Happy March 1st, everyone! Did you know today is International Pig Day!? Just in case you were wondering, hahaha
How about the fact that after this chapter, there are only going to be TWO more left? I'm so excited to be reaching the conclusion of this story, but also sad, as this has been such a joy to write.
I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. As always, please let me know if you catch any grammatical / storyline errors, as I typically can only write when I'm at work, and that means on my breaks.
Happy reading!
Love, MU
Two Weeks Later
"Serena?" a voice interrupted her focus as she looked up from her magazine, a familiar pair of blue eyes looking down at her in genuine kindness. "I didn't know you came here."
She answered with a smile before folding the corner of her paper as to not lose her spot. "I just recently discovered it," she replied as she closed the magazine. "Care to join me?"
"Sure," he accepted as he pulled out the chair, the metal grinding against the grooves of the patio stones before sitting down. "How is everything going?"
A tight smile stretched across her face. "It's alright. Work is picking up, summer is here, so I can't complain too much. What about you?"
"Same here," he replied as he picked up his coffee cup. "No complaints, though. Steady work keeps me employed, after all."
She chuckled. "Yes, agreed. Oh, by the way, I'm sorry I didn't catch you to say goodbye at the reunion."
Sapphire shook his head. "Don't even worry about it. You looked very happy that your boyfriend showed up."
A ghost of a smile creeped on her face, but it quickly fell, as did her eyes. Sapphire was quick to notice. "Oh, shit, did I say something wrong?"
She shook her head. "No, nothing like that. We're not really seeing each other right now," she said with a disheartened shrug.
"I'm sorry," he responded sympathetically.
She shrugged, trying to act nonchalant about it. Truth be told, however, she felt like someone had sucked the fire out of her. Finding joy in the smallest activities was nearly impossible; even eating was disconnected and borderline unenjoyable. The most she did was sip fruitful smoothies, which kept her to the point of feeling somewhat full. She sighed as she wrapped her hands around her current meal, a mango-orange smoothie. "It is what it is," she eventually said.
A moment passed by when Sapphire snapped his fingers. "I have just the thing to cheer you up," he exclaimed. "I'm having a barbeque over at my place on Saturday. Why don't you come by?"
Serena hesitated; while she knew the old Sapphire, she certainly didn't know anything about the current one. He must have sensed her hesitation, because he was quick to add: "you can bring a friend if you'd like."
After taking another brief moment to think, she finally nodded her head. "Yeah, sure, that sounds like a blast. Can I bring anything?"
"BYOB, really. It's a backyard bar-be-que that my roommate and I are jointly throwing, so be prepared to enjoy some seriously good beer-can chicken. I promise, it's amazing. My roommate is a pretty good cook."
Serena laughed for what felt like the first time in ages. "Well, you know me, if there's food you can't stop me."
He tossed her a genuine smile. "Good. What's your number; I'll text you my address." Taking his phone, she plugged in her number into his contacts, and after a brief moment, he was standing up to bid his goodbye. "I'm glad you're coming. See you then!" he said with a wave as he walked off towards downtown.
Cupping her smoothie again, she nodded in acknowledgement that getting out was probably a good idea. She had moped plenty the last two weeks, going through her grievances in stride. Darien had called her a handful of times, but never left a voice message. He had also text her a couple of times, but after refusing to answer them, they stopped as well. Taking another sip of her drink, she swallowed the feeling of longing for him deep in her stomach as she tried to think towards Saturday instead.
Perhaps getting out would mean she's reaching the last one of the steps: moving on.
#
"Explain why you're bringing me to this thing again?" Raye asked as she stared at her blood-red fingernails with boredom as they approached the small house. "House parties are more Mina or Lita's thing."
"Because you're the most level-headed friend who will keep me from doing anything I'd probably regret," Serena shrugged. "After all, I'm on the rebound here, and you know what I do when I'm on the rebound."
Raye rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but smile. "Obnoxiously flirt with all the single men and then turn them all away when they try to advance on you?"
"Yup! And I'm really not in the mood to be post-breakup Serena tonight. I'd like to be fun Serena. Plus, it's in front of Sapphire, so, I don't want to make a total slut of myself."
