Is This Happiness? [DJS]

CHAPTER 1: Welcome to my World

        The sunlight peering through my blinds shot into my eyes, forcing me out of my peaceful slumber. I yawn and toss the blanket off my body, but quickly hug it against me once I feel the cold air brush my skin. I look under the blankets—and see nothing, no clothes, nada. Not a scrap of clothing was left on my body and was instead splattered around my room. On my desk lay a black hoodie with a bright blue flower plastered across the chest, two grey stripes decorating each sleeve. An index card was tucked into the fabric and had some strange phone number scrawled in crude handwriting.

        I pulled the hoodie on over my head, wondering when or where I had gotten it from. I tossed the index card in a pile of other letters, sticky notes, and pieces of crumpled papers with guys' numbers. Another one-night stand. Nothing more and nothing less, as always. It was just to let go after all. It's my... happiness, my something to look forward to, I guess. I've had my fair share of bad relationships, and so I've learned not to trust so easily. 

        And it's not like I'm depressed or get drunk every night. It's a once-a-week occurrence anyways; I go to work Mon – Fri, 8am – 4pm, eat dinner and go to sleep. But Saturday's my party day when I have fun, relax and forget all the stress with my best friends Ariana and Lei Lei. Sunday, however, is when I recover from whatever dumb things I did the previous day and enjoy being hungover. That was my life; I had fun and I was happy doing it.

        I yanked my phone out of a pile of clothing and kicked the week-old clothes to the corner of my room. After properly clothing myself, I called up Ariana.

        "Hey!" she replied in her peppy voice.

        "Hey girl! I just added another phone number to my pile; I'm almost at 50. And you know what that means..." 

        She sighed audibly from the other end. "Yeah yeah. 50 dollars, fine." 

        Even though I couldn't see her face, it was like I could hear her rolling her eyes. As we talked for about 15 more minutes, more memories from last night came flooding in. 

        I sat on the couch straddling his lap. Making out with him, his hands roaming my body, and me tugging on his hair a bit. He picked me up as we were, carrying me to the room, knocking over a lamp, but did we care? No. We continued. Him kissing my neck, and my chest.

        Ohhh... that explains the fallen lamp. I mean.. it was ugly anyway. More memories came trickling back, last night's events becoming clearer and clearer.

        Pants and moans echo from my room as we both fall onto the bed trying to catch our breath. "Wow- That was awesome..." He commented. "Riwght..." I slurred, and with that I fell asleep in a wonderful happy bliss.

        Getting snapped back into reality, it all started made sense as my mind pieced the shards together. I had done my regular, went to the club with my friends, they left, I stayed, did some dancing, drinking, got drunk and brought a man back home with me. I then remembered where the hoodie came from—the same one I tore off that guys' body. 

        I remember him being gentle, not enough to kill the mood, but he was sweet, and kind, asking if everything he was doing was okay. I typically don't think about stuff like this the morning after, but he... he felt different. Not in that cliché "you're different than other boys" bollocks, mind you. Just... different. Confused and rather annoyed, I added Lei Lei to the call with Ariana.

        "Hey girls, meet at the café regular time?" I asked, careful to ask my question before it was engulfed in the sure-to-follow conversation.

        "Yea, yea, yea, sounds good!"

        "Yuppers! I might be a tad late though..."

        "Great, see you in 15!" I left my phone on speakerphone and mute, amused by my friends' pointless arguments and intriguing discussions. I decided to keep the hoodie on and shuffled into some snug mom jeans. I mean, c'mon! Whoever he was, he had great taste in clothes. I hopped into my car, fired up the ignition, and drove down to the local café.

~~~~~~~~

        "Sooo... Emery, how was last night?" Lei Lei asked me as she sat down with her green tea. 

        "Uhhh yea, it was cool..."

        "Tell me aaaaall about it girl." both Lei Lei and Ariana echoed.

        I stuffed a piece of my doughnut in my mouth. "What about it? He was sweet, and kind, accidently bit my lip, but I kinda liked it, he was just so genuine, and he left me this hoodie, and... well, yea."

        Lei Lei stared at me, a wide smirk across her face. "Uh oh..."

        "I think someone caught a nasty case of the feels." Ariana finished, also with the same snide expression. 

       "Are you for real? Uh NAH. I made a promise to myself that there would be no feelings attached."

        "Mhm girl. Whatever you say." Ariana said sarcastically, pushing her curly black hair out of her face.

        I had brown hair, green eyes and pale white skin, freckles dappling my nose and cheeks. I always hated how I looked, but that's what makeup is for I guess.

        Lei Lei suddenly and dramatically coughed in midst of her slurping tea, sending droplets of it all over the table.

        "Hundred-percent-not-dying-right-now..." she wheezed before dramatically coughing again.

        "Har har har." I retorted with a laugh, and handed her one of my napkins.

        Maybe Lei Lei was right. I knew I had his number and questioned whether I should maybe call him... or not. I didn't even know the fool. 

        "See? You're daydreaming about him. I knew it." Ariana sneered jokingly.

        "Oh whatever. I'm gonna go clean up my apartment that currently has a broken lamp littering my carpets."

        "Mk. Just... consider calling him. Yea?" Lei Lei pried, still wiping tea off her shirt.

        I really didn't want to, but I knew she would make me call him no matter what I said. 

        "Okay... I will CONSIDER it, but that isn't a yes."