“Oh whatever, you didn't even tell me you were going! I heard it from your freaking mom.” I laugh and sit on the stool in Johnny's kitchen.
“Speaking of moms, did yours redecorate?” She brings her phone closer to her face to look into my background. “There’s a total bachelor pad vibe going on.”
I roll my eyes. “No. I’m—uh…do you remember that guy I was telling you about? From my complex?”
“Super dreamy yet illusive dude?” She narrows her gaze and then covers her mouth when it finally clicks. “You’re sleeping with hottie McBadBoy?”
“You’re the worst. You know that, right?” I sigh and bite at the inside of my lip. “A lot has changed since you’ve been gone.”
“I’ll say,” she huffs. “Enough about boring writer camp, what the hell is going on with you?” She flops down onto her bed.
And so, I tell her everything. How we sort of avoided each other for a little while but ended up being stuck together by our teacher and her tutoring thing. About Griffin and how he potentially tried to kill me, and how Johnny saved me but the cops don’t know the truth. How Johnny isn’t really bad at all, just super misunderstood in his quest to save everyone except himself. I left out the details of the very obvious criminal underground but mentioned he had some issues with his boss, and how his job can be a little dangerous at times. I tried to make sense of how despite everything, there’s this insane connection between us, but it’s not exactly the easiest thing to explain to someone who hasn’t experienced it themselves.
“Which leads us here, right now, to me waiting in his kitchen while he goes to grab us food.” A strange weight seems to lift from my shoulders at being able to talk to her about almost all of this.
“You both drink the same weird-ass coffee? I mean, how adorable is that.” She lets out a chuckle but then her tone changes into something darker. “I'm really sorry, Claire, about not being there when the Griffin thing happened. I can't imagine what that was like.”
“It’s okay; I’m fine.”
She shakes her head. “No. You can pretend with everyone else, but you don’t have to fake it with me. That dude terrorized you. He never deserved you. You know that, don’t you?”
It’s nothing that Johnny hasn’t already told me.
“Yeah,” I say, although it’s not very convincing.
“I’m serious. Whatever happens to him, that’s his fault. You hear me? The universe has its way of balancing good and evil. He can rot in that hospital bed for all I care. Actually, for what he did to you, I should fly over there and finish him off myself.” She sighs. “What’s your dad think about all of this?”
“I haven’t really talked to him. The data on his phone is outrageous. We’ve exchanged a few texts but not much else. He told me he was getting settled in and adjusting to life there. Asked how I was. I don’t exactly want to spring this on him, you know? I don’t want him to feel like it’s his fault. He deserves this opportunity, and I’m not going to make him second-guess it.”
If I had told him, he’d probably have hopped on the first flight out of there to come be with me. Maybe if I had to go through this alone I would have reached out to him, but I didn’t. I had Johnny, and he’s been my constant throughout this whole strange experience.
“Yeah…I suppose.” She turns over on her bed and props herself up on her elbows. “But I’m sure he’d want to know. You were his whole world, Claire.”
“Beth was here, I forgot to mention that part.”
Rosie’s eyes go wide. “Holy shit, that’s huge. How did that go?”
I stand from the stool and stretch. “Fucking weird. She showed up at the hospital and basically hijacked me from the nurse. Brought me back here, and I barely spoke to her. I hid out in my room until Johnny came by and then we snuck out after she’d gone to bed. She left for a flight early the next morning and I haven’t heard from her since.”
“You’re kidding me. Wow. Freaking mother of the year.”
I snort. “I’m not surprised. I mean, look at her track record. But, hey, no more about me. What’s going on with you? How was the writing thing? Was it magical? Did you meet any cute boys?”
Rosie flips over onto her back and lets out a long dramatic breath. “Overall, sure, it was okay.”
I stare into the camera. “But…?”
“It was like a couples thing, dude. Everyone branched off, and I was stuck with some random chick who barely spoke to me the entire time. I swear, it was like a fucking reality TV show where all these attractive single people got paired off and we were the losers no one wanted.”
“Um, you’re talking about my best friend.”
“Whatever.” She seems to perk up. “Does Johnny have any hot friends? Come on, it’s pretty much in the water over there, right?”
She's not wrong, there are a decent number of good-looking people out here, but none of them have caught my eye the way Johnny has. I've barely even noticed anyone else since he bumped into my life. “He doesn’t really have any friends.” Unless you count the dude from the bar. “Well…except for this one guy.”
“I can work with that, what’s he look like?” Her eyes are bright and cheery, totally ready for me to describe her dream man.
“He’s kind of old, Rose.” It kills me to burst her bubble.