Izzy's POV
After dropping off the first week's earning at Brett's, he gave me coke to push for the next. I walked out of his house with a bagful of coke, weed, molly, and even some Xanax. I wasn't knowledgeable in the Xanax department, but he went through the pricing with me so I'd know how much at least to sell it for. I made $700 that first week, and after dropping off the following week I really started thinking about if I actually wanted to stop.
Adding the coke and Xanax into the equation boosted my cut nearly twice over, and I took home almost $1200. The fact that that was only after two weeks was enticing, and the thought of doing it for the rest of the summer was working its way into my head. Even Brett was dumbfounded when I came back the first two times having sold every last pill, nug, and bump.
He offered to keep it up for the rest of summer first, and that's what got the gears turning in my mind. I had Sophie in the car with me after picking up product for week three, and sadly it would be the last week I had with her before she left for vacation with her family. She was packing up and heading back home in the morning, since her flight was tomorrow afternoon. I was honestly jealous, she was going to the Bahamas for a week and just the thought of being at a tropical place like that made me giddy.
"How would you hide it for another month and a half?" She asked, mid conversation about keeping this up. We were almost back to the apartment, and Mike and Ash were both getting rides from her tomorrow so we had one more night all together.
"I don't know. After his birthday I won't have an excuse for being so sneaky. And we still have another week and a half to plan what we're doing as his surprise. It's not going to make sense if I just hand him a guitar after running around like this for almost a month." I explained. She nodded her head in agreement, and we sat in silence as we both thought about what we should do.
"Why don't we just throw him a surprise party and call it a day?" She laughed, but it was honestly a good idea to me.
"I'm actually down for that." I laughed back, and a surprised expression spread across her face. "We can invite Brett and Vanessa and have the whole gang over. I can talk to Brett tomorrow and see if he can think of anyone else from work that would want to come."
"That works. You're going to have to go out and get all the decorations by yourself." She said, and my face screwed into a cringe at the thought of having to deal with it without my partner in crime.
"I'll force Mike to come with me." I told her.
"I thought we weren't telling them anything?"
"I'd rather have him know so he can help me. I'll just threaten him into silence." I laughed.
"Out of all of them, I feel like he wouldn't say anything anyway. It's a surprise party for a reason, you're fucked if you spoil that." She pointed out, and she was right.
"Let's hope and pray." I said, pulling into the drive way and turning back quickly to make sure the bag was still hidden under the sweatshirt.
After the first two weeks I knew I'd be getting more money, so I was planning on using $100 from what I did have in my checking account just so I could order the guitar and get it on time. Sophie and I left the guys in the living room to keep playing their games, and we went into mine and Luke's room to go on my laptop and order it. I ended up giving Brett all the cash while we were there, and he wrote me a check in exchange for it so I could have it in my account to use my card online.
He knew what to do to clean all that money, and now I knew at least who he went to for it. Jesse was probably filtering it through the cracks in the system as we spoke, but I was just glad to have tangible money to use right now. I pulled up the website to order it from, and luckily, they had two left in stock. I quickly put the order through and had it shipped to Sophie's house since it was scheduled to arrive the day after she got back.
The plan was for her to leave and pick up Mike and Ash the second it was delivered, and make their way back here for the party. It all worked out that they'd get here the night before, and I was going to have the guys distract Luke that afternoon so we could set everything up. I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face as I pressed confirm order, though, I was just too excited for when I finally got to hand it to him.
We came back downstairs to make dinner, but when the guys were already up and in the kitchen, I furrowed my eyebrows. I hadn't realized walking in that they were all dressed to go out, and when we walked in they were just sitting around waiting for us.
"Wanna get dinner out?" Luke asked, standing from his spot at the table and pulling me into a quick hug while he kissed the top of my head.
"Yeah, that's fine." I said, looking around at the rest of them to find grins all over their faces. Thankfully, Sophie and I had been out for most of the day already, so we were ready to go.
