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I can’t believe it’s been five years.
Hudson’s face instantly flashes in front of my eyes. I can still see him in my mind like it was yesterday. Weird, I know, considering I spent less than twelve hours with the man. But there he is, etched into my mind as if I’d known him half my life.
My phone vibrates in the back pocket of my cut off jean shorts, snapping me from my trance. Pulling it out, I smile when I see Emma’s name flash across the screen, glancing up just in time to seeThrivedisappear through the back window of the bus.
“Are you ready to kill her yet?” Are the first words that leave my best friend’s mouth.
“We’re heading to the concert nearly four hours early. What do you think?” I mutter quietly into the phone.
“Ouch. Why not just tell her you’ll meet her there when the concert actually starts?” she suggests.
“You think I didn’t try that one already,” I retort.
“Didn’t go for it, huh?” She chuckles.
“Not for a second,” I deadpan. “And to make matters worse, I have to deal with her all by myself because my best friend totally bailed on me to spend the week in Cancun with her perfect husband.” I pretend gag into the phone.
Emma met Robert around the same time I met Gage. Robert is amazing. Dark skin, dark eyes, a smile that lights up an entire room. Emma has always been the most beautiful person in a crowd but Robert is her perfect equal. Together they will have the most gorgeous babies on planet Earth.
They dated about a year before she finally moved in with him. Two months later I moved in with Gage, leaving behind the condo that Emma and I had shared since freshman year of college. The condo her dad generously re-rented to me at half the normal cost after things with Gage went south.
Emma and Robert got married six months ago. It was actually the night of their wedding when I found out Gage had been cheating on me for months and had gotten the girl pregnant. Not a fair trade off if you ask me.
So while my best friend floats around in perfect wedded bliss and my sister floats around in soon to be perfect wedded bliss, I’m dragging my bitter ass out of bed every morning wondering why I seem to be the only one who can’t find ‘the one’.
“I totally would be there if I could. You know I would,” Emma says, pulling me back to the present, her smile reflected through her tone.
“Don’t lie. You are thanking your lucky stars that your vacation just happened to fall on the same weekend. Otherwise you know I would have made you come.”
“Okay. I won’t deny that I would much rather be here.” She giggles, covering the phone as she says something to who I’m assuming is Robert. “I still feel bad that I’m not there for you,” she finally adds.
“Yeah. Yeah. Save that shit for someone who’ll believe it.”
“Hello, Lennon,” Robert says into the phone.
“Hello, Mister stole my best friend but I love you anyway because you make her insanely happy,” I reply.
“You’re too easy on me,” he replies and I realize Emma has me on speaker phone.
“I figure you have to deal with Emma. How much can one man take?”
He chuckles, followed by what sounds like a smack, no doubt Emma laying into him for laughing, drifts over the line.
“Okay, you two. I gotta go. Four hours of unbearable heat followed by four hours of music I’m sure I won’t enjoy is calling to me.”
“Who knows, maybe something amazing will happen.” That’s Emma’s staple response whenever I try to be a pessimist. She tries to balance it out with her eternal optimism.
“I’ll be sure to hold my breath.” I roll my eyes.
“You’ll be back on Monday, right? We’ve got that big beach house project coming up. The contractors are already there gutting it so we should be able to go in and start sketching the design by then.”
“I knew you couldn’t resist talking about work,” Robert says, a playful annoyance in his voice.
“Of course not, she is her father’s daughter,” I remind him.
“There you two go again, ganging up on me,” Emma whines playfully.
“On that note, I gotta go, love birds. Be safe and I’ll see you on Monday, Em.”
“Okay, love you,” Emma offers, followed by Robert’s very over the top, “Love you, Lennon.”
“Love you both too. Though sometimes I question my sanity,” I quip, hearing Robert’s deep chuckle and Emma’s dramatic gasp seconds before I end the call.
Shoving the device back into my pocket, I tune into the conversation happening on the bus just in time to hear my sister telling Chelsea that she’s going to flash her boobs at Travis Travers to see if he’ll pull her on stage.
I open my mouth to point out that she will most likely be one of hundreds of women that will try that exact same stunt to grab the hot country star’s attention. Never mind that she’s getting married in two weeks’ time so she should definitelynotbe doing anything of the sort, but knowing it will do me no good I snap it closed.
Once the driver swings around to the front of the stadium and opens the door, the girls file out one after the other, me being the last to exit. I feel like a mother agreeing to take five teenage girls to see Justin Bieber with the way they all bounce down the sidewalk with excitement, quickly joining the line of people already waiting.
Even though I’m only two years older than Starr and her friends and one year older than Sandy, I feel like we are all worlds apart. I’m not really sure when I became the old mother hen of the group but I do know how much I dislike the thought.
