The Baby Between You and Me

Chapter 1: The Sofia Tragedy (Stacy's POV)

"I probably shouldn't let that get in my way today, right?" I asked myself as I walked to work. I was thinking about that weird dream I had last night and the overly disturbing smooching scene Kris had with that girl. For one, I don't usually have dreams- not even nightmares. Secondly, I really find how Kris whores himself ultimately disgusting. It's not the first time that he had a girl in his house. Three months ago, he moved next to my house. Three days after that, he started bringing in some woman in his house. I remember waking up to loud party music in the middle of night since then. It gives me second hand embarrassment to say that there were nights where moans could be heard. There are many bad things about him in just a span of three months. And the fact that his living there longer, his sins are getting bigger. I know that I shouldn't be affected by everything that he does are already low blow. I have no issues about his personal life. Whatever it is that makes him do this doesn't concern me at all. His behavior and inconsiderateness is what bothers me the most. All of us have issues. But to be fair enough, everyone else in our neighborhood chose to deal with it opposite of how he does. I just exhaled deeply as I tried to clear my head. I closed my eyes. "Positivity. Only positivity." I said as I did this breathing exercise that calmed my mind. I opened my eyes and carried on walking.

I finally made it to Galleria de Sofia- it's the gallery where I am currently working. It's not a famous one, it's just a small one. Sofia is actually the name of the person who owns this gallery. She happens to be my classmate in art school. Her family is rich and they gave this gallery to her as a birthday present. It's just sad because she honestly doesn't even excel that much in arts. She barely draws her so called "masterpieces" and to sum it up, she doesn't really want to do anything with arts. From what I heard, she's just basically envious of Caitlyn who happens to be my best friend. Before I even enrolled in art school, there already was this myth about the two of them having a heavy tension between each other. They were said to be always fighting. Sofia would always bully Caitlyn, so she would always just stand up for herself. I hate watching people getting bullied and I happen to witness one scene of it. I literally stood up for Caitlyn and that's when Sofia held grudges for me, too. Me and Caitlyn started hanging out together and topped classes together. At graduation, Sofia's father place us in a situation that made us sign a contract. That's basically how the both of us ended here. I honestly have a sentiment about galleries but this place is just straight up hell.

Before I entered the gallery, I heard a loud bang from within. Curious to what it was, I sped up and entered immediately. It was Sofia, doing what she does best. But what I can't stand is how my best friend is on her knees, bowing down to that evil witch. "Do you know how much this vase costs?" Sofia yelled. "It costs more than your whole life could worth!" She continued. "What happened?" I asked quietly to one of our workmates, Steven, as I walked towards. Steven looked at me and said, "Tantrums, obviously." He answered quietly. "But why?" I asked as I stood beside him. "Sofia walked by, purposely bumping on Caitlyn. And she got mad because Caitlyn said sorry." He said. "What? Just for that?" I asked in disbelief on how far Sofia's shallowness could go. "And the vase?" I asked. "Sofia threw it out of anger." I looked at Steven with my eyes wide open and eyebrows raised in disbelief. "And she's blaming it on Caitlyn? How fvcking dare she!" I exclaimed quietly. Steven failed to stop me from intervening. "Sofia!" I yelled. Just in time for her to look at me, I managed to slap her. She looked very surprised and so was Caitlyn.

"Stacy.." Caitlyn mumbles softly. I gave her a hand and she just looked up on me. I gave her a little nod to let her know that it's ok. She hesitated but eventually held my hand softly. There was no time for cheesy reconciliations, I took a good grasp of her hand and pulled her up. Once she was standing, I lightly pat her clothes to remove the dirt it got from the floor. "I'm sorry I'm late." I said and she just smiled. Sofia then laughed, the sarcastic kind, making me turn to her. "What do you want now?" It was more of a hiss than a question. "Oh nothing. Just the both of you suffering." She replied boldly. "Oh please. We've been suffering since the day we started working here!" My anger was out of hand. "How dare you!" She gritted her teeth as she responded. She lifted her hand and before she could even swing it to my face, I made her stop. "What? Are you going to slap me, too?" I asked with courage. It made her stop for some reason. "You know what? I'm done with you! You're already too much!" I yelled even more. "If you want to keep this gallery alive, go find someone else to draw for you!" I accidentally spilled. There were gasps among our co-workers. "Oh yeah? Then you're fired-" "Oh you don't have to! I quit! We quit! We don't want to do anything about you and your stupid fake gallery! The only thing that got us here anyway is your father's stupid contract! He bought our rights!" The crowd began murmuring about what I just said. "Leave!" She screamed so we did. I dragged Caitlyn with me and surprisingly, Steven followed.

"What are we gonna do now?" Caitlyn asked as the three of us walked to nowhere. Feeling guilty as hell, I didn't know what to say. "OH MY GOD! I'M SO SORRY!" I apologized loudly. Steven poked me with the joint of his arm to tell me that people are staring. I held Caitlyn's hands. "I'm so sorry. Now we're jobless." I felt like crying but there were no tears falling. "Hey, it's ok. Atleast you stood up for me. You always do. But I guess this time was just beyond the line." She said softly. How can someone be so soft and gentle and kind? This is probably the reason why Sofia likes to bully her. She's too kind to fight back. And when I say fight back, I'm speaking of literally fighting back. Before, she would stand up for herself by just saying "go away." Today, she barely does that. "But we're jobless. And no one would probably want us. She probably had all the galleries block us from working." I said. "No worries. I have something in mind." Steven said making the both of us look at him. "You do?" We asked in unison. "Yep. I have a cousin who has a small museum. Well it's not that big and we probably won't be painter there but it would help temporarily." He said. "That's great!" Caitlyn smiled. "I'll contact him ASAP and tell you. But for now, we should just go home. It's only 8:30 in the morning but it feels like it's been a long tiring day." He suggested. "Right. We should." And we parted ways and went home.

Luckily, Kris and that girl was no longer there. I entered my house freely and immediately went upstairs. I sulked the entire morning about what happened with work. I should have not done that. But it was just too much. Sofia was too much and someone just had to tell her off. With allot of things in my mind, I started to blame Kris. If it wasn't for his uncontrollable intimacy with that skank, I could have made it in time for work. I could have met Caitlyn earlier and we could have avoided Sofia together. But then again, blaming someone else makes me feel bad. So I decided to blame everything on my dream. If only I didn't have it, then I could have woke up earlier. I could have had the time to tell Kris off, or even better, I could have missed that scene and would still be on time for work. This situation made me ball my eyes out. It could have been ok if it was only me who exited. But the fact that my friends are involved, it really depresses me so much. I just hate it. I hate what I did. Afternoon came and I was still sulking in my bed. Too weak and too hungry, it made me fall asleep. But this sleep didn't last for too long. I woke up and it was already dark. There was a very irritating sound coming from downstairs. It was the sound of a crying baby.