Old Friends 4 Sale (BOOK 2) || PRN

One | Heartbreak and Hennessy

The clock on the wall reads 11:32 AM as I mange to slip back into my home, doing my best to keep as quiet as I possibly can with the assumption that my boyfriend is sleeping in our upstairs bedroom. A low creek whispers from the hinges of the door as I skillfully shut it behind me with a gentle push. The overcast of the clouds soon to bring us more snow combined with my heavy velvet drapes darken the room that I am stepping into. This would be why the voice that appears from the chair ten feet away from me causes me to nearly jump out of my frosty skin.  

"Look who's finally home." The slurred sentence that greets me from the door has cognac written all over it. How fast Omar's bad habits have been multiplying never ceases to amaze me. He's a completely different person now. 

"You got a lot of nerve," I mumble, putting my coat on its hook as I remove my snow covered boots from my size eight feet. "Why are you drinking? It's 11:30."

"It's a party in my mind," he says from the couch without moving a single limb. A simple roll of my eyes occurs as my legs guide my body up the stairs. I struggle to find the energy to deal with him as my mind remains far too preoccupied. Last night's realization is still too fresh on my mind.

"She said..."He picked up the bag of Doritos and pulled them open. Dropping them between us, his hand went inside first. "She said that she didn't trust me." I didn't say anything just yet. I just listened. "She said she loves me, but she can't trust me and that makes her uncomfortable. I told it'd be different but she don't believe me, I guess."

"You know I'm always on your side, right?" I dropped my last chip in my mouth, running my cheesy fingers along the side of my pajamas pants. Then, I ripped the bandaid off. "But you gotta realize that she sees you. Hell, even I see you." Smacking his lips was how he prepped me for his interruption but I didn't stop. "You see yourself too. Do you know how many times you've ended up in a magazine smiling with somebody else in the last six months?"

Excuses started flying.

"So I can't have friends anymore because she's feeling insecure?" My head dropped, lips pouting as they lifted to my nostrils. "No?" Is he kidding me?

My lips fell as I shook my head. "Prince..."

"I'm not saying I'm perfect. Nobody's perfect, especially me," I watched him explain. "I'm not even saying I'm always on my best behavior. What I'm saying is, I've always had friends that were women. Making it a problem because she's insecure ain't fair."

Shrugging, I sighed,"Jealousy is the drive to insecurity. Insecurity sparks more jealousy."

"Who taught you that? Omar taught you that?" Even on his worst day he had something smart to say. He never missed his chance to get a sly jab in.

Trying to play it cool as I walked into my new feelings, I had to keep Prince at an arm's length and react the same way I would have three months prior. "Don't play me, Prince."

Moments with him replay in my mind all of the time. It's a fairly large pill to swallow when you realize you've got an attractive best friend of the opposite sex. It's an even larger pill to swallow when you don't know if that attraction's been there the whole time or something just possessed you to want to make nonstop love to him. Would he go for it? If I left Omar right now, would Prince want me? Would we even be compatible? Is the chemistry there or is it all in my head? Am I attracted or is he just attractive?

Confusion.

"I'm tired of you walking away from me!"

I'm ignoring him. He's got the number one spot of my hit-list and if he isn't careful then he may find a broken record being held against his neck. Ear to ear. If he keeps fucking with me, the slice will stretch from ear to ear. What I am not in is the mood for him to be bitching when I am trying to get into the door.