XOXO chapter 2
Ellis was laid sprawled across Audrey's bed, absentmindedly pulling out strands of her hair and letting out long frustrated breaths. Ellis had in theory come over to her cousin's house to help Audrey pack for her impending trip to France, but so far all El had actually done was lounge in Auds feather duvet and complain loudly about just how much she didn't want to spend the summer in California.
" I mean do i look like a west coast girl?" Ellis proclaimed loudly, tossing one of the many throw pillows from the bed across the room. Audrey emerged from the closet and gave her best friend an exasperated look.
" Its malibu not kanas. You're going to be fine." Audrey promised, dumping the arm full of clothes she had been carrying onto the bed and beginning to shift through them.
" Easy for you to say." Ellis said, rolling over onto her stomach and propping herself up on her elbows.
" You're spending the summer in France, and i'm spending the summer in fresno." Audrey rolled her eyes at El once again as she neatly folded one of her tennis outfits.
" I don't want to drink pressed juices or wear hemp, and I think I'd rather die than have to listen to a bunch of golden retriever esque surfer guys talk about how sick the waves are"
Audrey turned away from her cousin, trying to conceal her smirk. Ellis had always had a flare for the dramatics, she came by it naturally. Despite all her complaining Audrey was sure that Ellis would return after the summer praising her love for California and dropping hints about some unbelievably attractive aspiring actor she had occupied her time with.
" It just all seems so granola" Ellis hissed with disdain. While LA had a reputation for a far more laid back vibe than New York City, Audrey knew that the city held all the glamour and luxury that her best friend craved as well.
" oh please. You know your parents,you'll be yachats to Catalina and taking weekend trips to Sonoma. Plus all those studio parties your mother attends, I'm sure there won't be a single organic kale juice in sight."
Ellis let out a sigh and rolled onto her back, clutching one of Audrey's pillows to her chest.
" I wish I was going to Paris with you." Ellis said wistfully.
Truthfully Ellis had been invited to join her extended family in France for the first half of the summer and had been all set to attend when the California opportunity fell into her mother Georgina's lap.
Georgina had insisted that the whole family join her in California as a bonding opportunity, throwing a wrench into her daughter's summer plans.
Audrey suspected that this was the real reason that Ellis was dragging her heels about heading west for July. Audrey dropped a pile of folded clothes onto the floor and flopped down on her bed next to her best friend suddenly feeling slightly melancholy.
" how am I going to survive a month without you?" Audrey asked, looking over at her cousin, feeling a swell of emotion.
Audrey and Ellis had spent their whole lives as best friends. While it had taken some time for their mothers to grown a begrudging friendship with one another their two daughters have been near inseparable since birth.
Always lumped together due to their age and gender it would have been easy for Audrey and Ellis to grow jealous and overly competitive with one another, they rather grew to be more like sister than cousins.
Ellis was often the first person Audrey talked to in the morning and the final person she spoke with at night. They had no secrets, and understood one another's flaws. The most time the girls had spent apart had been during the ninth grade when Ellis had been sent to boarding school in an attempt to straighten her out after the family's housekeeper had found a small bag of cocaine when turning out the pockets of El's jeans. Ellis swore she had never used it nor had she planned to. It had been given to her at a party and rather than take it she had slipped it into her pocket and forgotten its existence. Whether the story was true or not Georgina and Jack had wasted no time in enrolling their daughter in an all girls catholic boarding school in Vermont. Ellis parents lived in fear that their child would behave how they had as young adults and wanted to cut her off at the knees before she truly became a monster.
Those few months had been hard on the girls friendship, a disconnect forming between them. Ellis had a strictly enforced lights out curfew and more homework than she had ever had before.
While Audrey loved Theo and Jer her life wasn't the same with the constant presence of Ellis.
Thankfully with enough begging, pleading and fit throwing on Ellis part she was able to convince her parents that one term at boarding school was enough, and she was back in New York by Christmas. Since this reunion the girls had never spent more than a few weeks apart. Their families often vacationed together, or the other joined in on their cousins time away from the city.
But now they had the end of June and the whole of July ahead of them, time they would not spend together.
" oh you'll be too busy wandering the streets of Paris and playing tennis in the French countryside to miss me. It's me who should be worried. I'll be hiding out on a lounge chair all month attempting to get a tan and not die from utter boredom."
Just then Dorota hobbled into the room, with a disapproving look on her face. Audrey had grown up with Dorota and loved her dearly. Dorota was a staple in their household and was very much a part of the family.
