Song: Sweet melody - Little Mix
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Hailey
I made my way down the dark streets of Providence, walking fast as my heart pounded harshly and the paper was heavy in my hand. Too heavy for the simple notification it was, but it felt like tones clenching my heart.
Don't cry.
Not now.
The city was getting darker, replacing the daylight by the artificial ones and people in the streets were the busy workers coming back from a long day of work. Like me. Until I found it in my mailbox and decided that my aparment wasn't the right place to go right now.
I fastened my pace, buzzing with an unknown emotion I could barely contain...
Well, no. It wasn't an unknown emotion.
I was mad.
And hurt, anxious, sad and frustrated. And the mix is what I was unable to deal with.
It was eating me from inside and I had to blink my tears when I reached the tall building by the Waterplace Park.
I didn't need to ring as I arrived at the same time a man was exiting and he held it open for me, but I couldn't even manage a smile for him, only a grimace as I bolt to the lift and up to the penthouse.
Kimberly opened with a surprised look and her arms full of clothes. "Have we made plans? Sorry Gracie, but Lavender called last moment and I was heading..." but her voice faltered when she took in a better look of me. "This might sound stupid, but are you okay?"
"No." I pushed my way into her apartment and she closed the door behind me.
Her penthouse was amazing, big for a single apartment, but considering Riley sleeps here most nights and they had adapted the study to be the baby room it wasn't so presumptuous. Large and open with all those windows and the view to the park. Also, she had it decorated perfectly modern and classy, so it showed off her natural glamour.
She moved here right after giving birth last year and she also had rented a more reasonable condo a couple floors below to be her study. And considering her work looks and what she said, that was probably where she was heading. Lavender Scott was one of her most picky clients, high society, and also one of her first ever since she starts the self-taught styling career and that's why Kimmy still put up with her.
I spun when I was in the open living room, before the loft kitchen and L shaped red couch, as she let the cloths over the back of it.
"Look." I waved the paper, feeling the anxiety and hurt overflowing now in the safety of these four walls and under her confused stare. "They- I can't... They can't do this!"
"Do what?" she stepped and took my wrist, stoping my trembling hand and taking the paper from me to read what it said. Her face morphed from confusion and concern to plain disbelief and rage. "Fuck."
"Yes, fuck." I cried, taking it back and looking down at the target, feeling as if my guts were being snatched and butchered while my body still refused to coordinate as a grown-up woman should. I was in shock and those words glaring back at me.
'𝑴𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑮𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒐 𝑻𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒘𝒆𝒅𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈.'
My heart pinched at the beautiful card. It was ivory, with a golden touch and elegant flowers surrounding both names.
Meredith, my cousin Merry.
And Marco, my ex.
My ex was marrying my cousin and they sent me an invitation to the ceremony.
My ex and my cousin. My cousin and my ex.
I was starting to feel the same anxiety as when I found them together two Christmases ago. I'd brought him home to introduce him as my boyfriend, as something stable that was supposed to last and evolve... but by New Year I was suffocating my heartbreak with ice-cream and they were forging what now was about to become a valid engagement.
And they were inviting me to see it.
A shaky breath made it pass my lips. "I can't believe they're doing this to me."
Meredith had never been my favourite cousin. We were both from the same year and that should have made us friends, but with how little we see each other and out crashing personalities it was more like a rivalry.
When we were kids she used to have acne and a big gap between her front milk teeth, then when we grew up, she developed before me and that evened the game, but now? Now that I'd thought we were over this childhood competition she went and...
I glared at the paper in my hand.
Meredith and Marco.
Meredith.
And Marco.
Even their names didn't fit together. There was no harmony in there. No balance and they sounded like a bad joke.
A bad joke that was ending with a wedding and me as a bridesmaid.
"Easy." Kimberly took the invitation from my hand once more and then I realized I was about to crumble it. I had already crunched the left bottom with my clenching grip. "Now let's not give them that pleasure and think this through."
"Think what through?" I laughed, but it sounded like a cry and I slid my fingers through my hair, feeling the thin line separating my sanity and my self-pity began to seem too blurred. "That I'm still single? That they probably invite me out of pity? That my whole family will feel the same because I introduced him as my boyfriend and now they're getting married?"
"You said you were over him. You're better off without him."
"You don't get it." I pressed my eyes tight, feeling the roots of my hair screamed and I forced my hands to let go and try to take a deep breath... without really succeeding. "It's not about him, it's about it. It's humiliating, in so many levels and I... I just- I don't know."
Kimberly looked at me in a weird manner, like panicked and confused at how should she comfort me. As if she didn't know how to react at all.
And I couldn't blame her. It was usually me the one calming things down, and she was the one that encourages my wild part. Her calming me, that wasn't what we were used to and I could tell she was as clueless as I was.
"Gracie..."
Her phone beeped in her pocket, and she took it out, making me realize it had been going on for a while since I was here, but I'd been too off to realize the flow of constant incoming texts. She hesitates, but when it beeped once more she cursed, taking it out.
"Just give me a second, it could be important."
Right, she had things to do and I just barged in here unannounced.
"I'm sorry." I blinked, but tear dropped either way as she frowned at the screen and typed back quickly. "I'm sorry. If you have work-"
"No, no, it's not that." she side-smiled, sending another text. "You know who's moving here-" she looked up the phone and her expression changed at once. "Nevermind." dropping the phone and coming to hug me immediately. "Gracie, come on." I rested my head on her shoulder, letting her unusual embraced and feeling it ease some of my apprehension. "He's a dick... and she's a bitch. And this wedding..."
