4. Kelly and the Chances Taken

Kelly Blank sighed as she peered around her at the greying Connecticut sky. It had been two months and she was missing Florida already.

College had been a dream for the young blonde. She had managed to fulfil her dream of moving to Florida for college and throughout her four years had had nothing but an amazing time. She had made a ton of new, interesting friends, studied a bunch of interesting subjects on top of her Communications major and above all, she had really been able to find herself. Yeah, as clichéd as that was, Kelly honestly believed it to be true. Before college and all throughout school, Kelly had struggled with her confidence. Her shyness often prevented her from taking part in as many things as she would have liked to, and made it hard for her to branch out of her friendship group. Because of this, she – just like most of the other students at her high school – was shocked when star athlete and total hotty Dolph Ziggler had asked the quiet blonde to a school dance. The pair had hit it off and dated for what seemed like years. The brash Dolph Ziggler had taught Kelly a lot about coming out of her shell, but after the devastation of him cheating on her with Nikki Bella, she quickly returned to square one and the comfort of her closest girlfriends.

College was different though. Although she had found it hard in freshman year to adjust to being away from home, her family and friends, by sophomore year it was as if she had become a whole new woman. She had gotten a part time job with her university's student radio station and was able to get some invaluable experience in broadcast journalism; the career path she had been chasing since high school. This new job came with a variety of new friends with a similar interest in journalism, and with new friends came parties and with parties came new boys.

"Dolph Ziggler who?" She had thought to herself as she had taken a chance and climbed into bed with the gorgeous Drew McIntyre after meeting him at a frat party; and then again a year down the line when Justin Gabriel, a handsome junior originally from South Africa whom Kelly had met when she had taken yet another chance and finally taken an elective in Biological Sciences and spent a semester working as his lab partner. If Kelly was quickly becoming a pro at taking chances, Justin must have written the book on it. She had become enthralled by the gorgeous South African after spending months listening to him speak about his adventures in skydiving and martial arts and endless other extreme activities. He was the most exciting person she had ever met and before long, lab partners had become friendship which in turn became casual dating, which in turn became a long-term relationship.

She couldn't believe her luck and Maria, Eve, Kaitlyn and Alicia were always excited to hear about the chronicles of the relationship; from Justin teaching Kelly to surf in Miami to the insane sexual chemistry Kelly would admit to the pair having as she giggled and blushed on Skype to her squealing girlfriends. With Alicia also going to school in Florida, she had been the first – and thus far the only – one of the friends to have met Justin and she could quickly see why Kelly was smitten.

"He is literally a walking Ken doll," she squealed as the two had lunch the day after Kelly had introduced her new boyfriend to one of her best friends. "Does he even have a flaw? A single one? Please tell me there's something about him that's not perfect. In the bedroom maybe..."

Kelly shook her head and grinned.

"Nope. He's perfect."

The two friends had laughed and toasted to the boy all five friends agreed represented Kelly's newfound attitude. No way would the woman they had known in high school have even thought about agreeing to date someone as wild as Justin Gabriel; and she definitely wouldn't have allowed him to take her rock-climbing.

Kelly sighed as she came to a red light. She tapped her fingers impatiently against the steering wheel and hummed along to the song on the radio. She was currently home following a shift at the restaurant where she had gotten a part-time job after her lack of luck in finding the broadcasting job she wanted. Fortunately enough, Mange Tout had been fairly quiet that evening and so Kelly was sent home a little earlier than expected. Normally she would have stayed just to get her hours up, but tonight all she wanted was to get home to her man.

She drove down the all too familiar Hartford streets, desperately resisting the urge to speed just so she could get home to Justin quicker.

The couple were having what they called a sabbatical. Before graduation, Kelly and Justin had agreed that they were both in it for the long haul and quickly made plans to move in together. Plan A was to stay in Florida; where they would post up in Miami seeing as Justin had been made a job offer in the city. However, Justin's job had fallen through just before they were due to graduate and after a tearful phone call to her father back home, Justin and Kelly had reluctantly agreed to rent out a cheap apartment in Kelly's hometown while the two took up part time jobs and scrambled to settle into careers and a home in Miami. So for now, it was as if their lives were on pause. They had their crappy apartments and crappy jobs, but before long Miami would come calling; and lord knows they were desperate to answer.

A blinking light grabbed Kelly's attention all of a sudden and she glanced down to see that she was running low on gas.

"Just my luck," she muttered to herself as she was forced to take a detour and head to the nearest gas station. Stepping out of her car, she pulled the hood of her sweater over her head and wrapped it tighter around her middle; once again cursing this return to the chill of Connecticut after experiencing four years of Florida sunshine. She hummed to herself as she filled the tank of her beat up Honda Civic, absent-mindedly looking around the busy gas station. She frowned as the latest car to pull into the station caught her attention, one that looked a lot like her boyfriend's.

