Everly wiped the tears from her eyes and blinked several times, taking a deep breath and gripping the steering wheel tight, doing her best to focus on the interstate in front of her and not on the thoughts haunting her mind of her boyfriend having sex with her best friend. The thought of them together made her feel sick and angry and hurt, and she was struggling to concentrate on the road, especially since she had already been driving for twelve hours straight and was physically and emotionally exhausted.
How could they do this to her? The two most important people in her life. She sobbed as fresh tears filled her eyes, looking over at the directions on her cell phone and groaning with disappointment when she saw that there was still over an hour left before she would make it to New York City. It felt like she had been driving forever. She didn't know how much more she could take.
She had been crying on and off for most of the trip, definitely not what she had imagined her drive to NYU being like since she had been dreaming about this day since she was in middle school. She was finally getting out of her small hometown in Illinois and chasing her dreams of living in New York City, but instead of being filled with excitement, all she could do was cry.
That made her even more angry and bitter that he had stolen this moment from her, what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life. Her phone rang interrupting her thoughts and she wiped her eyes and took a deep breath before she answered it.
"Hey Mom," she said, doing her best to sound normal.
"Hey sweetie. How are you doing?"
"I'm fine," she said with an exhale. "Still driving. I've got a little over an hour left."
She lied and said she was fine because she didn't want her Mom to worry. She had a tendency to overreact and if she knew she had been crying for hours straight she would probably make her come back home. The truth was, she wasn't fine at all. She was in shock and felt like her whole world had just fallen apart.
"Honey, I'm worried about you," her Mom said softly. "After everything that just happened with Brad and Amber are you sure you still want to go to NYU? You'll be so far away, all by yourself."
"Yeah I'm sure Mom," she said, taking a deep breath and letting it out. "I won't be all by myself. I'll have my roommate and hopefully I'll make some friends. And even if I did want to come home, which I'm not saying I do, there's no way I could give up a full-ride to NYU. I'm not letting those two take that away from me."
There was a long pause and then she heard her Mom sniffle into the phone before saying, "I still can't believe Brad did that to you with Amber. I never saw that coming in a million years."
Brad was like a second son to her parents so it didn't surprise her that her Mom sounded almost as heartbroken as she was.
"I can't believe it either," Everly said with a sigh.
She heard a ding and looked down to see the orange gas icon lighting up on the dash. "Shoot, I've gotta stop for gas Mom, so I've gotta go. I'll text you when I've made it there. Love you."
"Love you too honey."
Everly pulled her rental car over at a gas station and filled up for the last time on the ridiculously long trip. The August heat was sticky and unbearable so she pulled her long, brown hair up off of her neck into a ponytail before going inside and buying a large can of red bull to help her stay awake for the last hour she had left.
She had rented a car to make the drive from Illinois to NYU because that only cost thirty bucks plus the gas which was cheaper than the cost of a plane ticket. Her family was strapped for cash so every little bit that could be saved helped. Normally she didn't mind driving, but right now, having to sit in a car for that many hours, unable to escape her thoughts was like a cruel and unusual form of torture.
The Red Bull helped perk her up and she got back in, driving with a new determination. When she finally got close enough to see New York City and the line of towering skyscrapers she was in awe, staring with her mouth gaping open. The skyline was even more massive than it looked on TV and she finally started to feel excited. She couldn't believe she was actually here, New York City!
Suddenly she felt wide awake and a surge of energy and adrenaline rushed through her. She squealed with excitement, turning the radio up loud and singing along, smacking the steering wheel a couple times and bouncing in her seat. She had been dreaming about this day for years and it was finally here.
She had never been to a huge city like this before and she knew living here would be way different than living in her boring, tiny hometown of twenty five thousand people, where the most exciting thing that happened was when they finally got a movie theater.
As she got closer to downtown the terrible traffic dampened her spirits and knocked some of the wind out of her sails. The traffic here was not something she was excited about. After sitting in a bumper to bumper traffic jam for two hours, getting honked at for not being able to move and hearing people behind her yelling obscenities at the top of their lungs to no one in particular, she realized it was a good thing she didn't have a car of her own to bring to New York City. Driving in this was not something she wanted to deal with on a regular basis. Her new roommate was from New York and she had told her she could get around just fine using the subway, Uber and buses.