"And you care what he thinks because…?"
Serena shrugged. "He was a good friend back in the day, nothing more."
"Uh huh," Raye replied despondently, which Serena picked up on.
"I know you guys weren't his biggest fan, but he's changed," Serena urged as she knocked on the door while cradling a six-pack of lime-flavored light beer. The door quickly threw open with a roar, the girls greeted with by a large crowd of unfamiliar faces having what seemed to be one hell of a good time.
"You so sure about that?" Raye asked as they made their way inside, people happily drinking all around them, to which Serena shrugged.
"Guess we'll find out. Hey, Sapphire!" Serena waved over to him, who was in the corner donning a muscle tee and cargo shorts. He shot up an arm and signaled for them to come over, which they did. "Wow! What a crowd!" she said as they approached him.
"Yeah, my roommate invited quite a bit of people. But, hey, the more the merrier!" he loudly stated over the crowd noise. "Ok, so, keg is in the backyard along with beer pong and I think flip cup, people are playing King's at the kitchen table, there's all sorts of barbeque over in the kitchen, and yeah," Sapphire instructed as he pointed his finger in the respective event's direction. "You guys ever play flip cup?"
Serena mock-scoffed. "Have we ever played flip cup? I'll have you know that Raye is a master at flip cup."
Sapphire raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "Really?"
Once uninterested but now challenged, Serena smirked as Raye nodded in confirmation. "Indeed."
"No shit," Sapphire responded with surprise etched in his words. "Well, come on then!" He led the girls into the back yard, where more partygoers clad in comfortable clothing and accessorized with various beer bottle brands stood around randomly placed tables. Sapphire worked his way to one table off to the side of the yard where it looked like a group was wrapping up a game of beer pong.
"Anyone up for flip cup once this game wraps up?" he called out to the viewers, who chimed in enthusiastically with responses of yes. "Awesome. Hurry up, Jed!"
"Just gotta sink this shot," a clean-cut, blonde haired guy muttered as he lined himself up with the lone solo cup at the opposite end of the table. He extended his arm to make sure he positioned himself perfectly for his shot. With a swing of his forearm, the ping-pong ball glided through the air and dropped quietly in the cup, causing a hoot from the victor. "Drink up, Rube!" he commanded to the loser as he lifted his arms in victory.
"Jadeite?" Serena turned her head to the side to see that Raye called out to the winner of the drinking game.
"You know him?" Serena asked as the blonde, now known as Jadeite, began to approach her.
"Yeah, we work together," she answered with a smile as he arrived.
"Hey, Raye," Jadeite said as he downed the remaining contents of his drink. "Not quite our usual scene, huh?"
Raye laughed. "No, it's not. This is my friend, Serena," she added before continuing. "How do you know Sapphire?"
"We worked together at Game Stop back in the day. Kept in touch throughout the years. What about you?"
"We went to high school together, actually," Raye commented.
"Hah," he laughed. "Small world."
"Indeed," Raye agreed, but redirected her attention when Sapphire corralled the remaining group of players for their drinking game. The group split up into teams of five before lining up along the plastic table, a small ounce of alcohol in each participant's cup in front of them.
"Okay, anyone not play before?" Sapphire asked, electing a negative response from a petite, young blonde in leggings and a crop top. "So, the object of the game is to shoot your drink back, then you need to bring your cup to the edge of the table and with one hand, try to flip it 180 degrees so it lands top-down. The first team to get each of their cups flipped over is the victor. Ready?"
"Yeah!" everyone cried out, the spirit of competition flooding through them as Sapphire and Jadeite did a down-tap-down movement before simultaneously shooting their drinks back. Everyone laughed as both players struggled to flip their cups over, only to brace him or herself when it was their turn. When Serena and Raye were up against one another, Raye flawlessly shot her drink back and only needed one attempt to flip her cup. She gave a smug smile over to Sapphire, who stared at her impressed. Serena, on the other hand, took quite a few tries until she got hers appropriately flipped over as the game continued.
