Stella’s point of view.
“Darling, I’m home” I announced as soon as I entered our apartment, my eyes quickly scanned the living room searching for Megan…but she was nowhere to be found.
“Great, I thought I’d have to come down there and bloody pull you out of his car” she answered.
And my eyes immediately traced the sound of her voice (although, it wasn’t dark in here), and I saw her standing by the window, with her arms crossed on her chest, a deep frown on her face and her eyes narrowed as she stared, no, she glared outside the window.
I knew at once that she must have seen Jimmy and me together… And as we all know, she doesn’t hide her dislike towards him.
“What are you doing standing there?” I asked as I approached her, tactically changing the topic by the way.
She simply huffed at my words. “You’re just trying to change the topic” she turned away from the window and faced me. “It’s better that way, I don’t want to talk about that smooth criminal”
“Smooth criminal?” These words sounded so familiar, like I’ve heard someone say it before.
Meg sighed when she noticed the confused expression.
“They are words from Michael Jackson’s song, and they perfectly define your pretentious, lying motherf**ker of a friend” she snarled.
“Oh” I chuckled at her reaction as she said this.
Her jaws were clenched, with her teeth gnashing tightly together, and her fists clenched by her sides… I could understand her frustration at this moment.
She must be thinking I’m being blinded by my kind heart, and I can’t see Jimmy’s dark side.
“He hasn’t done anything evil to me, I can’t just cut him off like that”
“We don’t have to wait until he does something evil, Ella” she said, pushing her head back. “He is bad news, you must trust me on this”
“Fine” I agreed with her to end the argument. “How is your ankle?” I asked, putting an arm around her shoulders to support her as we walked towards a sofa in the living room.
“It’s good” she shrugged my arms off her and walked towards the sofa on her own -although, she was still leaping a bit.
“Let me see” she has slumped on the sofa by now.
I stopped in front of her, I dropped to my knees and reached for her leg, then gently placed it on my lap, and began studying it to see if it’s made any healing progress.
And from what I can see it’s doing well so far. The swell is gone, and she doesn’t flinch when I touch it.
“Thank God” I said.
I gently placed her leg on the table, and got up. My eyes located the wall clock, a gasp left my mouth when I realized it’s almost 5pm…I can’t believe I spent so much time at my audition.
“What do you want to eat for dinner?” I asked her as I approached the kitchen.
“Can I eat Jimmy’s liver and kidneys?”
“Ha-ha, that’s hilarious, Miss Alessandro” I sarcastically commended her.
“What? I don’t like him” she defended her.
“You know what?”
“What?”
“Here’s a plot twist” I’m currently in the kitchen, checking our fridge to see what I can cook from our food stuffs left. “Jimmy might happen to be a good guy all this time, and you two might end up being together”
“Oh, Jesus Christ, no” she rebuked my plot twist immediately. “Now, this is when I’ll start fasting and praying for God to take his soul”
I laughed loudly because she sounded and looked funny.
“You’re so cruel”
“Yeah, I’m cruel to the people I don’t like” she replied.
“Now be serious, what do you want for dinner?” I asked as I walked back to her with a glass of water in my right hand, and a bowl of cereal in my left hand.
I placed them on the table, then slumped on the sofa next to hers and began eating my cereal.
“Curry” she answered my question. “Chicken curry”
“Hm” I simply hummed since my mouth was full.
Meg reached in my purse, pulled out my phone, opened it and began playing subway surf.
Just then, my mind flashed back to the gala Jimmy invited me to attend with him.
“Right, we will both go for clothes shopping tomorrow”
“Why?” she asked, her attention wholly on the game.
I dropped my cereal, reached for my purse and pulled out the invitation card and threw it on her lap. She groaned, displeased at the fact that she’s going to pause her game.
She paused it anyway, and grumpily snatched the invitation card, quickly but carefully ripped it open, and read through for a while.
