"I can't go, I'm working overnight tonight." Bayley frowned.
Sasha sighed.
"That sucks, maybe Kevin will cover for you if you pay him?"
"I don't wanna go THAT bad."
Sasha and Bayley both laughed.
"You're not really a party person anyway." Sasha noted.
Just then, Bayley got a text from Becky.
Becky: Need advice.
"I'm gonna go in the office and make sure everything is okay." Bayley lied.
"Alright, I'll be here." Sasha said, standing in the empty hotel lobby.
Bayley got into the elevator and started calling Becky.
"Hello?" Becky asked.
"What's up?"
"There's a party tonight."
"Yeah I know, Cameron's birthday party."
"Well, I'm going, and so are Charlotte and Sasha."
"Bad idea. Don't go." Bayley said, stepping out of the elevator.
"I already agreed to go before I knew they'd be there."
"Say you don't feel good."
"I'm at work right now, they both saw me already."
"Just start pretending you don't feel good, then say you're not sure if you're going to the party or not."
"I can't-...ugh."
"What?" Bayley asked.
"It's your stupid friend Nattie again."
"What about her?"
"She keeps texting me. She doesn't take rejection too well, or maybe I've been being too subtle, I don't know. I tried to let her down easy but I don't think she gets it... or maybe she does get it and she just... I don't know, I don't have time to think about her right now I've got too much going on already... what did I even call you about?"
"The party."
"Right, and Naomi wants me to go and... I'm not interested in her either, and it seems like every single person in the entire world wants me except Charlotte, and it's frustrating, and-"
"You're creating too much unnecessary stress for yourself."
"Creating!? I didn't create anything, I didn't ask Naomi to have a crush on me, I didn't set up a date with Natalya, and I didn't know Charlotte and Sasha were a thing until it was too late. Literally none of this is my fault."
"Look, relax. I'll tell Nattie to back off. You just let Naomi know that you don't feel the same way."
"She knows that I don't."
"So what's the problem?"
"I feel bad because she's literally perfect." Becky said, starting to tear up.
"If you don't like her, you don't like her." Bayley shrugged.
"No but you don't understand. She's so nice to me all the time, she really cares about me, she's smart, she's funny, her body is amazing, her parents are rich, and she absolutely loves me, but for some reason I don't want her. I want Charlotte. And I wish I could just stop wanting Charlotte but I can't."
"Becky, relax."
"I gotta go back to work."
"Me too, we'll talk later. Love you."
"I love you too. Bye." Becky said, hanging up.
Becky walked back into the bar.
"You okay?" Naomi asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"I was worried for a second that you weren't feeling good." Cameron chuckled.
"Then I'd miss the party. That would suck." Becky said, with a fake laugh, pulling out her phone.
Becky: Hey, question.
Charlotte: Ask it
Becky: Should I avoid you guys or would that be weird?
Charlotte: I mean, Sasha and Naomi are probably going to hang out for a bit, so we could just all hang out together maybe?
Becky: I guess.
Charlotte: I'm really nervous about it.
Becky: The only people at the party that'll know are you and me, and I'm not gonna say anything about it.
Charlotte: You're right. I don't plan on drinking much, so everything should be fine.
Becky took a bit of a sigh of relief.
It was about 9:00 PM. Charlotte drove down the highway, trying to figure out where to turn off at.
"It's on the left." Sasha said, from the passenger seat.
Charlotte and Sasha's car pulled up to the impressive mansion. They found a place to park, got out, and walked into the front door.
"Girl! Happy birthday!" Sasha exclaimed, running over and hugging Cameron.
"Thanks."
"Oh, this is my girlfriend, Charlotte."
"Okay, I see you, Sasha." Cameron smiled, looking Charlotte up and down.
Charlotte smiled and blushed as Sasha laughed.
Cameron and Charlotte shook hands.
Sasha and Charlotte continued walking through the rather large crowd of people, to see Becky and Naomi sitting on the couch. Charlotte noticed that Becky was wearing glasses.
"Naomi!" Sasha said, completely ignoring Becky.
"Hey! Hey Charlotte." Naomi smiled.
"Hi." Charlotte said, with a fake smile.
Sasha sat on the far right of the couch, next to Naomi, while Charlotte sat on the far left, next to Becky.
"Hey Sasha." Becky smiled.
"Oh, hey Becks."
Becky gave a fake laugh, and took a deep breath, already annoyed by Sasha's presence. Sasha always had a certain way of greeting her good friends. Charlotte, Bayley, Cameron, Naomi, Tamina, but the way she always greeted Becky made it clear that she wasn't one of them.
"They're too loud." Naomi complained, looking around at the huge crowd.
"It's a party." Sasha shrugged.
"Yeah, but we still have neighbors. Someone's gonna end up calling the cops."
