I stood at the stove in my apartment, making myself dinner and listening to Mike blab on the phone about their show last night. It was hard to talk with the different time zones. It was eight o’clock at night here and already one in the afternoon, tomorrow, over there. He had been gone for four days and I had already managed to get a lot done. I cleaned my entire apartment from head to toe, I went to the gym every day for at least two hours, and I had gone out to happy hour twice with Alex and Alec. It was nice to be able to catch up on a lot of things that I had been abandoning. I had also been cooking myself dinner every night instead of getting take out or eating out, something that Mike and I did often. If these first four days were so productive, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how the next few weeks were going to go.

“So what are you cooking?” Mike asked from the other side of the phone, obviously knowing that I wasn’t really listening to him.

“Oh... you know... nothing special... just some sausage, peppers and spaghetti. I have a glass of red wine by my side and a piece of key lime cheesecake calling my name after dinner,” I laughed as I sipped at my wine.

He groaned, “Why don’t you ever cook for me?”

“You never ask,” I smiled to myself as I turned the stove off, the peppers and sausage sizzling as I transferred them into a bowl on the island. “If you ask me to make you dinner, I will. You’ll just have to wait until I get home from work.”

“Can you cook me dinner the night I come home? Have it waiting for me at your apartment so when I come in I can just sit down and engorge myself,” Mike chuckled. “All you ever make me is breakfast, and you rarely do that.”

“Well, usually you pick something up for dinner or ask me to pick something up on my way home... and you also usually make me breakfast while I get ready for work...”

“Are you saying it’s my fault that you never cook for me?”

I smirked and filled my plate with spaghetti and then placed two sausages and some peppers on top of it, “I’m not saying anything, Michael.”

“Sometimes I wish you had a longer first name so that I could sound all fancy like you,” he laughed. “I can hear you chewing.”

“I’m freaking hungry!” I said with a mouth full of food, “I was at the gym from 4:30 to 7, Mike. That’s like two and a half hours!”

“I’m going to come home and you’re going to be so jacked.”

“And you’re still going to be all noodly and skinny,” I laughed. “Promise me that you’ll get a gym membership when you get home. I actually think you’d enjoy working out. Plus, you’d get to look at my butt in yoga shorts the entire time.”

“I sure do like your butt in yoga shorts,” I could hear the smirk in his voice. “But then I’d have to have manly time with Alec.”

“He isn’t that bad, Mike,” I rolled my eyes. “I actually think of him as my gay best friend.”

“That you slept with,” Mike muttered. “Alright, I shouldn’t have said that. That’s just me being jealous.”

“Very jealous. You wouldn’t be jealous if you were going to the gym with me.”

He sighed, “Maybe, maybe not.”

My phone began to beep, signaling that I had another call coming in. I pulled it from my ear to see Lex’s name popping up on the screen. I smiled to myself, “Baby, Lex is calling, I should probably take this.”

“Alright. Call me before you go to bed, pwease,” he said with a baby voice.

“Always.”

“I love you,” his voice came through, hopeful.

I sighed, “Bye, Mikey.” I heard him sigh and then I switched phone calls over to Lex’s.

I continued to feed myself as I listened to her telling me all about the plane and airport information. I was going to be picking her up from the airport in three days, right when I got off work. She had planned it out perfectly so that it wouldn’t interrupt my work schedule. She was going to be staying here for five days, two of those days being a weekend so we could actually have whole-day hangouts. While she was here she was going to visit her parents and a few other friends in the area, so I told her I’d leave her my car keys and I’d just drive Mike’s Camaro to work. I was going to try to get out on time while she was here, because lately I had been staying late to make up for money lost last week. We finished up our conversation, talking about how excited we were to see each other.



After I ate I took Diablo out for a quick walk so that he could do his business before we went to bed. When I walked back up to my apartment I was taken back by Mia standing at my door, not noticing me. “What’s up, Mi?” I said while furrowing my brows, confused as to why she was here.

“Can I crash here tonight?” She asked while gnawing on her nails. Her eyes were red, underneath of them puffy. She had obviously been crying about something and I was still confused as to why she wouldn’t call me.

I nodded, “Of course, babe. Let me unlock the door.” I unlocked my front door and all three of us walked in. I locked it behind me quickly and looked at her, “Come on. Let’s go in my room.”

She walked into my bedroom and kicked her flip flops off her feet, falling face first onto my bed. Her big, gray sweatpants blending in with my gray sheets. Her reddish brown hair was a nappy mess and it was everywhere. I sighed while looking at her and then put Diablo in his bed, throwing one of Mike’s t-shirts and a blanket in there with him. It was honestly strange to see Mia in any emotion other than happy or angry. She seemed down and out, and it was obviously something that was bothering her a lot because she didn’t come out and say it to me right away. I sat down on the bed next to her and ran my right hand through her hair, trying to rid it of the tangles that were making themselves home in the red mass.

