Page 31 of Enemies with my Bestie’s Brother
“Hey, thanks for grabbing coffee. I hope you don’t mind, I let — Uh, whoa, are you okay?” Landon asks, a look of concern presenting itself on his forehead.
I try to conjure up an image of what I must look like to him, so angry that I’m red and hopped up on double-espresso coffee. I must look like an absolute crazy person.
“You know what, I’m not okay, not at all,” I say as I turn towards him, eager to finally have someone to talk to about all of the things running through my mind.
“Oh, well, do you want to go—”
“I am so, so sick of never being alone in here! And this isn’t about you, so don’t make that face. This is about all the workers, all the delivery people, Whitney! It’s always one or the other, here, somehow, somewhere. It’s like there’s never a fucking break from anything. One leaves, another other shows up. I have the exact same amount of privacy as a traveling act in a freak show. And don’t even get me started on the smell in here. The entire apartment always smells like paint, so I have to keep the windows open, which makes it freezing, since we’re like, five hundred feet in the air! Even that doesn’t make sense, since heat rises! Shouldn’t it be burning up in here?!”
In truth, I don’t even know what I’m ranting about right now, it’s just anything that comes to my mind at this point. I’m not saying this is the most productive way to get rid of my anger, but it is helping me feel better, so there’s at least that.
“Grayson, Whitney is—”
“Oh, god, don’t even say her name to me right now! She’s the stupid cause of all this, all these people coming in and out, in and out. I will never get a moment of peace again in this place. It’s basically never-ending. It’s like she finds every little reason to be in this apartment all the time, it’s infuriating. I come back from the store, there’s Whitney. I go to the bathroom, there’s Whitney. I go to Penny’s, there’s Whitney! It’s just a constant cycle of running into her! If she was getting paid hourly, I might think she was dragging it out on purpose just to get more money. But, she’s not paid hourly! So, she must just be doing it to make me miserable, but why? What did I ever do to her?”
“Well—”
“I know, I know, we spent not only the night of Penny and Parker’s wedding together, but also an entire weekend together, and had sex, and then I left her in bed to wake up on her own. I get it, it was bad, and now I know for sure how it felt, since she did the exact same thing to me as soon as she got the chance! And I can’t even be mad about it without being a huge hypocrite! Hypocrite!”
“Wait, what did you just say?” Landon looks at me sharply.
I should be paying attention to what he’s saying, but I’m not. No, my mouth is moving way, way faster than my brain at this point. There is absolutely no thought being put into this unfiltered mess of a rant.
“Oh yeah, she’s done it to me now too. The other night, after the work was done for the day, I invited her to stay for dinner. We ordered pizza, had some beers, and she went home. Oh, wait, no, that’s not what happened. We ended up fucking sleeping together, again. And it was great, but do I wake up next to her in the morning? Nope. I wake up next to an empty spot under my arm. It’s like she planned it on purpose, making sure that I get a big old dose of my own medicine. Yup. It’s evil man, evil.”
I finally sit down and shake my head, throwing it down into my hands.
“Grayson, what I’ve been trying to tell you this entire time is that Whitney is here. She came in to get dimensions on one of the spare bedrooms about five minutes before you came storming through the door,” Landon says flatly.
My head shoots up out of my hands to see Whitney standing in front of the hallway, her hands firmly placed on her hips. And boy, does she look pissed.
“Um, hey Whitney?” I say, but it sounds meek, since I’m so unsure of how to come back after that.
“Really? ‘Hey Whitney’ is all you have to say after that little tirade? Is there something actually wrong with you? Oh wait, let me answer that: There is. You’re a self-centered, egotistical asshole with no respect for others!”
She marches over to her bag on the couch and throws a tape measure into it before hoisting it over her shoulder.
“Whitney, I’m really sorry that you heard all of that. It was just supposed to be a private vent…” I trail off when I glance at the expression on her face.
She is extremely unthrilled with my excuses.
“Just save it, Grayson. You don’t have to worry about me being here for much longer. I’m finishing up my contract, and then I’ll be leaving, so you won’t have to see me again.”
I stand up as she storms past me and out the front door.
“Dude!” I say to Landon, incredulous.
“I tried to warn you!” he says back.
I run after her, out into the hallway, and am about to go to Penny’s door when I hear the door to the stairwell slam shut. Is she really going to walk down all those stairs?
I shake my head at the thought. Not the point. I jog down the hallway and open the door to go after her.
“Whitney! Please wait!” I call as I jog down the steps.
I catch up to her on the landing of the next floor down.
“Why on earth should I wait for you after all those horrible things you said about me? You even told Landon that we slept together again! How could you do that? That was a complete betrayal of my trust!” she shouts.
