Long Live the Queen

|Take 011|

June 28

I don't think I had ever groaned so loudly in my life when I saw his name on a slip of paper on my side table.

Jessie Sanders.

I flopped back on top of my head and allowed my pillows to envelope me, hoping maybe they would swallow me up whole.

Out of all the people, I had to be paired with Jessie to move into a miniature apartment with. These producers really were pushing my buttons. I even would've rather been paired with the elusive Cliff, who no one but Sadie had met. Right after everyone filmed the closet scene, he was sent back to the on-site infirmary and had been there since.

"Melissa wants everyone to pack up all of his or her stuff. Apparently the vans to ship us off will be here in like twenty minutes." Sadie popped her head through a crack from our room's front door.

I grunted loudly so she could hear me and continued to just lie there. I rolled onto my face and hoped that I might pass out and not have to endure the however long period of time with Jessie.

Ever since the Closet Incident, I had been avoiding him like the plague. It didn't seem like he could recollect any of it, considering his snide comment quota increased. And every time I saw him, I wanted to smack him and crawl under a rock at the same time. But of course, I just smiled and returned his comments with a sarcastic witty remark.

I was obsessing over the prospect of being in the same living quarters as Jessie that I fell back asleep.

"What in god's name are you doing, Victoria? The buses are outside waiting for you!" Melissa barged into the room causing me to spring up in fright and fall off of the bed.

I rubbed my head on the possible bump forming.

"You have negative five minutes to pack and get all of your stuff downstairs." She stomped right back out of the room and slammed the door shut with a loud thud.

I disentangled myself from the comforters and ran to my suitcase pulling out a polyester dress and some fancy slippers. I swiped some deodorant on my armpits and pushed a pair of sunglasses on my nose, wishing it covered up my sleepy eyes.

I haphazardly dumped all of my bathroom products into plastic baggies and my clothes with matching shoes into the pockets of the Burberry suitcase.

In maybe ten seconds to spare, I sashayed down the stairs and outside into the sun. The only people still standing outside of the three vans were Jessie, Melissa, and Ryan. Walking over the cobblestone pathway, I made my way to the car Jessie was leaning on.

"'Bout time little Miss Princess showed up. Newsflash: the rest of the world goes by Eastern Standard Time not Victoria time." Jessie retorted.

Before I could even utter a syllable, from the dark van directly in front of mine, Brooklynn stuck her head out of one of the windows and flipped a bird at Jessie. "Jessie, and I mean this in the nicest way possible since we are friends now, but shut the f*** up. If Victoria wanted a stick up her ass telling her stuff all of the time, I'm pretty sure she could buy one. Thanks hon."

Muttering under his breathe, Jessie yanked open the passenger door and climbed in. "Now that everyone is here. Vans are a go." Ryan spoke into his headset.

I quickly climbed into the backseat and slammed the door behind me. Buckling my seat belt, the driver drove off. I was met with blackness as I turned my head to look out the window. I did not want to open my mouth and ask a question, in fear someone would magically be able to smell my unbrushed breathe.

The driver and Jessie upheld a cordial conversation for majority of the hour and a half drive before the van came to a halt. I hopped out of the car and was met with a quaint, one story building. Probably no bigger than my parent's bedroom and the garage combined, the house was made of off white brick with a straight black sandy roof.