“Mike texted me...” she sighed and flipped over, looking up at the ceiling. She took her hands and ran them over her face, wiping at her eyes and then just pulling them downward, stretching her skin out. “Casey made a few decisions last night.”

“What are you talking about? Mike didn’t say anything to me. I just talked to him like an hour ago...” I relaxed on the bed next to her.

“He literally texted me like fifteen minutes ago right after Casey told him.”

“What did Casey tell Mike, Mia?” I bit my lip, bracing myself for the worst.

She groaned, “I guess he got a little too drunk last night and kissed someone. It’s not like he had sex with anyone, but he kissed someone... and he felt so bad about it that he didn’t even call me today. It had been eating him up inside and he had to tell Mike. Mike didn’t know what to do so he texted me about it. I haven’t said anything to Casey, yet. I don’t even know what to say to him. I just don’t understand why this always happens to me.”

I heard her sniffle and I pulled her into a hug, wrapping my arms around her skinny, little body. Her head automatically fell onto my shoulder, crying into it. “He obviously knows that he did something wrong. I understand how you feel, Mi. I don’t know why this always happens to you, but you know he cares about you. I don’t want to tell you what to do, and force you to call him and make things alright, but if he really is beating himself up over it, it’s obviously didn’t mean it. Like you said, it was just a kiss. Not that a kiss isn’t considered cheating, but he had a gut feeling not to take it any further.”

“I just don’t get why I always get hurt, Rae. You’re so much luckier than I am. Mike would never do this to you, never in a million years, no matter how drunk he got. He fell in love with you because he couldn’t have you. He’d bend over backwards for you, and what do I get? A boyfriend that I fell for way too fast and he did me dirty.”

I sighed, “Mia, I don’t deserve someone like Mike. I don’t even deserve someone like Casey. I don’t want you to compare your relationship to mine, because both you and I, as well as our boyfriends, are different people. You deserve much more than I do, and that’s why I’m not going to tell you what to do. If you want to walk away from him, do it. If you don’t, then stay with him. That’s the only input I’m going to give.”

She rolled her eyes and got off me, “Sometimes I feel like if I was a heartless bitch I wouldn’t have these problems. Can you give me lessons?”

I laughed, “No, but I can give you a glass of wine and you can take your phone out and call your boyfriend.”

“I don’t have my phone with me,” she frowned.

I grabbed my phone off the charger and handed it to her, “Dial his number. Talk to him. I will be back with two glasses of wine, one for me and one for you. If you need to chug the entire thing in the first five minutes, I’ll just go get the entire bottle and bring it in here.”

“I might need something stronger for this,” she muttered as she scrolled through my contacts.

“I have jager in the fridge as well, but we both have work in the morning, so all you’re getting is wine,” I smiled and walked out of the room and into the kitchen, grabbing us both two wine glasses and filling them almost to the brim and then sticking the bottle under my armpit.


When I came back in my room, she was already on the phone screaming like your average girl. The whole “how could you do this to me” and “being drunk is no excuse” quotes flying around, over and over again. I handed her a glass and she downed half of it, giving me a small smile. I mouthed to her to be nice and she rolled her eyes and continued to scream at him. Ten minutes into the conversation her voice turned back to the sweet, normal Mia voice she always had, repeating that she loved him multiple times. I rolled my eyes and pretended to gag every time she said it and she smacked me and held her hand out for the bottle of wine. She filled her cup back up and sipped on it again. She made a comment about how I was trying to get her drunk and high, because I had a bottle of wine laying on the bed with us as well as a bag of cough drops that we were both steady eating. I had an obsession with the lemon and mint Ricola cough drops. They were like candy to me. Candy that made my throat feel rejuvenated every time I ate one.

“No, I’m not going to smoke any cigarettes. I only smoke when I’m drunk, you know that!” Mia laughed into the phone, “I’m not drunk yet. It takes two glasses of wine to get me tipsy. I’m not a lightweight like Raymond.”

“Fuck you,” I grumbled and sipped on my glass of wine. It was the second one I had tonight, and I did feel a slight buzz from it. Wine usually just made me sleep really well and knock me out, which was something I was going to need because sleeping in a bed with Mia was no fun.

“I love you too, baby,” she made kissy noises into the phone and then held it out in front of my face. “Here, tell your boyfriend you love him.”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my phone from her, holding it up to my ear, “Hello, handsome. Long time no talk.”

Mike’s laugh came through, “I’m sorry I texted Mia and made her sleep in your bed.”