Becky nodded in agreement, as Charlotte and Sasha just shrugged.
"Hey Becky, you wanna come help make drinks?" Carmella, another girl that worked at the bar asked, coming from the kitchen.
Before Becky could respond, Naomi stood up.
"I got it."
Naomi left, and followed Carmella to the kitchen, leaving Sasha, Becky, and Charlotte, all sitting on the couch, together.
"I'm gonna go taste test." Charlotte said, with another fake smile, desperately wanting to escape the tension.
Sasha laughed, as Charlotte walked away.
"So... how have you been?" Becky asked.
"Good." Sasha said, pulling out her phone, without elaborating or even asking Becky the same question in return.
"That's good."
Becky silently waited for what seemed like an hour for someone to come and sit on the couch with them, while Sasha sat next to her, completely oblivious to the awkwardness. It had really only been a minute and a half.
"I'm so addicted to this game." Sasha said.
"What is it?" Becky asked.
"It's like a-"
"I'm back!" Charlotte smiled, carrying two drinks.
She handed one to Sasha.
"Thanks, what is it?"
"A screwdriver."
Charlotte sat down in between the two, drinking hers.
"Oh I'm sorry, Becky, did you want one?" Charlotte asked.
Becky shook her head no.
"You can have this one if you want, I already had one."
"I'm fine."
"Naomi made this?" Sasha asked.
"No, the other girl did." Charlotte said, not able to remember her name.
"Carmella." Becky said.
Sasha took another sip of it.
"Well tell Carmella this is really fucking good."
Charlotte felt a strange feeling of content. She looked to her right and saw Sasha, relaxing next to her. She looked to her left and saw Becky, slowly starting to relax too. She couldn't help but smile.
"Hey Becky, come here for a sec." Naomi said.
Becky left the couch as Charlotte sighed.
"Becky looks good." Sasha said.
"That was... random."
"That shade of orange fits her a lot better than her old one. She shouldn't wear glasses though, it makes her nose look even bigger."
"She usually doesn't." Charlotte said.
"Good." Sasha said, laughing a bit.
Charlotte uncomfortably laughed a little too, not sure if Sasha was being mean on purpose or not.
After a while, Charlotte went to go get more drinks, while Sasha sat, eventually being joined by Cameron.
"Charlotte!?" a familiar voice asked.
Charlotte turned around to see her old friend Paige.
"Hey! What's up!?"
"We're doing funnels." Paige said, holding one up.
Charlotte laughed, the memories from drinking with Paige in college immediately coming back to her.
"Old times sake?" Paige asked, holding one out to Charlotte.
"I don't know."
"You became a pussy after graduation?"
"I just... my girlfriend's here and I don't know if I wanna-"
"Oh! I forgot, you're a lightweight."
"Am not!" Charlotte laughed.
"You always were!" Paige laughed back.
"There's something wrong with your memory, I remember dragging YOU back to the dorm room from parties."
Charlotte grabbed the funnel from Paige, who was laughing.
"Oh, fuck off, Charlotte, that was once... okay twice."
Charlotte laughed too, holding her funnel in the air, with the long tube in her mouth, as Paige poured two beers into the top of it.
"Where's your girlfriend?" Cameron asked.
Sasha realized it had been about a half hour since Charlotte left.
"No idea. I'll go check on her."
Sasha got up, and walked over to the kitchen, seeing Charlotte and Paige sitting at an island counter, doing shots.
"Charlotte, you okay?"
"SASHA! Okay, Paige, this is my girlfriend Sasha, Sasha this is Paige!" Charlotte exclaimed, slurring her words.
Sasha shook Paige's hand.
"I was her roommate at NC State."
Charlotte drank yet another shot.
"Babe, I think you've had enough." Sasha warned.
"I'm fine."
"...okay. I'll be on the couch if you need me."
Sasha walked back out of the kitchen, and over to the couch, as Charlotte drank two more shots.
Becky was sitting in the kitchen, at a table, sipping her first drink of the night. She was sitting across from Naomi.
"Charlotte's really putting em away, huh?" Naomi asked, with a laugh.
Becky looked over as the crowd of people cheered Charlotte and Paige on, while they funneled another two beers each.
"She's gonna regret that in the morning." Becky said.
"Everyone is so loud. The neighbors are gonna call the cops."
Just then, a taller, brown skinned woman, and a man with slightly darker skin approached them.
"Hey, Naomi, Cameron said you had the keys to the guest room. Are all those games still up there?" the woman asked.
Naomi reached into her pocket, handing her a key.
"It's the white, old-looking door."
"Thanks!" The woman said, as they walked away.
"My cousin Alicia and her boyfriend Cedric." Naomi explained.
Becky nodded.
"What kind of games do you have?"
"Monopoly, Trouble, Life, a few decks on cards, checkers, some cool chess sets."
