Hello, again! It's June! I've been getting my traveling in early this year, but still made time to write! So, Happy Reading!
Thank you to all the beautiful and wonderous reviewers! (yes, I know that's not a real word) It really does make my day to know that people are enjoying what I write! :) I really have fun with this. Anyway...
Disclaimer: Nada. No monies. Sorry.
Casey's ear felt like it would melt at any minute. She kept her cell pressed between her shoulder and her left ear while she sorted through the papers on her bed. She had a file case open at her feet and several pen s stuck in her hair and behind her ears. She bent over her legs to tap on her computer and murmur into the telephone. She was going to have to switch ears soon. She shifted pages of her report into the organized fashion she wanted and pulled a sticky note tab from the line-up on her headboard and tagged each section. She couldn't just reach the binder from her perch on the bed; that would have to wait until after she was off the phone.
"No, Em, I'm listening." She adjusted the phone against her shoulder and shifted her papers in order to cross her legs. She stretched, popping her back.
Working from home on Mondays usually gave her an opportunity to clean her house after the hurricane her family created in the mornings but today she was buried in paperwork. And Emily's insistent questions. Emily was impatient. She'd called once while Casey was in the shower and again when Casey was returning from dropping her children off. Emily had texted that she wasn't trying to be annoying, but wanted Casey's opinion on a couple of center piece arrangements. And for her to spill the rest of her secrets. Casey so desperately wanted to keep Emily as a friend; she had felt quite alone for a long time. Some people…never mind.
Casey called Emily back during a short break and they'd chatted about Emily's job and other nonsense topics while Casey finished up some loose ends of a final budget report and fired off a few emails.
"Hey," Emily said after a moment's pause. "D'you want to meet for a coffee?"
Casey interest was caught. Coffee? She translated Emily's invitation to 'I'll buy you coffee if you tell me more about Derek.' Casey didn't like that she felt tethered to her past; she had lived it the first time and it hadn't been something she felt ready to relive. But Emily had been her greatest friend. And that was something she hadn't been able to say about anyone else. For a long time.
But she liked the idea of coffee. Her daughter had needed her to kill a spider in the bathroom at 4:50 this morning. And she'd been awake ever since. Casey tipped her laptop closed and ran a hair through her hair. She needed a shower.
"Sure, Emily," Casey sighed, "I could really use some coffee." And a break, she thought. She tossed her phone on the bed and pushed her reading glasses back up her nose.
Casey felt more human as she blow dried her hair and shimmied into a pair of jeans. She grabbed her list of things to get done, her grocery list, and the list of activities her family had the rest of the day. She stuffed her feet into her boots and grabbed her keys. She paused at the front door and looked around. She sighed. This pattern was not one she'd ever imagined continuously repeating.
Emily made a face as the Americano sloshed over the side of the cup. She set it delicately in front of Casey and pressed a wet napkin to her wrist and the spilt coffee.
"Espresso is hot!" she exclaimed, smiling too brightly. She shook her wrist and stared up at Casey.
Casey wrapped her hands around her paper cup and breathed in. It had been a busy morning. But Emily wasn't patient enough to wait for Casey to erase the beginning of her day and tapped her foot against the table stem. "So, Ms. Casey, now that Landon is off pouting in his fit of rage…" Emily trailed off, biting her lip as she smiled. Her eyebrows were nearly kissing her hairline.
Casey evaluated Emily's face for a moment. "You know, Em, I'm getting the impression that you think Derek and I were eager to jump into bed together, but that's just not true. Sure, we were able to keep civil conversation, but to me, he was still very obnoxious. And he thought I was still very uptight."
"Even after you screamed at someone in public?"
"Yes."
"At a party?"
"Yes. We could keep a texting conversation friendly, but Derek was the root of many of my existing problems, and continued to create new ones for me at an alarming rate. No one was safe."
"You're making this sound like an abusive relationship," Emily said, sounding concerned.
"I was only abusing myself , Em. He was blissfully ignorant that he was chiseling away at my carefully constructed universe."
There must be something psychologically wrong with her. Casey missed him. They'd had an extremely public break up and she still felt worse off than before. She threw her bag down on her bed in her Resident's Assistant room and flopped onto the carpet next to it. Kelsey had brought her a stuffed monkey and a card during her library shift. She'd pressed the money to Casey's neck and told her that she was sorry that Casey was sad, but she was so much better off. Minus the crying and feeling like her soul was a little squished.
