~Baby I like it!~
by little tiny thing
EIGHT
'Tanya'
It was the day of my best-friend-in-the-whole-wide-world arrival day. I made an effort to wake up early so that I would arrive in the airport just in time for her plane to land. Drave, being the really nice gentleman he is, dropped me off the airport and guided me inside the arrival area. I looked around, with Drave hovering behind, to see where Gate 24 was and stood there anxiously waiting for Tanya. I saw Drave making his way to Starbucks and ordered two cups of hot chocolate.
Suddenly, the grey industrial-looking doors of Gate 24 opened and passengers made their way to their families. There was a lot of hugging, crying and kissing around me that I felt quite left out that Tanya still wasn't in line of sight.
"Here," Drave said, handing me a cup of Starbucks hot chocolate
"Thanks." I sipped it quietly and waited. I watched glumly to the people who were making their way to the car park with their reunited loved once and I briefly wondered where the hell Tanya is. "I'm sorry for wasting your Friday morning like this."
"Don't be sorry" He replied. "I offered to take you here. And I'm kind of looking forward to meet your friend too. She looked pretty hot on the pics."
I looked at him, and glared; vividly remembering the fainting incident on Facebook. "Don't make her faint again, Drave. Or I'll swear you'll be sorry that you'd ever been born."
"Threats don't scare—." He said but stopped short once he saw my ultimate evil glare. If looks could kill, mine certainly did! "Fine, I promise I won't make your friend faint. But it isn't my fault that I'm so handsome that girls literally fall to their knees."
I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."
"Hey, isn't that your friend wearing that pink jumpsuit?!" Drave said his eyes wide while his tongue lashed out of his mouth.
I looked to where he was looking and saw a girl with a mop of cherry red hair up in a high ponytail wearing a sleek pink jumpsuit. She waved her hand, her legs power walking towards me, pink suitcase wheeling behind her. By the looks of it, she hasn't noticed Drave yet.
"Tanya!" I said, and binned my empty cup of hot chocolate and waved back. "C'mon love, we haven't got all day—"
"It's so great to see you Emma!" Tanya gushed in excitement. She squeezed me so tight that I thought my insides would come out! "You don't know how much I miss you!" she said.
I patted her back. "I miss you too, Tanya! I just can't believe that you're finally here spending the next few days with me." She finally let go and I could finally breathe again. "I'll make your stay with me worthwhile so you won't ever forget!" I grinned at her.
"You got that right, girlfriend!" She agreed smiling. "Now, I could really use a hot drink right now."
"Sure," I smiled. "You must be tired from the flight. So we'll get your drink and you have a rest for a bit before we do our catching up. Is that OK?"
"Emma!" She laughed. "You haven't changed a bit. I'm not really tired. I just had a really nice nap in the plane so we could probably talk for a while before I black out." Tanya wrapped her arm around mine and soon we were happily skip-walking towards Starbucks like nursery kids.
Drave was quietly following behind. He was still invisible to my best friend and he wasn't helping the situation. Maybe he was shell-shocked that Tanya was hotter in person that he'd anticipated that he was loss for words?
"You dyed your hair," I said, noticing her hair bouncing wildly like waves.
She looked at me, and then bit her finger then touched her hair. "Oh yeah, I thought a bit of cherry red dye could spice my ugly orange hair."
"Your hair was fine before." I countered. "And it wasn't ugly. That's for sure."
"But don't you agree it's even better now?" Tanya asked, pouting.
I nodded. "Yeah, it's really nice. It brings out the blueness in your eyes."
"Shut up you weirdo." She grinned. "Anyway, do you want anything?"
We stopped short as we reached the till with a middle-aged woman waiting to take our order. The woman looked very bored and it seemed as though she wanted to be anywhere but here. She didn't even offer a smile or anything. So much for a friendly service! I looked behind if my cousin was following us but he disappeared! I couldn't see him anywhere in the room and I wondered where he could have gone.
"I'm alright thanks. I had my hot chocolate earlier." I replied, frowning for a moment and smiled again once I saw Tanya looking at me.
Where could he be? I thought
"Suit yourself." Tanya said and told the woman what she wanted. After she paid her drink, we sat down on a comfy looking loveseat and sprawled ourselves with our feet up with me holding a tiny cushion while my best friend wrapped her hands around the hot Styrofoam cup. She sipped from her cup before she began talking. "Did you, or did you not notice a freaking gorgeous lad today?" She said sounding excited as her voice went two octaves higher.
She did notice Drave!
"A gorgeous lad?" I said.
"Yeah, a gorgeous lad," She said dreamily "He's got blonde-ish hair, blue eyes He was wearing like cargo pants and a blue kind of top but I'm not sure. Maybe it was green. He was like, literally standing next to you! I can't believe you didn't notice him!"
"Oh that guy," I said lamely. My mind conjured an image of Drave the very first time I saw him. I had to agree with Tanya because he was sizzling! "Yes, he's...hot." I replied, pretending to be interested with my fingernails.
"How very enthusiastic, Emma!" Tanya remarked sarcastically, her left eyebrow rising slightly. "Anyway, I think I found Mr gorgeous."
I rolled my eyes. "Don't you have a boyfriend? What's-his-name would be so pissed if he finds out you're dating here."
"His names Luke and it sadly didn't work between us because he was too clingy."
"Ew!" We both said in unison. Then we looked at each other for half a heartbeat, and then, as if some by some unknown force, we laughed uncontrollably. We gave each other high fives and did our secret handshake: fist bump, poking each other's noses and flapping our arms like a chicken. More people emerged inside Starbucks and were gawking at us as if we were some kind of freaks. But Tanya and I didn't care because we were having so much fun.