“You were invited to a charity gala?” she asked, even though it was clearly written there.
“Yup” I answered anyway.
“You’re someone’s plus one, I guess”
“Yeah”
“Who?” she asked, then quickly added. “I think I already know…Jimmy, right?”
“Yup” I answered with a nod, to which she rolled her eyes and tossed the card on the table immediately, as though it had just burned her.
“I keep telling to steer clear of that guy, he’s bad news”
Oh, no… Not the Jimmy talk again.
“Can we just stop talking about how evil he is for five minutes?”
“No, we can’t because you would rather not listen”
“Meg, I…”
“And now you’re going to some gala with him, who knows what he’s planned ahead for you”
I leaned closer to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, but before I could speak, she spoke again.
“Let’s talk about what happened at Joan’s, his friend was…”
“Calm down, Meg!” I screamed over her voice, and she kept quiet at once.
I scooped a spoon of cereal and shoved it in her mouth.
“I’ll be careful around him, I promise”
She didn’t say anything, she simply stared at me and let me have it my way -mainly because she couldn’t speak, though.
••••••
Third person’s point of view.
*Claudia’s Penthouse – 04:57pm**
“Maybe I should come over tomorrow, and we will go the mall and get you a nice dress” Samantha, Claudia’s mother, said.
Claudia threw her head back, it’s obvious from her expression that she is tired of her mother’s presence.
“Mom, you really have to stop worrying yourself”
“Of course, I can’t stop worrying because you’re going to be appearing with Ferguson publicly for the first time, and…”
She paused, and reached for Claudia’s hands and held them tenderly.
“… you are staking a claim on him in front of the whole world, you must look good to avoid tongues from wagging” she explained to which Claudia nodded in understanding.
“I have everything under control, mom. Trust me, I’ll look fantastic, and I will be the envy of every woman”
“Are you sure?”
Claudia nodded. “I’m a hundred percent sure” she got up and gently helped her mother up too. “Now, it’s time for you to go home and cook dinner for dad”
Her mother checked her wristwatch, and her eyes widened in disbelief. She couldn’t believe she had spent so much time here.
“I will face time you tomorrow and see what you get”
“Ok”
She walked her mother to the door, gave her a goodbye kiss and waited until she entered the elevator, before going back in her house.
“Finally, some peace and quiet” she breathed out in relief as she slumped onto a sofa.
•••••
*Later That Evening – 06:01pm**
Claudia danced to Justin Bieber’s “Baby” as she dried her wet hair, she had just finished taking her bath.
Then the phone’s ringtone suddenly blared loudly, interrupting her music, for which she grunted in irritation and threw a harsh glare at the phone.
But she hurriedly wore her hairband and rushed to receive the call so that she could go back to her music in time. A smile broke on her face when she realized it was Rita face timing her.
“Hey, girlie?” Rita’s voice came through, immediately she (Claudia) answered the call.
“Hey” Claudia replied tiredly, yet enthusiastically.
“You look tired” Rita stated.
“Yeah, my mom was with me since morning and I just managed to sent her home” Claudia replied.
Rita gave her a sympathetic stare, then clapped her hands as though a brilliant thought just stroke him.
“I have a perfect way to make you happy right now”
“Care to share?”
“My friend, Tiffany, and I are going to the mall tomorrow to get some clothes… Why don’t you come with us?”
Claudia’s eyes light up.
“Really?”
“Yeah, it’ll help relieve some stress, and also, you can just get a nice dress that will sweep my brother off his feet at the gala”
Claudia’s nodded quickly, her smile widened even more at Rita’s idea.
“Great. Tiffany and I will pick you up tomorrow”.
“Okay”
“Good night, then”
“Good night, Rita”
They both hung up, and Claudia couldn’t help doing a happy dance.
“I’ll have you wrapped around my little finger soon, Ferguson. You’re mine” she said as she started in the mirror, as though Ferguson was standing in front of her.