I came home around 10 am and, surprisingly, didn't feel too tired, even though I slept for only like two hours. I was also weirdly comforted by what Lukas said. I still felt sad when I thought of Matthew, but at the same time, I knew I'll be ok. I peaked in my sisters' room if she came home yet and she did. She was sleeping like dead, which meant she was shit-faced last night. She's lucky her flight is in the evening. I went to my room to get a few more hours of sleep when my phone started ringing. I picked it up, seeing it was Caleb calling.
"Hi, Cal. Happy New Year!"
"Hey! Happy New Year to you too."
"How's Minnesota?"
"Shitty right now. Our flight was canceled, because of a snowstorm."
"Seriously? That sucks."
"Yeah, it does. What did you do last night? I was stuck in with my folks, so please tell me you had enough fun for both of us."
"I was at a party."
"Wait, are you home from England already?"
I forgot I haven't told anyone about our breakup yet.
"Yeah, I am, um, I came this morning. I have to go back to work in two days, so we came back earlier."
"Oh, ok. Listen I was calling, because I wanted to know if Van is home yet because she isn't picking up and I have a major problem."
I frowned: "What's wrong?"
He sighed: "Tristan is coming home today and I said I'll pick him up at the airport, but now we are stuck here and I can't. So I hoped Vanessa could, but I don't even know if she is in New York. But honestly, I don't even know why I'm so concerned. It's not like he is a toddler, right? He can just get a cab. Ok, sorry for rambling. Bye, see you soon."
"Wait, wait, wait. I can go get him."
"Thanks, but that would be pretty hard since you don't drive."
I rolled my eyes: "I have a driver."
"Look you don't have to go out of your way for..."
"I was intending on going with Margo to the airport, so it's really no trouble."
"You sure?"
"Yes, of course. And it will be nice seeing him again."
For me at least. Margo will freak.
"Ok, thank you really. You are a life saver dude. He lands around six."
"That's perfect. Her flight is at seven."
"Listen, thank you so much."
I smiled: "No problem."
We said our goodbyes and hung up.
X
"Kdo je ta prijatelj, ki ga moreš it pobrat?"
(Who is this friend you have to pick up?)
"Ne poznaš ga."
(You don't know him.")
"Precej prepričana sem, da mi lažeš."
(I'm pretty sure you are lying to me.)
"Potem se pa precej motiš."
(Then you are pretty wrong.)
We said nothing else. I was listening to the radio when I realized that it's been really long since I've seen Tristan. More than two years I think. We've been friends since high school. We weren't in the same class though. I actually met him in our high-school volleyball team. Remembering that I used to play volley was kind of strange now. But I still like watching it. It was always more just exercise for me than anything else. But not for Tristan. He gave everything to that sport. And it paid off. He was a star player of our school and it didn't take long for him to get into a good club. After a year however he got an even better offer and now he plays in Korea for one of their clubs. I sometimes find matches online, just to watch him play. Vanessa does too. I know it sounds strange, but we miss him sometimes. We were a trio in school, so when he went away, there was a time when we almost mourned him. Until he told us over skype to suck it up.
The car parked in front of the airport and we got out. There was half an hour until his landing and Margo always went to the gates at the last possible moment because she hated waiting, especially when she didn't fly with the private jet, so we had some time. I wanted to go to a book store, but she said that I have so many books that I have not yet read and I really don't need more of them. Which was not incorrect. So we settled on just sitting in a cafe until I had to go to the exit gates. She was still drilling me about who this friend was. She followed me to the gates.
"Are you really this interested or do you just want to annoy me? "
"I know you are lying to me and I want to know why."
"Ugh! Ok fine. It's Tristan. Are you happy now?"
She pursed her lips together and her dark blue eyes looked murderous. I noticed people were starting to come out through the gates.
Suddenly she punched me in the arm.
"Au!Margo!What the hell?!"
"Why didn't you tell me?"
I motioned to my now hurt arm.
"Because of that."
"I can't believe you."
"He is still my friend and he will not suddenly stop being one, just because you don't like him."
She sneered at me.
I noticed a familiar batch of dark red hair coming our way. It was kind of his signature mark now, the dark red coloured hair. He decided to change his hair colour about a week before he went to Korea. He said he wanted a change. And it looked great on him. Really great. I saw Margo still standing beside me.
"You can go you know."
"And look like I'm running from a conflict. No thank you."
I rolled my eyes.
