“I’m so fucking happy you’re okay meuf!!” Jo says as she arrives with Max and Sekou at the hippodrome. She jumps up and hugs Lola, clinging on to her for way to long. For the past hour it was just lola, Elliot and the gang there, preparing everything for the movie showing, but now other people had started to show up, including the girl gang, some of elliot’s college friends (Elliot actually had friends! Lola never doubted it. How could he not?) and, of course, lamif.
Lola was very happy to see the three of them and she couldn’t stop smiling. After Jo finally let go she spotted Elliot and jumped on to him as well, as Max smiled at Lola shyly and gave her a warm hug. “It’s so good to see you”, he said. “I really hope you’re doing better”. Lola smiled and they let go and she gave him a smile as it was Sekou’s turn for a hug. Jo let go of Elliot and started blabbing about him and his movie and that Friday and how excited she was to work with him, without noticing behind her that Arthur, Basile and Yann were staring at this weird girl that was obviously obsessed with Elliot, while Lucas was standing next to them laughing and exchanging looks with Elliot, who was laughing too.
“What the fuck is happening, man?” Yann asked Lucas and the other too looked at him, waiting for an answer.
“Elliot has a fan!” Lucas said happily. “She’s a friend of Lola’s. I think they met threw the urbex thing”.
“Oh, that’s right!” Bas said. “Daphne told me something about that too! So she’s a friend of Maya as well?”
“Wait.. Who is Maya? What is the urbex thing?” Asked a very confused Arthur. “Gosh, I feel like I’ve missed everything because of the fucking bac!”
They laughed. “It’s okay man! It’s all over now and we get to chill.” said Yann and put an arm around Lucas and Arthur that were sitting next to him on each side.
“Exactly! And now, that you’re gonna be an amazing and brilliant graphic designer, everything will be amazing and we’ll never miss a thing again!” Baz said and hugged Arthur.
Elliot walked towards the gang with Jo still babbling walking behind him and Max, Sekou and Lola, laughing while following them.
“So!” said Elliot, excited. “Max, Sekou, Jo, this is Yann, Arthur, Baz, and Lucas, my boyfriend. Guys, these are the kids that helped me with the filming-”
Elliot wasnt able to finish his sentence as Jo’s screaming interrupted him.
“LUCAS!!” she screamed and jumped on him, hugging him very tight. “You have no idea how much I’ve heard about you!! You’re, like, a legend! I was really jealous of you in the beginning, but after Elliott’s stories I love you!” she said and continued talking while the rest of them laughed. Baz got up and looked at Sekou and Max, with his weird fake strict look.
“ So, mecs! You are friends of Lola, right?” he said, as the other two nodded. “Well, you know who I am, right?” he asked, and they shook their heads. “What??” he said, disappointed. “Well, I’m like, Lola’s official older brother. I’m dating her sister, you see. Ah, look there”, he pointed, “ the beautiful one with the long, blonde hair. So, if you ever mess with Lola..” he looked at them seriously, “I probably can’t take you, let’s be real, but look at my gang over here, we are ninjas and we’ll find you!! Check de gang, mecs!” He said and the gang ignored him. Lola laughed and she though Basil’s and Jo would be so much fun as friends. “ Thanks, big bro” she said jokingly and Baz looked at her with so much love in his eyes that he immediately needed a hug, even though he waited for Lola to nod a yes. They hugged tightly, and when they let go Basile almost had literal tears in his eyes.
After that, Lola let the gang and la mif mix and walked towards her sister, who was chatting with her friends.
“Salut!” Lola said. “How are you girls?”
“oh, meuf, we were just talking about how Manon and Charles broke up!” Emma said.
“Emma! You can’t tell this to everyone! It literally just happened!” Alexia said.
“it’s okay, it’s okay!” Manon interrupted. “It was a long time coming. Like, a long,long time. I tried to ignore all the shitty things that he said or did, because I was so in love with him. But in the end, it wasn’t worth it. The love faded away and his true colours were just more and more obvious. And I completely lost sight of who I am all this time. He literally stands for everything I hate. I thought that I was in the wrong for so long, that I had my standards too high, but I just couldn’t do it anymore. So I’m actually really relieved, and really happy”. She smiled.
“that’s great, Manon.” Emma said. “I mean, sad, but great. You should just be happy.
"Yeah! And if he doesn’t make you happy, then fuck him! I never liked him anyway”, Imane said.
“Anyway, can we talk about you trip to Morocco?’ said Manon to Imane. "Are you excited?”
