Ex's and Mismosa's
Kady laid staring at the dark ceiling of Julia's apartment, ignoring the knot in her back that was starting to form after three nights on the couch. Although the irritating cramp was easier to focus on than the images that flashed every time she closed her eyes. Her friends, bleeding out on the very floor beneath her, Reynard's reptilian eye's sparkling as he took their lives without a second glance, right before he took something else. Julia didn't even have to tell her, the second she saw her alive, she knew. The way the rigidity she had been holding collapsed when Kady wrapped her arms around her, and how Julia refused to meet her eyes when she had asked how the hell she was still alive. The guilt was strong enough before, but now it practically clawed at her, even after Julia had made it clear that thing's could have gone a lot worse had she not fled. Still, knowing what had transpired immediately after she ran made it hard not to blame herself.
The nightmares did not help--Julia's, that is. She heard her up in the kitchen at 3am the first night and played it off, she was probably just getting a glass of water, nothing unusual. Kady didn't know and didn't care, so she turned over on the lumpy cushions and went back to sleep. The second night was a little harder to ignore. After about ten minutes of resisting the urge to type "How to comfort crying person who has been through immeasurable amounts of trauma?" into the google search on her phone, Kady tried her best to tune out the sounds coming from behind the thin sliding doors across from her. It was safe to say neither of them had gotten much sleep that night.
Enacting revenge? She could do. Crying Julia? That was better suited for someone with a more well rounded grasp on feelings than herself.
Kady was pulled from her thoughts by an ear-piercing scream that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She threw the knit blanket off her legs and darted towards where the sound came from. She pulled open the door to Julia's bedroom and flicked on the light, fearing the worst, expecting to see Reynard hovering over the bed or someone covered in blood. Instead she found Julia, with her arms wrapped tightly around her knees and torso shaking so hard she hit the bed frame against the wall.
Kady stood in the doorway for a moment. "Julia?"
Julia's head snapped up. Her eyes were rimmed red and tear tracks were visible on her cheeks.
"S-sorry, I can--" Kady stuttered out.
"No, it's fine come in." Julia's voice was low and raspy.
Kady slowly made her way to the edge of the bed and sat down, shivering from the cold radiating out of the floor beneath her feet.
They were both silent for a minute before Julia spoke. "Would you stay?"
Kady coughed. "Yeah, yeah sure. I can take the floor..."
"Don't be ridiculous, there's enough space up here."
Kady held her gaze for a moment before standing up to turn off the light. "Leave it." She let her hand fall away from the switch and nodded, turning back to find that Julia had pulled back the covers on the opposite side of the bed for her. She cautiously slipped beneath the blankets and glued her arms to her sides, extremely aware of how close Julia's body was to her own.
They laid in silence for what felt like an eternity, and Kady finally stopped resisting the urge to look at Julia out of the corner of her eye. She found her fast asleep, chin tucked into her neck and lips in what Kady likes to think of as her signature pout. She allowed herself to stare for a moment longer before turning on her other side and snapping her eyes closed, pushing down the feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Not again, Diaz. Not fucking again.
The next morning, Kady awoke to the smell of coffee wafting in through the open bedroom door. She slid off the bed and grabbed one of the knit blankets that seemed to appear around Julia's loft whenever you needed one--if that was a spell she hadn't heard of, she needed to learn it stat. She pattered out the door and into the living room, immediately greeted by a familiar gravelly voice. "She wakes."
Julia was leaning against the kitchen island, wrapped in a large green sweater and flipping through one research book or another lying on the counter in front of her. She was nursing a mug of coffee that she took a sip of to hide a smirk when Kady told her to fuck off.
"What time is it?"
"Almost noon, you sleep ok?"
Kady pulled a stool out across from her and plopped down, wrapping the blanket a little tighter around her shoulders. "Better question is, did you sleep ok?" Julia fiddled with the edge of a withering page. "After awhile, yeah." she locked eyes with Kady.
Kady cleared her throat roughly and broke the gaze, changing the subject. "Coffee?"
Julia slid her mug across the island to her. "This was the last of it, sorry." Kady groaned, taking the cup and drinking what was left of it. She eyed the pantry behind Julia. "We're not out of bagels too, are we?"
Julia didn't have a mug to hide her smirk around this time. "No, but I was thinking maybe we could go to brunch today."
Kady blinked. "Brunch."
Julia nodded.
"As in drink samosa's and gossip about who's fucking who at a membership only gym kind of brunch?"
"Don't stereotype brunch Kady,wouldn't you rather have waffles then another stale bagel?" Kady sighed. She'd have to get dressed and go out in the cold, but, this was the most Julia had talked about anything other than her thirst for revenge since they'd reunited.
"Fine."
Thirty minutes later, Kady gazed around a restaurant Julia claimed was the best in town, tapping her fingers on the wood table top and scrutinizing the decor around the room. Whoever decorated it tried desperately to make the cluttered art go with the mismatched chairs but instead of it looking like a stylistic choice, it just looked like a rainbow threw up all over the place.She turned her attention away from a painting of a cat wearing suspenders and glasses, instead focusing on the woman in front of her who was rolling a straw wrapper in between her thumb and forefinger, and scanning the restaurant the way Kady had just been doing a moment ago.
Kady realized she had been staring for too long a second too late and Julia caught her eye. "What?"
"Nothing."
Julia raised an eyebrow. "You were looking at me weird."
"I was just...staring."
"Uh huh." Julia still looked suspicious but dropped it.
An overly perky waiter took their order and after Kady rolled her eyes at Julia for getting them both mimosa's, they lapsed into silence again.
