Larissa came over to Mia and sat down cross-legged in front of the two girls. “Shit, Mia, I'm sorry...”
I sat down on the windowsill.
Mia just smiled, as if she could just shrug it all off at the age of fifteen and looked at Mady. “Never mind. I've got my Sunshine Girl.”
Mady smiled, but her smile seemed surprised and artificial.
“Why does everyone call you that?” I asked.
First Julian, then a few guys in the campus bar and now Mia.
Mady's cheeks had turned red, and she started to laugh nervously. “Long story.”
Larissa looked at her challengingly. “We have time.”
After some hesitation, Mady finally began to tell.
“Nash called me that even before we got together.” Oh, no. What if I had touched the wrong topic? “Before we got together, I wasn't doing very well. My parents died in a plane crash when I was sixteen.”
I had definitely touched the wrong topic.
“I'm sorry about that, Mady...” I tried to salvage it somehow. “You don't have to go on...”
Mady, however, smiled gently, though I wasn't sure if it was genuine.
“It's all right. We're at it once.” She took the black emerald colored hairband out of her hair. “Nash approached me at some point. He said I was the girl who had always smiled so much. The sunshine girl in the schoolyard.” I had been expecting something else typical of Nash, something condescending, but the story took a surprising turn. “I hadn't managed to talk about it up to that point, but somehow it worked with him. I did tell him about the accident at that moment.” The corners of her mouth moved slowly upwards, and this time it felt real. Just like the tears that gleamed in her eyes. “He invited me to Lola's Diner and, somehow, we met up more often, talked a lot, did things. He was there for me, even though he wasn't feeling well himself. And he helped me smile again... Until he broke up with me out of nowhere.” That must have hit home. “He used to be so different compared to now...”
Mady fell silent, and I could see her fighting back tears. But then she quickly reached for her glass.
“But whatever.” She raised it. “Here's to a future without toxic relationships.”
Larissa quickly raised her glass.
I knew she could sing a song about such things.
“Now, it's your turn,” Mady looked at me with a challenging look. “Have you ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend, Bay?”
Old memories came flooding back, but I hadn't felt the pain for a long time.
“David Eaton, blond athlete and exchange student from England.”
“Oh, come on,” Mia admitted in amazement and reached for the nachos Larissa had stashed around her.
“I thought he was the love of my life, but then he slept with the popular girl.”
“Oh, shit.”
Mady showed her clenched teeth.
Larissa just groaned. “Olivia McConnell, that little bitch. She's been snatching up my ex-boyfriends too.”
I was glad that Olivia was now studying in Boston. Law, if I remembered correctly.
“What about your family?” Mady looked at Larissa with interest. “They must miss you terribly.”
I watched my best friend closely because I knew that was her sore spot. But she had already shared half the bottle of champagne with Mady, so she just started talking.
“I grew up as an orphan in a children's home and was later thrown out of the house for causing too much trouble.” No one said anything. “My mum was a drug junkie, and my father left her dying when I was born.”
Mady and Mia looked at Larissa, stunned. They probably couldn't imagine what Larissa had been through. And the fact that my best friend talked about it as if it was just a point in her biography didn't make it any better.
I let my gaze wander out of the window toward the dancing treetops. But it remained fixed on the road. My breath hitched.
“But it's only half as bad. The Adams were good hosts.”
I could no longer concentrate on the conversation. My attention was gone. Because in front of me, just twenty meters away, in the middle of the street, stood a man. He was dressed completely in black, wore a slightly longer coat, and didn't move at all.
I swallowed. Because he was staring up at me. With red glowing eyes.
“Bayla, are you all right?”
I jerked my head around to the girls. To be more precise, to Mady, who blinked at me with a worried look.
I turned to look out of the window again.
The man had disappeared.
Now, fear and confusion spread through me.
