Chapter 4 (Michael's Pov)

• “Kelly are you ready?” Sometimes I wish I would still be single; it would sure make it easier to go anywhere without waiting in the living room for my fiancé to get ready. And to top it all off if she did not manage to be done in the next ten minutes, we would cut it close to arriving on time at the airport or even not making it.
• “Michael, I do love you but sometimes you can be a huge pain in my ass. I have no idea why it is so important we spend Christmas in our home time. I spent every minute in high school making sure I would get grades good enough to escape and never come back but here you are making me go back there for the entire holidays.” This again. Honestly, I was getting tired of her moaning all the time. But I would humor her for one more time, “I have told you; your family might have moved elsewhere, and you might not have any contact with them, but my family still lives there, and I would like to spend FAMILY holidays with my family.”
• At my words she frowned a little but masked it fast with the fakest smile I had ever seen. In the last few months, I have really started to see the ugly side of this woman again and I was just holding on by a thread to our engagement, “Ok honey bear. I understand and I know I will have a great time spending holidays with you wherever we are going to spend them.” My bullshit radar was going off at full speed, but I decided once again to ignore it.
• Instead of arguing further or reminding her how much I hated that nickname I rather just took her suitcase that was as full as it could be and rolled it out of my apartment.
• Now I know you have a few question marks going off in your head so I will explain some things while I wait for the elevator to take us to the garage. Kelly was born and raised in the same town as I was, so we pretty much grew up together, went together to the day care, school and later high school. But we never ran in the same circle. The huge part of that was how much she hated Sidney and her existence. Kelly and her friends were the popular crowd, while me and Sidney loved to be left alone. I stepped on more than one toe during all the years leading to high school because I defended my best friend and let everyone know she was not someone to fuck with.
• But when I went to college surprisingly Kelly ended up on the same campus. She was studying to become a professional secretary or something like that while I was going for my business degree. I wanted to follow in my father’s steps and take over his company when he stepped down. Our family had a thing for computers, and everything related to them, and I did not really complain about it. I had no desire to learn things behind the scenes, that was always Sidney’s part. She loved to learn how things worked and if she was not lost in a book, she was either geeking out on her phone or computer. Those memories brought me back to my best friend, which I was not even sure she still was.
• We lost contact almost completely through the years, and I wondered how she was doing in college. I knew she was smart before, even called a genius by our teachers on more than one occasion and I could not agree with them more. The problem was, last I saw her she was still so insecure about herself and her ability to achieve anything she wanted. Through the years with the little connection, we maintained I did pick on a different vibe coming from her, but we all know how different a person can be in person than through the phone. And I hate to admit this, but I have not seen my so-called best friend in person since the day we both took off to college.
• One of the reasons was probably because I was working on getting over the feelings that were far from friendly or brotherly. In the back of my mind, I had to repeat my mantra almost daily, “She is just a friend to you. You can not lose her or her friendship.” And so far, it has helped. But like I said, I think the huge part was probably due to us not seeing each other in person. Still, I went every Christmas home to be with my family and not once did she come home to spend it with hers. A few times when I came to visit my parents during the holidays her house was even empty, indicating that her parents and her brothers were not there either. I remember the first time that I saw all the lights were off in their house for days. I started freaking out and asking my mother if they moved away or something, she just looked at me weirdly and told me that they just went to visit Sidney because she could not make it to her hometown to visit them. I calmed down after that but still it felt weird spending holidays without her.
• As I approached my car with Kelly following close behind, I could not help but wonder if she would be home this year. Maybe I would finally be able to catch a glimpse of the person that my best friend turned out to be, and hopefully all those feelings I worked hard to bury would stay that way. Buried deep in my chest and not known to Sidney. Because at the end of the day, she was still too important for me to lose her because of attraction I could not keep under control. And maybe, just maybe, we could pick up our friendship where we left it before going to college. All I could do was hope. Oh, and pray for patience, so both me and my fiancé would land alive in our hometown, because her nonstop talking started to piss me off more and more. But that is the price you pay for getting entangled with someone who claims to change but is still the same I guess….