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| SEASON OF LOVE |
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Tuesday.
20 November 2018.
Los Angeles, California.
Hope slept for half of the day. She'd been out partying so hard and celebrating her birthday that she needed the entire next day to recover. She didn't even wake up until her closest friend, Katherine Adamu, came to her house to see if she were okay because she hadn't heard from her.
"Hope! Hope, where the hell are you?" Katherine called out after letting herself in with the key she'd been provided when she was still Hope's manager. She followed the trail of clothes that led upstairs and held her breath as she pushed the bedroom door open, silently praying she wasn't in bed with another woman.
"Thank God. It's just you," Kat let out a sigh of relief when she saw that it was only Hope cuddled up in her bed naked under the covers.
"Who else would it be?" Hope mumbled.
"You never know. And it's good to see you're still alive after not answering any of my million calls or texts."
"I've been sleeping."
"No shit. You were supposed to pick me up from the airport today, remember? I spent almost $100 on an Uber from LAX to my house. I'd be more pissed if I didn't love you as much as I do."
"Oh shit, I completely forgot. Kat, babe, I'm so sorry."
"Don't be. It was my fault for asking you to pick me up the day after your birthday. I should have known you'd be... well, like this. You look like shit, by the way."
"Gee, thanks. I can always count on you for unsolicited opinions when I'm already at my lowest."
"I've been gone a week and you happened to hit rock bottom? Damn, you really can't survive without me."
"I can't, so you better not leave me again."
"Then it's a good thing I'm not going back home for the holidays this year," Katherine announced as she opened the blackout shades in Hope's room to let some natural light into the dark space.
"What the hell, Kat," Hope grumbled from under her comforter. "Close it."
"I will not. Hope, you need to get up."
"It's 9am."
"It's three in the fucking afternoon," Kat corrected. She then looked down at her watch. "Actually, it's almost four. Your sleep schedule is already shit. You need to get up."
"Why? There's nothing important I need to do today."
"Maybe, but I got you a gift and I want you to open it."
"A gift?" Hope's ears perked up at the sound of a birthday present. She finally peeled the comforter from over her face and peeked out into the brightly lit room. "What is it?"
"I can't give it to you until you get up, shower, and get some food in you."
"On second thought, I'll just get it tomorrow," Hope wrapped her blanket back around her and turned over in her bed so she was no longer facing the windows.
"No, you won't."
Kat took it upon herself to pull the blanket completely off of Hope and pull her up out of the bed.
"I'm doing this because I love you."
"Liar," Hope finally sat up. She decided not to fight with Kat to save her energy. Katherine might be small, standing at only 5'2", but she was quite a force to be reckoned with.
"I never lie. I do love you. And because I love you so much, I can't watch you sit here and let such a beautiful day go by. You get in the shower, and I'll get started on dinner."
"Fine. Now go, please."
"Are you gonna lay back down?"
"And risk having you beat my ass? Absolutely not. I'm heading straight for the shower."
"I always knew you were a smart girl," Kat gave Hope a pat on the cheek before leaving out of her bedroom.
Hope finally got up out of the bed once Katherine left. She brushed her teeth, washed her face, showered, and washed her hair. She cleaned herself from head to toe, washing off every trace of the nightclub she had brought back home with her. She even stripped the sheets on her bed that she had washed just a few days prior and reprimanded herself the whole way to the laundry room for getting in bed without taking a shower the night before.
"It smells good in here," Hope said when she finally made her way downstairs where Kat was still in the kitchen cooking. She didn't even bother to put on real clothes after applying her lotion and body serums. She just pulled on a silk robe and a pair of fluffy socks, and called it a day.
"Thank you."
"You know I'd offer to help, but I can't cook."
"It's fine, I'm almost done anyway. You were in the shower forever."
"Really? It didn't feel that long."
That wasn't true though. Hope knew she was in the bathroom for a while because she'd stayed in the same position for over ten minutes crying under the scorching hot water stream. Of course, she wasn't going to tell her friend that. She didn't need Katherine worrying about her more than she already does.
"Well, you were. The rice is done, I'm just waiting on the stew to finish simmering a bit more. It should only be a few more minutes."
"Then I got it from here," Hope got up to make herself useful. Kat might be there so often that she knows the house like the back of her hand, but she was still a gust in Hope's home. "Go sit down and I'll serve you. I know you had a long day traveling."
"I went home and took a nap before I came over here. I knew I'd need all of my energy to deal with you."
"Don't make me sound so bad."
"You're a handful, Hope. I can only imagine what you were like as a child."
"Worse," she let out a genuine laugh because she was absolute hell when she was younger. "Much worse."
After the stew was done, Hope dished out two plates before bringing them to the dining room table. She then went back to the kitchen to get a bottle of wine and two glasses.
"You sure you need more after last night?" Kat turned up her nose at the bottle of red wine.
"I wasn't drunk," Hope sat it down on the table before taking her seat. "I didn't even drink last night."
"Could have fooled me. Then what the hell happened that had you so out of it?"
"I've just been tired."
"Not sleeping again?" Kat used her hand to cover her mouth so the leftover food wouldn't show as she spoke.
"I never sleep, but this is a different kind of tiredness. This is like mental exhaustion almost."
"What's been going on?"
"I don't even know. I've been working non-stop this whole year trying to get things in order and I think now I'm in need of a—"
"Break," Kat finished for her. "I've been telling you this for a while now. I get that you're working towards certain goals, but what's the point if you don't ever stop to enjoy life along the way."
"Things needed to get done."
"And one of those things is taking care of yourself. You've been slipping, Hope. I've been trying not to say anything about it, but I've been noticing changes in you."
"Like what? What changes?"
Kat silently stabbed at the rice and stew on her plate as she thought about how to answer that question. She didn't want to flat-out tell Hope that she was rapidly losing weight to the point where she looks sickly, so she took a few seconds to formulate a more articulate response.
"You've been more impulsive lately. And you've also been using work and being too busy as an excuse to neglect yourself. I think it's time you take a real step back, Hope. I think it's time you focus on yourself a little bit more. Maybe take a vacation or something. Or finally spend the holidays with your family."
"It's funny you say that because I actually talked to my mom last night. Or, I guess technically this morning."
"What did you guys talk about?"
"She said the same thing. That I should go home for the holidays."
"Okay? And what did you say?"
"I said that I would. I told her I'd spend December in Riverlin with the family."
"That's good!" Kat exclaimed. "It's been what, five years since you've been back? Being home around family for a month might give you that refresh you need to start the new year off on the right foot."
"I said the same thing, but... but there's no way I can avoid... her."
"Oh," Kat whispered because she knew exactly who 'her' was. Kat is the only person she'd told about the first girl she ever loved and consequently the first girl to ever break her heart.
"I'm not sure I'm ready to go home and run into her again. I'm not sure I'm ready to relive the memories of what we had and what I lost."
"Maybe it can also be closure. Maybe going home and seeing her again is what you finally need to move on from it and close that chapter of your life once and for all."
"I wish I didn't have to go alone. I wish I could bring you with me."
"Babe, all you gotta do is ask me. You know I'm here for you no matter what. I've been here since you were scouted in college, and I'll still be here when we're old and our hair is all grey."
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| SEASON OF LOVE |
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authors note:
i added a pic of katherine to the intro chapter so you can visualize what she looks like as you read. also, i'm not officially back lol, but i got a little burst of inspiration to write, so here's a little something :)