Page 11 of Falling Together

She watched Erin as she said the words, but Erin simply shook her head at Blair. Blair knew she was being a flirt, but she couldn’t help it. That was just her personality, especially when she was around a woman who looked like Erin. Which again reminded her why she needed to leave. It might be fun to flirt with Erin, but this was the woman helping keep her parents off of her back while she figured out what to do with her life. She was toeing a very fine line right now.

She took her phone out of her pocket and shook it in the air. “Gotta get to my friend. Sorry.”

Blair was out of the door so fast she just barely caught Erin saying they would see her tomorrow. As soon as the door closed behind her, she hit Marisol’s name in her phone to call her.

“Pleasepick up,” she whispered to herself as the phone rang.

“Sup, bitch? How was your first day of work?”

“Do you want to meet up for a drink?”

Marisol cackled into the phone. “Only one day in and you already need a drink? That can’t be good.” After a few seconds, her laughter cut off and her voice became more serious. “You didn’t get fired, did you?”

“No, Mar, I didn’t get fired. But thank you so much for that vote of confidence.”

“Always. So, where are we going?”

Blair smiled. This was why Marisol was her best friend and had been ever since their first day of middle school. “Let’s do Ralph’s.”

Ralph’s was a run-down bar in town that rarely had people in it, which was why it was Blair and Marisol’s favorite place to go. Now that they were both old enough to drink alcohol, they liked it even better than when all they could do was drink soda and eat a bunch of fried food that normally made them sick. Ralph, the owner, namesake, and quite possibly the only employee, always joked that they were the ones keeping him in business and Blair was starting to believe it might be true.

“Perfect. Meet in fifteen?”

“Works for me.”

Ralph’s was less than ten minutes from Erin’s house, so Blair arrived before Marisol and took their usual spot at the bar. Ralph waved to her and immediately got to work making their drinks.

Ralph set the drinks down in front of Blair at the same time the door to the bar opened. “You’re way too good to us, Ralph,” Marisol said from behind her.

“I have to be. You’re the two who keep me in business,” Ralph said with a wink.

Blair stood from her bar stool and turned around to greet her best friend. Marisol was still wearing the shirt from the camp she was working at that summer to get some extra money before starting her speech therapy program in the fall, so Blair assumed she must also be coming right from work.

“You look nice,” Blair said as she caught sight of the big ketchup stain splattered in the middle of Marisol’s shirt. She was only half joking, because even covered in food, Marisolalwayslooked good. With her dark skin and long curly black hair, she was breathtaking. If she were a stranger in a bar, Blair would definitely hit on her. Instead, she was her very straight best friend who had become like a sister to her.

Marisol rolled her eyes and playfully pushed Blair’s shoulder. “Shut up. One of the campers is already obsessed with me and asked to eat her hot dog while sitting on my lap, hence the ketchup.”

“Kids, right?” Blair asked with a laugh, finally feeling like she could somewhat understand what people were getting at when they said that.

“Speaking of kids,” Marisol sat down on the barstool and turned to face Blair, “how wasyourfirst day on the job?”

Blair took a big sip of her beer, then set it back down on the bar. “First of all, kids are feral.” She picked up her drink again and took another large gulp. “Second of all, I’m fucked.”

Marisol laughed as she took a sip of her cocktail. “Are you fucked because of point number one or for another reason?”

“Nolan’s mom is so hot.”

“I know. It’s practically all I’ve heard about since you had that pool day with them.”

Blair shook her head. Marisol didn’t get it. “But she’s not just incredibly hot physically. She also has a sexy personality. She scared the shit out of me today, and even that was hot.”

Marisol put her hand in the air. “Wait. I’m going to need you to elaborate. What do you mean by shescared the shit out of you?”

Blair explained all of the details of The Great Apple Slice Meltdown and how Erin acted like she was mad at her when she found out they went to McDonald’s. “And I’m telling you, watching her tap that high-heeled foot wassofucking hot.”

“It’s cool that she didn’t actually get mad at you. You do realize most parents would’ve actually flipped out, right?”

“I know!” Blair threw her hands in the air. “That’s why she’s so cool and also the reason I’m completely fucked.”

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