Page 23 of Shared Spaces

Tears form in my eyes almost immediately. She’s right—that used to be us.

She’s been nothing but rude and judgmental since I mentioned the birthday party, and I honestly owe her nothing.

“What’s up? You look like you saw a ghost, love.” Mila says from the doorway.

“Apparently—I’m not supposed to have more than one friend.”

“That’s bullshit, Gwen. It’s giving creepy, controlling, obsessive vibes.”

I sigh and scroll down to the next message she sent, which was literally just a picture of her and I at the last event we went to together.

“She’s being weird about it. I’m not even texting back.” I say, smiling when I scroll to the message Jay sent me.

What’s it going to take for you to cancel whatever you have planned for me? Dwight already gave enough hints. I told you I hate surprises.

Also—I can make the whole event so uncomfortable for you.

Just keep that in mind, PRINCESS.

Fumbling with my phone, I start to text him back, but then I realize, it would be even better if I don’t. I’ll just let him suffer with curiosity.

“I picked a movie for us!” Mila exclaims, catching me off guard for a second.

“Last time you picked the movie, we both ended up bawling for two hours. Nothing with dogs in it this time, Mila! I mean it.” I squeal, trying my best to focus on anything but what I just read.

Mila laughs and scrolls to a movie neither of us has watched yet. Sex and The City. Just as always, I close my eyes halfway through the movie, and miss the entire last part.

* * *

We both woke up early, groaning about the amount we drank and laughing at each other’s messy hair. In our defense, her old pull-out couch is beyond uncomfortable, so we probably tossed and turned all night long.

“Well shit, we didn’t plan anything last night. The party is tomorrow!” I exclaim, loading the coffee into Mila’s machine.

“We just need to get all of this over to Dwight’s, the rest will be easy. Getting Jay there will be a breeze.”

It’s true. Jay would never pass up on a night of gaming.

Mila and I finish our coffee and eventually venture into the room full of balloons.

“How fucking drunk were we? Why this many?” Mila laughs, pushing her way through ginormous heaps of mostly blue balloons.

“Okay, I think we went a little overboard here. There’s no way we can move all of these without breaking them!”

“Wait—my dad has a cargo van. Like, the yellow delivery vans that UPS usually drives!”

“That would be perfect; that’s exactly what we need!”

After about an hour, we successfully tie the balloons into easy to transport bundles, and make a few jokes about what would happen if it turns out to be windy.

Mila’s dad eventually drove the van over to her flat, and we carefully loaded it with the bundles, only breaking five balloons in the process. We lost a few more when we brought them into Dwight’s flat. His apartment complex has far more doors than Mila’s.

“Shit, how the hell did you two manage to blow up this many?” Dwight exclaimed as we walked through with the last bundle.

From top to bottom, his living room is nothing but blue and white.

“We may have cheated a little, " I giggle.

“He pestered some information out of me, I’m sorry, I surrendered,” Dwight laughs.

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