The next morning I was the first person up and I made pancakes with bacon and eggs on the side. When I was putting the food out I heard a groan and looked to the doorway and found Kitty leaning against it.
"Hey" I said "do you want some breakfast?"
"Sure, but not much! I'm on a diet" she said as she slumped into one of the chairs.
"I don't know why, you're beautiful" I said putting a plate with a couple pancakes and a slice of bacon in front of her "do you know where the others are?" I asked her.
"Lydia is crashed in Jane's room, last I checked and Jane is in the shower, I think" said Kitty with her mouth full.
"oh, well…I need to go to work so I will leave the rest of the food in the oven if they want some" I said as I walked out of the kitchen.
"Okay!" she mumbled through a mouth of food, after me as I grabbed my coat and walked out the door. I walked to the bus stop and caught the bus to downtown to the café. When I got there it was about nine o'clock in the morning. I walked in and found Ed already there.
"Ed! Hey! How are the embryo and it's host?" I asked jokingly.
"Nice word choice Lizzie! And Maddie and the whippersnapper are fine" he said back to me.
"Okay, well no matter how much I would like to have a word battle with you, I need to start to make the food for the day, what do you feel like selling? Because we're not going to eat any of it" I said sarcastically as I walked into the kitchen.
"Um, how about some croissants and mini jam tarts?" he asked.
"Sure thing" I said "I'll make a double batch and then you can put them in on Monday if you get here early, how's that sound?" I asked through the doorway to the store not looking up from the recipe book.
"Well, I personally like most of the food you make" said a voice I recognized as Wickham's. I whipped around and looked through the door, there he was leaning on the counter that ran in front of the kitchen doorway.
"Wickham, what are you doing here? Ed kicked you out of the store last time you were here." I said looking at him, or trying to, he had a hood up and was slouching so I couldn't see his face.
"Got a new look, babe" he said he put his hood down and his hair had been dyed and cut, plus he had been in a fight since I had seen him last and his nose was now crooked. Over all he looked really different.
"Wow" I said "You look different, but you're still not supposed to be here" I said annoyed.
"But babe I need to talk to you, it's about your sister's boyfriend" he said. I looked at him startled.
"What do you mean?" I said quickly.
"Well, I was staying at a friend's and he was invited to Charlie's house party. But when we got there, Charlie wouldn't let me in, because he said one of his friends had asked that wouldn't be allowed in. "I wonder who that was?" he said with a smirk, I knew what he was implying, Darcy was behind Wickham being kicked out. I agreed with him, it was probably Darcy who had asked for him to be kept out of the party.
I sighed "well that's great, but why do I care?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
"I just though you wanted to know what kind of people your sister was around" he said in a simpering voice.
"What? People who do favors for friends? I think that is a good quality in a boyfriend to risk bad press for a friend" I said arguing with him, he raised his hands in defeat.
"Alright babe, just thought I'd tell you" he said and walked away. Just as he was leaving Lydia ran into him I saw him and her talk for a while and then he gave her something as he was leaving.
"heeeeeyyy! Liz! How's it going?" asked Lydia in an overly cheery voice sipping something in a can.
"Lydia, is that beer?!" I asked alarmed, forgetting to ask her about Wickham.
"Of course not! Gosh what do you take me for a drunk? It's a Rockstar, you know an energy drink?" she said taking a sip of it again.
"Why on earth are you drinking and energy drink at 9:30 in the morning?" I asked exasperated.
"Otherwise I wouldn't be awake, duh" she said "anyway I wanted to see where you worked and I have, so, bye!" she said as she walked out of the store.
The rest of the day was uneventful, I went home and Jane was bouncing off the wall because apparently Charlie had asked her out on a real date. For the rest of the month everything was normal, Jane dated and was more lovesick every day, I went to work and baked and planned out millions of baby names with Maddie and the like.
One evening I came home to find Jane sitting at the kitchen table staring in to space with her laptop in front of her.
"Jane? Jane, what's wrong?" I asked her, coming up behind her. As if she had been woken up from a trance she snapped her laptop shut and shoved it away from her and then collapsed on the table crying. "Jane! What happened? You're scaring me!" I said, putting a hand on her shaking shoulders.
"Ch-harlie-"she started crying again.
"Come on you can tell me" I said softly.
"He-he left town and Caroline says he's not coming back, ever!" she cried "I thought he loved me and I loved him" she said. I sat down on the chair beside her and pulled her laptop towards me and opened it, on the page she was looking at was an email from Caroline that said:
Dear Jane
I just remembered to email you! Charlie, Darcy, Louisa, and I have left town today to go to Florida to visit family and friends, far be it from me to say but I don't think I will be back here again. I loved meeting you but I can't bear the idea of being away from all my family.
So long,
Caroline
I was going to kill him for hurting her.