Page 9 of Run To You
“I didn’t know you were even home,” she replies.
“Nice,” I snort. “Where’s Becca?”
Bella looks around the apartment. “Isn’t she here?”
“Jesus Christ, woman. No, she isn’t here, I am.”
“Right. I have no idea where she is then.”
Walking over to her, I close the lid of her laptop. “Break time.”
“Eden—“
“Nah, Bel. You’re resembling a cave troll. Time for some fresh air, and food that isn’t ninety percent saturated fat or sugar. Come on, it’s a nice day. Mum and Dad will be grilling.”
Scrubbing her face, Bella nods. “Yeah, okay. Food and fresh air.”
I wait for her to pack away her shit and stick on some boots. It’s a million degrees outside, but Bella refuses to wear anything but Doc Martens. She’s like me in that respect, which is why I like her so much.
The walk to my parents’ house is twenty minutes. If Bella weren’t with me, I’d run it, however she is with me, and the chance of getting Bella to run voluntarily is zero.
“So, what’s the skinny?” Bella asks. “What’s happened in your life since yesterday?”
Throwing my arm around her, I laugh. “Oh, you know. Cleaning my room, painting a ferret…getting my own gallery show in London.”
Bella stops walking, turns and pulls me down by my very cool Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle suspenders until I’m eye level with her.
“Say that again.”
Grinning, I stare into her eyes and repeat. “My own gallery show…in London.”
Bella erupts into a fountain of cuss words that I know are encouraging, yet sound hella insulting. Laughing, I grab hold of her shoulders to keep her from bouncing into the road.
“Calm down, you nut bag!”
“Calm down?” she shouts. “Eden, this is fucking epic! Oh my god, I’m so proud of you. Will you have to go to London? Can I come? Can Becca come? Have you told Pia?”
“Will you slow down? Bloody hell, I’ve only just found out myself, so I’ve no idea if I’ll have to go to London, and no I haven’t told Pia in the ten seconds it took me to walk from my bedroom to the living room after talking to my grandma.”
“Call her! She’s going to be so happy.”
“Bella, Pia is going to be hormonal and sweaty. Nothing I say will make her happy.”
Pia is eight and a half months pregnant. She and Todd forgot one too many times about birth control and that was that. Baby Pia is on the way. Her parents hit the fucking roof when they found out. It was only when Todd asked Pia to marry him that they calmed the hell down.
Pia was a mess for the first three months, and not just because she was barfing every morning. She didn’t appreciate Todd bowing down to her parents and putting them both in an impossible position.
I remember the three weeks Pia spent sleeping in my bed in my dorm room. She turned up with a suitcase andtears streaming down her face. I was expecting her because Todd gave me a heads-up. Even though Pia was super pissed at him, he still made sure she was safe by booking her ticket to California and having a Lyft waiting at the airport.
My roommate was cool with a snotty and hormonal Pia hogging the couch and the TV. After three very long weeks, she was calm enough to go home and talk things out with Todd. Turns out she was actually excited about tying the knot with him, which came as no surprise to any of her friends. They’ve been in love forever and belong together. Granted, their life plans are steaming along much quicker than any of us predicted, but hell…if they’re happy, so am I.
“She will be sweaty, but she’ll be smiling!” Bella replies. We start walking again because the sun is fucking relentless. It’s hot enough I didn’t even contemplate bringing a hoodie.
Pulling out my phone, I shoot Pia a text to see if she wants to come to my parents’. Even though Pia’s mum and dad are cool about the baby, they still manage to spend eighty percent of the time travelling. Pia and Todd live on the same street as them because Pia’s mum insisted they stay close, which is ironic. Todd works for his dad and is out of the house a lot, which leaves Pia alone. Like in high school,she spends a lot of time at my parents’ house, even though I no longer live there. My mum supplies her with endless support and chips.
I get a message back telling me she’s already at the house, which makes me smile. We round the corner, and Bella starts to skip up the walkway until she lands on my parents’ porch. Like most of my friends, she doesn’t knock but walks right on in. My parents have no boundaries with the people they love, and my friends fall squarely into that group. Especially as they kept me going through…it doesn’t matter. Bella, Becca, Pia, and Todd were, and are, beautiful people and I’m so pleased we all ended up back here after college.
“I’m here,” Bella calls. “Come give me some love, Sawyers!”
