11. single ladies

☆ ゜・ 。。・ ゜゜・ 。。・ ゜★

1985
𝙇𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙤𝙣

The warm air flew in the the city, everyone dressed in warm cable knit sweaters, denim jackets, scarfs even. I just came to London to visit Sersi who reached out as she found out that I was still around. Ajak probably told her where I was since the last time I saw her.

I waited for a taxi to come, rocking my heels back and forth, whistling. One cab came and I jumped in, telling him the address and looking out the window as we drove. The city has changed a lot since ive been here. Which is great, but I preferred it back in 1820.

"Here ya go ma'am." I flashed a smile and hopped out of the cab and looked at the building in front of me. I took a deep breath and headed to the door and rang the bell. I waited for Sersi or even Ikaris, who im not happy to see.

"Celeste!" I turned to see Sersi running up to me and hugging me. It took awhile to process what was happening and I hugged back.

"Its nice to see you again Sersi." I pulled back from. No sign of Ikaris.

"How are you enjoying London?"

"Well, I quite frankly fallen in love with London!" I did an accent but she wasn't too pleased. "Its been good. Love the place." I coughed.

"Lets go upstairs, i bet you're hungry from the flight." She opens the door and headed to the 5th floor. Her apartment was bigger than mine, brighter, warmer. Sersi scrambles through her kitchen to make me something.

"You dont have to." I tried to stop her. Sersi slaps my hand, making me rub the tingling sensation she left. "Fine."

"Okay, i got the whole day planned out, you're gonna love it." She hands me a pb&j sandwich with some milk. "Thats all I had left." I chuckled down at my plate.

"Is Ikaris going to join us?" I hope not. Its been a hell of a good time without him in my life and i like to keep it that way. You have no idea the lift that was lifted off my shoulders when I didn't have to see him. Sersi pauses and sighs.

"He wont, he's busy." I knew she was lying, but I didn't want to push her. "You must be happy." Well yes, of course. I don't have to see his face again. Okay calm down. Lets be a good friend Celeste.

"Uh no, im so upset. Its been so long." She turns to me, hand on her hip. "Ikaris and I, its just we are very- yeah i dont really care."

"Why do you even hate him?" Sersi, its a whole book on why. I dont want to bore you. I can also go on about how annoying he is unstop.

"I have my reasonings." She hums. He thinks hes the shit, gets under my skin, takes things too seriously, and lastly, i just dont trust him, there's something about him. "What do you have planned today?"

"We can go out for drinks, go clubbing." Wow, Sersi clubbing and drinking? I need to see this.

"Hey can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, what?"

"Can you take me to a cemetery?"

★

Seri and I arrived at the cemetery. I stopped by and got some flowers and walked to the grave I wanted to see. Sersi followed me, confused on why we are here, and who we are seeing.

The three graves looked back at me, empty, lonely. I kneeled down, laying the flowers on them. Lydia Von, Charlotte Von, James Von. I rested my forehead on Lydias gravestone, crying. It was the first time since their deaths i came to visit them.

"Im so sorry." I failed her. She told me to do things that I just couldn't do. Because I was afraid. I failed her wishes. Sersi stood behind me, wanting to speak but didn't know what to say. "Ill do right, I promise you." I got up, didn't care about my tears that Sersi saw.

"Im sorry for your losses." She put her hand on my shoulder. "I bet they were amazing people."

"They were. They helped me a lot." I took once last glance before we walked away. I fixed my makeup as we got in the car. "Whats next?" I coughed up.

"We can just go back-"

"Dont let me being sad ruin our plans, whats next Sersi?"

★

We got dressed went to the clubs that were lined down the street. The blasting music made my ears vibrate, my heart racing. Sersi and I took shots left and right, dancing, not caring about anything.

"Why haven't we done this!?" I yelled through the music, eeking from the shot.

"We should've done this sooner!" I pulled Sersi into the dance floor, we danced, stomped our feet to the beat, whipping our hair back and forth, arms going up and down. Two men came our way and decided to dance with us, hands on our waist, trading them when the next song played. When we got bored with them, we hopped onto the next club and start again.

Its was 4 in the morning, people dragging their feet out of bars and into cabs. Sersi and I dragged each other out and managed to get home in one piece. We tossed our shoes and headed to the kitchen to see what we can eat. We pulled out leftover pizza, sodas, cookies. We hummed as we took a bite, acting like we haven't eaten before.

"You know, Ikaris hated it when I ate ice cream from the carton." Sersi confessed.

"Druig hated it when I drink out of the carton!" We both laughed.

"Ikaris left me years ago." She blurted out. I stopped chewing. "He said nothing, he just left."

"Well, I left Druig. He mind controlled me. He tried but failed." We were drunk, slurring our words, blurting things out of nowhere. "Man, men suck."

"Tell me about it."

"I feel like Druig and Ikaris could be related." I dug my spoon in the ice cream. "Theyre so-"

"Naive?" I snapped my fingers, yes! "Ikaris was always like, 'Sersi dont, Sersi you cant do that!'"

"Exactly! Druig was just, 'You cant leave Celeste, Celeste don't go, Celeste dont do that'."

"They definitely missed out on us. I mean look at us!" We looked at each other, a hot mess, makeup all messed up, dresses all wrinkled. "Its their loss."

"How dare they treat us like children, I mean, we're women, we dont need a man to tell us what to do. We're already powerful enough." We went on and on, talking about the boys. And some how, we crashed in the bed, snoring and hair crazy. I rubbed my head from the massive headache I got. Sersi groans as the sunlight peeked through the curtain. "What happened?"

"A lot of stuff happened." I shuffle my way out of bed and into the bathroom. I looked like a mess. I rubbed my hands on face, splashing cold water. Sersi comes in behind me and did the same. We grabbed blankets and sat down in the living room in our underwear and big shirts. We didn't care, what we did care about was that we were never doing this again, ever. "Celeste?"

"Yes?"

"Remind me to never drink like that again."

"Agreed."