"Clingy guys are, like," She paused for a moment then continued. "Clingy?"
I smirked at her. "You don't say."
"Seriously. Luke was great at first, but for the following weeks, he was way jealous and wouldn't make me talk with other guys!" She exclaimed and sighed to calm herself down. "And then, it was like he was taking up my personal bubble. He was all touchy feely and that."
"Guys like that aren't worth it." I said. "And it's good you ended the relationship face to face so there were no hard feelings. Right?"
"Well..." She looked down, tracing the rim of her cup.
"I fucking know that look," I said, knowing full well what she'd done. "You freaking didn't Tann..."
"I so did!" She said guiltily flailing her arms wildly in the air. "I texted him it was over before I made my way to the airport."
"That's so mean!" I said. "Why don't you do it, you know, when you come back, face to face?"
She shrugged and said defensively. "I guess I wanted to be free before I come here in Virginia."
"Huh. But still." I sighed and wrapped the cushion around myself.
Tanya stood up and put her cup in the bin. She smothered her jumpsuit and looked as though she was ready to go. "You like?" She said, putting on a funny accent.
"I like!" I smiled. "Where'd you get it from?"
"New Look. Bargain for £5!" Tanya beamed. "I was well pleased because I really liked this jumpsuit and I got it!"
"It's good that you did some shopping." I said. "You ready to go?"
She nodded and chewed on her nail. It was a Tanya habit. "Yeah. No actually. I'll be back!"
"Where are you going?" I was confused by the quick change of mind.
"Toilet!"
"So your friend thinks I'm gorgeous." Drave suddenly appeared behind and whispered in my ear which totally scared the hell out of me.
I scrambled forwards, startled by my cousin's ghostly appearance and stood in the corner of the sofa getting my bearings together and ensuring that I was as far away from Drave as possible. He chuckled when I glared at him.
"Jeez Drave, you shouldn't do that!" I whined, then looked at him suspiciously "Have you been eavesdropping?"
My cousin shrugged in a lazy manner and he slumped down in the loveseat looking like he owned the place. "That's none of your business." He suddenly looked smug and there was an open, naughty smile plastered on his face. "Hi there, pumpkin!"
I turned to see my best friend entered the room with fully applied make-up and her cherry red hair was down in silky waves. She looked cute. I saw Drave giving her a wink and her face was instantly as red as a tomato. Tanya tentatively walked in towards our direction and sat down next Drave.
"So..." She said shyly.
"Oh don't be shy pumpkin." Drave said. "Make yourself comfortable and we'll get down to introductions shall we?"
"Uh, OK." Tanya replied and chewed her nail.
When Drave's back was turned my best friend mouthed a 'What the hell is going on?' and before I could answer her Drave's attention shifted to Tanya's again. "So you know my cousin here." He rolled his eyes at me and faced Tanya, cocking his head to the side. "You and my cousin are best friends...right?"
Tanya slowly nodded. "Yes, yes we are." Then as if she was possessed, her shy demeanour into a more confident, flirty girl; the Tanya I know well. "Emma," She emphasised my name in a cold tone. "She never told me that she had such...an...an amazing cousin." Her eyes darted like daggers in my direction before it returned to Drave's. Tanya was prodding Drave's toned biceps and flashed a smile to him. "You're so fit."
He laughed. "Thank you. You're not so bad yourself."
"Is that a compliment?" She cocked her head to the side and fiddled her hair, her lips slightly parted. "I think I know you from somewhere..."
Drave grinned. "I guess I just have one of those faces...who are easily mistaken by someone else."
She shook her head. "No, no, I've seen you somewhere. I swear!"
My cousin's eyes twinkled in amusement. He winked at Tanya and said casually. "I'm Drave by the way."
I stood up and cleared my throat. As much as I didn't want to ruin the fairly harmless flirting and realisation here; we really had to be going. I wanted to spend as much time with my best friend as possible and I would not let Drave ruin my upcoming plans.
"Oh golly!" I exclaimed theatrically. "What a shame! It's time to go guys!" I yanked Tanya's arm away from Drave's and grabbed her suitcase, wheeling it behind me while my best friend walked in an awkward position. She was sort of hopping slash skidding and it looked weird.
Drave jogged to Tanya's side and supported her with his arm just above her waist. I looked at them and sighed. Letting go of Tanya I sprinted towards the car park where my cousin's lush Aston Martin was nicely parked in the corner. His keys were hidden inside my hoodie pocket and I took them out, unlocking the car and roughly placing my best friend's pink suitcase in the boot. Then I went into the driver seat, which earned me a mortified look from Tanya and a smirk from Drave, and I drove the car as casually as I could.
~_~
"Your room is so blueeeee!" Tanya remarked.
She glanced at the Apple Mac charging peacefully on the desk, her green eyes widened in the process and quickly hugged it as if it was her own baby. I raised my eyebrow but she just grinned in return. I shook my head in the end because no matter how old she is, Tanya will always be Tanya. We continued the tour of the house, and as we made our way back to my bedroom Tanya's pace slowed and she lingered near Drave's door which was completely shut, and for a moment I saw the longing in her eyes.
"I remember him," She said.
I made an unintelligible noise and raised my eyebrow.
"He's that guy when I was IM-ing you on Facebook!"
"Yes!"
"You never told me he was your cousin."
"I felt that you didn't need to know.
"You could have told me." She pressed.
"I know."
"But you didn't."
"No, I didn't."
"Why?"
I looked at her, speechless of what to say so I settled on biting my lip instead.
"Do you want go shopping?" She asked.
Our seemingly minor argument forgotten, we got dressed and prepared ourselves to go shopping.