the beautiful and damned - h.s.

one

"the truth is, i am a toy that people enjoy"
- liability, lorde

𝐉𝐎𝐘𝐂𝐄 𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐍𝐒

"How was work today? You guys had that big showcase right?"

I nodded my head, smiling at Nellie, "Yeah, the turnout was great! We got a lot of great donations! Lots of animals got adopted too!"

"Joy! That's great!" she cheered, "Wait! We need to celebrate!" she gasped latching onto my arm violently.

I rolled my eyes jokingly, grabbing my coffee from the counter of the café Nellie and I stopped at. "You're just looking for any excuse to go out and get drunk" I pointed out.

Nellie grabbed her own coffee when her name was called and shrugged, "That may be true but c'mon! You haven't been out with us in ages!" she whined.

"Because you know it's not my thing..." I started, "But I guess it won't hurt just this once. It could be kinda fun. I'll ask Oli later if he wants to come" I shrugged.

Nellie's expression at the moment was speechless, maybe combined with a little shock because she probably thought I wouldn't agree to go out.

But like I said, it wouldn't hurt because I knew how much both Nellie and Oli have been trying to get me out of the house to get my mind off a few things. Though, the bonus tonight is the fact that we're going to be celebrating the new donations the research lab at the aquarium got.

I had just gotten off of work when Nellie asked if I wanted to meet up for a quick cup of coffee since we haven't been seeing each other as much. But I didn't blame her, I had witnessed firsthand how busying event planning could be, especially since she recently took on a project for a big company.

I suppose this night could be fun as well since it was the first time in a while Nellie, Oli, Alex and I would be hanging out together after a long period of not doing so. We were all at a pretty busy place in each of our lives recently. Nellie was busy with her event planning while Alex was trying to manage everything at his new shop whilst Oli had been prepping like crazy for his new school year.

Then you had me who was so caught up at shelter and caring for the new animals we constantly got, I barely ever spent the night at home. Although, I knew the countless sleepless nights spent at the shelter weren't the only thing keeping me away from going home so often.

"So can you text Oli soon so we can figure out rides and such! Aghh! I haven't been this excited since Alex proposed!" Nellie said dramatically.

"I'll be sure to let him know that" I laughed and pushed open the door to the coffee shop so we were stood just outside.

"Eh, it's fine I'm sure he's-" but Nellie suddenly went quiet when her phone started ringing, reaching into her coat pocket to pull it out. One look, I already knew it had something to do with her company's latest project as Nellie groaned dramatically before answering the phone.

I watched her silently converse with the person on the other line, sipping on my coffee every so often before she threw her hands up in the air, "You can wait there! I'm on my way! I swear to god don't you dare hang up on me or I will- ok they hung up" she scowled.

I looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to tell me what had happened with the renovations now.

"Apparently some intern ordered the wrong colour for the centrepieces! How do you even mistake gold for orange!" she said muttering angrily, looking back down at her phone before dialling another number, I assumed to be Alex.