Apartment 3B

9. The Morning After

Elaine

I woke up to some bustling around me around 11 am. Jesse was the only one who had work in the morning, so I assumed it must be him making breakfast. Wearing my pink pyjamas, I walked out of the room where Hayley was fast asleep, to see that Jesse had already left and Luna and Kabir were discussing the night's happenings.

"I really can't believe she did it," Luna said rather calmly than how she was feeling last night.

"Well, I can. It's not hard to believe that she sleeps around. With a face and attitude like that. Guys love that bitchiness." Kabir stated and as soon as the last word came out of his mouth, Luna had already turned red. "Are you serious? Don't you dare say another word about her. What makes you a player that everyone loves doesn't make her a slut. So zip it." She was angry and I have to admit, her speech was so sexy.

I coughed to announce my presence and sat down at the counter next to Kabir as Luna stood on the opposite side, drinking coffee out of her Darth Vader mug, "What are we talking about, ladies?"

"Nothing, I was just leaving. I'm sorry, Lunes, I didn't mean it like that." Kabir went to his room without waiting to hear anything else. Luna sighed and I put my hand over hers to tell her I'm there if she needs me. Then I realized I should just say it, "I really care about you, Luna. If you need me, I'll be less than a door knock away."

She just gave me an unreadable grin and I squeezed her hand as she said, "Thanks, Elaine."

I thought I should ask her to call me Lainey again because even my parents don't call me Elaine anymore, but coming from her, I didn't mind it.

I still had about a week and a half till the first day of my job, so I decided to walk to Brady's after everyone had left. Luna had left me her copy of the key and I had to get one made for myself. I decided to stop over at Jesse's store and get one made. The Smith General Store came around rather quickly and I walked inside to see Jesse arguing with a man who must be his father. All the arguing in the past few days started making me nervous so I held my locket between my fingers and traced the pattern to stop myself from spiraling. Jesse noticed me and said, "Oh hi, Lainey. What do you need?" He didn't bother to introduce me to his father and I suppose he had some good reasons to do so. Despite the awkwardness, I managed to give him the key and say, "Can you make me a copy?"

He simply got to work but his dad came to the counter across where I was standing and asked, "You're one of his roommates?" Without an answer, he mumbled and scowled under his breath, "Living with young girls, wanting to work at a bar," he muttered some curses and then turned to me again, "Do you have a boyfriend?"

I didn't know why he was asking me that but I simply said no. He looked distressed, "Do you like my Jesse?" I said yes he's a good man but no I don't like him like that. At this point, my anxiety had set in and I continued to trace the back of my locket. He continued with his questions, "Okay, make sure he doesn't have sex with all the whores these days." I didn't want to make it any worse for Jesse so I just said, "Yes sir." After a pause that seemed to last forever, he asked, "Wait, why don't you like my Jesse? He's a wonderful respectful man, what's wrong with him?" I started tapping my left foot and started to sweat from my palms, I didn't like all these questions and it was making me extremely uncomfortable, I think Jesse noticed my predicament and came over, "Can you stop grilling her?" He exasperated, then he turned to me and said, "Sorry for this, Lainey."

"Are you apologizing for me? That's just great." His dad scowled again. If scowling was his only emotion, I couldn't stand here any longer.

"Hey, here's your key. You don't have to pay for this." Jesse told me and gestured me to leave. To be polite, I told him, "Thank you," and I turned to his dad and said,"Nice to meet you, sir." I got out of there before my lungs started constricting and took a big breath as soon as the door closed behind me. That was rough. To let the tension seep out of me, I ran on the sidewalk till Brady's. By the time I reached, my breathing had stabilized. The smell of cheese and chocolate filled my senses and I got a brownie with ice cream and hot chocolate syrup on it. I could finally breathe again as I dug into it and tried to forget what a total asshole Jesse's dad is. Poor Jess.