Love At Last

FRIENDS

I and Brielle headed to the next site we needed to survey as we had a list of areas we worked with. She kept relating her funny experience with me and had me laughing real hard as we drove to our next stop.

“Who was that lady though?” Brielle asked me causing the smile I had on my face to fade away. I knew she was referring to Lily.

“What lady?” I feigned ignorance.

” The lady you were talking with back there,” she clarified.

“Oh!…,”

“I watched you both for a while, you know?” She’d pretended she didn’t see Lily and now?

“So why did you act like you didn’t notice her at all?” I voiced.

“That was obviously on purpose to end the nice conversation you both were having back there. I have eagle eyes you know? I see everything,” she stated out rightly.

“So you saw her and pretended you didn’t on purpose?” I asked, a bit shocked.

“Exactly! Now tell me, who was she? And why did you look so familiar with her?”

“Nothing much, just a friend,” I answered. Although it felt a bit awkward calling Lily ‘just a friend’, but thinking, there wasn’t really much to our relationship although we had grown close a bit.

“You keep friends?” she asked. ‘who doesn’t?’ I answered in my head.

“Who doesn’t?” I voiced.

“I don’t,” she stated out rightly

“Of course you don’t, you’re obviously not human,” I blurted jovially and she giggled.

“Friendship is more like a burden I wouldn’t want to bother myself with.”

“A burden?” I was shocked at the notion she had about friends. Everyone needs friendships to keep going; long lasting one at that. So how could she possibly feel that way? “Did you have a childhood trauma or something?” I made known to her my thoughts.

“If I say I did?”

“Would you mind sharing?” I asked politely in a bid to prevent myself from coming off as a nosy fellow.

“Absolutely not.” She didn’t seem to have a problem with it.

“So tell me what’s up with you and seeing friends as a burden?” I was eager to hear her story.

“Well, my childhood friend betrayed me,” she said causing me to feel a little bit sorry for her.

“Is that why you turned out this way?” I asked with concern.

“Yes!” she stated firmly.

“So what did that friend of yours do to you?”

“She dated my crush,” she blurted to my surprise. ‘Crush’?

“What? Crush? How old were you?” I asked surprisingly.

“Ten?”

“Ten?!” I exclaimed and turned sharply to her taking my eyes off the road. The sorry feeling I felt earlier slowly went away. I was shocked at her story. How could that determine how cold she was towards people in general? She’s a handful.

“Drive,” she stressed and gestured towards the road. “Do you want to get me killed?” she asked further.

“You allow a measly squabble between you and childhood friend shape who you are today?” I asked, stressing the ‘childhood’. This lady never ceased to amuse me.

“Wasn’t that enough reason? I really liked him you know? Isn’t that enough to be called a childhood trauma?”Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

“No!” I refuted.

“Whatever,” she stated casually.

“You really never cease to amuse me, Brielle.”

“Everyone says that,” she said and the car went silent for a split second. “So tell me, she’s just a friend?” she broke the brief silence.

“Who?” I completely forgot what we were talking about before delving into her past.

“Lily!” she reminded.

“Oh!… Sure.”

“Sure you ought to be keeping unnecessary relationships?”

“Unnecessary? What do you mean by that?” I asked with a friendly tone.

“You know our stay here is strictly business, so if you ask me, keeping friendships as this one is really not advisable. Your stay here is temporary, and you’re prone to leave at anytime, you know that, right?” In as much as I wanted to prove her wrong, she made a lot of sense to me. My stay in Nedford indeed was strictly professional.

“Lily is a nice lady. If you get to know her, you might end up liking her,” I still had to defend myself somehow.

“You sure about that?” she scoffed. I knew her scoffing meant she didn’t really like people or associated with them; she scared people off instead of attracting them. The only features she possessed that had the possibility of attracting others to her were her face and her physique – she was really beautiful.

“Actually, I’m not so sure,” I replied jovially and she giggled. “But making friends here can help facilitate the rate of our business down here,” I chipped in.

“How do you mean?”

“Here’s what I’m trying to say. If you make friends with a local from this town, won’t it help out with the survey?” I asked. I wanted to defend my actions at all cost even though all she said made real sense.

“Lily is a local here?” she asked. She really didn’t know? Wasn’t that obvious?

“Exactly! So being a friend of someone who knows the in and out of this city – Lily – is also helping me out with the task which is invariably still me being professional,” I explained.

“True though. Talking about Lily…,” she rubbed her chin and looked liked like she was thinking, “I could have sworn I’ve met her somewhere before now,” she completed her sentence. “She looked very familiar.” She added.

“What are you saying? She’s the one who came over the other day, remember? The weird measly-looking woman?” I reminded.

“That’s not it. Of course I remember her from before. I’m talking about something else right now.”

“Somewhere else?” I was confused. “You sure about that?” I added.

“Absolutely. She doesn’t have a basic face, so don’t even bother telling me I saw someone who looked like her and not her herself,” she defended.

“Yeah that’s true. So where could you have possibly seen her. She’s been in Nedford for a while.”

“Maybe in her previous city?” I then realized that Lily hadn’t really told me about that. “You think so?”

“Yes!” she affirmed. “I’ve definitely seen that face somewhere.”