You're In New York, I'm In L.A

[[Three years ago]]

“Travis, get off me!” I managed to say through my giggles. My best friend, Travis, tickling me just like he usually did. He knew I was ticklish and where the most ticklish parts of my body were.
My laughs must have been so loud because I only heard my mother cough to catch both our attentions, not her open the door to my bedroom. Both Travis and I sat up, laughing in embarrassment as if we were caught doing something we shouldn’t, but all it was, was Travis teasing me like he usually does. I turned to look at him, smiling at him and watching as he smiled back before I turned my attention to my mom.

“This letter come for you,” she said, handing it to me with a small smile tugging at her lips. “I think it’s what you’ve been waiting for,” and with that there was an even bigger smile on my lips. Even Travis knew what my mother and I were talking about. The letter from New York Academy of Art was sat in my hand, the one letter I had been waiting for since, well it felt like forever.

“Well go on, open it,” Travis said, nudging my arm gently with his own. I looked up at him, a smile upon his lips but even I could tell it was a fake one. He didn’t want me moving so far away from him, away from California. I didn’t want to leave him either, but art was everything to me and even Travis wouldn’t be selfish enough to ask me to stay with him.

It’s like he could sense what I was thinking as I looked down at the envelope. “We’ll make it work,” he whispered, leaning his forehead against my shoulder.
“We don’t even know what it says yet, don’t be so sure I got in,” I said, a large sigh leaving my mouth after I spoke.

“Then open it and put us all out of this curiosity,” my mother spat out. I forgot she was even standing in my room. She was right though, no matter what the letter said I still had to read it. I had to find out my fate.

I took in a large breath, slowly and carefully opening the envelope. My eyes were shut as I pulled the paper out of the envelope, letting the envelope hit my bedroom floor. I opened my eyes, reading the letter until I got to the one bit that I wanted to know. “Accepted, I-I got accepted!” I squealed, looking up and my mom then looking at Travis, who had a frown on his face. He looked back at me, realising I sensed his sadness then tried to cover it up with another fake smile, hugging me tightly.
“Congratulations,” he mumbled into my ear. I closed my eyes, holding him close to me. I didn’t dare breathe a word, I just held him close. I wanted to savour the moment, pretend everything was going to be fine and pretend we would stay the same.

[[Present day]]

It had been three years since I left Los Angeles and the weird thing is I never went back to visit. Mom and dad always came to me for the holidays and stayed in the loft apartment I made my own. They knew how much I loved being in Manhattan and how much I didn’t want to be home to see Travis. He’d be brought up on occasion, my mother telling me about what he was doing now, or should I say what girl he was doing now.

He changed. He wasn’t my best friend anymore. He was this self-obsessed solo artist who thought he could spend the rest of his life fucking girls and smoking weed. He thought it was okay to be like that and he grew up to be someone I hate. I loathed what he become, but that never kept me away. Not for long anyway. I’d always be googling him, listening to his new music. He made my skin crawl knowing he was making that kind of music, and I hated myself even more for making sure I knew all the words. I had to. It was like some sort of sick obsession I had with him, just to try and keep some part of him in my life.

Whenever he was in New York, I made sure I was busy. I made sure to stay away from any show he done or any club or studio he’d be near, around or even in. I cut all my contact with him when I was in my second year of college. Another year down the line, and here I was sat in my apartment with my best friend, Ariana, looking up his new tour dates.

“When are we going to be going for a weekend out of town this time around, then?” she asked me, sitting on the couch opposite the one I was laying on, placing a cup of coffee down in front of me. I looked up from my Apple Mac computer screen to glare at her. “Don’t give me that look, I know well enough you’re not gonna wanna see him.”

I shook my head, scrolling through and looking carefully at the tour dates. “Give me a chance to look,” I mumbled. “Thank you for the coffee, though,” I said, sighing a little as I looked up at her and gave up, closing the laptop and placing it carefully down next to me.

“There’s only so long you can keep running, April. Sooner or later you’re gonna have to see him and talk things through. At the end of the day you’re the one who cut off all connection with him, and I know that you’re not happy with your decision. You may as well just go along this time, talk things through and at least see where it gets you. I mean, like your mom said, he’s been asking about you,” she said, sipping her own coffee but keeping her eyes on me.

I shook my head with another sigh leaving my lips. I knew she was right. I had to face the music at some point. “Go to this tour, okay? I’ll come with you. I won’t leave you alone. We’ll make sure to meet him.” It took me a few moments to try and resist but in the end, she was right, and I had to do it. I nodded. A cheeky smirked played on her lips as she crossed her legs. “I’m always right, book the tickets!” She said.

“Fine, fine. I’ll do it,” I mumbled, opening the laptop again and hesitantly booked two tickets for his New York show in three weeks. I could already tell it was going to be the longest three weeks of my life.