Well… hi guys… how are you doing?

I was going to give you a long paragraph on how I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in forever.. but I decided to just simply say that I've been dealing with some serious health issues and my family, friends, school, and future has taken first priority at the moment.

~L.C (who is very tired)

_xxXxx_

I loved Starbucks. . Always had and probably always would. The smell of the chocolate that puffed out on to the counter when the various steel tins were opened and the whir of the machines behind the counter, where the baristas expertly mixed a variety of caffeine clouded concoctions, let the stiffness and nerves in my shoulders just fall away. A place that could offer refreshment and cool air during the stifling summers and a haven of warmth during the frigid days like today. Also, if the chagrin from meeting Camille for second time in two years in the place where I originally meet her for the second time didn't kill your irony bone then I didn't know what would.

I combed the place from one green and brown wall to the other, person to person, but not a platinum blonde bunny in the place. Meanwhile, I was trying to ignore the little voice in the back of my head saying that maybe she didn't show or maybe she had jumped town again.

But hadn't Camille been the one to instigate the meeting? Didn't she want to see me? I mean of course I wanted to meet her but she had called first and who was late to their own meeting?

A tiny ding from behind me brought me back from combing through the memory of Camille's call, which interrupted a baking session that would have produced delicious fudge oranges, only to see the life-size Barbie herself. A blue Coach Poppy bag circa 2009 swung on her gracefully pale arm and a pair of McQueen dragonfly leggings that made her petite legs look dream worthy. Overall a demur outfit for my friend topped off by her signature curls and blood red smirk.

I stood up, caramel brulle latte and birthday cake pop in hand, before straightening my sequined blazer and walked over, smirk in place to hide the confusion my heart really felt. I took maybe four steps before my outrageous height or my outrageous outfit or just my overall outrageous-ness caught her eye and that emerald gaze pinpointed me. I took another few steps and opened my arms, an invitation that I hoped against every awkward hope that she wouldn't refuse.

She didn't, praise the deities, and once her body was flush against mine, arms wrapped securely around me as if she were afraid I was going to crumble, I let my face fall out of its careful composure for a needed second before snapping my customary smirk fell back into place and I pulled back. Keeping her at arm's length, I inspected the face I once knew as well as my own and noticed the new scar above her perfect eyebrow and just below her right temple. It was supposed to be covered by her carefully coiffed bangs but from my high vantage angle I could see the long, thin white line. A scuffle perhaps, but I didn't think so. If it was a fight, it was a high stakes one.

If growing up in the ghetto taught you one thing, it was how to identify a knife wound.

"Heya babe." I shook off my visual catalogue of possible scenarios and refocused as I let her go, arms falling awkwardly at my sides instead.

My voice wasn't helping the awkwardness when I said, "Hey."

Camille's smile faltered and I she visibly shook herself before the smile lit up her face again and her high trilling voice said, "Can you wait outside with Anna while I get my coffee and then we can walk and catch up?"

I gave her a quizzical look. "Anna?"

Her false lashes fluttered when she laughed and explained, "My dog. She's grey with a brown face, looks like a rug. Can't miss her and if you do, which you won't, just call her name and she'll be at your side."

I nodded familiar by now with the "obedient dog" thing after the month with Alec and turned with a little wave of my hand to the door. I didn't look back as I maneuvered through the various stacks and piles of ground coffee and ceramic mugs and kettles before pushing open the glass door.

Stepping outside into the slushy wonderland, a shiver rocked my body before I slung on tweed trench coat. I swiveled my head and instantly caught the "rug" laying down stoically behind the specials sign. The dog's long face swiveled as people entered and excited the Starbucks but she never moved from her spot, paws crossed in front of her in the most decided position of elegance a dog could possibly hold.

If this wasn't Camille's fucking dog then I don't know what was.

Just to be sure there wasn't another dog with crossed paws milling around New York, I said, "Anna?" Feeling idiotic all the while because it sounded like I was asking the dog's name.

The dog turned her face toward me, blue grey eyes focusing in like a deer sight, and looked almost quizzically at me, as if trying to decide if I was talking to her, and I repeated her name. This apparently made the decision for her and she stood up, shook off her long flowing coat and walked over silently, before sitting at my heel, crème head coming to my waist.

