Can't Say No

Chapter One- Finally, Friday.

~Echo's point of View~

My name is Echo Davis. I am twenty- four years old, and I live in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I live in a four-bedroom townhome inland. We can't afford to live on the beach. I live with my best friend, Kelsea. Her sister Jade and her cousin Mickey. We have all known each other all of our lives.

Kelsea and I are the same age. Jade is two years older, and Mickey is a year older. Jade is a bartender at a strip club, and she loves it. Mickey works at a family fun center. She is the manager. She has been there since she graduated high school. She has the personality for it. Kelsea and I both work at a warehouse. It's hard work, but it pays well, and they have great benefits. 

Kelsea and I work the same shift. It helps because we can carpool and save gas money. We swap cars every week. This week it was my turn to drive. It's Friday, and we are headed home from work. The four of us don't waste money. We are all four home together from six pm to ten pm. Jade leaves at ten. The rest of us are home by five-thirty every day.

It's mine and Kelsea's week to buy food. She and I get paid on the same week, and Jade and Mickey get paid the opposite week. So, we get groceries weekly. We go to the store on our way home on our Fridays. Her phone blows up as we walk into the store. I don't question her. She may be my best friend, but I'm not nosy and don't need to know her business.

I am thankful that this week is the fourth of July. Our company shuts down with pay for two weeks twice every year. The week of the fourth of July and the week after then two weeks during Christmas. We get the next two weeks off, and I am ready to relax. I should be used to the physical aspect of my job; we have been there six years. It still sucks.

The whole time we were shopping, Kelsea's phone goes crazy. I keep mine on silent, but no one bothers me. I have two sisters. Neither live here, nor do I like either of them. They are both snobby, miserable, bitches, and married men for money and not love. They don't speak to me, and I don't talk to them. The last time we spoke was at our mother's funeral. Our dad died when I was little.

I do love and adore all of Kelsea's family. They are great people. I was seventeen when my mother died; Her family took me in because neither of my sisters wanted me. All of their children were home too. Kelsea and I shared a bedroom and her bed. Jade moved out and got the townhouse. When Kelsea and I turned eighteen, we moved in with her. I love her parents and all of her family. Her brother Blaze Kane is a very different story.

I have been a big girl all my life. That is why my sisters want nothing to do with me. Blaze Kane is the same way. He is the oldest of the Richards siblings; He is thirty. When I was at their home, he was twenty-three, and he wasn't very nice. He has never been. I blow him off and purposely call him Blaze to piss him off. His name is Blaze Kane, and he will not answer to anything else.

We make it to check out, and her phone actually rings instead of beeps. That means she has a phone call, and I will be checking out alone, and I'm right. She steps away to take her call. I don't mind paying; I know she will give her half back to me. The two that buy the groceries also cook for the week. We always do something quick on our pay weeks because of Jade.

I put all the groceries in the cart. I meet Kelsea outside. I have extra money this week, so I am going to order pizza on the way home. I wait for her to finish her call before I tell her. I don't know who she is talking to, but I had the car loaded, and she still wasn't done.

I send her a text.

~Text conversation~

Echo: "I am just going to get pizza tonight."

She looks at her phone.

~End conversation~

She mutes her phone.