"I used to play chess a lot in high school." Becky said, pulling out her phone.
"Really?"
"Yeah, my Dad got this really cool chess set from Mexico, it's Spaniards vs Aztecs I think." Becky said, showing Naomi the picture of it in her phone.
"I have the same one!"
"Really?"
"The same exact one! I gotta show it to you!" Naomi exclaimed, grabbing Becky's wrist and standing up.
Charlotte, too far away to have heard their conversation, noticed Naomi grabbing Becky's wrist and leading her out of the kitchen.
"HEY! HEY YOU GET YOUR DAMN HANDS OFF OF HER!" Charlotte exclaimed.
Naomi stopped and turned around.
"Huh?"
"Don't touch her!" Charlotte exclaimed.
"Charlotte." Becky warned.
Naomi looked confused.
"I was just taking her upstairs to-"
"You're not taking her ANYWHERE."
"Charlotte relax, it's not what you think!" Becky said.
Out of nowhere, Charlotte tackled Naomi to the ground.
"CHARLOTTE!" Becky exclaimed, as Charlotte started to punch her.
Just then, a loud knock at the door was heard.
Sasha and Cameron began to notice the commotion coming from the kitchen. Cameron went to go answer the door as Sasha went to the kitchen.
Cameron opened the door to see two police officers standing there.
"Orlando PD. We got several noise complaints about this residence and... what's going on?" the officer asked, hearing the yelling from the kitchen.
The officers brushed past Cameron and walked into the mansion, towards the kitchen. Cameron turned the music off.
"CHARLOTTE GET OFF OF HER!" Sasha said, desperately trying to pull Charlotte off.
One of the police officers ran in, grabbing Charlotte.
"Who owns this residence!?" The other officer asked.
Naomi raised her hand, as she slowly stood up, wiping blood from her busted bottom lip.
The officer put Charlotte in handcuffs.
"Ma'am, you're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."
Becky's eyes got huge as she covered her mouth.
"No! Sir please, you can't arrest her!" Sasha yelled grabbing Charlotte and hugging her.
"Ma'am you need to back up!"
Cameron pulled Sasha away from Charlotte, as the officer took her out of the house. Other people started leaving.
"Ma'am, you have the right to determine whether or not you'd like to press assault charges. We'll return in the next 24 hours for your decision." The other officer said to Naomi, before leaving.
"What the fuck happened!?" Sasha exclaimed, as everyone left, except Becky, Naomi, Cameron, and Carmella.
"I don't know! I was about to go upstairs with Becky and play chess and she just snapped on me!" Naomi said.
"I... I'm so sorry, Naomi. She's drunk. She wouldn't EVER act like that, I'm so sorry." Sasha frowned.
"It's okay."
"I'm gonna go see if I can bail her out." Sasha said, leaving.
"Naomi are you okay?" Carmella asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Okay. See you guys, Cameron, I'll see you at work tomorrow I guess."
"Bye." Cameron said, as Carmella left.
Naomi, Cameron, and Becky stood in awkward silence.
"Well the party was fun I guess." Cameron shrugged, going upstairs.
Naomi sat down.
"I don't understand what I did wrong." Naomi said.
"...she was just drunk..."
"But she was angry at me... was it something I said?"
"...Naomi, I... I can tell you exactly why Charlotte attacked you but you have to promise you won't say anything to ANYONE."
"Okay."
"Not even Cameron."
"Alright."
Becky took a deep breath.
"Charlotte's been cheating on Sasha with me."
Naomi looked at Becky, in shock.
"What?"
"And she saw the hickey you gave me, and she got jealous, and she's been jealous of you ever since then."
Naomi started to tear up.
"Naomi..." Becky said, sitting down next to her.
"You like... hook up with her and stuff?"
"Y-yes but... it's deeper than that."
"How could you do that to Sasha?"
"I've had a crush on Charlotte since 7 years ago. And a few months ago, we were practically dating, and then she dropped the bombshell on ME that she'd been seeing Sasha behind my back, but... she told me she loved us both... and that she wanted us both... and I... I love Charlotte so much... I'd rather be a fuck buddy than nothing at all to her... You understand right?... If I had a girlfriend and I wanted to be with you on the side, you would do it."
Naomi simply nodded.
"See? I just... I just wish she wanted me and not Sasha..."
"I want you..."
Becky sighed.
"...but you don't want me." Naomi said.
"I'm sorry, Naomi."
"But you want someone who lied to you and treats you like a whore."
Becky started to tear up too.
"Naomi, I'm so sorry."
"I... I understand I guess. You want what you want."
"I'm sorry." Becky said, standing up and holding out her arms.
Naomi stood up and hugged her.
"It's fine."
"Good night."
"Good night, Becky." Naomi said, heading up the stairs, as Becky left the house.
