Words & Whiskey

EDITED VERSION: Chapter Three

Standing in my room with clothes thrown all over the place, I made what resembled a wild animal noise out of frustration. Darian neglected to tell me we would be going out to dinner with his brother at some bar a couple of blocks away. Although a bar is nothing fancy, I still feel like I should dress nicely despite the fact almost all my clothes are sweatpants, leggings, and hoodies.

After a few more minutes of stomping around my room, I decided to settle for my black high waist skirt, a pink lace long-sleeved bodysuit, and my lace-up boots. Looking in the mirror I smiled. I bought this bodysuit with my best friend Abigail before I had moved, but I never got the chance to wear it because it made Kieran mad and quite frankly, I never had the guts to wear it anyway.

Turning to open my door, I was cut off by the sound of my phone ringing, facing my messy room once more to figure out where I left it, I located it on my desk, which was already littered with papers and textbooks for the semester. "Hello?"

"Hey, babe, it's Kieran," my boyfriend said over the phone, slurring his words as he spoke. "I'm sorry I hadn't talked to you for the past couple of days, I've been kind of busy."

I rolled my eyes, feeling irritated that he hadn't bothered to call me for the past week and then miraculously decides to call me while drunk. "Can I call you back? Darian and I made plans tonight and we are about to go out."

"Are you serious?" Kieran growled into the phone. "You haven't talked to me in days and you're blowing me off for some fag?"

I stopped in my tracks, my blood boiling. "Excuse me, what did you just say?"

Kieran remained silent on the other line. Fine, I thought to myself, if he won't talk then I will. "I will not apologize for making plans with my roommate. Nor will I tolerate you calling him such an offensive name."

"Babe I'm so-"

"No," I hissed into my phone, slamming my door shut, not wanting Darian to hear me yell at my boyfriend. "You were the one who has not been talking to me for the past week, you have been the one ignoring my texts and going to party after party, getting drunk every waking second. Do not pin our lack of communication on me and do not ever call Darian that again or else we will have a lot more issues than lack of communication."

After a moment of silence, my boyfriend said, "I'm sorry for what I said, that was out of line. Let me know when you get home and we can Skype, alright?"

"Alright," I snapped, hanging up my phone.

Sighing, I took another look in the mirror that was hung on the back of my door. My makeup was light and my hair was down in soft waves. I forced myself to smile. I will have a good time tonight and I will not let this fight with Kieran control me. Nodding my head in approval of my new mantra, I went to the living room where Darian was seated.

Looking up from the television screen, Darian smiled, "Why, don't you look pretty?"

"You're such an egg," I responded, grabbing my purse from the coffee table Darian picked up from Ikea last week. "But thank you, are you ready to go?"

My roommate nodded. He wasn't dressed casually, but he wasn't dressed particularly fancy. Wearing a navy-blue dress shirt and some dark washed jeans, he looked comfortable, but in a stylish way.

We walked in an easy silence to the bar, side by side. Occasionally, I'd ask a question about Toronto, like where was the best cheeseburger I could get or where was the best shopping mall, and Darian would answer kindly — he's lived here all his life so he was familiar with the city.
When we reached the bar, Darian's phone chimed the same ringtone as earlier today. He looked down and frowned. "It's uh, Justin, my ex, I'm going to take this. Just get a drink at the bar and I'll be there in a few moments."