Who: Liz Ortecho & Maria DeLuca When: Backdated: Early July Where: Ortecho Family Diner What: Old friends catching up Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly Status: Complete
Huntington Beach wasn’t exactly a small place, which might have been why it took Maria so long to hear about Liz’s return to California. Of course, it wasn’t exactly a large city either, which was likely why she’d heard about it at all, from the lips of someone she’d gone to high school with and who liked to stop by her bar sometimes. “Did you hear that Liz is back?” she’d gossiped. “I guess moving away didn’t work out so well for her. She’s back working at that diner.”
Maria had promptly told her to be quiet and leave if she didn’t have anything nice to say, but she had to admit that it stung. She had thought that she and Liz were pretty close in high school, and she couldn’t understand why her friend hadn’t bothered to get in touch if she was back in town.
But, Maria had waited for the inevitable call that she was sure that would come, or maybe Liz would walk through the door and surprise her. It took a couple more weeks before Maria finally realized that it wasn’t going to happen, and then another week of Maria deciding that she was fine, she didn’t care, she didn’t need to be friends with Liz anyway, she was doing just fine on her own.
It didn’t exactly work though, which is why Maria was now walking into the diner, feeling a little bit defeated in all this. The bell chimed above her head as she swung open the door, and she quickly made her way to a table, not bothering to look around to see if Liz was working that day.
Liz hadn’t intentionally not contacted Maria after moving back to Orange County, but helping her parents at the diner and adjusting to her new job at Godfrey Industries had been keeping her pretty busy. It wasn’t even like she’d seen Alex or Kyle very often since she’d moved back; after all, had Alex not come into the diner and she not randomly run into Kyle on the beach, who knows how long it would have taken to have their first reunions. Liz simply had a tendency to let work and other things consume her life to the point where she tended to forget to have any sort of social life unless it came to her first.
It was probably why she’d had very few close friends during her time in Boston. She’d had work acquaintances, but she hadn’t really had friends; not like she’d had before moving away for college.
So when the bell chimed above the door and Liz saw Maria walk in and make a beeline for a table, she suddenly felt extremely crappy as well as glad that she had agreed to work at the diner on Saturday despite her parents both telling her that she should go do something with her days off.
Coming out from behind the counter where she had been going through receipts, she approached Maria’s table, “Before you say anything, I just want to apologize for being a horrible friend and not calling or texting you sooner.” She figured it was best to be honest, especially with someone she had known as long as she’d known Maria.
Maria had prepared a few choice greetings for Liz that weren’t entirely flattering, but when Liz opened with an apology, everything that Maria had planned flew out of her head. “Well, just so long as you know you’re a horrible friend,” Maria teased, and then got up from her seat. “Get over here,” she said, opening her arms for a hug.
Liz hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath until Maria got up and she exhaled as she went in to hug her old friend, “Trust me, I know all too well how horrible I am.” Most people would seek out old friends after arriving back in town or even letting them know before they moved back so they could make plans as soon as possible, but Liz was bad at making plans. “I’m trying to be better though.”
Maria hugged Liz in a tight bear hug, letting out a bit of a sigh as she gripped her. She pulled away, still holding Liz by the tops of her arms, and smiled at her. “At least I get to see you now. Been busy since you got back?”
“So busy,” Liz didn’t mind keeping busy, but it did keep her from doing much of anything else besides working and when she was working she tended to lose herself to anything else, “New job plus working here occasionally. Leaves me little time to manage to do anything else. Enough about me though, how’ve you been? How’s the bar?”
“I’ve been good, the bar’s good,” Maria said, smiling. Truth be told, there were times when she could be better, but Maria was doing the best with what she had and she always did try to look on the bright side of things. Besides, it was her first time seeing Liz in almost a decade, she didn’t need to start getting into the dirty details of everything. “You should really come by and check it out sometime. I’ll even pour you a drink on the house.” She sat back down in her booth and nodded at the other bench, hoping that Liz could sit down and talk for a couple of minutes at least. “How about you? How was the move back here?”
Even if Liz didn’t have time she would have made time for Maria. She knew that neither of her parents would mind if she took the time to catch up considering Liz had been back now for a few months and had only spoken to Maria once on the network since. “It was alright. I drove, so I had to sell some stuff and put the rest in storage until I’m able to bring it here. Other than that, it’s been fine. Like I said before, I wasn’t really planning on coming back, but I’m glad I’m back.”
“I’m glad you’re back too,” Maria said warmly. “I missed having one of my best friends around.” When both the Ortecho sisters had packed their bags and moved on, it had been hard for Maria. She had never had trouble making friends, but Rosa and Liz had been some of the best and friendships like that didn’t happen often.
“So you’re back for good then, huh?”
One would think that if both Liz and Rosa were friends with Maria that would have been something to bring them together, yet somehow they still had never gotten along quite as well as they should have. Liz still didn’t know why they didn’t get along and she had hoped that coming home might change that, but of course Rosa wasn’t even in the state.
“I am.” Liz hadn’t had a plan for how long she was going to stay in Orange County, but since she’d started reconnecting with Kyle and Alex and now Maria, she had very little desire to leave; despite the awful dreams she’d had recently. “At least, I have no plans at the moment to go back to Boston.”
“I know I probably shouldn’t be as happy about that as I am,” Maria said, but she really couldn’t help. Sure, she knew Liz had wanted to leave and Maria would never stop her from doing that, but Maria had always loved the Orange County, and she had always loved Liz. “Have you had much of a chance to explore since you came back?”
Liz shook her head, “Not really. Besides helping my parents, I got a job at Godfrey Industries and so I haven’t had too much free time,” She had noticed some of the things that had changed over the last ten years and she had hung out a little with both Alex and Kyle, when she’d first come home, but since then she hadn’t really had too much free time to herself. “Is there anything you recommend I should explore? Anything new since I left.”
“Does that mean you haven’t been to Costa Mesa’s Food Truck Fare yet?” Maria asked, feigning offense. “You’re going to have to let me know the next time you get a Wednesday or Thursday evening free, and I’ll take you.”
Not that Maria had many Thursdays or Wednesdays free, but the perks of running the bar herself meant that she didn’t need permission to take time off, just someone who would watch the bar for her.
“No, I haven’t been there.” Liz smiled as nodded, “Alright, it’s a deal. I’ll let you know as soon as I know.” She had a feeling that soon she’d find herself with some free time and she’d definitely need things to do to fill her time and spending more time with Maria sounded good to her.
“Perfect,” Maria said, happily. She would look forward to having a chance to actually see Liz when she wasn’t working. It had been a long time since the last time Maria had, had quality one-on-one time with her, but she still loved Liz as much as she had in high school and she doubted the distance or the time had changed that at all. “Now that that’s taken care of, I think I’ll have the burger and fries? And a strawberry shake, of course.”
Liz smiled and got to her feet, “I’ll put that order in right away.” She was glad that Maria had stopped in today and that they were on their way to making future plans. She really had missed her friend and felt terrible for taking so long to really get in touch with her, but now she didn’t need to feel quite so guilty.