"Are you sure you don't want to come?" my mother asked for the tenth time. "It'll be fun."

"Mom, I already told you." I said reaching out my hand and waving with the knowledge that one taxi, sooner or later, would stop to pick me up. "I'm staying here."

"I just don't understand why." she said with a sad tone. "You are on vacation.You should be enjoying yourself, not staying in that horrendously small dorm room."

"I like my horrendously small dorm room." I said laughing, finally getting a cab. Putting my hand over the speaker on the phone I asked the indian driver to take me to the Grand Central.

"Even you think it's small." she wouldn't give up on trying to make me take the deal. "I already told you. Your father and I agreed on buying an small—but still bigger than you dorm—apartment and you can pay us back when you finally settle things."

"And I already told you that I like my dorm." this was getting tiring. "Mom, I'm on my way to the station and you have a plane to catch in a few hours. I think we should hung up now."

"I knew it!" oh boy, here we go again. "I knew I shouldn't have let you go to this stupid university."

"Mom..." it was useless to try. Once she has started, you have to let her finish.

"Don't you 'mom' me!" crap. "When we agreed to this 'university in New York' idea, this was our biggest fear. You said you would still spend the vacations with us. You promised!"

"Are you done?" I asked sighing. She mumbled a 'yeah' on the other side. "I would love to go with you guys to wherever you are going this time, but I am full of work from uni. I am only halfway through my first year in college, and I can't screw this up. You know that, right?"

"Yes, I do. But you have a scholarship!" pride was dripping from her voice. "They need you."

"I'm pretty sure is the other way around, mom." the driver was starting to stare at me with an ugly look and I decided it was time to say goodbye. "Mom, I need to go."

"Okay. Just one more question." it would never be 'just' one more. "If you are so busy with university, how come Samantha and Jackson are going to NY?"

She wasn't supposed to know that.

"Bye mom. Love ya." I said finishing the call as fast as I can.

The truth is, I didn't want to hurt my mothers' feelings more than I already would, so I decided that telling her the real reason why I would not go to this trip with her and dad was unnecessary. Dad on the other hand sent me a 'enjoy :)' and a picture of him with his baggage.

As usual, the city was loud and messy, just the way I like it. The traffic was slow and I wasn't more than a couple blocks away from my destination, so ignoring the foreign swearing from the driver I decided to stretch my legs a little bit. Throwing him a few bucks paying for the small ride, I got out in the cold winter day.

I re-read the text again and my heart swelled with joy. After six months, I would finally see them. Jack and Sam, both my childhood best friends, were coming to NY so we could have a get-together.

When high school ended, we promised to each other to always keep in touch, and that's exactly what we have been doing. Jack got accepted into UCSB and Sam was going to UCLA, so when the time came, we had to part.

Why I didn't go to Los Angeles in the first place was unknown to me, but they really wanted to come here.

The big gates filled with people got behind me as I started to go faster, eager to see my friends again. I befriended some people in my class, I liked my roommate, but none of them could be Sam and Jack.

Speaking of which, I could see Sam's black hair from distance and had no shame in screaming. Both of them turned around and ran to me. Yes, we did the group hug. No, we were not ashamed.

"Oh my god!" Sam squealed. "What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" I asked with wide eyes. "There is something on me? Take it off!"

"No, no, no." she said laughing. "You look different."

"Of course she looks different, stupid." Jack interrupted and hugged me, taking my feet of the ground. "Just as I suspected." His big green eyes bored into mine.

"What?" I snapped.

"Someone hasn't been feeding right." he said crossing his arms over his chest. "You are way thiner than you were when you came here."

"So I have been going to the gym," I deadpanned. "What's wrong with that?"

Both of them shrugged and we started talking, walking outside. Jack told me about his Nutrition class and Sam told me all about the ballet classes with those famous dancers I don't know the name.

"And then we," she said waving between Jack and her. "snuck in. Jack had to punch the bodyguard for that."

At this point we were sitting at one of my favorite restaurants on SoHo.

"Wow... You guys have been spending some real time together." I said sipping on my water.

They paled instantly. Jack looked down at his empty plate and Sam started to laugh, which totally made clear to me that they were hiding something.

"What is it?" my smile slipped from my face and I'm sure a frown replaced it. "What are you guys not telling me?"

"First of all, how did you lost so much weight in six months?" Sam asked trying to change the subject. "You look fantastic!"

I just looked at her with a blank expression. "I already told you, I went to the gym... plus the stress of the finals."

"You shouldn't eat unhelthy..." Jack started.

"Jack!" I snapped. "What is going on?"

"We're dating." he blurted.

"What?" my heart almost went out through my mouth. "No we are not!"

