Smoke and Mirrors (Smoke #1)

[ 5 ]

Zipping the black cotton jacket up, I still felt a little disappointed in myself after the way last night turned out. Staring into the large bodied mirror in front of me, I sighed as I carefully tied my hair into a sleek ponytail. Was it selfish of me to think that if I went along with his theory of my occupation being a writer, I would have went longer in our conversation?

It was clear that he was uncomfortable when I had told him about being a journalist and unfortunately, I couldn't blame the guy. Many people in media in the past have had the tendency to push stories to the large masses in manipulating ways. Whilst I understood that part of the business was accepting the fact that more friends were going to be lost than made as so called truth seekers seemed to confuse fact with fiction, by publishing content that was only required for the purposes of attention or scandal. But we weren't all like them, well I wasn't anyway.

I applied a bit of makeup and puckered my lips as I placed down the tube of lipstick on the white metal beside table that sat near the edge of the bed before taking a quick glance at Gemma, who was still sound asleep.

After last's night interesting trip to the nightclub, I remember vividly Gemma's pleads for me to feed her sudden cravings for McDonalds. I assume that this would be typical drunken behaviour for people who had one too many drinks. Basically after a midnight snack session of Big Mac's and large frozen coke's, I finally was able to get Gemma settled down in a bed at my apartment.

Living in an apartment did have its perks as well as its consequences. But I guess living in such a somewhat medium sized apartment wasn't really much of an issue as it was close to where I worked, I had a decent looking view and it allowed me to have easy access in and out when I needed to.

"Urgh, what happened last night. I honestly feel like complete shit right now." Gemma sleepily groaned as I forced on a smile. Turning around, I noticed her quickly sit upwards and stare at me wide eyed.

"Scarlett? Wha - what are you doing?" She asked as I let out a little chuckle.

"Hey Gem, it's alright. After last night you had a bit too much too drink so I took you to my apartment and let you sleep. Your car is fine aswell, I parked it in the parking lot."

"Oh. Thank you." Was what she managed to say before letting out a yawn. I looked at the clock and felt a little relieved that I still had at least an hour and a half until I was expected to be at work. Another bright perk of living in this apartment was that I was able to make it to work quickly seeing it was only a block away - making it great walking distance.

"I don't mean to sound nosey but last night when you went off to meet that mysterious man, did anything happen?" Gemma asked sympathetically as I sighed and decided to be completely straight forward with her. I mean after all, she was my best friend for a long while.

"Nothing happened Gemma, why would anything happen? I bluntly added, pulling down the black jacket to remove the creases that had built up on the cotton material. I noticed when looking in the mirror, Gemma wore a look of despair as she hugged her knees close to her chest.

"Oh no, did I - did I do anything to stuff up your meeting with the guy? Oh shit, I am so, so sorry Scarlett." She cursed herself, face palming herself as I just shrugged my shoulders, not wanting to think about last night anymore than I had to. Moving over to the bed, I took a seat next to her turning my whole attention onto the blonde haired friend of mine.

"You didn't do anything, it was my fault. Guess athletes don't really like to be anywhere near journalists unless they really need to be." I scoffed as Gemma squinted her eyes, showing confusion to my statement.