MoonBound

#02.

She answered on the third ring cautiously.

“Hello,” Adriana said.

“Driana!!” Juliette shouted excitedly into the phone, her voice oddly bright and lively. “I was worried you might have changed your cell or something. Oh I'm so happy you didn't. I missed you Dri. Uhm So… this might sound weird, but I’m getting married.”

Adriana sat up straight. “You’re what?”

“I’m getting married.”

“Wow…, So, let me get this straight, I haven't heard from you in how long and when I finally do it's to find out you're getting married?... Are you kidding me? Cause I don't understand, what's going on? are you in trouble? Is that what this is? You know you can tell me anything… right?” Adriana rushed, ready to do everything she can to help.

Juliette laughed. “I’m fine.. really. I just really want you here, you're the only family I have in this entire world. I promise I'll tell you everything when you come over… okay?”

Adriana couldn't make sense of it all.

“Don’t forget you promised you'd be my maid of honor and I'll be yours. You can't very well miss the wedding now can you?” Juliette added.

Adriana felt stuck, unsure if she was being punked or if it was all just a dream. Wondering if she was going to wake up any time soon.

The idea made her heart ache and she didn't want that to happen. She knew she was definitely going wherever Juliette is. she just couldn't believe she was talking to her after all this time.

“Look, I know it’s been a while. I know we haven’t talked. But I never stopped thinking of you as my person. Nobody knows me like you do but I guess It’s understandable if you’ve moved on and I’m not your person anymore,”

Adriana blinked hard. Her throat felt thick. “I’ll be there.”

“Really? Yay! Thank you so much, the wedding’s in a few days. I want you to come early though? I’ll catch you up. We could mix dress fittings with wine and junk food while we talk. It'll be like old times.”

Adriana looked around her apartment and the bills scattered on her table, the flickering streetlight outside.

A week away from all her problems sounded like salvation and she needed to make sure Juliette really was doing okay. Then maybe after that she could finally move on with her life.

“Okay,” she said.

Juliette squealed. “You will? Oh my God, Dri. Thank you. I’ve missed you so much, I can't wait for you to get here. I'll go book you a flight right now. I'll text you with the flight info. I love you so much, bye.”

“Love you too Jules.”

The call ended and the room was plunged into silence but the weight on her chest had shifted. Just a little bit.

I'm Adriana, just Adriana and isolation is the only friend I have known… for a long, long time. I never knew my parents, never had friends, I was one of the lost ones abandoned close to a fire station as a baby with a necklace and a pendant of a howling wolf, an inscription engraved on the back saying ‘Little Driana’.

I was raised in one foster home after the other. My life was quite uniformed and dull… until I met Juliette and the bright and infectious smile she always had on her face even when we were being punished or given unreasonable chores.

Juliette lost both her parents in a house fire while she was on a camping trip and has since then being bounced around from one foster home to the other, but when we met it was like I found something I had long lost, she would follow me around all day, her sole mission to crack the dull look I always wore. She'd make joke after jokes none of them good but her lack of self awareness always made me smile on the inside… well until she finally wore me down.

We promised to always be there for each other and to always protect each other. We became sisters and stuck to each other no matter the odds, even the system couldn't keep us apart.

We worked any job that would take us all so we could save up for when we finally turn eighteen and could leave the foster care system.

But I clocked eighteen before Juliette and had to beg our foster parents to let me work for them until Juliette turned eighteen and we could leave together, they agreed but with a condition that I had to pay rent while I stayed.

When the day finally came, we were so happy, we got into the almost run down car we bought to get around faster when I turned eighteen and went on a long road trip before the car gave up the ghost and we decided to settle in New Orleans for a while. The times we spent traveling together, exploring beautiful sights and just living life was the best years of my life.

My gaze drifted towards the lights beyond my window. The future was still a mess but maybe…

Just maybe, it had a little room for hope now.

***************

Evening had settled like a velvet curtain over the city by the time she stepped out of the airport. The air outside felt cool and relaxing. The streetlights casted long bright reflections over the pavement.

She tightened her grip on the duffel bag she was carrying while she scanned the crowd searching for her ride, she wasn't at all expecting what she found.

She spotted the tall and quite big man standing at the edge of the pickup lane, a white cardboard sign in one hand with MISS ADRIANA scrawled in bold marker. He was impossible to miss, he stood at at least six-foot-four, all muscle and no smile. Dressed in all black, he looked like a bouncer from a high-end nightclub or the head of security for a rich heiress no one was allowed to name.

“Hello… I’m Adriana.” she said, pointing at the board he held as she reached where he stood. She reached out her hand for a shake the same time he was reaching out to take her bag.

“Oh no need, thank you. I'll hold on to it, it's not even that heavy.” she said trying to not come off too harsh.

“I'm Bane, this way”