Page 34 of Sparks
“False advertising. Sorry, babe. Zip me?”
I reached out an arm and cracked my eye enough to zip her up as she squatted in front of me. She turned around and hugged me. “Tell me everything later, ‘kay?”
“’kay,” I whispered. “Is Cheryl already gone?”
“Yeah.”
Damn. Hippie-ninja. She must have slipped past after Beth texted when I dozed off again.
I couldn’t fall back asleep while Holly was bustling around with the light on, so I looked back at my call log and stared at Shawn’s number. It had really happened. My body physically reacted to the thought of him, my chest tightening, stomach swooping, face and lower belly warming. I sighed as guilt traced all of those feelings with its sludgy, heavy, stinky marker. I should not be crushing on this man.
“Can you call the landlord today?” Holly asked, coming out of the bathroom. “The sink’s still not acting right and the light keeps flickering.”
“’kay,” I whispered.
Holly left, and I blessedly fell back to sleep until another text came through at nine-something.
Aww, it was my roomie Willamena. Willa for short. I smiled at my phone.
Can u get me n Syd-lo n Rhea at 4?There was more after that but it was all jumbled words that made no sense. Her next text was an angry red face.
Damn new nails r too long!And then another. By now I was giggling.What that should day is if u can’t it’s olay.
Now I was cracking up. Willa was our queen. Long nails and long braids.
Yes, I got you.I texted back.
She was probably texting between flights. I smiled at the thought of Willa, Syd Lopez, and Rhea with me tonight. Rhea was Indian by heritage, pronounced Rae-uh, from Colorado. Sydney was from Miami, her parents Puerto Rican. The three of them graduated in the sky muffin class before mine. They took me and Holly under their wing right away, treating me like their lil boo-bae from day one.
I yawned and sat up cracking my neck, elbows, and ankles. My mouth tasted like butt, or what I imagined butt would taste like. I went to the bathroom and rinsed my mouth in the beat-up tiny sink, having to apply pressure to the knob as I turned it, my bare feet feeling the cracks in the tiles. Freaking dump.
Then I went to the kitchen to take stock of what I had to last me through the week. The kitchen was my favorite room in the apartment and my mood brightened just being in there. It took up nearly half of our apartment. The room was gigantic with huge windows and wide ledges. On nice nights we could open the windows and sit on the ledges like something from a movie, looking out over the alleyway of stone row homes with matching patterns of fire escapes.
I opened the cupboard. Looked like I’d be living on microwave mac & cheese bowls and ramen. Ugh. I was so getting some fruits and veggies this Friday when I got paid. My mouth watered at the thought of something fresh and healthy. Super weird, I know, but the grass was always greener on the other side and all that. If all I had was stuff for salads, I’d be dying for mac & cheese.
Beth shuffled into the kitchen with the hood of her sweatshirt up. She said nothing, just went to the cupboard and took out a box of cinnamon crunch cereal.
“Isn’t that Viola’s?” I asked.
“Don’t fucking care,” she grumbled, pouring a bowl. “I’ll give her money or something.”
No way was I touching anything of Vio’s. She was our resident Long Islander, complete with the nasally badass New Yorker accent and attitude. F-bombs in every sentence. Short hair. I would not fuck with Vio. One time at a bar a guy told her she was a caricature New Yorker and she throat punched him. Then she took the glass of whiskey right out of his hand and drank it before we hauled ass out of the bar.
But she was also the most affectionate, lovey-dovey person I’d ever met. Seriously, she’d tell you to fuck off and crawl into your lap for a snuggle in the same breath. All five feet and nine inches of her. I poured a small handful of the cereal into my palm and then put the box away.
My phone whistled another text and my heart danced a super-fast jig at the sight of Shawn’s name.
How you feeling this morning?I grinned.
“Oh, my God,” Beth hissed. “Who is texting you and making you smile this early?”
There was no way I was telling her about Shawn.
“Willa asked for a ride tonight.”
Beth grunted, even managing to sound like a cute pixie with that noise.
I’ve had better mornings, I texted back.Thanks. I won’t be doing that again tho.
