Never My Intention

talking body.

In all honesty, I would've taken waking up any other way than a scream coming from Pia. As if my friends needed to think she was anymore of a drama queen, she was storming out of the apartment I shared with them just to get away like a child. I didn't know why the situation had bothered me so much, but it bothered me to my core.

Then again when it came to friends, I didn't accept the name calling they'd receive from her. It was one thing for us to do it in a joking matter, another for a random to do it just to spew venom and turn the situation into something it wasn't. Things were said about how my life was too much for her and that she didn't trust Hailey, of all people.

Hailey was just a friend. We had shared a bed together plenty of times, laying around in shitty hotel rooms and hating absolutely every moment of it. But we made it out with whatever we had, alive and happy. Moving up to a fully furnished apartment and sleeping in a King together still hadn't changed the situation any.

"Kells!" Someone called and my head lifted from the menu to see that Slim was looking to me with a raised eyebrow.

I had forgot where I even was when thinking on the argument I had with Pia. We were now at the restaurant we could all agree on. The entire inside was decked out in posters of famous public figures - some even signed - while the interior gave off that 70's retro feel. As soon as I walked in, I felt just at home. But that was until I had an annoyed waitress looking in my direction and waiting to write down my order.

Her red hair was extremely curly, some pieces sticking up even when it was set in a ponytail. She chewed on a piece of gum, her notepad and pencil in hand as she stared at me. I could hear her tapping her ballet flats from here and I squirmed in my seat.

"I'll just do the special today, thanks." I finally ordered as she nodded and wrote it down. Eggs benedict with a side of hashbrowns and bacon. It was the only thing I could think up in that moment.

The redheaded waitress moved onto the next person, who happened to be Dre. He ordered a stack of pancakes and two sides that came along with it, the male handing off our menus down to the end of the table to later be collected. I glanced in Slim's direction and he knew I had too much on my mind in that moment. Slim and I shared everything, horror stories and all. I ranted to him about the shit with Pia and in turn, he'd rant to me about his hookups and the girls back home he seemed to be willing to give a chance.

To the left, I had Hailey beside me and to the right, Ace. Right beside Hailey sat Taav and the two seemed pretty deep in conversation. She even attempted to laugh at the jokes he made. I was becoming suspicious but I kept that to myself. Instead of cause eyebrows to raise at the fact that Hailey seemed to be so close to this male, I stretched and moved my tattooed arm to rest on the back of her seat.

When she had noticed, her eyes landed on me and she shook her head. "Smooth." She teased quietly. I just gave her my best smile before going into my own conversation with Slim and Ace, Dre interjecting a few words when he wasn't looking down at his phone to check emails.

I hadn't expected brunch to go by so quickly but when it did, I thought I was going to be too stuffed to move. But with Ashleigh's help, I was pulled to my feet and we were out the front door once our bill was paid and a generous tip was left.

The drive back was pretty quiet. We were all either tired from last night or just too stuffed and content to start a conversation. I got stuck driving back after a game of Not It. Luckily I didn't mind it and by the time I had pulled into the parking garage and parked, we had all trudged out of the car and headed straight back to the apartment. Taav said he had some meetings to attend so he headed out just before he could leave the garage, but not before giving Hailey a hug goodbye.