After finally returning the rental car, Everly stepped outside into the sunshine and was struck by the smell of car exhaust that hit her nose and the loud sounds of horns honking, sirens and the chatter of the floods of people walking past. New York City was SO loud ..... and stinky. She became aware that she was standing in the middle of the sidewalk when she got bumped into by several people and she was surprised that not a single one stopped to say they were sorry.
She finally made it to the other side of the sidewalk and put her arm out and tried to wave down a taxi a few times but it was an epic fail. They drove right past without slowing down.
"I'm gonna be stuck on this sidewalk forever," she grumbled, dropping her arms in a huff.
She pulled out her cell phone and looked up walking directions to her dorm building and found out it was only a twenty minute walk.
"Looks like I'm walking," she said, rolling her eyes and throwing her large duffel bag over her arm and pulling up the handle of her huge suitcase, that very thankfully had wheels. She looked down at her ballet flats, wishing she had chosen tennis shoes, but she couldn't stop in the middle of this crowded sidewalk to get them out of her suitcase.
She passed by a man sitting cross legged on the sidewalk with a sign that said, "Please help. Wounded veteran with no home and no food."
"Oh my gosh! That's so sad," she said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a five dollar bill and dropping it into his hat. She had never seen a homeless person before. They didn't have those back home. She noticed all the other people were walking right past him without even giving him a second glance and that was so sad. All these people were in such a hurry that they couldn't even stop to notice a person in need.
She carried on walking and by the time she got to her dorm building she was panting and sweating from the August humidity, her feet were killing her and her shoulder hurt from lugging her heavy duffel bag. Now she was really thankful her huge suitcase had wheels. She was also relieved to finally walk through the double entrance doors of her dorm into the air conditioning.
The lobby was nice and modern and there were three different sitting areas with leather couches surrounding big screen TV's full of students chatting. There were also two pool tables and she noticed a decent-sized kitchen, laundry room and a tiny gym as she passed by on her way to the elevators. She rode the elevator up to the 6th floor and when she finally got to her room and went through the door her new roommate Monroe bounded across the room and welcomed her with a big, tight bear hug.
"Everly! It's so nice to finally meet you!" Monroe said, with a smile, stepping back from the hug. She felt like a friend more than a stranger because they had gotten their room assignments a month ago and had already had a few Facetime calls to talk about furniture and who was bringing what and just to chat and get to know each other.
Even though her appearance had been alarming at first Everly found out pretty quick that she was a sweetheart on the inside. Monroe was a gothic rocker chick with spiky, platinum blonde hair, thick black eyeliner and eyebrows and a large lip piercing.
She was wearing very short black shorts with ripped fishnet stockings and a ripped Nirvana t-shirt that showed her cleavage and black combat boots. She had told Everly on one of their calls that she was the lead singer of a Grunge rock band that played Nirvana covers a lot.
"Welcome to New York City, country girl. I'm going out if you wanna come along? My band has a gig tonight and the bartender will hook us up with free drinks."
"I would, but I just drove thirteen hours from Illinois and I'm completely exhausted. I'll take a raincheck though," she told her as she grabbed the sheets and blankets out of her suitcase and quickly made her bed. She had just kicked off her shoes and laid down when she heard her phone ding.
She picked it up and saw a text from Brad, the last person in the world she wanted to talk to right now.
'I'm so sorry. I was an idiot please call me.'
"Ugh" she groaned, rolling her eyes and throwing her phone down on the side table.
Monroe laughed. "I take it that text was from someone you really like," she said sarcastically.
Everly laughed before rolling over and facing her roommate, her smile slowly fading.
"Actually I love him," she said sadly. "And I hate him."
"I've got some time if you want to talk about it," Monroe said, laying on her own bed, facing Everly.
Everly let out a sigh as she looked over at her phone and said, "That text was from Brad. He's been my best friend since we were seven and my boyfriend since we were 14. Up until two days ago I thought he was the love of my life and the man I would marry one day."
"Why? What happened two days ago?" Monroe asked, completely bought into this story already.
"He had sex with my best friend."
Monroe's jaw dropped and she gasped.
"What?! No! You're kidding!" she said with wide eyes.
"I wish I was. It's a long story," Everly sighed.
"Well I've got time and I've been told I'm a really good listener."
Brad: