Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Facing my problems has never been one of my stronger qualities. I tend to simply ignore all my feelings and hope for them to disappear as opposed to giving in to them, and that is exactly what I did this time as well. Instead of trying to reason with the voices in my head I simply ignored them and pretended that our little conversation that cold night had never happened, but I quickly understood that it was never going to work if I kept ignoring it.

My head was arguing with itself, and it was becoming impossible to ignore it. One part of my brain, the part that would most likely be the little devil on my shoulder had this been a cartoon, was telling me to jump on this golden opportunity to get exactly what it was I had wanted in the first place; Pierre. The other, the cartoon angel, was constantly reminding me that it was simply wrong. Most likely I would be nothing more than a rebound for him and going out with him now would be taking advantage of his newly dumped state. Even if he had said that he wasn’t actually in love with Susan at all. Finally I decided to do the thing that was probably very wrong but had worked out so well for me in the past; simply ignore the damn voices and try to forget it all had ever happened.

If you have as much as half a brain you will realize that this is not a very good idea, but as we all know by now thinking ahead is not really my thing.

On the bright side I was now pretty much over my self isolation, something which both Ash and Sebastien seemed excruciatingly thrilled about. They had been dragging me around everywhere lately, simply because I now said yes to go with them without too much hesitation. They didn’t ask why I was suddenly social again though. To be honest I think they were a little scared to bring it up, something I was more than happy about.

I pretty much started my social spree not even a week after that faithful conversation with Pierre. Ash had called me, speaking in a voice that showed clear signs that she was quite ready to go into persuasion mode once I declined her offer. Her mind had been set on getting me to come with her and the guys to an amusement park that was placed not too far away from where we lived. Apparently it was the last day it was open before closing down for the winter and even though none of us had been there during the summer it was a tradition for them (as of the year before) to go on the last day.

When I said that I thought it would be fun she could hardly believe her own ears. She had gotten so used to me automatically saying no that she didn’t really know what to say when I was actually responding in a positive manner.

“So, we’ll meet you and Seb outside your place at about 5?” She asked through the receiver. It was about one o’clock when she called me to make her proposal. We agreed on 5 o’clock and she said she would call and tell Seb to meet me outside.

When the clock stroke five I was running around the house in jeans and my bra, desperately trying to find a top that had been discarded somewhere in the living room some days prior. As I was running around looking Sebastien came through the front door, something that had become routine for him over the last couple of months.

“Maybe I should start ringing the bell…” he said shocked as he hid his glowing red features in his hands.

“What? Haven’t you ever seen a bra before?” I asked with a chuckle as I looked at his blushing face. He was so red it was hilarious. “It’s just like a bikini, what’s the big deal?”

“A bikini is one thing, this is actually underwear, and you’re my friend, and it’s just weird!” I laughed at him as he turned to face the other way and closed his eyes tightly. “Tell me when it’s safe to look.” I just shook my head and kept looking for my top. It took me about two more minutes before I finally dug it up from the bottom of a pile of blankets lying on the couch.

“Let’s go,” I said as I started putting my jacket on, he carefully opened one eye and released a sigh of relief when he saw that I was in fact clothed now.

When we got out on the street Ash, David, Jeff and Patrick were standing there waiting for us.

“Finally, what took you guys so long?” Ash exclaimed as we walked up to them on the sidewalk.

“Don’t look at me; it was Ria who was still in underwear when I came.” Sebastien exclaimed while putting his hands in the air as if in defeat.

“You were in your underwear?” Patrick asked, as his face lit up.

“I was wearing pants and a bra, and little Sebbie here got embarrassed.” I said, shaking my head at his pervertedness.

“Fine, whatever, can we go now? We were supposed to meet Chuck and Pierre five minutes ago.” David said exasperated.

I hadn’t even thought about the fact that Pierre would be coming, of course he was coming but it just hadn’t registered for me. I still hadn’t talked to him at all after that night, and I still had no idea what to say to him. I hadn’t told anyone that he had asked me out, not even Seb, and I didn’t know if he had told anyone either, I sort of hoped he hadn’t.

We started walking in the direction of Pierre and Chucks block. They lived across the street from each other, they always had, which was probably the reason why they were as close as they were. It had always been the two of them, and the rest of the group knew that, it was just something that had always been like that. They had their fair share of fights, but they always made up. Their longest fight lasted for two months, two months that Pierre spent with Chuck’s sister, which was the reason for their fighting in the first place.

When we reached them they were sitting on the curb throwing pebbles into the street and when they saw us coming they started throwing them at us instead.

“What took you guys so long? You were supposed to be here like fifteen minutes ago!” Chuck said as he stood up, looking considerably annoyed with our lateness.

“It was Ria’s fault,” Jeff and Patrick exclaimed at the same time, both of them pointing their fingers in my direction. I simply rolled my eyes without saying a word, letting them blame me, ‘cause it was after all my fault that we were as late as we were.

I could feel someones eyes on me and without looking up I knew they were Pierre’s. I looked anywhere but at him, I knew he was waiting for an answer, an answer that I had in fact promised him. I just didn’t know what the answer was yet. I looked up at Chuck and noticed that he was looking at Pierre in a manner that I knew meant that he knew what was going on. I guess I should have figured that he would tell Chuck, I just didn’t know if it bothered me that he had or not.