The Reunion Riot

Chapter 1 : The Reunion Riot

"Olivia, wake up."

My best friend, Lily, spoke loudly and aggressively as she tugged open the curtains of her apartment sitting room. I slowly sat up on her couch, moving the duvet away from me and holding my neck in pain. 

"You can't keep sleeping on that couch, you're going to end up with a neck problem," Lily gave out as she collected my duvet from the couch and shoved it into a nearby closet. I rolled my eyes and got up, tidying the couch enough to make it look like no one had slept there, not that Lily really ever got many visitors. 

"Well if you didn't always have Theo over, I could get into bed with you, but no, for some reason that asshole stays here almost as much as I do," I complain about Lily's on-off boyfriend of 3 years who was nothing short of an absolute dickhead. Fair to say I hated the boy from the minute I met him, simply because even after three years he still calls me "Olive" and not in a 'cute, pet name for my girlfriend's best friend' but in a, 'I've never really bothered to learn your name even though we eat dinner together three times a week'.

"Except Theo hasn't slept here every night of the week save for the odd Saturday for the past seven months, but you both have something in common, I guess. Neither of you are paying me any rent," she grumbled as I just huffed. 

She wasn't wrong, I had been here for the past seven months, except for a few Saturdays where I worked so late I just fell asleep in the office. 

"It's not my fault no one's paying me for this stupid internship. Do you think I would've ever said back in high school that I'd end up busting my ass, for no pay, to get into some stupid job in sales that I never even wanted?"

"I know it's been tough since high school, Olly, I'm sorry. I just get stressed sometimes because moneys always tight for me, but I want you here. I'd rather you were staying here than at your parents' house back in Lakeview, I know how angry they always get with you."

Lily understood me completely. She was the only friend I'd kept from high school and I blamed it all the on the fact that I dropped out of my pre-med course after half a year and decided I was finally going to give my dream a go and try to become an actress. Not a worldwide famous actress, just an actress that could get a normal role, maybe on a soap or something and get her fair bit of money for something she loved. But supposedly, that's actually a lot harder than it sounds, the reason why I've had only one role in the past 9 years. 

I played a nurse on one of those old-fashioned movies but after about a year my character got some plague and was killed off and no one else would take me on. I got a job in a restaurant, moved into a shitty apartment above some grim old Chinese takeaway that smelled like feet and managed to get by until my breakdown, seven months ago when Lily came to my rescue. We had been meeting up every so often ever since I dropped out and I told her about my fears of never doing anything better with my life, how much I hated my job, how I was too scared to sleep every night because where I lived was so dangerous and she convinced me to move in with her and give up my job. 

She helped me find this internship, as a way to pass the time until something came up in the acting business. Seven months later and I'm still here. 

"Speaking of Lakeview, it's been about ten years since we graduated, hasn't it? I mean, I was 28 a month ago, so that's ten years," Lily brought up the dreaded topic. I knew what she was referring to, but I was desperately trying to avoid it at all costs. 

"I don't know, probably yeah. Hey, did you get milk from the shop yesterday?" I ask as I walk to the cupboard, grabbing a box of cereal and a bowl. 

"Yeah, but I still need to do a proper shop, anyway what was I saying?" Lily tried to remember and I internally groaned to myself. "Oh yeah, so the famous 'Reunion Riot' must be within the next few months if memory serves me right. Oh, I can't wait to get the whole gang together again!"