Ultimately, Serena's team lost, but everyone was quick to nod in agreement to play another round. After playing a handful of rounds, the girls excused themselves and made their way to the food, mingling with a few other partygoers who were colleagues of Sapphire. Serena sipped at her Sangria, a lethal yet delicious combination that Sapphire's sister apparently made, the tipsy feeling resulting in her being more conversational than usual.
"No, let me tell you," Serena insisted at a high decibel to a girl named Lizzie, "corn tortillas are WAY better than flour tortillas when it comes to tacos. Cuz corn, just tastes, ya know, so much more authentic, right!?" Serena stammered as she stated her case.
"But, they only include the flour ones in the taco boxes!" Lizzie countered.
"I know, I know, but, you got to go to the international aisle. I promise it's going to change your life!"
As she continued to ramble on, Serena couldn't help but take a moment to realize how good it felt being out and not pouting at home. She would certainly have to thank Sapphire for inviting her.
She looked over to Raye, who was filling up her empty cup from the keg while talking to Jadeite in ease. Raye was pretty reluctant to come initially, making Serena was selfishly glad that Raye had found a colleague to converse with that made her want to stay and have fun. She was about to turn around and walk to them when she bumped into a hard chest.
"Oh! Sorry!" she giggled as Sapphire grasped her shoulders, attempting to rebalance her.
"Oh, shit, you had some of Katzy's punch, didn't you?" he asked knowingly, Serena drunkingly nodding.
"Yes, and oh my god, this shit is delish," she declared. "I've had, like, 4 cups?" she said with a sloppy count of her fingers.
"Um, you might want to drink some water," Sapphire said with concern. "That stuff has a ton of rum in it."
Serena pouted. "Yeah, yeah," she dismissed. "But I gotta pee. Where's the restroom?"
He pointed inside. "Second door in the hallway from the kitchen."
She nodded. "Thanks!" she called out as she made her way across the yard and into the house, her mission activated: find bathroom.
#
Raye continued to sip at her drink while she watched Serena blab on about something peppy to the poor unsuspecting unknown girl. She could tell Serena was getting pretty wasted, but she let her do her thing as she nursed her beer. It was nice seeing Serena cut a little loose tonight, and despite Sapphire being the one to provide the means, Raye had to admit it was fun time.
Jadeite was also much more interesting than she could recall from their dinner they had a few months ago. It was nice seeing a more laid-back side to the usually very firm and professional demeanor he exhibited at the office. She chuckled to herself as Serena continued to describe with great animation something to the poor girl, who was laughing in response to her.
However, Raye had noticed that Serena was not her usual overly flirty self tonight. A few guys had come up to her and tried to talk to her, and while she was polite, she didn't try out her usual banter. It was painfully obvious that Sapphire was trying to get her attention as well, but Serena still treated him no different from any other person. Truthfully, it completely surprised Raye, as Serena's usual mending after a breakup was to move on quickly. Perhaps Darien means more to her than Serena was letting show.
It didn't come as too much of a surprise when Serena announced they had broken up, given their arguing. What was different from the more recent string of breakups, however, was how shaken she was by it.
"It's clear I'm just a child to him," Serena had spoken. "He doesn't respect my career, and that is the one thing I know in this world that I'm damn good at."
Raye had to agree with Serena on that; what he said definitely was unsupportive.
"I know I was wrong to attack him like that, but it just hurt so damn much because of that shit Diamond pulled on me."
Never had Serena said out loud the underlying reason as to why she pushed people away. It was always 'he was too boring,' 'he had no direction,' 'he only cares about himself.' Prior to this, Raye couldn't recall a time when Serena actually admitted as to why her relationships usually imploded. When Raye asked Serena if Darien ever knew about Diamond, Serena shook her head.
"It's in the past, and I'd like it to stay there."
Raye had let it go then, but she couldn't help but wonder; what if Darien had known? He came off as pretty intellectual and keen on his observations; perhaps had he known that Serena had gone through such a traumatic breakup that he would have been more understanding as to the intense reaction Serena had over the disappointing news.
Raye looked back over to the area Serena had once occupied and noticed she had moved on elsewhere. Taking a quick look at her watch, she pulled out her cell phone and politely excused herself from Jadeite to call Chad. It was well past 11 at this point, and he had kindly offered to give them a ride home.