Placing a gentle hand between her floppy ears I patted it absent mindedly, inspecting my violet nails. A vibration in my front pocket made me jump slightly but I pulled out my phone seeing the little bubble read One New Text Message from Alec : ).

Excited I swiped the bottom bar and quickly typed in my password, which was password incidentally, and waited impatiently as the white screen focused in and the little green and white bubbles popped up.

How's it going? Bite your head off? Any serious damage that medical personal should be aware of?

I laughed before quickly snapping off a reply.

Nothing serious. She's stole my balls and hid them somewhere.

Waiting for the white line that replaced Alec's name to fill up, I looked back through the frosted windows, seeing that blonde head bob close to but not at the counter. I let out an exasperated huff of air, even if I was being a queen, it was cold and I couldn't exactly start walking without her. My mind refocused off the cold the next second though because my phone buzzed again.

Oh.. that sucks I guess….

Now I laughed picturing a blushing Alec, sitting on that denim couch straight out of an episode of Friends, with his little braille keypad and his phone attached with that thin black cord that he always seemed to misplace. The image made a small smile break across my face and I didn't hesitate to pound away on my phone in reply.

Your blushing aren't you?

I popped my head up to see if Camille was making her way toward me. She wasn't. She was still standing in line, admittedly closer to the counter but still not there. I huffed again, my breath making a little cloud so I indulge my inner child and blew out another breath creating another cloud and I did it again and again and again and again, acting like I wasn't the twenty-four year old I was.

Midway through another breath my phone buzzed. Before I could even unlock my phone, it buzzed again, alerting me to another new message.

NO!

… Ye. But it's not my fault! Good luck I hope you find your… yeah that

I didn't hesitate to expand on the dots.

Balls? Gosh darling I didn't know you cared that much ;)

I went back to blowing into the air, creating clouds of moisture that disappeared as quickly as they came. Checking every now and again back to wear Camille was finally waiting at the alcove at the end of the counter for her order, I waited a good five minutes before quickly typing off a Kidding! She's almost back, see you later? :*

I pocketed my phone, having to push fairly hard to get it into my new leather pants that had yet to be washed to perfection, spotting that blonde head bobbing back and forth towards the exit and hearing the resulting ding when Camille pushed the glass door and walked towards me, black and gold stiletto boots clacking against the gum covered pavement.

"Ready?" I asked, receiving a blonde bob of the head in response.

Camille called her dog over and ran her hands through the long, silky fur, somehow managing to find a blue green and brown braided leash in the middle of all the hair. Waving a coffee cup filled hand we started walking. New York's early November air bit at our cheeks and noses turning her pale one's pink and my caramel one's a deep scarlet that was barely visible but there all the same.

I decided to break the silence first by saying, "Camille can we just call the pink elephant in the room fabulous and say what really needs to be said!"

She turned those fiery green eyes on me but I didn't buckle underneath the gaze and she faced forward again, never stopping her forward march, before replying, "I have no idea what you talking about."

I felt that little bubble of anxiety that had been sitting there since we reunited two weeks ago burst and turn into hot frustration, tired of Camille's bullshit. I whispered in the fiercest voice imaginable, "OH I think you do darling!"

"I don't!"

"But you do Camille! You left, you left off to find some sister of yours after I told you my biggest secret. I told you and you fucking left. All I had was some note written on the back of one of my bills to tell me that you weren't stolen or anything else. I even waited for you to walk back through that door saying how it was just a drunken pipe dream or-or something! But no, you left for two fucking years Camille with nothing to tell me that you hadn't been killed or became some harlot or anything! I-"

Camille cut me off, "She'sdeadokay!" barely above a whisper.

I didn't even hear her the first time so, practically yelling and causing quite a scene, I said, "What?"

Camille looked up at me with the most heartbreaking expression when she said, clear and unwavering, "She's dead. Car crash, died on impact, no pain. I didn't even get to talk to her! I just sat at her gravestone and balled like a bitch and I sat there until the funeral home told me to leave. I-I didn't even get to say good bye." The last word seemed to break her and with mascara pouring down her face she grabbed my coat and pulled me toward her, hiding her face in the folds of fabric.

I didn't know what to say, not expecting such a violent and sudden reaction that made every action before that make sense. I just stood there as her salty tears wet the front of my coat and tiny sobs racked her chest making her shake violently. What was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to comfort her? I just couldn't find an answer to all the questions pounding through my brain, so I just sighed, wrapping a gloved hand around her waist and running the other down the back of her head. Trying to comfort her wasn't something I was expecting but soon enough my counseling degree kicked in and I said in a whisper, "Come on, let's go back to my place."

