Set Sail

I’m home, and it feels so fucking good.

I thought I’d be unhappy as soon as I landed in NT, but the memories of hanging out with James or sitting on Mick’s rooftop and listening to Colton’s tracks bring me back to happy times. My most prominent memories have been with Georgia, but she’s not in my life anymore so I’m not going to think about that. I refuse to.

Dad picks me up from the airport. It’s nice to see him again; I’m surprised at how much I’ve missed him until I see him in person. He looks like he’s cleaned himself up – he’s gotten a haircut, and looks like he’s been working out? I have no clue.

“Did you get a haircut?” I ask him.

He blushes (what the fuck?) and nods. “It was getting too long,” he explains but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something off about his response. Nonetheless, I brush it off. “How are you? How’s Melbourne? How’s your job?”

During uni, I worked at an art gallery, pretty much maintaining the space and using my non-existent sales experience to get randos to buy pieces. Since graduating, I’d been given more responsibility at the gallery by scoping out new artists. It started in Melbourne but soon enough I was being asked to check out the talent nationally, which was why I was in NT for a few weeks. I’d be flying back and forth until Christmas, where I’d have two weeks off. Now that uni was over, I wasn’t sure what I planned to do with my life. I loved Melbourne and all the opportunities it gave me, but I missed the weather and my friends in the Northern Territory.

“My job is good! I’m scoping out some artists in Darwin in a few days so that’ll be fun,” I tell Dad, who listens intently as he drives us home. “Melbourne’s awesome, but the weather changes so much that it makes me miss how warm it is here all the time. I don’t like wearing jackets in Melbs.”

Dad laughs. “Are you excited to see your friends? Josh?”

My heart stops for a moment. Since Josh and I broke up, we hadn’t really seen each other. He lived in Canberra and me in Melbourne so we never ran into each other, except when we were visiting our family at home. “Josh is back? How do you know?”

“I see him at Jackie’s house,” Dad explains. “He hangs out with Joe sometimes. I think he came home a few days ago though, not sure when.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Since when do you hang out with James’ mum?”

Dad blushes again. “We’re friends. You know we’ve always been friendly.” This is true. They get along pretty well.

“So?” Dad prods as he pulls into our driveway. Oh man, I’ve missed my house so much. I can’t wait to crawl into bed and have a shower and Dad better have stocked the fridge with blueberries. “Are you going to see Josh?”

I shake my head. “Probably not. I’m gonna go see Mick though. Can I borrow the car?”

Dad nods. “Only when you’ve had a shower,” he chides. “I love you honey, but you smell.”



The plan was to have a long bath, to spend my time listening to music and probably reading a magazine, but instead I shower in under ten minutes and chuck on the closest clothing items to me: a pair of denim shorts and a plain t-shirt. Slipping my shoes into some sandals and yelling at Dad that I’ll be home later, I get into his car and drive over to the Laundromat, blasting Colton’s newest track as loud as I can.

It takes a couple of minutes for me to park properly since I don’t drive in Melbourne and my parking skills are a little rusty. It’s okay though. Mick’s texted to tell me he’s going to be a little late since he’s dropping his younger sister off at her boyfriend’s house. I can already imagine the rant Mick’s going to go on, knowing that he’s basically encouraging his seventeen year old sister to have sex. When I bring up the fact that Georgia and Colton were doing it at the same age, he shakes his head and goes, “That’s not the same thing.”

It’s the same fucking thing, Mick.

I’m perched on top, swinging my legs against the broken down washing machine when I hear the door open to see Mick walk in. It’s been about five months since I’ve seen Mick. The last time I saw him, he came to visit me in Melbourne over winter break. He had sex with my roommate Denise a few times while I was in class. It made for a semi-awkward time when my roommate decided she had feelings for him and she saw us hanging out often together. She got jealous, Mick didn’t like her – it was a bad time all around. Though I loved hanging out with Mick, I was a little relieved when he left so I didn’t have to hear Denise go on and on about whether Mick liked her or not.

It’s another couple of minutes until I hear the door creaking open and watch my best friend walk through the door. He looks similar to how he was the last time I saw him, tall and handsome with a bit of colour in his normally pale skin and a smile that stretches out so widely I can see all of his teeth.

“Mick!” I shout excitedly, jumping off the machine and launching straight into his arms.

“Didn’t even realise how much I missed you til now,” Mick says with affection in his voice, ruffling my hair and for once, I don’t even care that he’s messing my hair up. That’s how much I’ve missed him.

“Shut up,” I reply, my voice muffled in his shoulder, squeezing him so tightly that I think he may suffocate but oh well. This is the hug to make up for oh man, many months’ worth of hugs. He looks better than I remember. He’s a little bit taller and his hair has darkened (I have no idea how this is even possible) and he looks great. Actually, he looks hot, but I’d never tell him that to his face. “How have you been?”

“Okay.” He shrugs. “Uni’s over, so time to look for a job.” He makes a face. “I’m thinking of moving interstate, but I haven’t decided where.”

“My apartment is open if you ever wanna move to Melbs,” I tell him. “I have no idea what it would be like if we moved in together, but I’m sure as long as you don’t walk around naked and I can’t hear you having sex, we’ll be fine?”