We piled into my car, but I went out first and moved the stuff from my back seat discretely into the trunk. Luckily, no one noticed the bag as I moved it. I hopped into the passenger seat as Luke took the role of driver, and he rested his hand on my thigh as we pulled out of the driveway.
I ordered a cocktail the second we got to the restaurant, and I was the last one to decide what I wanted to eat like always. The waitress came with a tray full of beer and mixed drinks, and we sat back and sipped after putting in our orders for food. Luke draped his arm around the back of my chair, and I rested the side of my head on his shoulder.
"Can I be cringy for a second and make a toast?" Sophie asked, and we all nodded immediately. "I just wanted to say that I never could have asked for a better group of people to surround myself with. We managed to make up for the horrible start to the summer, and I'm grateful that Izz is here with us." She sent me a small smile, and I returned it. "And also, Ash and I are getting our own place after we graduate, we decided the other day and I just wanted to speak it into existence."
I woohed loudly and clapped my hands together, letting the rest of the guys do the same. We raised all our glasses and clanked them together, laughing and smiling at how wonderful of a moment it was. I saw Ash pull Sophie into his side and kiss her cheek, and it made my heart melt into a puddle. They were so happy together, and if my best friend was happy I was happy.
"Make sure you send postcards from the Caribbean." I said sarcastically, giving her a toothy grin as she rolled her eyes.
"I'll let you know how it is. Maybe you can go for your honeymoon." She shot back, a sly smirk on her face.
We laughed it off, but Luke pulled me closer to him and rested his cheek on the top of my head. Marriage was another topic that was well off our radar, but Luke was about to be 22 and the more I thought about it the more it seemed like it wasn't that far out. Things were happening fast, and we already lived together. Even if you counted the short time we were apart, we'd still only been together for 8 months.
"I'll take you anywhere you wanna go." Luke whispered into my ear, and I couldn't stop the smile that spread over my face. I turned to look up at him and saw the small smirk he had tugging at his lips.
"Is that a promise?" I asked, watching him with a gleam in my eyes as I thought about spending the rest of my life with him. He chuckled and nodded, and he inched his lips toward mine until they were molded together for a short moment.
"I love you so much." He said quietly, rubbing his nose against my cheek after pulling away the slightest bit.
"I love you too." I smiled, but when we heard the awkward cough coming from Ashton we pulled apart completely.
"Oh, I'm sorry did I ruin the moment?" He asked sarcastically, and Luke just picked up one of the celery pieces from the chicken wing appetizer and whipped it at him.
We got our food and ate, continuing to laugh and enjoy each other's company. It was the best way to end things before Mike, Ash, and Sophie all left for a little over a week. Thankfully Calum was still staying with us so he wouldn't have to fly back and forth. I guess his parents were upset that he hadn't spent much time at home this summer, but once he pointed out that it was his last summer before graduating they backed off a bit.
After dinner, we jumped back into my car. I was tipsy, to say the least, so Luke drove. I had three cocktails that were all heavily spiked, so I was in no place to drive. The second we got home, Luke grabbed another beer and started drinking again. We spent the rest of the night playing Cards Against Humanity since Luke stole it from Brett's house, and when we saw that it was almost 3 am we rushed off the bed.
I woke up when Sophie had to in the morning, which was 9. We let the guys sleep for the extra hour while she packed up all her stuff quietly. When she finished she brought her bags down to the living room so we could sneak into the kitchen and make coffee. It was a sunny day today, so we brought our drinks outside and sat on the side deck so we wouldn't have to whisper and risk waking up Mike and Calum.
"Have you talked about marriage yet?" I asked her after getting settled. I placed my mug on the railing in front of me and pulled out a cigarette.
"Not a lot, but yeah." She said, sipping from her cup right after.
"But, like, how serious were the conversations?" I wasn't sure if it was sociably acceptable to be discussing such things at our age, but I guess people get married young all the time.
