Friends and Alibis

It was a Saturday. Meaning no work. Nothing to do (at least nothing too important to do). And it was exactly a week before the wedding. Which meant that I wasn’t exactly in high spirits.

But I wasn’t going to stay holed up in my apartment for the whole day.

I fished for my phone that was somewhere buried in my blanket on my bed where I was currently buried in and under blankets just the same.

I thought about just going shopping and doing something for myself since the last time I went shopping was with Brian and Jimmy – and we know how that turned out – but I decided against it and started calling each and every person I knew that was living somewhere close to me. I mean it would still only be 6 people but what are the odds of nobody having time for a bored girl?

After being put on hold, rain-checked and other things there was only one person left to call. And that one was Zack.

I wasn’t sure if I should actually call him. I mean none of the others had time and they weren’t going to marry in just a mere 7 days. I was sure he was busy. And I definitely wasn’t going to call him. So I tossed my phone somewhere into the sea of blankets again.

But after another 5 minutes of sulking in silence in my bed I grabbed my phone again and called him.

And he picked up.

“Hello?” he answered.

“Hey,” I replied. “Can you spare a bit of your time to spare this girl right here a death by unbelievable boredom?” I whined into the phone. He just laughed.

“I actually do have time, or more, I just need a bit of a time-out.” He laughed into the phone. “Meet you at the beach?”

“Yes, please!” I cried in victory. “Thank you, you’re a life saver. Literally. Same old spot?” I asked.

“Same old spot, ten minutes. See you there.” He said happily and hung up.

I jumped up from my bed, feeling a lot happier, and went to get dressed in record time.

By the time I got to the beach, Zack was already there waiting, facing the ocean.

I plopped down next to him and hugged him.

“Thank you for being awesome, god knows what I would’ve started if you wouldn’t have saved me from this horrible boredom.” I exclaimed in a definitely too dramatic way.

“I know I’m awesome, no need to tell me. And we definitely didn’t want you to do something stupid, do we? Who knows what you would have done!” He exclaimed in the same fashion. “You might have set some trash cans on fire again!”

“That was one time,” I laughed. “And I wasn’t even bored, I just wanted to piss my parents off. Plus
it was only ONE trash can.” I defended myself.

“I know, I just like to pick on you.” He said and laughed that laugh again. He still had the same, genuine laugh.

We sat in silence for a few moments before I spoke up again.

“So what had you up and running in the middle of your wedding preparations?”

He laughed and shook his head.

“You know Bridezillas? It’s exactly like that.” He laughed, although it did sound exhausted.

“I do know Bridezillas but the question is, why do you?” I asked with a smirk.

“Amelia made me watch it, please don’t tell the guys.” He shuddered.

“Oh I’ll definitely keep that to myself for possible black mailing.” I giggled. “It’s that bad?”

“It’s worse. But only 7 days left.” He crossed his fingers.

I wanted to say that he wouldn’t feel that way if he was marrying the right person, whoever that was. But I bit my tongue and give him a tight-lipped smile. Which resumed in us sitting in silence again.

“So what about y-“

“I’m still sorry.” I blurted out, cutting Zack off in the process. He looked surprised at me and after he saw that I wasn’t going to elaborate on my own he urged me to speak.

“I’m… really sorry for how things happened these last few weeks and days. I just…I just want you to know that I’m over everything we ever were. So… yeah.” I trailed off.

Zack looked a little bit confused at first but nodded to himself and looked out the ocean again.

“I’m glad. I was hoping that this wasn’t going to become a problem in our friendship. Because, frankly, it just would’ve been awkward all of the time. And I really don’t want to lose you as a friend. I mean the guys are the best friends I could have ever asked for. But you’re so different from them and I really appreciate the female input.” He laughed at his last sentence.

“I’m glad, too. You’re right, it woud be awkward if I still wanted you… ‘that’ way.”

And in that moment I was glad that I was a really, really, really good liar.

Notes