Page 75 of The Blairville Legacies

Bayla

“Crazy, there’s literally everything here!” Larissa exclaimed, and I couldn’t help but laugh. This was Larissa as I had always known her.

“You only eat salad anyway.”

“Hello?!” Playfully indignant, she closed the fridge and came walking over to me with a bowl of tomatoes.

She was still wearing her black jeans with holes at the knees, which flattered her slender curves and matched perfectly with the biker jacket.

If it were up to me, she’d be on a catwalk by now. But Larissa didn’t want to hear that.

I, on the other hand, was sitting here in front of my laptop with my somewhat older dark brown knitted sweater and black leggings with cozy socks, frantically searching for the e-mail with the seminar rooms that everyone but me had received.

“Well, not everyone can eat that much. And then also what she wants without gaining weight.”

With this, she looked at me with that look that I knew all too well.

“Very funny,” I replied.

I would be happy if I had a little more on my ribs and didn’t have to look like an emaciated rabbit.

I tried frantically to focus on my stuffed inbox. Most of it was about scholarships and university advertisements.

Remorsefully, I scrolled through the e-mail inbox.

Actually, I would have preferred to be at all these universities now...

Well, at least I still had Larissa here. She had just appeared out of nowhere to tell me that she was going to study here, as well.

Exactly, that was my best friend. What this girl put in her head, she also put into reality, no matter how absurd her ideas were. She dreamed big. And sometimes she reached too far for the stars, and then I had to catch her from falling.

There was an almost tentative knock at the door, and I lifted my head.

“Mady?”

Either I had just mistaken a complete stranger for my neighbor, or I had scared the hell out of her because the girl, who appeared suspiciously to be the beautiful neighbor girl, paused and eyed me for a few seconds before her memorable smile returned.

“Bayla, right?”

I nodded.

“I’m sorry...” she stammered, “I didn’t know you were here too.”

“You know each other?” Larissa came out of the corner with the salad bowl filled to the brim.

Surprised, I looked over at her.

“We’re neighbors,” Mady clarified to my best friend, grinning carefully. “And I came to see if everything worked out.” Larissa’s expression relaxed a bit, even though I didn’t understand how the two of them knew each other. “I heard there was a big mix-up with the letters.”

Larissa threw an arm in the air. “Yeah, thank God Bayla’s here. Without her, I’d probably get lost here.” She came over to me and dropped her arm on my shoulder.

Mady carefully closed the door as if it might break. Very different from Emely earlier.

“You know each other?” she asked in a kind way.

Larissa spoke with her mouth full. “We grew up together, her mother had something like pity and often let me stay with Bay, and so we kind of became friends.”

“I see...” Mady laughed, brushing back one of the thick black strands. “Friends, then.”