"I mean, the most serious one was just talking about our timelines. I still want to get my masters so we were just comparing paths." She explained, and I nodded as I thought about the fact that Luke and I never had such conversations. I still wanted to go to medical school, and he never really talked about getting a job with his degree when he graduated. We were kind of avoiding all of that, probably because both of us stressed ourselves out with uncertainties.
"Have you talked about kids?" I asked again, and she furrowed her eyebrows at me as she searched my face.
"What's going on?" She asked suspiciously, and I just turned to face forward.
"We don't talk about any of that. I don't know, I just feel like we're both too scared of life after undergrad that we don't think about it." I told her, reaching over the railing to flick the ash off the end of my cigarette.
"He said something about kids that night at Brett's. You really haven't talked about it other than that?" She took another sip of her coffee as she waited for my response.
"I don't even know if I can have kids, Soph. I don't know how to tell him that." I sighed, already in distress at the thought.
"What makes you say that?" Her confused expression caught me off guard, but I guess I never really did talk to her fully about the whole eating thing.
"I haven't gotten my period in two years." I said, taking a drag so the smoke could flush out the feeling of disgust I had for myself. When I looked back at her I saw it all click in her head, and I knew that she put it all together.
"That's doesn't mean you won't get it again. You still have a few years before you should even think about kids, and you're eating normally now so maybe it'll come back." She said optimistically.
"He obviously wants them, so what if I can't give him any?" I asked, not even really directing the question at her.
"He's not going to leave you for that, Izz. There are other ways to have kids." When the words came out of her mouth I cringed. I didn't want to think about using a surrogate, or adoption, or any other way of having kids that doesn't involve me actually carrying them.
"I just want to give him what he wants." I said quietly, my heart aching at the sheer thought of breaking his own heart with this.
"Why don't you go to an OB and see if they can tell you if you can or not?" She suggested, and I didn't hate the idea. I was just scared to find out one way or another. At least now I didn't know for sure if I was infertile.
"Can you come with me?" I asked, giving her pleading eyes until she rolled hers.
"You can't fucking go anywhere without someone." She laughed, shoving my shoulder lightly. "But, yes, I'll come to the coochie doctor with you." I cringed at the way she said it, and when she saw how uncomfortable she made me she started laughing harder.
"Thanks, I don't know what I would do without you." I said sarcastically, watching as she smiled at me.
"Oh, I already know you wouldn't be getting anything done. You can't even make decisions on your own!" She said, pointing at me while she made fun of me.
"I get it! I'm indecisive and socially inept and you never let me forget it." I laughed, flicking the butt of my cigarette into the little metal bin we had in the corner.
Once the guys woke up and were all packed, we sent them off. It wasn't a difficult good bye this time since they were literally coming back next week, but it was still a boring day after. Luke, Calum, and I just sat around the living room watching TV for hours, and soon enough I was getting a text from Sophie to let me know she was about to board her flight.
We didn't feel like doing anything at all, so wecalled it an early night and went right to bed at 11. I let mine and Sophie'sconversation from this morning take over my thoughts as I laid cuddled up withLuke in bed, and I tried to get myself to not worry until I made theappointment. I was just praying that I would get good news, and that getting healthylike this wasn't too little too late.
A/N
I'm on the last day of working two weeks straight and I'm dying and hurting but I wanted to get at least one chapter out today. I get out at 2:30 but I have to buy hair dye and bleach and fix my hair and my friend is sleeping over for the first time in months so I don't know if I'll get more time than this later.
I don't know if any of you have heard of Brad Mondo but I've been dying my own hair for years so this time I'm actually going to film it and see if he sees it. I kinda wanna know what he has to say about my process lmao. If I actually end up posting it on YouTube I'll put a link in one of the next few author's notes😂
I hope everyone's enjoying this so far!! We're over 700 reads in and I'm thinking that until the completed tag is on this we won't get really that many. I've been thinking a lot about how long to wait to start posting the sequel since I have some chapters of it written already, but I'm rethinking a lot so it might be a little bit in between. I'm not giving up on this series no matter how hectic my life gets though, so hold tight and keep reading!!!!!