh my god, HELLO!” Lucy grinned as she opened the door to me. “Tash, what are you doing here!?”

“It’s a long story, do you mind if I come in?”

“Of course, let me take your suitcase,” she said, as I followed her in. “I can’t believe you’re here,” she said, releasing me. “How did you know where to find us?”

“Well, it was a bit difficult, but I had a bit of help,” I explained, nodding towards Lizzie who walked into the living room where we were.

“Wait, you knew she was coming?” Lucy asked, turning to Lizzie.

“Actually, I only knew about 20 minutes ago when she called from our old home,” she said, walking over to hug me. “I can’t believe you surprised us like this. But I have to ask again, what are you doing here?”

“Well, I’ve got a few weeks off work and I still had the tickets John’s parents gave me for Christmas to use so I thought, why not go see some old friends!” I told them.

“And is John here too?” Lucy asked.

“Does it look like he is?” I asked, sarcastically. “He was meant to be but couldn’t make it.”

“That sounds like there’s more it than just that,” Lizzie commented. “Spill it.”

“How do you do that?” I asked, as it was almost like she could read right through me. “We sort of had this fight and I don’t really know what’s going on between us right now.”

I ended up telling them everything that had happened on tour. This was something I’d missed in America, having girl friends I could tell everything to. After living with Lizzie and Lucy for so long, moving to America and not having them around was strange, but it was something I’d grown used to at this point and instead of them, I was mostly surrounded by guys.

“So did you guys leave it?” Lucy asked, once I’d told her about the last days of tour.

“Well, he went home to his parents, I went to LA and then came here,” I told her. “But that wasn’t before we had one last moment together.”

“Oh god, we don’t need to hear this bit,” Lizzie laughed.

“Ew, you idiot, I don’t mean like that,” I told her. I then told her about the moment before I got in the cab.

“I don’t know how I’m going to do this. I don’t know how to let you go. I don’t know how to keep you,” John said, as he watched the cab driver put my bags in the car.

“I want you to go home with your family tonight. It’s time we try to move on and do different things with our lives, like you wanted. You need to go home and let go of me for a while,” I told him. We looked at each without saying anything for a few seconds.

“I don’t want to do this now, I’m sorry,” he said.

“You need to, I can’t feel like I’m holding you back and if I stay, that’s exactly how I’ll feel,” I told him, as I felt a few tears roll down my cheeks. “You’re better off letting me go for now,” I said, as he tried to wipe away the tears but I shook my head and ducked into the car where the driver was now waiting. As I shut the door, he pulled away and I turned to look out of the back window and could see John’s silhouette standing on the curbside as we drove away and my tears continued to fall.

“Oh Tash, I can’t believe that’s how you left it with him,” Lucy said. “He still loves you, why didn’t he just go back to LA with you?”

“It just wasn’t that simple,” I shrugged. “Anyways, so now I’m to spend time you guys and go see my mum and dad and little sisters and everyone else. So enough with that soppy, sad stuff, how the night life around here these days?”

Both Lizzie and Lucy laughed, before Lizzie put an arm around my shoulders and I rested my head on her chest as she said, “It’s good to have you back, Tash.”