Sam face palmed herself. "He means me and him, idiot."

Oh. Oooh. OH. "Holy shit."

"We were kind of expecting that." Sam said laughing.

"Oh, shit... No, I mean, that's great!"

"It is?" Jack were still looking at me worriedly.

"Yes!" No. "I'm so happy for you guys."

"Wow, thanks Ella." they said in unison. "So I guess you'll be okay with the second part of the news." that was Sam.

"There is more?" I was sounding way more dumb than usual.

"Yeah, well... you see, me and Jack are married."

Stop. Right. There. Bitch.

"I'm sorry... what?" things were getting confused. "Weren't you guys dating?"

"We got married last month." Sam said ignoring me. "It was a 'heat of the moment' thing"

"Getting married or the marriage?" I asked getting some fugly looks from them. "So you guys are like, husband and wife?" breath in, breath out, and in again.

"Yes." Jack said rushing to sit by my side. "Are you okay? You look a little pale."

"Oh, I'm super!" I whisper-screamed. "My two best friends got married, and apparently, they didn't care enough to call me!"

"Hey, don't be that way, it's not fair!" Sam shouted, drawing attention to us, just like she always does. "We thought you would be too busy to come to the wedding."

"Bullshit." was all that came to mind. "That's the biggest bullshit I've ever heard. You know I would stop whatever I was doing to be there for you guys!"

"Girls!" Jack said with a soothing smile. "Let's calm down, yeah?"

I nodded, not being able to speak.

They got married. They didn't invite me. They didn't even tell me. Something was off in this whole situation. Jack would never forget to tell me something like this. 

During desert, Sam told me everything, from the wedding to Jack transferring to UCLA.

"But UCSB was your dream." I said looking at him.

He just shrugged while Sam spoke. "Well," she said. "Dreams change."

"Yeah, because it wasn't yours." I retaliate. I knew Jack. I knew him better than Sam, actually. He would not transfer just because she wanted, there must be something there.

There must be something. There must be...

HOLY SHIT.

"YOU'RE PREGNANT!" I screamed pointing accusingly at Sam.

Jack slammed his head on the table. "Still subtile as always, I see."

"You knocked her up?" I was in shock. "What the fuck were you thinking?"

"Hey, it was an accident." he said.

"Oh, of course, just say you are sorry and the freaking baby will go away!"

My breathing was harsh and I was seeing red.

"Okay, now you are just being a bitch." I couldn't hear anymore. I couldn't take any more. I could nothing anymore.

Fuck you, Samantha.

I didn't know if I kept that on my mind or if it made it through my mouth, all I know is that all those six month running on the treadmill were finally worth it. I ran all the way to the Grand Station Terminal. I'm sure there was a great explanation to why I was freaking out so much, somewhere in my mind, but it seemed that I couldn't put it together.

For the first time since I landed on New York I wanted to punch all those people in my way. I wanted to make all the cars stop honking and for the first time in my life I wanted completely and deadly silence. Second thoughts apart, I took my phone of my purse and called my mother, praying that she wasn't on the plane already.

"You changed your mind?" was the first thing she said, and I couldn't be more thankful for her conciseness. If I spoke too much, I would probably end up crying.

"Yeah." I whispered, trying to calm down. "Where are we going?"

"What happened?" when I didn't answered, she just talked again. "There is a ticket under your name on the system. Go to the airport and they will give you. Plane leaves at 4, so hurry up. Se you there, sweetie. Love you."

She hung up on me and I checked the time on my phone. 13h00. I was tight on time. To go to my dorm and back at the station would be 50 minutes of train and to JFK with traffic, I would say one hour more. I needed to run.

"One ticket to Bronxville, please."

-o-

The next hours were a blur. I managed to make it on time, only with a backpack, but who cares. After ordering my ticket I was finally settling in my window seat, getting ready for the flight.

I called the stewardess and asked her something that made her expression change to pure shock.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," I started, feeling ashamed. "But where are we going?"

"Spain." she said holding her laugh.

"Oh, Madrid?" hoping that my deception didn't showed through.

"Barcelona."

Mom insisted on us going to Madrid when I was 10. My dad just agreed and bought the tickets, what infuriated my brother a little bit, because he had plans. No one knows what they were until today, but the whole thing was a fiasco. Everything that could go wrong, did. Never would I have thought that she would want to repeat that.

Maybe Barcelona would be different. I did watch "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and it was a marvelous city, with beautiful and amazing places. All I could do was hope that Barcelona was going to be better than Madrid.

Last call to flight 2107, with destination to Barcelona.

Last call to give up.

Last call to go back and pretend like everything is okay.

Last call to go and tell them to go fuck themselves.