Tristan was looking around, probably looking for Caleb. I should probably mention that they were identical twins. They didn't go to the same school and I never met Caleb before that party in uni. Funny thing was that the only reason I even started talking to Caleb in the first place was because I thought it was Tristan. They were quite different. Not visually, obviously, but personality wise. Caleb was bubbly and out-going, everyone loved him and he was one of the most caring people I had the pleasure of knowing. Tristan, however, had the whole mysterious, dark and brooding, but with a heart of gold thing going on. It was a mask most of the time, but he was definitely more introverted than his brother.
When he finally saw me, he stopped for a second obviously surprised, then smiled and strotted towards me.
He hugged me: "Hey, man."
"Hi."
He moved away.
"That's a surprise."
"Yeah. Caleb is stuck in Minnesota."
He chuckled: "That sucks."
Only then did he realize that Margo was standing beside me.
"Oh, hi Barby."
"Hi, Elmo. Learned how to count yet?"
"Got any friends yet?"
"As a matter of fact, I did."
"How much do you pay them?"
"More than you earn in a year."
"Oh, that's right. You are a big CEO now. Good for you. You were born to be a full-time bitch."
"You are damn right. And how are you? Got a job yet or are you still just playing with balls? Because you know, hobbies don't pay the bills."
Tristan wanted to say something, but I interjected. They could go on like this for hours.
"Margo, you have a plane to catch and you must be tired so we should go."
They glared at each other for a second, but Margo was the first one to look away.
"Ok, bye Aron," she hugged me quickly.
"Adijo. Varno potuj."
(Bye. Safe trip.)
She looked at Tristan again. They gave each other very fake smiles.
"Bye K-Pop idol."
"Bye Taylor Swift."
They are unbelievable. Their interactions haven't changed since high school. Margo went to the same school as us. She was so advanced in math, she was allowed to take classes of the year above her in addition to some advanced math lessons. It was Tristan's' class she ended up in. They loosely knew each other before, because of me, but I don't think they said more than a few words to each other at that point. Tristan, unlike her, had massive problems with math and he was in trouble of failing the class. Which meant he was not allowed to attend volleyball practice until he got his grades up.
But since volley team was the pride of our school and he was the star of it, they couldn't have that. They made him get a tutor and his teacher suggested Margo. She didn't have many friends (or any if we were honest), so she had time and agreed. It was quickly evident that they are not good together at all. I came home to them screaming at each other quite a few times. In school, they didn't even want to look at one another. She hated that I was friends with him.
He made fun of her for being friendless and thought she was a bitchy dictator. And she called him a neanderthal and nemogoč debil, which translates to an unbelievable imbecile. He did manage to improve his grades enough to continue with volleyball. He was grateful, but only managed a quick thank you. To which she responded: "I'm just happy I don't have to see you again."
Unfortunately for both, their tutoring didn't stop there. His grades dropped again and the circle repeated until the fourth year when Tristan was so motivated by not having to deal with Margo, he started studying way harder on his own.
And they were both so petty too. When Margo came to watch the team play in competitions, she was the only one that didn't cheer or clap when Tristan scored.
He was even worse. He called her by her full name, whenever he could and he signed her up for the cheerleading team. They were damn entertaining to watch. I always stayed out of it though. A good thing too, since picking sides would be the worst thing I could've done. I was also grateful to him that he kept his arguments with Margo and information he gathered about her, private. He could've told many things to his ˝friends˝. They were more followers really. Despite his quiet demeanour, he was quite popular. But he was always more keen on hanging out with Van and me than with them.
We were sitting in a car now.
"How come you came home now?" I asked.
He turned his eyes from the window to me: "There is a world championship in about two months and I was called to play for the national team."
"Really? Congrats."
Even in school, he was already set on playing for USA one day.
He smiled: "Thank you. Do you still play?"
"No. I do watch it sometimes though."
"Too bad. You were a good setter."
"I was on a good team. With a good captain."
He grinned: "You are right about that."
I nudged him in the ribs playfully: "I see you became even more modest."
He laughed: "God. I really missed you."
"Yeah, I missed you too. Nessa is going to be so happy to see you."
"I just talked to her two days ago. She was complaining about some art show she had to attend with her family."
I got that call too.
"Are you nervous about the championship?"
He glanced down to his hands: "It's the first time I'm playing for the US, so of course I am. We have some friendly matches so I'll have time to get those nerves under control."
"When is it?"
"Want to come and watch?"
"Of course. Vanessa is determined to embarrass you and I want to be there so I can brag about knowing you."
He shook his head and smiled: "You are one ridiculous person."