Kady continued to sneak glances at Julia for the next few minutes until Julia heavy sighed.
"Really though, what?" Kady furrowed her brow, acting innocent.
"You keep staring at me! Do I have something on my face?"
Kady shook her head in exasperation. "You just look...nice is all!"
Julia froze and then let out a strangled laugh. "Nice? Makeupless and wearing a sweater that's only met my body and the floor for past week is nice?"
Kady shook her head again with a tight lipped smile, dark curls bouncing. "Just take the compliment, Julia."
Julia bit her lip and stared for a moment before ducking her head. "Thanks."
Kady tried to focus her attention on anything else, such as longingly watching a waiter walk past their table with an entire tray of steaming food.
"Hey..."Kady snapped her eyes back to Julia, who was now ripping her straw rapper into little pieces on the table in front of her. "I know my couch isn't the most comfortable thing in the world," Kady waved her off. "It's fine, I've slept on much worse."
"No, it's not," Julia held her gaze with a sort of determination. "I was thinking, maybe if you wanted to, you could sleep in my bed."
Kady swallowed. "Are you sure?"
Julia rolled her eyes. "It obviously worked fine last night so yes, I am sure."
"Ok," she agreed. "but if it's ever too...uncomfortable, just let me know." The corner of Julia's mouth lifted. "Seriously, I'll sleep outside if you need me too."
Julia shook her head. "Can you stop that?"
"Stop what?"
"Being so goddamn considerate."
Kady laughed, sitting back against the booth. "Don't get used to it, I'll go back to being a bitch before you know it."
Their food arrived a couple minutes later, and they were both quiet up until they had started putting their coats on to leave.
"Shit!" Julia was looking at something over Kady's head with wide eyes, and before she could turn and look, Julia had yanked her down under the table by her forearm, narrowly avoiding cracking her skull against the wood.
"Julia what the fuck..."
"Sorry."
"Who are we hiding from?"
Julia paused. "My ex."
Kady rose an eyebrow. "And?"
"And, we left on super bad terms." she paused. "also, he's an asshole."
Kady smirked. "But are we seriously hiding from him like we're in high school?"
"Well....I did date him in high school."
"For fucks sake, Julia! Just go say hi, I'm sure he's over whatever it is that happened between you if it was that long ago."
Julia shook her head and Kady tried to ignore the way her hair grazed her cheek this close together. "He's not, trust me."
"What's so bad about him?"
"For starters, he was always trying to one up me, at everything. Like seriously, this guy is basically a cover model for 'I Have a Fancy Vacation Home in the Hamptons and Wear Khaki Shorts No Matter How Cold it is Weekly'"
Kady stifled a laugh. "Yeah, I know that type." Julia still had a tight grip on Kady's arm and gave it a squeeze. "So you understand why I'm hiding."
Kady sighed. "I'm sure there's a back door, lets go." she laced her fingers through Julia's and climbed out from under the table, ignoring the stares from the neighboring people.Julia hunched over behind her, and Kady had to turn her hand at an awkward angle to keep them together against her back. She took her time walking and let out a loud laugh when Julia started practically headbutting her to move faster. Her laugh must have drawn some attention because a voice called behind them. "Julia?"
Kady felt Julia freeze behind her, and she turned to find exactly the man Julia had just described. He wore khaki pants, a light pink collared shirt that he for sure describes to people as 'salmon' and blond hair so severely slicked back he was practically bald. A woman stood next to him, and for a moment Kady thought they were siblings judging by how similarly they looked, until she noticed his arm around her waist and hoped to god she was wrong.
Julia was still frozen in front of her, staring straight ahead. Kady held back a smirk and gently turned her shoulders to face the tanned mannequins in front of them.
"Chad!" Of fucking course. Kady thought. "Long time no see, huh?"
Chad flashed his pearly white teeth. "It has been quite some time hasn't it." They stood staring at each other for a moment, both with equally plastic smiles pasted on their face.
"Gosh darn it, where are my manners?" he turned to the woman next to him. "Darla, this is Julia." Chad made a face at her and her eyes seemed to light up with recognition. "It's nice to meet you."
"Julia, this is my fiancee, Darla."
Julia covered up her surprise with a loud cough. "Wow, congratulations."
Chad nodded and locked eyes with Kady, a furrow in his brow. "And is this your...friend?"
"Oh, um, y--" Kady smoothly interjected with a hand sliding across Julia's waist. "Girlfriend, actually."
Julia's head snapped to look at her, but she was looking right at Chad, who's fake smile had fallen. It was back as soon as it had left and he seemed to pull Darla in tighter to his side. "Nice to meet you...?"
"Kady."
Chad gave a small head tip and took a look at his watch. "Would you look at that, we really must be going, but it was nice to see you again Julia."
Julia was still blinking at Kady, but snapped out of it upon hearing her name. "U-uh yeah, nice to see you too?" Julia watched them walk all the way out the door and around the corner before she nearly collapsed against Kady. "Holy shit."
Kady scoffed. "Yeah, no kidding."
"Fiancee? Who would want to marry him?" Kady buttoned her coat, pushing Julia towards the door. "Who would want to date him. How did you even end up with that guy?"
Julia shook her head, pushing the door open. "Who knows, I was a fucking idiot in high school."
"So what happened between you two?" she shivered against the wind, angling herself towards Julia for warmth.
Julia huffed a breath of air into her hands. "Bastard cheated on me with one of my best friends."
"Shit."
"Yeah, but I got my revenge."
Kady raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah, how?" Julia was silent for a moment.
"I fucked his sister."