AN Okidoki! I've finally found enough inspiration for another story for those of you who have been so kind as to encourage me to write one. It's a first-person and I have no idea where in the world it's headed yet. I'll post more as I write more, I promise!
:oP NeverMind
Rebound
©2005 NeverMind
I don't come to New York often enough. You'd think that I'd be here more, what with my best friend living here and all, but best friends often take a backseat when you're in a relationship. My relationship, however, has recently disintegrated and now, as is typical of most women, I think, I need my best friend.
I had spent three summers in New York while I was in college, working my butt off to pay for the next year's tuition. I remember those summers as hot and dirty and full of gorgeous, comically cynical men. New York men always fascinated me. They have this world-weary edge to them that gives them a depth you don't find in guys anywhere else.
My home, Washington, DC, is full of pretentious men. Men who believe the world was created to open herself up to them whenever they wanted. Not New York men. New York men see the world more like a prostitute – someone you have to pay before you get anything from her. It's that innate bitterness that captivates me.
My ex is from DC. Well, so am I, but we both went to school in New York. It was coincidence that we ended up hooking up, really. It wasn't as though I were short on prospects. Aiden Burn, my best friend, is a stunning Latina and I'm a dark-haired, green eyed Irish girl so we never suffered from lack of attention from the opposite sex. Jake was just…safe. Plain. Normal. Not too ambitious and just shallow enough that I didn't have to think much about anything.
Not that I wouldn't take him back, even now. We'd been together for four years and I just can't bring myself to believe that I wasted that much of my life on someone. I thought I knew him. I thought I knew myself, for that matter. Now…now I'm not so sure.
Basically, I feel like an idiot. I feel like he spent four years lying to me about how he felt about me and our relationship and I was just never smart enough to catch on.
God, I can't wait till Aiden talks me out of this self-loathing.
I decided to drive to New York. I had a full month of vacation time from my job as Marketing Director for a local high-end clothing company. I'd worked 16 hour days for a month so I could get ahead on the fall marketing schedule and take the vacation I wanted – no, needed. Jake and I had originally decided to go on a 'break' about four months ago, but that 'break' turned into him basically sleeping around and becoming more of a shmuck than he had started out as. Meanwhile, I had been trying to better myself so that we could have a better relationship. Rat bastard.
I turned up my car's well-endowed stereo. Jake had thought I was being 'excessive' when I bought my 2005 Lexus SC 430. So what if it was a sporty hardtop convertible that cost me $90K? I could finally afford a car I really wanted, so why the hell shouldn't I buy it? It bloody well took me three years to save up for it, I think I'm more than justified.
Aiden had laughed at me. Told me I was turning into the 'young executive' type we'd always mocked in college. I'd laughed back and offered to let her drive it. Suddenly, she didn't think my vehicle choice was so silly anymore.
I slid my car onto the interstate and started letting all of my stress slip away. There really is something about the smooth acceleration of a sports car that makes everything else seem like dust in the wind. I couldn't help but arch my back against my seat as the 300 horsepower engine revved forward on a long straightaway. I could almost hear it tell me, 'Don't think, just drive.' Five hours later, I could hardly remember what I'd been so worked up over in the first place.
I know a lot of people who hate driving in New York. I love it. There's a jungle quality about it – survival of the fittest as it were. And goddamn it if me and this car are not the fittest in this place.
I was getting excited to see Aiden again. She and I had shared an apartment in our first year in college, and continued to share it even after she decided to join the police academy halfway through the year. We just gelled. People used to tell us that we shared a brain and they're probably right. We could have full length conversations in a single glance. I've missed that.
I pulled my car into a parking spot across the street from Aiden's apartment. It wasn't difficult to find. She had never moved from our old place – just sassed it up and turned my old room into an office-slash-guest room.
My car honked at me, letting me know I'd successfully alarmed it and I couldn't stop myself from skipping across the street and up the stairs. I still had the keys for the place. She hadn't seen any need for me to give them back.
I still knocked, out of respect for my friend's privacy, even though I knew she'd yell at me for it. The door flew open and she attacked me before I had a chance to open my mouth and say anything.
We hugged and giggled like schoolgirls and I was relieved. She yanked me inside and all but ripped my bag out of my hands. Tossing it into my old room (we still called it that for whatever reason) she sat me down on a couch and looked me square in the eye.
"Spill," was all she said and all I needed. I think I cried more during that recital of my breakup with Jake than I had when I'd told my mom. She'd already heard the story, of course, but its best friend protocol to only accept the in-person version.
She patiently listened as I ranted and raved and when I was finally done, she hugged me and said, "Well, I personally do not recommend going to back to a guy who has no qualms about sleeping around immediately after getting out of a four year relationship, but you know that already." She got up and went to the kitchen to make us some chai tea. I knew it would be chai tea because we always drank chai tea during crises.
"You were always too good for that guy and the only reason you started dating him in the first place was because he was comfortable. I remember you telling me that you weren't even that attracted to him the first time you met him."
I nodded. She was right, of course. But that's the great thing about best friends. They're able to tell you the things you already know, but need to hear anyway.
"I know you feel like you wasted four years of your life, but that's not true. If your life has consisted of just this relationship, then I hate to say it, but that's pretty pathetic."
I laughed. God, I needed this. She came back to the couches with two mugs and passed one to me.
"I know just the thing to get your vacation started right," she said with that devious smile I had grown to both love and fear.