Lacey

Chapter 9

James: August X, 2023

Of course I didn't have time to actually edit the draft Lacey gave to me. Not that I was planning on doing so. Ideally, she'd pester me over it, so I could have something to use against her. If worse came to worst and she decided to actually send it to the editors, they'd laugh her off. As for me...I could just claim it was a misunderstanding.

It had been a few days since Lacey sent me the messy piece. I hadn't even touched it. Between a nasty gig at work from a very picky set of wedding guests, several other pieces to go over from Music Refined hopefuls, keeping all my social media accounts afloat and relevant, all while ensuring I could also live offline, where would I find the space?

My friends were starting to get worried about me. Darian texted me multiple times asking if I was okay. I left him on read. Corianna offered to help me go over some of the pieces. Of course, this was against the rules. I couldn't say yes.

Even Inez - who I had only known for a few weeks - wanted to know what the fuss was all about.

Inez Cortez (Thu, Aug 10, 7:17 PM): Is everything fine? I haven't heard from you in a few days. What's going on?

I decided to send a quick reply to all of my friends' concerned messages. It essentially told them that I was overloaded with work and that I got far too exhausted to go virtually anywhere by the time it was done. Given the nature of my beta reader tasks, they understood. There was no way in hell I'd tell any of them what I wanted to do to Lacey.

Fortunately, I was able to make an exception for Darian. I had a little time to squeeze in during any evening in the next few days. I messaged him to ask if he could come over to my apartment. He said yes.

Saturday Evening

I was cleaning up my workspace to prepare for Darian coming over. Some parts of my Lacey plans were written in a few notebooks I kept. Needless to say, I wouldn't want anyone to find out about them - let alone Darian.

All of a sudden, I got a notification from my phone's Discord app. I was still logged into my Archie J. account there. Expanding the notification revealed a message from none other than Lacey fucking Hannah.

Lacey Hannah (08/12/23, 7:19 PM): Hey Archie

Sorry if this sounds rude, but I just want to follow up on something. It's been a few days since you promised to help with that mediocre draft I got from Oscar. I haven't heard anything from you since then.

Are you still planning to work on it or not? Because I can finish it myself or send as-is with my current edits. I could also trash it in a worst-case scenario.
I understand life can get busy. You doing okay?

Thanks in advance.
:D

Ugh, I thought, that smiley face emoticon.

It probably wasn't a good idea to leave her with no explanation as to if there was even progress on the draft or not. Beyond being dickish, this sort of neglect would just look bad on me instead of her. So I did send her an update.

Archer J (08/12/23, 7:23 PM): Hi Lacey.

Don't worry about me, I've just been a bit overloaded at work for the past few days. It's the weekend now so I should be fine.

Yes, I'll finish touching up the draft soon. I think it'll be ready by tomorrow.

I apologize for the slow progress, by the way.
Good luck!

Time to commit to the draft now, I sighed. At least I get to hang out with Darian first.

Just as I logged out of Discord, there was a knock on the door. I looked through the peephole. It was Darian. I opened the door.

"Hey James!" Darian grinned, flustered.

"Hello," I greeted him. "What's up?"

"Doing fine," Darian told me. "The self-checkout machines at the supermarket finally got fixed. Great for me, since I don't have to deal with as many angry customers. And you?"

I went to get some water.

"Yeah, I'm...good," I responded.

"Are you sure?" Darian doubted.

I couldn't let him doubt me.

"Of course!" I forced a full smile. Boy, was I not used to smiling like that.

"If you say so," said Darian. "It's been a while since we've actually talked."

"Sorry about that," I answered. "Work's just been really busy. But hey, gotta make money for university tuition fees."

I took a sip from my cup.

"So relatable!" Darian exclaimed.

Is it? I wondered. He only goes to SCSU. Not the Ivy League financial hell of Yale.

"I've missed you," Darian stated. "It's been forever since we last met!"

"Relax," I nervously chuckled. "It's only been less than two weeks."

"Alright," Darian lowered his voice. "Did you get accepted into Music Refined's ranks?"

"Yeah-" I responded.

Darian smiled.

"That's amazing!" he nearly hugged me. I backed off before he could.

"-as a beta reader," I continued. "Not an official editor yet."

"Still good," Darian told me. "Anything else happening?"

I froze for a bit. There was no way I'd have been able to answer honestly. I spent too much time using Lacey, not to mention the sporadic yet continuing hate comments I got in private. So I just told Darian about the draft overload.

"Damn," he said, "that must suck."

"Eh," I responded, "I'm getting used to it."

For a brief moment, I felt a little guilty for lying. I ignored it.

(Tumblr version: https://www.tumblr.com/talesfromasnarkylisa/765407931495792640/lacey-chapter-9?source=share)