Chapter 3
1575 Words
3
Stacia landed back in Las Vegas at an ungodly early hour and took a cab back to her apartment near the university. She hauled her suitcase onto the elevator and up to the top floor and then wheeled it down the hall. Her exhaustion kept creeping in, and she managed to miss the lock three times with her key before getting it in the slot and opening the door.
When she entered, she stopped in her tracks, staring around at her apartment in shock. Three days ago, the apartment that she shared with Bryna and Trihn had been spotless with everything put away in its proper place and nothing out of order. They had a maid service after all. Somehow, in the span of those three days, it had turned into a war zone. Boxes were piled up with no rhyme or reason, and clothes were scattered everywhere.
“What the hell?” Stacia asked, eyes wide.
“S!” Trihn cried. She appeared in the living room with a bright smile on her face.
She was, of the three of them, the biggest morning person. If you disturbed Bryna before noon, you should expect a mouthful, but Trihn enjoyed her mornings, like a total freak of nature.
“Hey,” Stacia said. She deposited her suitcase next to the door since it didn’t seem to matter where anything went at the moment, and then she came to stand by Trihn. “What’s going on?”
Trihn picked up a half-full box and dropped it on top of another one. Her long brown-to-blonde ombre swished in her ponytail, and her green eyes lit up. “Oh! I just started packing.”
“Packing?”
“Yeah. Bryna insisted that she’d hire someone before hurting her manicure, but I figured I’d do it the old-fashioned way.”
“But why?” Stacia asked, unable to keep up.
“Because it just felt silly to hire someone. I mean, I can pack. I don’t have that much stuff. Mostly clothes and my sewing machine and, you know, the really important stuff,” Trihn rattled on. “Plus, I mean…how much space am I really going to have in Damon’s apartment? It’s a one-bedroom. It’s pretty small.”
A lightbulb went off in Stacia’s head. It must have been the early hour or the red-eye or what had happened with Marshall the previous night, but it had completely slipped her mind that her best friends were moving out. They had all assumed that Stacia would quit school and move to wherever Marshall ended up once he was drafted. So, Bryna had agreed to move in with her boyfriend and assistant football coach, Eric Wilkins, while Trihn had agreed to move in with her boyfriend and resident DJock star, Damon Stone.
It all should have worked out for the trifecta of best friends paired with a hottie coach, mega rock star, and NFL quarterback. But, now, things weren’t going as planned, and she hadn’t even considered what she was going to do next year or where she was going to live.
“What the hell is going on out here?” Bryna called from the hallway. She appeared a minute later in some kind of barely there negligee. Her blonde hair was just-s*x mussed, and she looked as stunning as ever.
“Oh no, we’ve awoken the beast,” Trihn whispered.
Stacia snort-laughed.
Then, in a more normal tone, Trihn said, “Morning, Bri. It’s a little early for you.”
“No one can sleep with you out here, slamming boxes around and talking at the top of your lungs.” Bryna leaned against the side of the couch and then slipped forward into a lying position. She looked like a Greek goddess without even trying.
Stacia wished her appearance were so effortless. She’d need a pound of makeup and a full blowout before she could achieve Bryna’s I-woke-up-like-this appearance.
It didn’t help matters that Trihn had once been a model for Gucci and a ballerina for a prestigious dance company in New York. Frankly, Stacia felt short and fat next to her two best friends. Thankfully, it was a thought they knew nothing about.
“Stacia just got back. She was asking about packing, which is something you should be doing, Bri,” Trihn told her.
“No,” Bryna said point-blank. “I’ll leave it to the peons.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Trihn said.
Bryna shrugged and closed her eyes. “Someone else will move my stuff into Eric’s house. I’m not going to worry about it. It’ll all be done by next weekend anyway.”
“So soon?” Stacia squeaked. “The lease doesn’t end for a few more weeks.”
“I want it over with,” Bryna said.
“Plus, you’ll be moving in with Marshall anyway!” Trihn cried. “Oh my God, we saw you on TV. Damon and I doubled with E and Bri to watch the draft. You looked so f*****g hot on TV. You were definitely the hottest girlfriend.”
“Definitely,” Bryna agreed drowsily. She already seemed to be falling back asleep.
“Where is Marshall moving to again?” Trihn asked.