"It's stupid." I muttered, hating this feeling inside.
I flinched as she pulled away, glancing down at the invitation once more with her pronounced frown as she scoffed. "So stupid." she repeated and shook her head analyzing the paper almost with disgust. "Look at her names, they don't even sound good together, and the request?" her eyes rolled. "We kindly required', bunch of pussies. You got nothing to envy, it looks cheap as hell, and this? In a private house. Who in their right mind wants to marry in a stupid backyard?"
"I do." I sniffled, wiping my eyes ungracefully. "I w-wanted the cheap wedding, in the backyard of my grandparent's old house. On early June... it's my dreamed wedding."
Her eyes squinted, now darker than her black hair and her lips snarled. "What a bitch."
"Can you stop calling her that?"
"Oh, I will." she let me take the card and stuffed in the bottom of my purse, unable to keep looking at it. "When she stops being one. And Marco..."
"He was supposed to be my groom as well." I sniffled, my shoulders slumping and I barely noticed my legs wobbling, but I found myself sitting on the couch. The soft, cold surface kinda grounding me in that cloud of remorse. "They're having my wedding and they're inviting me to see it, Kimmy. It's all my fault."
"What? No." Kimmy came to take a spot beside me.
"I should have seen it coming. I should have."
"Stop." Kimberly smacked my arm with the cute silver handbag.
"Ow." I brushed that spot. "What the hell?" but she hit me again. And again and again.
"Stop it, stop it, stop it already!"
It doesn't really hurt, but it was annoying. After the initial second of shock, I took her hands to stop her dementia. "Kimmy" but she looked mad now.
"I forbid you to sit there and pity yourself."
My jaw dropped a little. "You forbid me?"
"Yes, now snap out of it! You're over it, and they aren't worth all this. If I see you pitying yourself again I'm gonna bitch slap you."
"You wouldn't." but her eyebrows rose and I wasn't that sure of my own statement. "W-well... shouldn't you be comforting me? I need a hug."
Her expression softened, dropping her fist from her hips and stepped closer to do just that. Her phone beeped again and I sighed.
She's busy. As usual, but usually I don't feel like I'm intruding like this.
I pulled away, putting myself back together as well as I could and half expect her to remind me she was doing something. Yet she reacts differently:
"You want to use my hot tub?" she wondered, softer than I ever heard her and her hand brushed my back.
The hot tub. I almost shivered just thinking about it, a good bathing treatment had always been my way of coping with thick situations and her hot tub is heaven for that.
I nodded, sniffling and she pursed her lips. "Okay, here's what we'll do." Kimberly stood and took my arm so I do the same, letting her take us further into the penthouse and pass her large dressing room to the impressive bathroom, where she moved to the upper cabinets. "Here, you can have the good bath salths and I'll leave a nightgown on the door. You're sleeping here tonight."
My heart melted a little at how easily she was adopting me. "And Riley?"
But Kimmy waved, "Riley is busy with his exams and shit and Eli had taken the tyke for the night so feel free to stay and bother all you want. I'll be two floors down if you need me." she moved towards the door but hesitate before exiting. "Or you want me to stay? I mean, I really have to work, but I can also wake up early tomorrow."
"It's alright, thank you. I just need a bath and then I would also try to work a little."
"Cool." but still she didn't look that convinced.
"I mean it." I forced a grin, but couldn't be sure of the outcome. "You can go, I think the worst had already happened."
And it wasn't false. I felt hurt and humiliated, but once the initial shock was fading I felt more angered than hurt. Fuming.
Kimmy still didn't look convinced, but I guess work was urgent and she left, letting me to take a long, relaxing bath; stretching the minutes and trying my hardest not to let this bitterness get a hold on me.
Over an hour after, I was already clean and nested in her king size bed. There was a baby blue crib at its side despites West having his own room next to this huge one. I don't know who was having it harder with this new distribution, the baby or Kimberly.
And I knew without needing to look that the left drawers in the dressing room were fully for Riley's things despites them saying they weren't living together when asked.
Considering how alternative and independent she claimed to be, she was turning out to be more conventional than myself. If it wasn't for the single mom thing, and her dropping out law school to pursue an influencer career. Or for the webcamming...
Okay, she wasn't conventional at all.
But since she's opened the stylish's study and with Riley back from his months boarding in Germany she was a new person. One happier and more focused with what she wanted. And she was succeeding.
I almost smiled to myself, taking out the laptop of my travelling case; glad I always had the charger with me. Usually, after the office work I would just go home and rest, but I couldn't possibly think of it right now. I was afraid my mind would become overwhelmed again if I didn't keep myself busy and either way I needed to end this week's article before Wednesday.
Working at a tabloid wasn't exactly my ideal job when I graduated, but until I prove my worth and find the right job, this one wasn't that bad, it was kinda well paid and allowed me some freedom. With my working hours, that was it. Not with what I write. Me and another girl were in charge of the gossip section and this week I was covering some celebrity new couple.
How am I supposed to write about a new romance when I felt like that term doesn't even exist?
Well, I flexed my fingers, getting ready to type away, let's be professional about this.
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We're back bitches!
Today it's been officially a year since I finished the first book. WOW! I'm so excited to write about Hailey and Nate again! I hope you are as well and that you have liked it. Let me know what you think. I'll be dying to read it <3
Hailey Grace (Barbara Palvin)
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