“Hey, it was bound to happen sooner or later,” I smiled. “I figured everything out with Lex. Is it fine if I drive your Camaro for those days she’s here, so she can use my car to go visit her mom and stuff?”

“Of course, baby girl. Whatever you want,” I really did have him wrapped around my finger. “When are you going to lunch with Nat? You never told me.”

“Next Friday, after I drop Lex off at the airport. I’m going to lunch with her and then I need to stop by the doctor and pick up my birth control for the next three months that I keep forgetting about.”

“Yeah, that may come in handy for when I get home,” he chuckled.

“Don’t be a pig,” I laughed along with him. “I’m going to lay down and get settled into bed. Play good for me tonight? Smack Casey in the head with a drumstick.”

“Your wish is my command. Get a good night’s sleep, baby.”

“You too. Don’t stay up all night fucking bitches, Whiskey Hands.”

He laughed again, “You’re the only bitch who gets this dick. I love you, good night.”

“You too, pumpkin. Night,” I hung up the phone and put it back on the charger.

I nudged Mia with my foot, she looked at me and I gestured towards the remote. She handed it to me and then turned the light on my bedside table off. I turned the TV on and turned on Man vs Wild. I crawled under the covers next to Mia and rested my head against my pillow, happy to be going to sleep. I felt her crawl up behind me and snuggle up to me, being the big spoon. Nothing unusual there. Mia was a huge cuddlier and would cuddle with anything and anyone. I had grown used to it over the years, and put up with it, even though I hated cuddling while I was sleeping.


I woke up the next morning to a note on my kitchen counter and a full pot of coffee already made. Mia had left a note saying thank you for letting her crash here and that she made me coffee to make up for taking over my bed. I laughed and grabbed myself a cup, and then got ready for work. It was going to be another hectic day at the office, full of going over people’s horrible grammar-filled articles. I never understood why I was put into the editor’s position instead of the legitimate “journalist” position, but I didn’t complain because I got paid more to just sit on my ass and do this shit. In the office, we were allowed one day a week to be casual. I usually had casual Fridays, as well as everyone else in the office, but I wanted to look nice when I picked up Lex. I rummaged through my drawers and grabbed a pair of jeans and then a long-sleeved sheer, black top. I put on a little bit of make-up and jewelry, threw my hair up in a top-knot, and then pulled on a pair of black pumps. I grabbed my computer bag and headed out the door and into my car.

I had decided to make myself a take-along coffee cup so that I wouldn’t have to stop anywhere for coffee. Usually when I stopped for coffee I also ended up grabbing something bad to eat, so I had brought along a banana to snack on for when I got to the office. It was nice not having to stop because that meant I would be getting to work a little earlier than usual, which was really not going to be all that early thanks to San Diego’s wonderful 7-8 AM traffic jams, and the fact that no one in the state of California knew how to drive anymore. I cranked up the radio as I sat on the highway, waiting for the traffic to move again.

I’ve got this sentimental heart that beats,

But I don’t really mind that it’s starting to get to me now.
Why do you waste my time?

Is the answer to the question on your mind?

And I’m sick of all my judges,
So scared of what they’ll find.

But I know that I can make it,
As long as somebody takes me home every now and then.

Well have you ever seen the light?

Have you ever seen the light?

I felt like I had heard this song once before, and then it clicked, this was that song I had been searching for ever since the day I heard it in the car. I continued to listen to the entire song, trying to figure out the name of it. Of course, the stupid radio host never said the name, so here I was again... not knowing what this song was. Finally, the traffic started to move again and I was able to get off the highway and turn onto a backroad that would lead me straight to the office. I pulled into my designated parking spot and sighed, turning off the engine. Another day another dollar.

Notes

Filler Shmiller.
I love how much feedback I am getting.
I'm still not telling you what's up with Rae.
YA'LL CAN KEEP MAKING ASSUMPTIONS N SHIT.

I needed to throw a filler in here before Lex comes.
Or else this story is going to go by way too fast.
And none of us would want that, would we?

I seriously have so much shit lined up for all of you.
You guys are going to probably hate me by the end of the story.
And then in the last chapter you're going to read it and be like
DUDE YOU'RE A FUCKING ASSHOLE.
And then read the last line and be like OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.

But ya'll have to wait like 20 more chapters for that.

Thank you to all my usual commenters, and those who are finally speaking up.
Thank you to all who have recommended, subscribed, voted, whatever.
I know I don't really communicate with the commenters much when you're a usual.
I usually just communicate with those who are like "I just started reading this"
But I feel the same towards all of you, and I respect ALL of you for reading my shitty writing.

I hope you enjoy, and keep your eye out for another update by the end of this weekend.
Running will (hopefully) be updated by Monday, but I've been really preoccupied with Sam's Town.

xoxoxoxoxoxo