"Yup, I think we will be ready to go in about 15 minutes or so. I just need to go find Serena, she wandered off somewhere," she spoke into the phone after Chad answered asking if they were wrapping up.
"Sounds good," he had replied, commotion in the background announcing an arrival of food.
"Are you still out with Darien?"
"Yeah, but no worries, I'll settle the bill now."
"No, it's okay, finish up with him and then let me know when you're on your way, okay?" Raye offered.
"You sure? We literally just got our food is all," he lamented.
"Honestly, I don't mind," Raye replied. "I'll see you in a bit?"
"You got it." As they disconnected, Raye started to feel a warm, happy feeling when she thought about Chad's sincerity, but it didn't last very long. A flash of pale, blonde hair redirected her attention to the doorway. She looked over to see a tall, lanky man walk through the doorframe, but she shook her head, quickly dismissing her thought.
She resumed conversation with Jadeite, talking with him and another female about their favorite hot springs destination, but the vision nagged at her. Who did she see walk in to the house just moments before?
They continued to talk while she sipped at her drink, but she couldn't stop thinking about who she saw. When she started to realizing she was completely ignoring whatever the group was saying, she excused herself. "Hey, hold on one sec," she kindly said to the group before she made her way over to Sapphire.
"What's up?" he responded as soon as she tapped him on the shoulder.
"Have you seen Serena?" she asked first, noting that it had been about fifteen minutes since she last saw her.
He shook his head in response. "Not since she stumbled off to the bathroom about ten minutes ago, but I'm sure there's a line."
"Okay," Raye responded unsurely. It was awkward, but she had to ask. "Um, you're not still friends with Diamond, are you?"
"No, I haven't seen him in years," he responded, his face perplexed. "Why?"
"I swear I just saw him," she said as she shook her head in disbelief.
"Nah, I'm sure you're seeing things. I didn't invite him," Sapphire stated. After a moment passed and he took a sip of his drink, his eyes started shifting in thought.
"What?" Raye asked, noticing the tension shift.
"I don't think it's anything, but, I did put a status and a few pics up not too long ago telling friends to get down here. I think we're still friends on Facebook."
"You don't think he'd come, do you?" she asked, but she knew better. Suddenly dread creeped over her, and from his facial expression, him as well. They both knew what lengths Diamond would go to try and approach her.
"Fuck," he spat as he made his way to the house, Raye following closely behind. "Yes, I absolutely do. I think you and Serena were in one of the photos I posted."
"Shit!" Raye said as she walked quicker. "This isn't good."
"No shit!" he agreed as he worked his way into the house, the two of them looking around the kitchen and the living room amongst the crowds. Raye went out the front door and looked at the few people hanging out on the doorstep, then back into the house where she went out to the side porch. Still no sign of Serena.
"Shit!" she cried out as she dialed her cell phone number in the middle of the living room, hoping to hear the distinct melody somewhere to give her a direction as to where she could be. Raye stood there as her phone rang and rang, but ultimately there was no answer, nor did she hear it ring anywhere amongst the crowd.
In haste, she dialed Chad's number, asking them to come now, while she resumed her search for her friend.
After what he did to Serena when she finally left him for good, there was no telling what he could do now.
#
As Serena worked her way into the house, she took notice of a group of people talking and dancing along with some remixed music that had was playing loudly over the speaker. Perhaps after peeing, she could join them and work off some of the booze, she thought happily. She moved on and into the hallway, only to find a line of people standing outside the bathroom.
"Ugh," she muttered, the protesting from her bladder becoming increasingly alarming. Not willing to wait, she moved away from the door and found a stairwell leading up to where she assumed another bathroom may be. Shrugging and deciding 'why not,' she slowly walked up the stairwell, her eyes roaming the area until she located a door that was shut, but the distinguished noise of a flush signaled victory. She grinned as she stood outside the door to wait her turn, but her grin quickly replaced with to one of panic as the door flew open.
"Serena," Diamond said chillingly as he let the door fall softly behind him as she started to back away. "Funny running into you here."