Emerald eyes peered up at me and then Camille nodded her head, composing herself.

We walked hand in hand, like children in a fairytale, Camille sniffling and me searching my brain for what to do, until we hit my brownstone. The building seemed to actually turn on my brain and I ran up the steps, Camille and her dog trailing behind me. Bounding to my front door and unlocking the door with as much control as I could muster, I pushed open the heavy door and walked straight into my kitchen, looking for the marshmallow vodka and chocolate mix.

By the time Camille and Anna had made it through my front door, I had two steaming cups of spiked hot coco and a bowl of few packages of string cheese in my hand. I must have looked crazy because Camille eyed me almost warily and shut the door with one hand behind her.
"What with the string cheese? I'm lactose intolerant remember?"

I waved away her concern with my well-manicured hand, turning to the miniscule glass coffee table instead. I set down the two mugs and straightened out my back, facing Camille where she stood, still acting like she was on enemy territory.

Having to just roll my eyes at her, I called her dog's name, watching the graceful creature eye Camille for a second before walking over to me. I smiled knowing that once I had the dog I had Camille so I kneeled down till I was nearly sitting on the floor before splitting the first white stick of cheese and gave it to the dog.

Watching her eat it up like candy, I smiled , happy that my assumption was correct.

Camille just shook her head and muttered something before finally coming and sitting on my denim couch. I sat down opposite her and said, "I'm sorry for pushing you."

Waving her French manicured hand again, she replied, "It's fine. I thought I had made peace with it but I guess not."

Trying not to make it obvious that my counselor side was analyzing her body language and the tentative way she tried the hot coco, coffee cup forgotten on my table. "If anybody knows how hard it is to make peace with something it's me. I get it really-"

"She had a baby girl. Her dad didn't want her after Maddie died, and since I'm her legal guardian apparently , I have a five year old now." She said it in the most matter fact and blunt voice that I had to rethink exactly what she had said to comprehend what exactly that statement meant.

"Oh…" Truly the highest of my compassion was coming across.

"Yeah. So I'm sorry I left and never came back but I just had a lot on my plate. Can we just see this pile of shit and move on? Please? Cause honestly I just want my best friend back."

I thought , but not for too long. Of course I would accept her apology. I would have accepted it if her reason for being away was that she had meet a guy who was hung like a horse and they were having great sex every day and she didn't want to leave him. Camille's friendship was like a drug and like it or not I was hooked.

So with a conspiratorial wink and an airy wave of the hand I said, "What pile of shit? I don't remember any pile of shit. I do remember though that those boots look fucking fabulous!"

A tinkling laugh and I knew everything was going to be alright.

We sat in comfortable silence that was so different from the silences before and we just sipped our cups for a while. I would bend down from my stretched out position on the couch every now and again to give Anna another piece of cheese.

After I finished off the second package Camille gestured to the third one sitting on the table and said, "Where'd you learn that dogs like cheese? I thought you were a cat person."

I nodded, trying to keep the stupid smile off my face while saying, "Jacob loves cheese. Alec showed me once and I figured it wouldn't kill her."

Utterly unprepared for the pillow thrown at my face I made an inappropriate noise for a man of my age and hit at it weakly, doing no real damage to the pillow or the thrower.
"You are whipped, Magnus Bane!"

This got Camille a death glare thrown her direction and I sat up, ignoring Anna's outraged whimper at being ignored. I said in possibly to outraged voice to be believable, "I am not 'whipped'," I added air quotes to the last word to emphasize my dislike of such terminology in relation to me. "We care about each other and th-"

I didn't get to finish my tirade because Camille spat out in-between giggles, "You ever seen him in his underwear?"

My eyes bugged out of my face and I must have looked thoroughly ridiculous because Camille laughed harder and screamed, "I have! Working at the hospital has its benefits."

I stopped laughing instantly, looking over at my reinstated best friend. She stopped her giggles after a while as well, choosing to look at me confusedly instead.

I got up and slowly moved over to the couch where her pretty little ass sat and I looked at her very seriously, grabbing her wrists.
"You must tell me every tiny detail or I may just have to kill you."