“You mean like the last time I came to Melbourne?” Mick grins in that shit-eating way that I love. “How is Denise, by the way?”

I make a face. “Still obsessed with you, apparently.”

After Mick lets me go, we sit on top of the laundry machines and talk about random things a mile a minute, the way we always do. I wonder if Mick’s going to bring up Josh and I’m hoping he doesn’t, but of course, he does.

“So did you and Josh ever end up having sex here?” Mick asks slyly.

I narrow my eyes at him. “Mick!”

He chuckles. “I’ll take that as a no, but you definitely thought about it, right?”

I cross my arms. “I am not discussing my sex life with you.” I sigh. “My lack of, I mean.”

“Aren’t you dating someone?” Mick asks curiously.

I shake my head. “I was, but I broke it off with him a month or two ago. I didn’t tell you I’d broken it off with him because I knew you’d tell Josh.” There’s a sentence I didn’t think I’d ever say. Somehow in the last two years, Josh and Mick became friends? I don’t know. I’m just as confused as everybody else. “How are you and Josh, anyways? Do you guys still play soccer together? Do you hold hands too?”

Mick’s loosened up a lot since high school, so I can finally make these jokes without him flying off his handle. “Yeah,” he replies sarcastically. “We braid each other’s chest hairs and got matching tattoos of each other.”

I snort, but I’m smiling. “Seriously though, you guys are friends, yeah?”

He nods. “I’ve kinda missed having a best friend. Like, one who’s around.” His eyes flicker up towards me. “James has been away and you’re in Melbourne and Georgia and I talk sometimes but it’s kind of awkward, which sucks. And Colton.” He sighs. “He won’t even speak to me. I thought that if I stopped talking to Georgia, it would mean that we’d be friends again but nothing’s changed, so I figured it’d be okay if G and I were friendly.”

“That sucks,” I say, because I’m not sure what else to say. It really does suck, though. I hate when my friends aren’t speaking to each other. “How is G?”

Even though Georgia and I don’t talk, it doesn’t mean I don’t miss her any less. I do miss her and it sucks but she chose her path a long time ago and I can’t forgive her. I just can’t.

“Good,” he confirms. “How’s Colton?”

“Good,” I echo. “Though he’s become a bit annoying now, so there’s that as well.”

Mick laughs. We both fall silent for a moment before Mick brings up Josh again. “You know, you never really gave me a clear reason to why you and Josh broke up.”

I sigh. “We’d been pulling away for a while and with him in Canberra with that internship and me with my life in Melbourne, it just seemed right to end things.”

Mick frowns. “You and Josh, pulling away? But you guys were so close? Did we forget the instrumental part I played in you guys becoming a couple?”

I snort. “First year was fine. We settled in pretty nicely and made new friends but still had time for each other, y’know? But then second year rolled around and the workload got heavier and Josh was busy with internships and I got the job at the gallery, and then I had folios due so that took a lot of time out of Josh and Nat time. It got kinda hard to spend time with each other when we’re both so focused on our careers and shit, y’know?” I sigh again. “Between work and uni and making new friends and shit, it was hard to balance our lives so we thought it’d be easier to just, split up.” When we ended things, we left on decent terms, but a part of me will always wish that I had tried after or made more of an effort to keep the relationship together.

“Josh’s coming to James’ coming home party,” Mick brings up after a long pause. “So you better not bail on me, Fader.”

I chuckle, but in reality, my plan is to ditch the party. When James sent me a text saying that he was coming home, I could hardly believe it. One of my best friends was returning home from the army in one piece! That meant getting James drunk and taking a bunch of stupid photos, and whatever shenanigans we could potentially get up to. Though I wanted to see James, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to see Josh after however long it had been (possibly a year or so?). Or Georgia. But Georgia wouldn’t come, right?

“Don’t be a wuss,” he adds. “You’re coming whether you want to or not. I am not afraid to drag you from your bed.”

I huff. “Fine.”



After spending some time catching up at the laundromat, Mick and I drive to Gloria Jeans, where we both pick up coffees and a bagel. We take some time to eat there and chat some more about random things, like what we’re going to do for New Year’s (we’re thinking about hitting up a music festival, but I’m not sure what the go is on that yet) and what to get James for Christmas. I said I’d give him two years’ worth of hugs to which Mick laughed and said he’d take him out clubbing so James could get laid. We decided on me buying him drinks and wingmanning James together if we needed to.

Not that we’d need to. James could be away for ten years and he’d still be able to pull a girl within ten minutes of meeting her.

After this, Mick finally drives me home. On the way to mine we happen to pass by Georgia’s house since the way to get to my house is to pass by hers. I can’t help but look out the window, a habit I’ve made since meeting her in ninth grade and wanting to wave or say hello to her. To my surprise she is there, sitting on the sidewalk as Mick and I drive by. I have no idea if she sees Mick or if he even sees her, but I do. I see my best friend sitting on the sidewalk and all I can do is stare at her with a dead look in my eyes. She looks up, sees me staring at her and looks back. She looks like she wants to say something and just as she opens her mouth; I turn my face forward and ignore her completely.

I know it’s mean to ignore her, but I don’t care. Georgia made her choice and now she has to live with the consequences of her decisions. No matter how sad it makes me.