Page 4 of Drunk Girl

“Yeah,” I say, pulling a cup out of the cabinet and filling it up with the hot coffee, then adding a little bit of milk. I take the first drink, savoring the taste and warmth of it. “I’m going to hit the ground running, so to speak, today. Apply for any and all jobs I can find and go get my stuff from the apartment. I didn’t bring anything with me yesterday. Do you think you could give me a ride over to my car this morning?”

“Sure, let me take a shower and we can leave.”

“Thanks, Mom,” I tell her before she disappears around the corner and into the bathroom. I hear the shower turn on and I settle in at the small two-person kitchen table to finish my coffee and eat a bagel from the bag on the counter.

I finish my quick breakfast and make my way back into my room, where I change into a pair of shorts I found in the drawer last night and my top from yesterday. My first stop will be my old apartment to pack up my things, and then I’ll start driving around to places to find a new job.

“Ready?” my mom says, sticking her head into the doorway.

“Yep,” I say, jumping up and sliding my shoes on. I grab my purse and sling it over my shoulder as I follow her out to her car.

“Where am I dropping you off at?” she asks, buckling her seat belt before backing out of the parking spot.

“Tiffany’s place.” Tiffany is my best friend, who I went out with last night. I drove to her place after I left Chris and my apartment, and she ended up driving us to the bar.

“How is she doing?” Mom asks as she turns out onto the main road.

“Good, the wedding is quickly approaching.”

“About damn time they get married,” Mom comments.

“She wasn’t in any rush,” I say on a laugh. Tiffany has been my best friend since elementary school, and one of the only people in this world who knows just how shitty a childhood I had. She knows all my deepest secrets and fears. She’s my ride-or-die, the sister I never had. I’d be lost or dead if it wasn’t for her. And she’s finally marrying her high school sweetheart, Colton, this summer.

We pull into her driveway and Mom drops me off. “Thanks for the ride, I’ll see you later.”

“I’m working tonight, so I’ll be home late,” she tells me.

“Then I’ll see you when I see you.” I give her a smile before I shut the car door, then walk over to my car. I’m not even going to bother knocking, since both Tiffany and Colton are at work right now.

I start my car and immediately plug my cell into the cigarette lighter charger. By keeping it in airplane mode last night, that helped save my battery overnight, but I’m going to need it later when I start applying for jobs. I turn on my service and ignore the incoming texts. I only have one thing on my mind right now.

Ashley:I’m headed to the apartment to get my things, please don’t be there when I arrive. I won’t touch your shit, so you don’t have to worry about that. I’ll also be stopping by the leasing office and taking my name off the lease. Don’t fight me on it. If you get called by them to verify you’re okay with this, I expect you to agree to it. It’s the least you can do after fucking that chick in our apartment.

With my text to Chris sent, I pull out of Tiffany’s place and drive the few miles over to my old apartment. Thankfully, when I pull in, I don’t see his car in the parking lot. He should be at work at this time of day, but I obviously don’t know his schedule as well as I thought I did.

I head inside and go straight for the kitchen cabinet, pulling out a few trash bags. I mostly just have clothes and toiletries to pack up, so trash bags it is.

I make quick work of packing up my clothes and then head into the bathroom. Since I want to get out and apply for jobs as soon as possible, I jump in the shower and change into some black pants and a nice top. I actually take the time to blow dry and style my hair, rather than pull it back into my normal ponytail. After applying a little makeup—just a bit of mascara, concealer, and some lip gloss—I toss the remaining things into one last bag and then start hauling them to my car. All the furniture belonged to Chris, or things we bought cheap from thrift stores over the last few months we lived together.

I head for the mall, knowing a large number of stores and restaurants are located in that area. As much as I’d love to go back to school and finish my degree, I just can’t afford to do that right now. It’s been my dream to become a counselor and work with women and kids, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

A few hours later, I’ve accomplished what I set out to do and applied for as many jobs as I possibly could. I saw a sign while I was in the mall, advertising a temp agency, so I snapped a picture of their information and plan to look at their website, so I can sign up with them to be considered for jobs they are tasked to fill.

Hopefully, something will pan out, sooner rather than later.

3

Nick

“Hey, bro,”Kaiden calls out to me when I walk into the office above the bar.

“Mornin’.” I take a pull from the to-go cup of coffee in my hand. “Ready to take inventory?” I ask him as I drop into the seat across the desk from him. His eyes are glued to the computer screen as he looks over the numbers from the last couple of days.

“Things are up this week,” he tells me, looking away from the screen.

“That’s great. I’ve definitely noticed an uptick in customers lately. Our new marketing campaign must be working well.”

“It sure is. I’ve tweaked some of the ads just a little bit over the weeks, and think we’ve finally got one converting really well. Offering up that coupon was a genius idea,” Kaiden tells me.

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