Casey dug the monkey and the card out of her bag and tore open the envelope. It was meant to be a 'Get Well Soon' card, but Kelsey had added an encouraging note and her gay resident director had added that she had great hair. And Derek had signed it. He'd stated that Liz told him that since she never met the guy, the whole relationship didn't really count. Casey snorted. Her sister truly had a way with words.
Her room was dark by the time her shift was over, but she opened the blinds on her window anyway. Logically, she knew being sad over another human being that was still living was silly. She knew that relationships ended for a reason. But Landon's texts of 'I'm sorry,' and 'It was a stupid fight,' and 'I still love you,' made it harder to think of that reason. She missed him. She felt like she was floating slightly above ground, without a tether.
There was a soft tentative knock on her door just before she pulled her blankets over her fully-clothed body. The intruder knocked again. Dammit. Casey rolled herself off of her mattress and answered the door.
"Hey," Kelsey said, kindly. She held a gift bag and a loofah on a stick. "How are you doing?" Casey curled into a chair as Kelsey entered the room.
"I'm okay. I'll be okay. I'm still just," she paused looking for words, "blech."
"But at least you've retained your intelligent vocabulary, Princess," Derek mocked, coming in behind Kelsey. His hands were stuffed into the pockets of his leather jacket and he looked slightly uncomfortable. "Your phone just buzzed." Casey snatched her cell off of the small table it sat on before Derek could.
Landon again. 'Sweetie, I don't know who's telling you what, but we really need to talk. I think we can work this out and still have everything we wanted.' What? What was 'everything we wanted' supposed to be? Who is supposed to be telling her things?
"What does that mean?" she asked, tossing her phone to Kelsey. Kelsey shrugged and passed it on to Derek before Casey could stop her.
"Oh, he doesn't want you to know about the girl he took home last night," Derek informed them, handing Casey back her phone.
Ouch. The girl he took home last night. They'd only broken up the night before last! What kind of person does that?
Casey chucked her phone into her wardrobe out of frustration. She felt like crying again. She buried her head in her arms. This sucked.
"Oh, Case," Kelsey flew over to Casey's side. "He's an asshole. And you are better than that." She glared at Derek because he indirectly caused the tears.
Derek looked extremely uncomfortable. "Uh, do you want a hug, or...something?"
"What?" Derek did not just offer hugs. Especially to Casey, and especially not in front of a witness that wasn't going to pay him.
"I hear I give really fantastic hugs, and if it gets you to stop crying, I'd give you a hug."
"God, you make it sound almost poisonous," Kelsey scoffed. She pet Casey's head. "But it might do you good. Lots of hugs? Here, stand up." Casey was pulled into a standing position and Kelsey engulfed her in a boney hug. That girl was all elbows.
She pulled away and pushed Casey at Derek, who seemed to reconsider his offer because the tears hadn't gone away. But he pulled her close nonetheless.
He smelled great. Like soap and leather and something spicy and outside. His arms wrapped around her shoulders and squeezed. Casey closed her eyes and felt rooted. She was back on the ground.
"He's a dick, Case," Derek said, loosening his grip. Casey nodded her agreement. She pulled away and used her fingers to wipe her eyes. She already had a headache.
"Plus," Kelsey chirped, "now you can be less sad and more angry!" She grinned and nearly kicked over her gift bag and she moved toward the chair. "Oh!" She scooped up the contents and handed the whole thing to Casey. "I got you some goodies."
Casey pulled out a bottle of aspirin, a pack of tissues, a lotion and body scrub set, a bar of dark chocolate, really soft mittens, an iced tea, and a coupon for student night at a bar off campus.
"A post-breakup kit," Kelsey beamed. "There's nail polish and face masks in there, too."
"And this is where it gets girly," Derek groaned, moving to the door. "Let me know if anything exciting happens at the bar," he waved. "Later."
Emily cooed at Casey over their table. "That's so sweet!" she said, in an admiring tone. "I can't believe he acknowledged a breakup where he wasn't a participating party!"
"I was more shocked at the hug," Casey stated, amused at how Emily must have been interpreting the scene.
"Well, yeah! That's fantastic! Did he go to the bar with you? Did you guys hug more?"
Casey laughed. Emily was on the outside looking in on this life event. But for Casey, it had been a shock of a onetime event, and that was about it.
"No," she told Emily, who went very still. "He did whatever it was that he did and I picked up my world and carried on. Kelsey and I were moving house and I swore off men."