“So excited! I can’t wait” Imane said and smiled at Sofianne who was looking at her from a few meters away.
“Can we also talk about Alexia?” Daphne said. “Our brilliant, multi talented girl! Lola, did you know she is taking a gap year, travelling the world, because the girl is too good at too many things to decide right now what she wants to do?”
Alexia smiled and blushed a little. “Oh, stop it!”
“No, girl, that’s really cool!” Lola said. “Are you traveling alone?”
“Yeah, mostly. I just really need to see other cultures and places, meet new people, you know? Get inspired. Emma, who is also kinda lost, though in a different way, is gonna come to a couple of places with me, and these other ones are gonna visit some times, and Arthur will probably come to a place or to at some point. He also wants to travel.”
“oh, Arthur? Didn’t you guys use to date?” Lola asked.
Alexia smiled. “Yes, and it ended in a disaster. Honestly, I’ll always love him, you know? Even if it is just as a friend. But who knows? Maybe everyone deserves a second chance. But also, how cool would it be if I got myself an international girlfriend?” The girls laughed and Daphne pulled Lola aside to talk.
“How are you doing today?” she asked Lola.
“Better”, she replied. “Taking it slow, you know? I actually cannot wait to meet my new therapist, which is weird for me. But I think I’m ready. Ready to talk. Ready to take all the help I can get.”
Daphne smiled. “I’m really proud of you, Lola.”
“that’s bullshit. You have nothing to be proud. All I have done so far is create problems. With you, with Maya, with Lucas, with Elliot.. I literally run away, like, a few days ago”.
“Yeah, but did you see anyone mad at you? Nobody is mad at you, Lola. Sure, you have done some things that weren’t great. But youve apologised and we understand. It’s okay. We’re all here for you. You know I’m not perfect either. But as long as you’re staying strong, I’ll stay strong.”
“You are the strongest person I’ve ever met”.
“I’m not that strong. But having you helps a lot. And I also wanted to tell you something else. I finally went to the therapist.”
“That’s great! That’s amazing! Daphne, I’m so happy for you.”
“thanks. It was hard, I’m not going to lie. But I had to. I’ve been avoiding this for way too long. And just having Basile cook for me is not enough”, she said and laughed. Lola looked at her lovingly and she hugged her tight. “I love you”, she whispered.
“I love you too, Lola” Daphne whispered back.
That’s when Daphne spotted Maya coming through in crowd and let go of Lola. Lola followed Daphne’s eyes and she saw Maya. Her heart started beating a little faster and her face was covered in a smile she couldn’t hide.
“Go to her”, said Daphne.
Lola smiled at her sister and walked towards her girlfriend.
“Salut!” said Maya, smiling.
“Thanks for coming”, said Lola, and she wrapped her hands behind Maya’s neck, kissing her.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world!” Maya said smiling, after they let go. “Your cinematic debut! You’re gonna be a huge star one day!”
Lola laughed and kept looking at her.
“Listen, Maya. I know we didn’t get to talk that much the other day because you were working, but I just want you to know that I don’t want you to ever be with me because you feel sorry for me or whatever. And also I just want you to know that I know that I’ve hurt you, and I’m really, really sorry for everything. But I’m trying, and I’m gonna try even harder to be better, to do better. But I’m not always going to be perfect. There’s probably gonna be times that I slip up, and that I fuck up, and I’m gonna be shit again and I could hurt you again. It’s never my intention to do so, but I don’t know if I can always control it. So I want to apologise in advance, and I just want to say that, if you can’t stay with me during the bad times, it’s totally understandable! But maybe we shouldn’t do this at all, then”.
Maya looked lovingly at Lola, the girl she had a crush on the fucking day she first met her. She smiled.
“You know, mon amour, I know some things about these stuff. I understand. And even if I don’t understand everything, I would love for you to explain things for me, only if you want. And I’ve fucked up too, I shouldn’t have ghosted you, I shouldn’t have been with Char and I shouldn’t have left that day you broke up with me since you clearly weren’t okay. And I’m not with you because I feel sorry for you! I’m with you because I’m in love with you. Fuck, I’m crazy for you. I fell in love with you the second I saw you walking down those stairs that day we met, and I just kept falling more and more ever since. And I promise, I’m not gonna leave you when things go wrong. I swear. No matter how bad they get. Unless you,like, cheat on me or something”. She laughed.
Lola laughed too. “You don’t have to worry about that. I could never even look at anybody else when I’m with you”.
They both smiled at each other.
“So we’re good?"asked Maya.
"Yes. We’re good” Lola said and Maya hugged her.
