After the ceremony, Zack and I left to wait for Giulia outside the arena. I still couldn’t believe it. That had been incredible.
“Thanks,” I told Zack, when we were both alone on the parking lot. “It was wonderful.”
“Tell that to your girl, she’s the one who came up with the idea.”
“She did?” I smirked and raised my eyebrows. “She’s not my girl, though. We’re not, like, together or anything.”
“But you want it, though.”
My chest tightened.
“I guess.”
Zack looked at me with that incredulity which I had learned to associate with him.
“Oh, please. You never even took your eyes off her. And don’t tell me you didn’t cry at the ceremony part. I know what I saw, sis.”
“I wasn’t,” I lied. He was right, I had cried of joy. Who wouldn’t?
There she was. Walking up to us from the entrance of the arena, the silver medal wrapped around her neck. I nudged Zack, and we walked up to her.
I couldn’t stop smiling. And Giulia, it seems, couldn’t stop the tears from falling.
“I had honestly never won a medal before,” she beamed at us from behind the tears.
“You were perfect,” I told her.
“Well… almost,” she said, probably referring to the slip up at the balancing beam.
“Forget about that. You were perfect, all the way.”
She blushed, and looked down at the floor, still grinning. Then she raised her eyes at me.
“Thanks,” she said.
I shook my head. “Thank you,” I was feeling absolutely honored to be a part of that. “And congratulations.”
Giulia jumped on me, wrapping her arms around me in a tight embrace.
That felt so good, that I wished she’d never stop.
But a voice called her from behind us, somewhere, and we had to part from that hug.
“Giulia?”
She turned around to look.
I may not be the best there is for recognizing people’s faces, especially if the only time I ever saw the person was during a hangover, but I was fairly sure that this was Giulia’s friend from that time. The one who claimed to be her “ex-best-friend”.
“Um… hi Bea…” she sounded embarrassed. “I… uh… didn’t think you’d come. Were you in there? I couldn’t find you.”
She shook her head negatively.
“I wasn’t going to come. But you did put the ticket in my mailbox, and I know how much this all means to you. It’s too bad that it was such a last minute decision for me, I couldn’t make it on time. And you…” her eyes fell on the silver medal that hanged in front of Giulia’s chest. “…got a medal! Giu, that’s awesome!”
Giulia covered her face with her hands again, nodding in what I could only call bliss.
For a moment, it felt that everything had turned back to normal for them. But then her eyes went from Giulia to me and Zack, and the smile disappeared from her face.
There was a long moment during which nobody did nothing. We had no idea what Gigi’s friend was thinking, or how she would react to us being there.
“You… invited them, too?” Beatrice sounded surprised.
It was a really, truly awkward situation between the three of us, me, Giulia and her friend. The only one who seemed to be blissfully oblivious to all of it was Zack, who actually took the opportunity to introduce himself to her.
“I’m Zack,” he said, “and this is Valerie, Val for short,” he extended his hand to Gigi’s friend. “Nice to meet you, uh…”
I saw her look from him to his hand in shock for a few moments, before she reached for his hand and shook it.
“Bea… I mean, uh, I’m Beatrice.”
I relaxed, and apparently Giulia did too. This was going well so far.
“Beatrice knows who you are,” I heard Giulia tell Zack. “She’s your fan.”
At that, Zack opened the biggest white shining smile. I know. He just loved all that attention and fame.
“Well, that’s awesome!” he said.
I saw the girl blush from the way Zack was smiling at her, and avert her eyes, embarrassed. How many times had I seen that, already? Honestly, I felt sorry for them. I wanted to tell Gigi’s friend not to get her hopes up, but of course I wasn’t going to out Zack.
I felt that this was my turn to say something, and I decided to seize the opportunity, since Beatrice was so obviously pleased in meeting Zack.
“I’m sorry we had a rough start,” I told her. “I hope we can still become friends? I’d like to be friends with you.”
She raised her eyebrows at that, eyes widened and wrinkled forehead.
“You want to be friends… with me?”
I shrugged, smiling. “Sure, you seem nice.”
She took a step back, and concern grew on her face. That wasn’t the reaction I was expecting. Particularly not since she was a fan of ours. But then again, she had walked in on her best friend and I snuggling with each other while half naked on a couch, with no warning whatsoever. I could understand that it could be a bit much.
“I don’t know…” she said, finally. That kind of answer wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad either. Given the way she had reacted that day on Giulia’s place, I’d say this is most definitely an improvement. “I… need to think, okay?” she was speaking to Giulia, not us. “Thanks for… introducing me to them,” she told Gigi, earnestly. “I’ll… call you sometime, is that okay?”
I saw Giulia nod, and realized that whole situation must have been really hard on her, perhaps worse still than the balance beam earlier. Beatrice turned her back on us, and began to make her way across the parking lot.
I turned to Giulia.
“Give it time,” I told her. “She’ll come around.”
“Can anyone explain to me what just happened?” said Zack. I snorted, and even Giulia managed a small sort of smile. Zack was still Zack, clueless as ever.
“No can do,” I said, grinning deviously at him. Then I turned to Giulia again: “Now, I know it’s kind of late, and you’re tired, Gigi, but… You got silver! This is awesome, you know! I just really think that we should celebrate, what do you say?”
Giulia looked at me with docile eyes. I felt that pang in my chest again. Oh boy.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked me, softly.
I honestly hadn’t thought that far in advance. All I wanted was to spend more time with Giulia, now that I could finally see her again.
I made something up on the spot.
“Well, I have champagne at my place, so…”
“Ooooh, tempting.”
Zack intervened. “Am I invited to this too?”
“No,” we both said in unison.
I grinned, and I saw Giulia do the same.
I cleared my throat. “So, what do you say?”
She kept smiling at me, looking smug. “I think I’ll take you up on that.”
I nodded, and was about to start walking toward my car, when Giulia came closer to me and whispered into my ear.
“But if it gets too late…” she said, so that only I could hear, “…I might have to end up sleeping at your place.”
I swear my heart honestly stopped for a brief moment at the thought.
I tried to sound nonchalant about it. “Ah, sure. That’s okay.”
I don’t know if I managed to look cool on the outside. All I know is that deep inside I was a raging turmoil of emotions. That was shocking. How was it that this one girl got to me so much?
I looked at her. She really did look smug. She probably knew what kind of reaction her silly comment had ignited inside me. That kinda made me pissed. Cheeky brat. Oh, you’ll see. You think it’s easy to turn the tables on me? Well, you have another thing coming.
“Well,” I said, “let’s go then! Let’s celebrate.”
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