As the work day was finishing, Joy stuffed her hands in her pockets and began to make the walk back to her apartment. It had been two weeks since her run in with Dylan. Cheyenna had left two nights later. So, Joy has not been doing so well.
Mia spent a lot of nights over at Marcus's, her pregnancy had been progressing smoothly, and I guess Marcus felt better if Mia moved in for the time being. Which meant that on most nights, Joy was alone. Which was okay. A lot of nights were spent drinking alone, smoking alone, or moping and watching movies... alone.
Cheyenna called every other day, but her calls were beginning to dwindle as her wedding continued to creep up. She had mentioned that her caterer had backed out, and she needed to find a new one. Plus, she still had many decisions she had to decide on and the wedding was inching closer and closer.
Joy's birthday came and passed. Her siblings sent her some money, Cheyenna ordered her some gifts and she went out to dinner with Bellamy and Mia. She had an okay birthday, another year closer to death she continuously reminded herself.
She entered her apartment and threw her bag on the kitchen counter. In Mia's absence, the place had begun to resemble a pig sty. Plates were scattered everywhere, laundry was placed on whichever surface was closest, and frankly the entire place smelled. She felt disgusting living in her own filth.
She changed into shorts and a t-shirt, and began to conquer the mess that was her apartment. She had to admit that Mia had been doing a lot around her and Joy had never even really noticed. It was always clean. She had a lot of thanking to do the next time she saw Mia.
She started with the garbage and old food and threw it all in one trash bag, until she realized that she was going to need more than one. The garbage and food collecting lasted for a total of 45 minutes. That wasn't even half of the mess.
The next thing she did was clean the kitchen, she put all the fruit away where it went and finally put the groceries she picked up two days ago in their proper spots.
The last thing she handled was the laundry, mostly because that was the big issue with the apartment. She picked up loads and loads of clothes, some of them hers and some of them not. Regardless, they had all wound up on the floor because of her so she had no one to blame but herself.
Lying in the middle of the piles of laundry was the most classy and beautiful watch she had ever seen. So, she knew it couldn't have been hers or Mia's since Mia didn't wear a watch.
She picked it up and looked for any sign of an owner, it could have been Cheyenna's or Bellamy's. Both had been over within the last month.
The closer she looked, the more obsessed she became with the watch. It was beautiful, Italian leather and the most gorgeous marble stone on the inside. She peaked underneath the leather and noticed initials carved into it.
D.O.B.
You have got to be joking. She thought.
What was she supposed to do? Keep it? It probably cost a fortune and all of her good karma would get thrown out of the window if she kept it. Should she give it back? And potentially risk getting arrested for trespassing?
She scurried to her bedroom and picked up her phone that was charging on her nightstand and dialed a number.
"Hello?" Mia answered with a giggle.
"Is Marcus nearby?"
Another loud laugh came through the phone, "Yes, why?"
"Can I talk to him?'
"Why?"
"Just hand him the phone."
"Joy, we're kind of in the middle of something..."