Elliot and Lucas where looking at the girls from a distance, smiling. Elliot was feeling so unbelievably proud.
“Did you do this? Did you get them back together?” Lucas asked.
“No! No no no” Elliot answered. “Okay, maybe I helped a little” he continued, smiling happily.
Lucas smiled and stepped on his tiptoes to wrap his arms around Elliots neck and kiss him on the cheek.
“You know, I’m really proud of you”, he said.
Elliot blushed. “Oh, come on! What did I do?’
"Are you serious? You wrote a movie, you filmed it, you directed it, you star in it, you have your first ever official showing tonight! As if that’s not enought for me to be proud of?”
“Okay, I guess that’s true”, he answered smiling. Then his smile got smaller. “But I disappointed you last week”.
Lucas stopped smiling as well. “I’m not disappointed, my love. You could never disappoint me. I knew from the beginning that things like that could happen. And you didn’t do anything that bad! I’m not disappointed in you. I’m not mad at you. I was just, really, really worried. And scared. But it turned out that you were okay, so I’m okay. Do I wish you wouldn’t have gotten drunk? Of course. Do I wish you hadn’t attack that security guy? Of course. Do I wish you would have called me before everything happened so I would at least have known about it? Also of course. But it happened. I was just mad at Lola, but I’m not anymore. She apologized and she knows she shouldn’t have treated you that way. And she was in a really bad place. But she also can’t be held responsible for your actions, only for hers. And you are the one that should or should not be mad at her.”
Elliot sighed. “Well, I’m still sorry, Lucas. I hate worrying you, especially in the middle of your bac. And it’s not all her fault. I was just insecure and she stepped on those insecurities. It just… sucks to be different sometimes, you know? It sucks to feel like people expect me to fuck up, all the time. It sucks to feel like I’m nothing more than my mental illness, you know?”
Lucas took his hand. “You know that I don’t see you that way, right? You are not your mental illness to me, Elliot.”
“I know, and I’m sorry that I doubted you in that moment. I’m really lucky that I have you in my life” he said and Lucas smiled and kissed him.
“I’m also and yet again really sorry that I didn’t tell you about urbex earlier” Elliot mumbled after the kiss.
Lucas laughed. “Okay, I was mad about that. But Im over it know. Just, don’t lie to me again, like, ever. Okay?”
“I promise”, Elliot replied, and they kissed again.
Everyone was dancing and talking and laughing and Elliot was so happy when he saw Idriss and his friends walk in. They hugged and laughed and chatted. Everyone greeted them and Imane and Lucas found themselves alone together.
“So, is everything well?” Imane asked.
Lucas sighed. “Yes, now, everything is fine. Finally. Chill. No bac, no more angsty best friends losing their hearing and cheating on their girlfriends, no more boyfriend getting drunk with a 16 year old. Hopefully they learned their lesson and will both get better.”
Imane smiled. Lucas turned to her.
“What about you, miss future-doctor? Going to fucking Morocco with your habibi, then what? You’ll start med school, you’ll get married? How is everything going for you?”
Imane laughed. “Well, I can’t complain. The bac was very difficult, let’s be real. But now I’m really excited”, she said, while staring at Sofianne who was chatting with Idriss and Elliot.
Lucas looked at them too. Then he looked at imane. “Who would have thought, right? The gay guy and the Muslim girl, best friends, while dating a non Muslim guy and his best friend”.
“We are not best friends!” Imane answered while laughing.
“Fuck that! You are definitely my number one girl best friend” Lucas said.
“Okay, okay. If it’s like that, then you’re my number one boy best friend too.”
They smiled at each other and they heard Elliot yelling “Okay, everyone! Movie is starting! Take a seat!”
Everyone sat in front of the screen. Daphne next to basile, holding hands. Next to them was Sofianne with Imane, then Yann next to his girl best friend, Emma, then Alexia and Arthur, and then Mika and Camille who had also showed up for the film, next to them Noee with her new girlfriend. They were both friends with Arthur and Alexia. Lucas and Elliot where sitting next to the projector, Elliot being extremely nervous but Lucas holding his hand, trying to calm him down. The la mif guys were really excited to see what they had created, but they were also really excited to see Lola and Maya together for the first time. They were teasing them lovingly and they were all grinning. Lola had now rested her head on Maya’s shoulder, while Maya was excited to watch her girlfriend in the big screen.
All of the grew were kind of sad and melancholic, thinking about this being one of the last times they’d all be together. But they were all really excited about the future and the new adventures it held for them.