Built For Failure

Chapter 4

"Vera. Come on, wake up." I groan at the sound of a voice calling my name, rolling over on to my side and pulling my pillow over my head.


"V, this is your last wake up call warning. The next will be a splash of cold water." Once again, I groan and swing my hand out towards the annoying voice.


The sound of footsteps walk away from me and then all of a sudden, I feel cold water drip on my body.


"Holy shit that's cold, what the hell?! I'm up, I'm up." I throw my sheet off of me and stretch my arms above my head as Raelyn stands at the end of my bed with messy hair.


"I told you to get up, you failed to do so. Come on, let's go dress shopping." I blankly stare at her as mom pops her head in. "Yeah sweetie, go ahead and go. I can drop you girls off since there are a few miscellaneous things I have to do today."


Getting out of my bed, I walk into my connected bathroom and brush my teeth. I wash my face and use the toilet, washing my hands and taking my rat nest of hair down. "Damn, I really need to learn to not sleep as rough as I do. I swear it's hard to get a brush to go through this shit."


I walk into my bedroom and head straight to my closet for a t-shirt and grab a pair of my shorts from my dresser. Raelyn takes her outfit out of her bag and quickly gets dressed - I don't know how she does this so quickly. I grab a towel and head into my bathroom to wet my hair in the sink, I'll have to wash it in the shower later.


Raelyn scoots behind me and waits for me to move out of the way of the sink so she can brush her teeth. I grab my hair products and brush, getting to town on brushing my hair since it's so curly and tangled up. She moves and runs a brush through her hair, since hers is mainly straight and doesn't need a lot of TLC. Must be nice, can't fucking relate.


We walk out of my bathroom and I throw my hair up into a bun on top of my head, this is my usual go to style because it's a pain in the ass to do anything else with it. I grab my bag and walk to the kitchen, opening the freezer to grab out one of my blueberry protein waffles and popping it into the toaster.


Raelyn grabs a bowl out of one of the top cabinets and reaches over to grab the box of Fruity Pebbles out of another cabinet, reaching into the fridge to get the milk out. "Fruity Pebbles, really?" She mean mugs me. "Uh, yes, they are delicious. Don't judge me." I shake my head and grab my waffle after it pops up, sticking it on a plate and cutting it according to the squares.


Sitting down with a Sprite I got out of the fridge, I chow down on my waffle after pouring some syrup on it as Raelyn fights the tiny pieces of cereal. I tried to tell her it'd be a waste of time, but nooo. Mom walks in and pours a glass of milk, pouring the chocolate syrup into the cup and grabbing one of the packs of Tastykake cupcakes out of the cabinet. She sits down at the table with us and we all eat in silence; well, relatively silence except for Raelyn scraping that damn spoon on the bottom of the bowl.


I unlock my phone and check my text messages, seeing that I missed a text from Aspen.


Asp: Hey Vera, I'm sorry for what I said when we were at lunch. I only want what's best for you, and sometimes my opinion comes out in a bitchy way. I hope everything is okay between us and that you can forgive me. I'm sorry again.


I think about what choices I have to text her back, we've been best friends forever and we can fight like sisters. Either way, I love her more than anything and I know she only wants what's best for me. I don't want to lose one of my best friends over a silly fight.


Me: It's fine. I'm sorry that I got irritated, we know how I get when it comes to Alex. I want what's best for me too, I have decisions to make. Hoping he'll be able to make it to homecoming this year. If not, I'll have some decisions to consider and choices to make. I'm sorry I'm so late sending this text.


She answers immediately.


Asp: I am so glad we talked, I miss hanging out with you. Can we do something today?


Me: Raelyn, mom, and I were planning on going dress shopping today. Did you want to come with?


Asp: Hell yeah I do, I'll be right over, grabbing my bag and car keys now.


"So, where are you going to look for dresses? Any ideas?" Raelyn looks up at my mom. "I'm thinking we can try looking at Charlotte and Rue21." She looks over at me. "I was just going to look in stores and if I don't find anything, I'll just order a dress online because it's convenient."


"Hey mom, can we wait for a minute before we leave? Aspen is driving over now, she wants to come with us." She says okay.


Mom places her glass in the sink, grabbing her keys and pulling out her tumbler to pour sweet tea in. I mimic her and grab my tumbler too as Raelyn grabs her bag to get ready to leave the house. While we wait, we make small talk.


"So Raelyn, I heard Kai asked you to homecoming. That's sweet of him." Raelyn's cheeks automatically turn red from blushing. "I'm so excited, I can't wait for this to become a reality. I've been waiting for this for like, forever." A smile brushes across my face as I listen to one of my best friends experiencing love for the first time. I wish her all of the best.


A minute later, a horn blows and I look out the window to see Aspen's car parked on the road. We walk out of the house and lock the door, right as Aspen comes running towards us and hugging me tightly. Mom unlocks her car and we all get in, she starts it and we pull out of the driveway to get on to the main road.


"Aspen, it's been so long since I've seen you. How have you been?" Mom glances up at the rearview mirror, talking to Aspen. "Oh, I've just been around. Jaxon took me out on a date the other night and I've just been over the moon about that."


"I heard he finally asked you! Took long enough." We all chuckle.