New Beginnings.

10

"Stacia?" I groaned, flopped on our now assembled sofa. She stood in the kitchen, guzzling some water.

"What?" Did I mention she was quite crabby from all the manual labor?

"I think I'm going to call the furniture guy and let him help us with the rest. It's past dinner time, and we have class tomorrow." I whined, pulling the paper out of my pocket.

"What?! No! I will call Derrick; he and Liam can come help. Two guys are better than one, and you need to face Liam." She came over, standing in front of me, with hands-on-hips.

"I can't, Stace. What am I supposed to say to him? Sorry, I'm a loser, and I don't want you to feel pity for me?" I ran my hands through my hair, redoing my ponytail, huffing at her. Thinking about him hurt way more than it should, especially for knowing him for three days.

"No, explain to him that you've had a rough past; you might need to take things slower or different and let him in, for Christ's sake, let someone other than me, in." She plopped down next to me, putting her hand on my knee.

"I don't want to do that, at least not right now. I just want our house in order so I can start college tomorrow, fresh and ready." I looked at her pleading.

"Fine, call the damn guy. He better not charge extra for this cause I won't pay on it." She went into the kitchen. "I'm going to make a pizza."

"Okay." I giggled, heading to get my phone. When I picked it up, it was vibrating with a call, Liam. I just stared at it. The guilt was overwhelming. I slid the decline tab and went to call Gage. He was happy to hear from me and more than willing to come help. Of course, there was no extra charge for his service; it was merely a favor for a pretty girl, as he put it. I returned to the kitchen and joined Stacia.

"Well?"

"He's coming. Should be about 15 minutes." I shrugged, biting into an apple.

"You're lucky I love you." She leaned on the counter over to me, pointing her finger at my face.

"I know, I am."

"Just know I'm not letting you off this easy again, though." She messed up my hair, which she knew I hated.

Just as the oven timer went off, signaling the pizza was ready, there was a knock at the door. I went to answer it as Stacia went to get the pizza. I opened the door, and there stood Gage in his model-like glory. He wore a blue polo shirt with dark jeans and back Adidas sneakers. His smile was wide and revealed perfectly white teeth.

"I'm here to help!" He sang, holding up a tool bag.

"Thank you for coming." I let him in. "Hungry?" I offered toward the pizza.

"Oh, no, I'm good. Thank you, though."

"Stacia, this is Gage, Gage, this is Stacia." I introduced them.

"Nice to meet you." She smiled, shaking his hand.

"So, which piece would you like me to start on?" He asked, looking around. "Looks like you got a good start."

"Well, you don't have to do it by yourself. We'll help. Our beds would be great." I smiled.

"Nonsense, I'll get started; eat your dinner. Which room first?"

"The one on the left, I guess?" I shrugged, looking at Stacia.

Stacia cut us our slices and got drinks out for us; we sat at the counter eating, barely speaking due to our eating's ravenous nature. She played on her phone, texting with Derrick and some of our friends back home. I pulled my phone out and decided to read through some of the texts I had been ignoring. A couple was from Taran and one from Millie, looking to hang out again this week. The rest were from Liam and broke my heart.