" what is this? You're bags are not packed? No time to be lying around." Dorota snapped, clapping her hands and rousing the girls off the bed.
Ellis and Audrey sat up and pushed themselves off the bed as Dorota strode confidently into the room and picked up one of the stacks of clothing that Audrey had tossed aside.
" I finish this. Your mother needs you." Audrey thanked Dorota and took Els hand pulling her backward out of the room.
The two girls rushed down the sweeping staircase of the vast Bass town house, giggling and clutching one another until they came to a stop in the dining room.
Audrey's mother Blair was seated at the head of the table, papers sprawled out in front of her, but still continuously tapping away at an ipad. Blair looked up.
" Oh good you're here." Blair said, gesturing for her daughter and niece to sit down. Blair ran a multimillion dollar fashion house and even when she wasn't working she brought that level of organization to her everyday life. Therefore family trips were often planned out meticulously, and although the family had taken the trip to france to stay with Blair's father many times, each trip was taken as seriously as the last.
It was even harder these days to get the whole family together for a long period of time. Both Chuck and Blair were often taking business trips, Henry has busy carving out his own life at columbia and Audrey was heading into her most important years of high school.
" Sit, sit" Blair said, noting that neither of the girls before her had taken a seat. Audrey gave her mother a hesitant look.
" I just want to finalize a few things." Blair said, looking pointedly between her daughter and the chair.
" You should run." Audrey whispered to Ellis. "This might take hours." Ellis smirked, gave Audrey a brief hug, flitted over to kiss her aunt on the cheek and was gone within seconds.
….
Audrey had been right in her estimation she had sat with her mother until well after dinner, going over flight plans and fretting that her brother, who had been a touch flaky as of recently wouldn't show up on time to the airport.
Audrey tried to stifle a yawn. It was barely eight o'clock and although she would be getting up early the next morning for the airport she couldn't quite justify going to bed just yet. She left her mother still sitting at the table, where she would undoubtedly remain until chuck arrived home from the office, which would likely not be until after midnight. Chuck usually tried to avoid such long hours, however leaving the company for France for a few weeks meant that he would be working a few extra hours.
Audrey stepped out the front door, intent on sitting on the front steps of the town house and enjoying her last few waking hours in New York before departing for france. She had one foot out the door when she saw a familiar head bobbing down the street.
"Jer?" She called out, prancing down the rest of the steps and down to the sidewalk to where Jeremiah Archibald had just come to a stop, smirking at her.
"What are you doing here?" She asked in slight confusion. She thought that Jer would have left for the hamptons already.
" As if i'd let you saunter off to europe without a proper send off." Audrey rolled her eyes at him but broke out in a smile nonetheless.
" We may not get to spend our birthdays together this year, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't celebrate." Audrey's smile widened. Jer offered her his arm and she linked her arm through his.
They had no set destination, rather wandered through the neighbourhood and forward into the city.
Audrey wasn't conceited but she was used to people staring at her. She knew her appearance was striking, her parents good genes were to thank for that. So due to this fact she drew a lot of stares on the street. The number of lingering looks she received nearly doubled when she was walking with Jeremiah.
Being the son of a man who was once voted the world's sexiest politician Jer himself was somewhat of a work of art.
Together it often looked like they had walked right out of the pages of french vogue. Audrey was sure that most people saw them and thought that they appeared much like a couple. It would be an easy mistake to make. They often walked around the city with linked arms or holding hands. But it was all friendly. Just like Ellis and Theo, Audrey had been friends with Jeremiah since day one. Of course Jeremiah had been her first kiss. In the basement of Matt Mcgraw's townhouse in the seventh grade. It had been during a game of spin the bottle that Lydia Sinclair had demanded they all play. Audrey had decided to bite the bullet and go first, spinning the wine bottle they had stolen from the cellar and emptied. It had seemed to take forever for the bottle to come to a stop and her heart had been thudding out of her chest the whole time.
She had let out a sigh of relief when the bottle had landed on Jer, directly to her right. Better that her first kiss be with one of her best friends rather than with Donny Housemen who had yellowing teeth and sweaty hands.
Ellis, never one to be outdone or to fall behind her best friend, leaned over the coffee table and kissed Theo directly on the lips. Then as to not discriminate, kissed Her and then Audrey in turn.
That was the last time that anything remotely romantic occurred between them. Although sometimes Audrey swore that she could catch Jer looking at her a certain way. And sometimes she thought that maybe that wouldn't be the worst thing.