The Sanctimony of Eating Cereal || Camren

Chapter 3

With the sun peeking through my curtains and shining over my eyelids, I slowly pushed myself up, squinting my eyes and using my thumb to massage the throbbing in my head. It was hardly as bad as any hangover I'd had before. 

Grunting, I swung my legs over my bed and dragged myself to my bathroom. The cold metal of the faucet sent shivers up my arm and down my spine. I cupped my hands and let them overflow with water over and over again. With every drop of water that hit my face, I began to remember more and more of last night; the uber driver assisting me to my apartment door, asking the bartender to call me an uber, a lawyer, and Dinah leaving with who could've been a young Harvey Specter. 

"Good morning, sunshine," Dinah cheered without turning her head from her phone.

"Good morning for you or good morning for me?"

Dinah spun around the bar stool and gave me an almost robotic scan- from my tangled hair to my mismatched socks. 

"Definitely not you," she chuckled, feeding herself another spoon of lucky charms.

"Thank you," I sloppily curtsied.

"So, what exactly went down with you last night?" She smirked, "or who went down with you- for that matter,"

"Nothing and nobody went down with me last night,"

"Then mind explaining who the handsome devil who dropped you off last night was?"

"My uber driver," I scoffed, pouring some leftover coffee into my mug.

"Oh thank god, you could've done so much better than a guy like that,"

"I'm glad you think so highly of me," I said taking a seat in front of Dinah.

"So, I'm guessing you got pretty fucked?"

"A bit." I raised my eyebrows, "with a lawyer, I believe."

Dinah's jaw dropped, "a lawyer."

"Yes, a lawyer. She," I paused, "was adorable."

"She?"

"Huge flirt."

"Yikes," Dinah laughed, "at this rate you're gonna have to come out as straight,"

With a nod, I chugged down the rest of my coffee oppressing my feelings along with it.

"What about you? How was your night?"

"It was great."

"Uh-oh," I widened my eyes. A night was never just "great" for Dinah.

"His name is Gabriel. When we got to his place his three friends had paid him a surprise visit, so we exchanged numbers and he said we'd meet up soon."

"Oh."

"It's whatever, he was only like a 9 and a half out of 10." 

By six in the evening, myself and Dinah were walking around Chinatown looking for our favourite Chinese restaurant in all of New York City, "Joe's Shanghai". This was where I first met Kian. Dinah was sick and I was getting her takeout when Kian strolled in with his friend Bobby. I had barely taken any notice of them until Dinah had pointed out that his friend Bobby was staring at me. Followed by two weeks and many, many turns of events, thus began my and Kian's relationship. But Dinah knew that not even a seven-month relationship with a guy like Kian could ruin a restaurant as good as Joe's Shanghai and its soups.

Even though this place marked mine and Kian's relationship, all I could see or think about was the lawyer from last night. Mostly because of what Dinah had said this morning about "coming out as straight". 

It was true, it wasn't the first time a girl had approached me, but it also wasn't the first time I had let a girl approach me. I thought perhaps it was a Nietzschean sort of thing. Maybe the only reason I let myself interact with women on a level above friendship was due to egoism and greed. Even in the tenth grade when the red-haired girl had got drunk off of a smirnoff ice, kissed me and called me gay, I had never once doubted how straight I was.

"Lauren?"

Dinah was sipping on her soup.

I picked up my chopsticks and began fiddling with the noodles, unable to pick them up.

"Are you sure you're okay to eat here? You know, because of Kian?"

"Yeah, of course, you know I love it here,"

"Okay.." Dinah said uneasily, "you just kind of, blanked out there,"

"Oh, just another existential crisis," I pursed a smile before asking for a fork instead.

"Of course-" Dinah's phone alerted her that she got a text message.

"Who is it?"

"Gabriel."

"What did he say?"

"Hey, sorry about last night! with a cry-laughing emoji," she looked up at me as if she seeked guidance.

"I just got out of a relationship because my boyfriend wouldn't answer my texts, I doubt I'm the person you should be asking."

"You're right," she sighed, "um, no problem, haha, hope you had a good time, question mark."

"Oh god," I sighed.

"Yeah, they're good friends of mine, but my place is free now, smiley face with a nose," she glanced up at me.

I shook my head, "no," 

"What? I didn't say anything!" She protested.

"Oh, so you weren't just about to accept a booty call from a guy who puts noses in his smiley faces?"

"It's cute? It shows effort! Besides, nobody said it was a booty call."

"Everything you just read to me has 'booty call' written all over it," I stated, slurping on my noodles, letting the soup splash everywhere.

"We're probably just gonna like play Mario Kart or something!" She stumbled upon her words, "please Lauren," she ended with a pout.

"From what I saw last night, Gabriel doesn't appear to by the 'come over and play Mario Kart' type of guy."

"Fine, what kind of guy does Gabriel appear to be?" Her head tilted slightly to the left.

"Like an; 'I-go-to-the-gym-six-days-a-week-but-still-manage-to-go-to-work-and-get-the-job-done-and-get-the-girls-to-come-home-with-me-because-I-roll-my-sleeves-up-to-make-my-biceps-look-larger' kind of guy,"

"Which means?"

I sighed in defeat, "which means you should accept Gabriel's booty call." 

Anyone who would deny an invitation from a guy like Gabriel would be insane. Or maybe so sane that they could be considered insane?

"Thank you, now eat your noodle soup so I can go home and get dressed,"

-

i'm working on it !!!!