Of the three of them, Trihn was the least invested in football even though she would come to nearly all the games.
“Buffalo,” Stacia and Bryna said together.
“Right,” Trihn said. “Buffalo. Upstate New York is freezing. You’re going to need a whole new wardrobe.”
“Oh, here we go,” Bryna said.
“I can make you one! Let me design your winter wear! I’ve never done that.”
“Yeah, sure,” Stacia said absentmindedly.
“Seriously, we are so excited for you,” Trihn said.
Bryna propped herself up onto her elbows. “We are. It’s so awesome. It’s everything you’ve wanted. We all got everything we wanted. It’s like a Hallmark movie,” she said and then gagged.
“So, tell us everything!” Trihn said, ignoring Bryna. “She’s just grumpy. She wants to hear about the draft, too.”
Trihn sank down on the couch next to Bryna, and they both expectantly stared up at Stacia. They were probably thinking she would turn into the bubbly, buoyant, ridiculous friend they had always known. But she just didn’t have it in her today.
“It was fine,” she said. “Nothing really to say.”
Their faces dropped. Bryna’s eyes narrowed. Trihn looked concerned.
“What do you mean?” Trihn asked.
“Yeah. How could there be nothing to say?” Bryna asked.
“I mean…you guys watched it. You saw what happened. Nothing really to say.”
“Are you okay?” Bryna said.
“You know…I met Jude though.”
A wall dropped over Bryna’s features, and she searched for nonchalance. “Really? Was he a total douche?”
“Yeah. He called me sweetheart and said I should be happy that my boyfriend was about to be worth millions.”
Bryna grimaced. “Sounds just f*****g like him.”
“I called him a liar to his face, but I don’t think he realized that I knew you. Or if he did, then he didn’t show it.”
“He wouldn’t. Prick.” Bryna’s anger seemed to wake her up. “I bet, if you’d been alone, he would have hit on you.”
Stacia shrugged. “All he did was glare and smirk at me.”
“f*****g asshole.”
Stacia was glad that she had her friends thoroughly distracted. The truth was…she wasn’t ready to tell them that she had broken up with Marshall. What would they say anyway? Nothing that would help right now.
Plus, they were already packing. They had agreed that they were going to move in with their boyfriends. She didn’t want them to feel bad that they would be leaving her behind or, worse, change their minds and stay in the apartment for her. They deserved their happiness. They’d both earned it.
No, she would wait a little while longer before divulging the details. Maybe next week after they had already moved out and were settled in with Eric and Damon. Marshall wouldn’t even be back until later this week, and she doubted he was going to tell people that they had broken up. Not after what a catastrophe it had been.
“So…nothing else to tell?” Trihn asked with concerned round eyes.
“You know, I’m actually super exhausted. I had to catch a red-eye and all…” Stacia trailed off.
“Wait…where is Marshall? What is he doing?” Trihn asked.
“They flew him to Buffalo to meet with the team,” she answered. “Papers to sign, people to meet. That sort of thing.”
“You couldn’t go with him?” Bryna asked.
“Finals,” Stacia said.
It wasn’t a lie. She had always planned to return to finish her finals for her junior year of college. Even though she hadn’t been planning on staying for her senior year and getting her all-important general studies degree, she still wanted the credits she had earned. Marshall had gotten approved to take his finals later because of the draft.
“Oh, okay,” Trihn said. “When will you move out there with him?”
“I don’t know,” Stacia said, squirming. “I don’t have all the details.”
That was the goddamn truth.
“All right. Well, get some rest. Fill us in on more of the details when you get them. I’m excited to hear about your new amazing life,” Trihn said.
Stacia smiled. “Yeah. Me, too.”
She left them out in the living room and proceeded into her bedroom. As soon as she let the door close behind her, she turned on some music, snuggled up under the covers, and let the tears fall.
She didn’t have a career in mind. She didn’t have a degree she loved pursuing. She didn’t have a boyfriend or a job or an apartment…or anything.
She didn’t want to marry Marshall and live out her life as a Stepford wife. That much, she knew. She wanted to be as happy and passionate as her two friends were about movies and fashion. To be as in love with a guy as they were with Eric and Damon. She wanted and deserved more than what she was shortchanging herself.
Truly, she had no clue what she was going to do with her life, and for the first time, that bothered her.
- Writer