"Again?"
"I was tired and didn't want the stress of a boy while I tried to graduate. It was all very logical. And Derek stayed out of the way. For the most part."
"What does that mean?"
There were boxes everywhere. Normally, Casey would have made an effort to unpack everything immediately and put it in its proper place, but the end of April brought the end of term. She was throwing herself into her finals. Because that's where she belonged. She could organize her notes and testlets and nothing would yell at her. I'm fine, she assured herself. I can do this.
The moving boxes that littered the floor and surfaces of the new basement she and Kelsey had rented would have to wait. While Casey was going to miss her Residence and being an authority in the Residence Halls, she felt like it was time to have a grown-up place to live. It was perfect; within walking distance to her summer internship and not too far from campus. It was a fresh slate where she wasn't reminded of how angry and hurt she was. Over a boy. Who seemed to be doing just fine without her.
She drowned herself in the piano compositions of the Romantic era as she highlighted the important formulas in her book. And she chose to ignore the tapping on the other side of her bedroom door. Everyone knew it was finals. Everyone knew she had to study! The tapping continued despite her telepathic message to cease and desist.
"I'm in a zone , here" she called, not bothering to switch her music off. Her door pushed a box out of the way as it opened. She groaned. "Sure, just come in anyway," she mumbled.
"Well, now I know it's a zone," Derek laughed, moving more boxes without her permission. "The Twilight Zone. How is Rod Serling, by the way?"He flopped down on her bed.
"Wow, a classic pop culture reference. I'm impressed." She swiveled her chair to face him. "And here I was convinced you knew of nothing before Technicolor."
"Oh, I am full of information," he assured her as he stretched out.
"You're full of something," Casey muttered, turning back to her Financial Management textbook. "Keep your shoes off of my duvet." Derek smirked at her and tugged his sneakers off.
"Nice place. You'd mentioned the boxes; I'm surprised you have this much shit."
"Don't use that word, Derek." He threw a shoe near the door.
"Kinda dark," he threw the second, "but I guess that comes with the whole basement things, eh?"
"What do you want, Derek? I'm really busy. I have a final on Thursday and I really need to study."
"Yeah, and I really hate to harsh your groove, Princess." He leaned back against her pillows and folded his hands behind his head. She knew he was lying. He lived for 'harshing her groove' and went out of his way to do so.
"I swear, if my pillow smells like your hockey bag later, I'm going to kill you."
"And that's what we call premeditated murder, ladies and gentlemen." Casey rolled her eyes and popped the top off of her highlighter. "Kelsey's changing."
"And in your language, that means 'come interrupt Casey's study session?'"
"Nah, that was on the agenda anyway," he smirked up at her again. She held his gazed for a second before twisting back to her desk.
"Why is Kelsey changing?"
"Oh, this band I want to see is at a bar near the freeway, so we're going to go see them play."
"Oh, cool." Casey wasn't exactly sure if it was cool or not. She was pretty overwhelmed with different types of ratios.
"Ready?" Kelsey asked, leaning against Casey's door frame. She'd borrowed a sun dress of Casey's and paired it with a leather bomber jacket and gladiator sandals. Not exactly what one would call practical bar clothing.
"Yep," Derek said, messing up the pillows as he got off the bed. "Later, Princess," he called, grabbing his shoes as he went. Kelsey gave a little wave.
"Good luck on your test."
Yeah. The test. Because she was really going to be able to concentrate now. Great.
"He dated your roommate?" Emily looked slightly shell shocked. "Good God. First me and then your roommate? He's like a puppy circling around before laying down!" Emily had gotten quite loud. Casey knew she was expecting something huge and romantic to blossom from her explosive breakup. But that was not how life worked. It wasn't hugely romantic.
"Sort of. They just 'hung out' according to both of them, but it always made me feel awkward."
"So, what did you do?"
"Avoided them when they were together, mostly. I really enjoyed Kelsey as a roommate, and Derek was Derek, but there was something that made me queasy when they hung out in her room."
"In her room?"
"That's where the TV was."
"Sure." Emily rolled her eyes. "How did that end? What happened?" Casey smiled a little.
"My brain played catch-up."
Hmmm! What do you think?
What do you think about the cool new format with pictures? I think that's pretty neat and wish I were more creative...
Let me know what you think! Or about an unexpected change of events in your life! Or about how frustrating Finance is! The blue box is hard to miss! :)