She slowly returned the gas pump and crouched a little by her car to watch as Justin stepped out of the black car. By this time, Justin had usually returned home from work. Not only this, but he did not look dressed for work at all. He was dressed in a smart dark blue shirt paired with cream coloured slacks, and, as Kelly noticed, his hair was definitely done. She had spent enough time watching him getting ready to know that the way his dark brown locks fell was the result of at least half an hour in front of the mirror. If he was going somewhere he definitely hadn't let Kelly know.

"Oh my god..."

She let out a gasp as a woman stepped out of the passenger side of the car, walking over to Justin's side and watching him intently, apparently sharing a joke with him as he pumped gas into his car. The woman was definitely not someone Kelly recognized. She was fairly young looking, a tiny little thing with long brown hair and light brown skin. She was dressed in a short blue dress and seemed to have what Kelly recognized as one of Justin's cardigans draped over her. A confused frown spread across Kelly's face as she watched Justin and his female companion laugh with each other before heading in to pay for their gas. Kelly's eyes widened as she watched Justin's hand move down to the woman's lower back as they walked side by side.

She stayed where she was for the next couple of minutes, watching every last moment up to the point where the pair returned to Justin's car and speed away. She stared after them, her mouth open in shock.

Shaking in fury and hurt, she rushed into the station to pay for her gas before rushing back to her car and heading back to the main road. She wasn't sure where to go from here. Would Justin be taking the woman back to her home? He definitely would have had enough time to take her back and have his way with her before Kelly was supposed to have returned home later on. What if she hadn't by chance happened to have finished earlier than usual tonight and caught Justin and his new friend at the gas station? What if she had wandered into her apartment, into her bedroom hours later to find him in bed with the mysterious woman?

They had been in Connecticut for two months. As far as she knew he didn't have any old friends in Hartford. And there was no way he would have been that chummy with a co-worker this soon. Yeah, Justin was friendly and loved by all, but how close his hand was to this woman's ass was far too friendly for Kelly's liking.

Then, she had an idea. Sharply pulling over in the car park of a local grocery store, she whipped her phone out of her bag and dialled Justin's number.

"Hey babe," he answered after several rings.

"Hey hun," she said sweetly.

"Are you alright? I thought you were working 'till nine tonight."

Was that panic in his voice?

"Yeah, I am. I'm just on a little break before it gets busy. I was just feeling kinda bummed about the Miami stuff and wanted to hear your voice."

"Aw," he laughed, his irresistible South African accent almost making her swoon. But she maintained her composure. "Well, here I am babe."

"I know. So what are you up to?"

Might as well cut to the chase.

He seemed to pause.

"I'm just a home, chilling out, watching some TV. Got home a couple of hours ago and figured I might as well just bum around until my girl gets home. I'm planning on cooking dinner soon, too."

Kelly could feel her blood boiling.

"Oh. That's so sweet. Well, I better go."

"Alright babe, I hope you enjoy the rest of your shift."

"Oh, and Justin?"

"Yeah?"

Kelly sniffed.

"I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry things didn't work out like we thought they would. I know it sucks to be stuck here in Connecticut. But it's only temporary, I know it is. Just look at Alicia; she's getting ready to move to New York and start afresh, and I know that that's gonna be us soon. Just me, you, our dream jobs, a beautiful apartment... all in Miami."

Justin sighed.

"I know, babe. I know it's temporary, and I can't wait for us to finally get to where we want to be. But there's no need to apologize. It's not your fault; it's not anyone's fault. It's just... It's just life. It's like my dad used to say. This life is all about chances and the reason why we're so good together is that neither of us are afraid of taking those chances."

Kelly couldn't help but smile as she wiped a tear away from her eye.

"I love you so much, Justin."

"I love you too, Kells. Now get back to your shift before start getting all emotional on me. I'll be sure to warm up the bed for when you get back later."

She bit her lip and giggled before hanging up the phone and leaning forward to rest her forehead on the wheel on her car. So, he had lied. No matter how cute and romantic he was being, he had fed his girlfriend a barefaced lie. Which meant that he had something to hide. Someone to hide. Kelly's lip quivered as she sat in her car and racked her brain for a plan. It was as if high school had never ended. Here she was again, but this time she was a grown, adult woman crying her eyes out over a cheating boyfriend, and not a naive teenager. Part of Kelly's growth process throughout college had been learning to take the kind of chance that her failed relationship with Dolph Ziggler had prevented her from doing, and now all she could think about was how much this newfound bravery had done nothing but fail her. Before long, she had decided to do what she always did in times of trouble.

"Hey Kells, what's up?" Alicia's bright voice responded to Kelly's call within seconds.

"Oh Leesh..."

And before she knew it, the blonde had burst into a full-on offset of tears.