4. Sorry

The relentless throb of the music's bass was already giving Kelsey a pounding headache as she strolled up to the entrance of the bar. It had been a never ending day of moving, box unpacking and assembling of furniture, and all she wanted to do was go to sleep.

Her best friend, however, had other ideas.

Barely a soul bothered to acknowledge the blonde's presence as she took her first few steps into the building, but it did nothing to dispel her intense feeling of self consciousness as she tugged firmly at the back of her short scarlet dress. She felt uncomfortable. Silently berating herself for being so silly - although recent events had made her feel nothing but insecure and she couldn't help it - her tired eyes scanned the room, barely taking long to find her dark haired friend stood at the bar, two cocktails clutched in her hands.

"Well, look at you!" greeted Kim loudly above the background noise, and far too cheerily for Kelsey's liking, "Girl, you look amazing!"

A disbelieving snort escaped Kelsey's lips as she removed a cocktail from Kim's grip. "I feel like I could sleep for a decade."

Kim signalled to a nearby table with a nod of her head, and together they strolled over. As Kelsey started to sit down on the stool, an overly enthusiastic redhead brushed past her, almost knocking over Kelsey's drink. Kelsey responded with a look of disdain, received by no one. As she watched the redhead walk away, a thought came to torturous fruition in her brain. Could it have been her?

"A decade of sleep, huh? Well, that should be enough to help you get over Vulcano," Kim spoke with a raised eyebrow, taking a sip of her drink. Kelsey shuffled in her seat awkwardly, her hand shooting up in the air to halt the line of conversation.

"No, no. I don't want to hear his name. Don't say Vulcano to me. Don't say Sal. Don't say anything. Just..." Kelsey exhaled, as if she had been holding her breath for far too long, "... don't."

Kim brushed Kelsey's hand back down nonchalantly, responding by pushing the blonde's drink closer to her. "Girl, I'm just saying, you can't avoid talking about it forever. You gotta let it out."

Kelsey silently admitted in her head that Kim was partly right. It had been a few weeks now. In that time she'd spent so much time taking care of her new living arrangements, as well as convincing her boss that she needed a couple of days off work to actually move into the new place, that she'd barely thought of anything else. She'd barely slept, barely eaten, barely cried or missed Sal or even thought of him at all. Denial? Possibly, but she wasn't prepared to deal with it just yet. There simply wasn't the time.

Kelsey spared a moment of thought for her phone, sitting at the bottom of her handbag, taunting her. Last time she checked it told her she had 12 new messages and 18 missed calls. She hadn't even bothered to open them; she made the disastrous mistake of looking at the words of the first one. I miss you. Please give me a chance to explain all of this.

She didn't look after that.

"Can we just... not tonight?" Kelsey pleased, wrapping a hand round the bottom of her cocktail glass.

"Alright."

Kelsey couldn't believe she'd won for once. Kim rarely took no for an answer.

The cocktails were still flowing when the clock hit 3am. Kelsey and Kim had found themselves on the heaving dancefloor, twisting and shaking while simultaneously shouting that "If he like it, then he shoulda put a ring on it". Kelsey had stopped forgetting to check that her dress was sufficiently pulled down. Which, unsurprisingly, didn't seem to bother the small crowd of males that had descended upon the pair on the dancefloor. Giggles. Twerking (when had Kelsey learned how to do that?). Hip touching. Seductive whispers. Drunken hysterical laughter. The room was buzzing. Kelsey's head felt foggy.

The dizzy blonde was distracted by a strange vibration on her side. Noting that it must have been coming from inside her handbag, she reached a hand in, pulling out her phone. Eyes hit the screen. Laughter fell from her mouth before she had even realised it.

Sal.

She'd slid her finger lazily across the screen before she had even realised it. Put the phone to her ear before she had even considered a second thought. Kim was facing the other way; she hadn't even noticed that Kelsey was gone from the dancefloor in a heartbeat, suddenly slumped against the club window outside, letting the cool New York air hit her like a smack in the face. Bad idea. Terrible idea.

"Kels?" He sounded a million miles away. Standing upright was a mammoth task in itself. Even with the tinge of concern, his voice was like silk to her eardrums. She had forgotten what he'd sounded like. God, she missed him. Asshole.

"Salvatore Edward Anthony Vulcano... I fucking hate you," she slurred, and then she laughed, far too loudly.

"You're drunk." He sounded irritated. She was amused that he thought he even had the right.

"You're a cheater, but hey, we can't have it all, can we babe?"

Silence. Kelsey turned around and leaned back against the glass, grinning stupidly to herself, eyes sliding shut. Words floated around in her mind; she was desperate to pick the ones that would hurt him most.

"Three years I stuck by you, motherfucker! Three years of your shit, three years of pussy footing around you and your fuckin' compulsions and needs and being your last priority behind your Mom and Gatto and Quinn and Murr and whoever the fuck else-"

"Where are you? I need to see you."

Kelsey snorted, eyes snapping open at the sound of the bar door to the side of her. It took a few moments for her to register that Kim was suddenly stood beside her, not quite as paralytic as Kelsey but still stumbling slightly in her heels.

"I ain't even your problem anymore, go and call the bitch you've had bouncing on your dick for however long it's been. I told you, I'm done. Stop fuckin' calling me."

Forgetting how to end the call, she let her eyelids fall closed again and held her phone out in front of Kim, almost hitting her in the side of the cheek with it. Kim rolled her eyes, snatching the phone from her best friend's hand.

"Vulcano, you don't wanna fuckin' be talkin' to me, so I'd do the smart thing if I was you and hang up. Kels is with me, and I tell you what, she ain't even thinkin' 'bout you... she got her pick of any dude here and they'd all be a fuckin' better choice than your cheatin' ass." With that, Kim ended the call, and held the power button down to switch the phone off completely as she leaned forward to put it back in Kelsey's handbag.

"Asshole," Kelsey muttered bitterly as she attempted to stand up straight, and Kim knew the comment hadn't been directed at her.

"Come on, girl," came Kim's slightly slurred voice as she threw an arm round Kelsey's shoulders, "Let's get some fucking food."