Page 34 of Sure, Pal

15

Sienna

Ava drummed her fingers against the pretty marbled countertop in her massive kitchen. She watched me for a minute and then uncorked a fancy bottle of wine and pulled two glasses from a cabinet. She sighed and said, “Thanks for finally answering your phone!” Ava gave me a pointed look and then poured me a huge glass of wine.

“Sorry, Ava. I’ve had a lot going on lately.” Like fucking Evan until I can’t walk… Ugh. I’m the worst.

“You’ve had a lot going on? Don’t even get me started.” Ava headed into her living room, and I followed. “Oh my God, I’m so tired!” Ava collapsed onto her couch with a very un-Ava-like groan. Her pure white leather sectional was not the kind of couch you collapsed on, though. I knew for a fact that it cost more than I made in a year.

I delicately sat beside her, clutching my glass of expensive red wine. “Long week?” I asked and took a sip. My heart was pounding in my throat. I was going to tell her about Evan tonight and pray that she’d be understanding.

“Ridiculous, Si, and it’s still not over!” Ava sat up and said, “Oh, I almost forgot.” She walked toward her front door, hips swaying, and picked up a plastic shopping bag from her entryway table. “My mom was cleaning out my old room, and I told her to throw all my shit away, but she said some of it was yours.” Ava dropped the bag in my lap and picked up her glass of wine from the coffee table.

“Oh, wow. I didn’t realize I’d left anything behind.” I’d lived with Ava and her parents for a solid year after high school. Sometimes it felt like I’d never be able to repay their kindness. I opened the bag and pulled out a folder filled with guitar sheet music. Next, I pulled out the gorgeous navy blue dress that I bought for a party back in high school. “Oh my god, I thought I lost this!”

Ava glanced at the dress and shrugged, then her eyes widened with recognition, and she burst out laughing. “That’s the sexy blue dress that had every guy in our school drooling over you at that party junior year! I swear even Evan did a double take when you walked out of your house in that.” She set her wine down and covered her face with both hands, almost laughing too hard to speak. “I was so damn jealous that I stole the dress from you and hid it in the back of my closet!”

“Are you serious, Aves?” I gaped at her.

Ava was still laughing. “I’m a petty, jealous bitch!” She shrugged and pulled out her phone, not even attempting to apologize.

I’d saved up for months to afford that dress, while Ava’s parents bought her new clothes every other day. And I had gotten a lot of attention when I wore it. I felt like a rock star that night, then the dress disappeared. Ava had even helped me look for the damn thing!

Fuck. She got so damn much attention in high school, and she couldn’t let me have one night? Who was I kidding? She’d never “let” me have Evan, either.

Maybe it was a bad idea to tell her about him tonight. I glanced over at her while she scrolled through her phone, completely ignoring me.

Suddenly her eyes lit up, and she dropped her phone in her lap. “Oh my God, Si! I can’t believe I forgot to tell you! I ran into Rob the other day. Guess who’s back in town?” She leaned forward and grinned at me.

My stomach churned. She knew. Shit.

“Uh… who?” I asked, forcing my voice to stay steady.

“Evan!” Ava laughed and clapped her hands. “My baby is home! I can’t wait to see him!”

Her baby? What the hell? My palms were starting to sweat. The next words that came out of my mouth surprised me. “I know,” I said. I thought I was going to feign ignorance and back down from Ava like I usually did. But maybe I was about to brave.

Ava’s pretty face wrinkled in confusion. “What? How the hell did you know?”

My heart raced. This was it. I was going to tell her. “I ran into him while I was playing at a bar a couple of weeks ago—“

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Ava held out her hand to stop me. “You were playing at a bar?” Her big blue eyes were open wide, and her lips pressed into a thin angry line. Within a split second, her anger slipped away and was replaced by sadness. “You’re doing shows, and you didn’t tell me.” Her voice was soft. “Since when do you not tell me things?”

I froze. I thought Ava was going to get mad at me about Evan, but instead, she got sad about my shows and the state of our friendship. I hadn’t even meant to tell her about my shows yet. Was I the shit friend here?

I swallowed the lump in my throat. Maybe now wasn’t the best time to tell her about Evan. Maybe I needed to think of a better way to tell her — a way that could possibly keep our friendship intact.

I cleared my throat. “I, I wanted to build something on my own, Aves. I wanted to do the work without any help.”

“Right.” Ava nodded and stared down at her perfectly manicured nails. “Um, I guess I get it.” She glanced up at me and smiled. “It’s okay, Sienna. I get it.” Ava reached over and took one of my hands in hers. “Can I come and see you play, at least?”

I found myself smiling and nodding and giving her the details for my next show at the coffee shop.

After she entered them into her phone, she narrowed her eyes at me again, “And seriously, you saw Evan and didn’t tell me? What. The. Hell. Sienna.”

Well, fuck. I thought I’d dodged that bullet tonight.

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