It's Been Ages I Know! But here's- Jared, Chelsea and Felicia

Jared

At first, I thought the hammering on the door were African tribal drums. Random, I know but it was three thirty in the morning and I had been dreaming of beautiful African women.....uh, the dream’s unimportant. What is important are the people who were doing the banging on the door. It was a bedraggled, frightened Phoebe with Connor, who had his arm wrapped around her shoulders so tightly that it looked like he might be hurting her.

“What on Earth?” Maxine padded out of her room.

“What’s wrong, guys?” Phoebe looked like she was about to cry so Connor explained everything.

“So you shoved a marble statue out a window?” I asked, incredulously.

“When you say it like that it sounds idiotic.” Phoebe sniffled.

“And you’re a doctor.” I marvelled. But she looked really upset so I softened my tone. “We can’t leave him on the sidewalk.”

“Of course not.” Maxine scoffed. She laid a reassuring hand on Phoebe’s arm. “It’s okay, darling. We’ll all take care of it.”

Maxine and I quickly changed out of sleeping clothes. All four of us had to lift the statue of the mangled body. I shall spare the gory details but a word of advice, if you’re going to intentionally kill someone, don’t do it with a very heavy statue. Really, it’s just messy. Maxine and Connor seemed surprisingly adept at cleaning up...everything. Luckily for Phoebe and Connor, their window opened onto an alley so there were no passers by. We loaded Stefano and the statue into Connor’s van. Maxine and Connor seemed completely unperturbed by the dead man that was lying in the back. I couldn’t say that I mourned Stefano but he was another human being (no matter how hard that might have been to believe when he was alive) and his death was a tragic accident.

“Couldn’t we just tell someone?” Phoebe sniffled.

“No!” Connor said, sharply. He and Phoebe exchanged a look through the rear-view mirror.

“Sorry.” Phoebe mumbled, looking away. I glanced, quizzically at Phoebe’s turned head. She was staring intently out the window. We reached a deserted parkette that sat on a cliff looking over Lake Ontario.

“Perfect dumping spot.” Maxine crowed. “Come on, help me!” Phoebe was looking paler than the dead guy so Connor instructed her to stay in the car.

“I want to come out; I feel sick.” She said, shivering. I took my jacket off and wrapped it tight around her shoulders.

“Just tell us if you feel faint or anything.” She nodded, weakly. I hurried to the trunk where Maxine and Connor were trying to heave the statue into the garbage bag. Once it was in the bag, it was a matter of dragging it to the precipice without tearing the bag. Phoebe, seeing our struggle, pitched in and the four of us tottered to the edge of the cliff.

“On the count of three.” I said.

“One.” We swung the bag backward. “Two.” Moved it forward. “Three!” And let it fly. And fly it did. Right into the murky waters of the lake.

“How shallow is it here?” Connor suddenly asked.

“Oh, fuck.” We all groaned.

Twenty minutes later, Connor and I had slid to the bottom of the cliff. Maxine and Phoebe were watching, anxiously from the top of the cliff. Well, Phoebe was anxious; Maxine was just calling out unhelpful advice and cackling at our discomfiture. Wading into the water, we looked for the bag. Eventually, it was Connor that found it. Well, he didn’t really find it; he tripped on it and fell into the water. After I finished laughing and Connor had regained what little was left of his dignity, we lifted the bag and heaved it further. Satisfied that it had reached a depth where it wouldn’t be found, we began our slow trek to the shore.

Chelsea

“Wow, it feels weird actually taking you out on date.” Carson joked. I laughed.

“It feels different to be dating someone other than Colton.”

“Is it weird?”

“No.” I smiled at him. “Just different.” He returned my smile, reassured.

“Chelsea!” What on Earth?

“Kirk?”

“Carson!” Carson looked distinctly uncomfortable at the sudden appearance of Kirk.

“What are you doing here?” I snarled.

“What? Can’t a guy come to a fancy restaurant without being questioned?” He sat down at the table right beside us.

“Not when it’s the same restaurant as your best friend’s ex-girlfriend.”

“Ex-fiancée.” He corrected me. “Though not really ex, am I right?”

“Shut up, Kirk.” Carson looked at me funny. “You know what? I’m not that hungry anymore, Carson.”

“Okay, let’s go.” He said, warily.

“You didn’t tell him about the susp-” He didn’t get to finish his sentence because I flung my ice water in his face. I swung around to Carson and yanked him me, pressing my lips against his. Leaning back, I glanced at Kirk.

“Tell Colton about that.” With that, I flounced out of the restaurant.

Felicia

I was curled up in a ball on the couch. The house was empty, everyone having something better to do on a Friday night. I didn’t care. I worked so hard throughout the week that I was kind of glad that Neil wasn’t here, pawing at me. There was a marvellous chick flick on and I had a piping hot cup of soup. I had just settled myself in my blanket when someone knocked on the door.

“For fuck’s sake.” I grumbled. “People have the worst timing.” I padded over to the door and opened it. “Hi, Grant.”

“Hi, Felicia.”

“What’s up?” I gestured for him to follow me inside. He did, closing the door behind him.

“I was wondering. Is Adriana here?” I shot him a sly look.

“Why?” He shrugged, blushing.

“No reason.” I felt an inexplicable surge of anger at his innocent crush.

“Why do you like her? Like, honestly! She’s not beautiful. She’s certainly not nice. So what is it?” He looked rather surprised at my sudden outburst. “Sorry.” I mumbled, embarrassed.

“I don’t know what it is....”

“You don’t have to answer.” I said, apologetically. “I’m just so sick of seeing nice guys being crushed by her.” Grant was still thinking. “You want some wine?”

“Oh, I don’t drink.” I stared at him, incredulous.

“How do you survive?”

“Quite well, thanks.” He replied, earnestly. I looked at him, trying to figure out whether he was nuts or just plain stupid. He returned my gaze with sweet, gentle brown eyes. I shrugged and shuffled back to the couch.

“I think I like her-”

“Seriously, Grant. Don’t put so much thought into it; it was just an outburst.”

“But I want to answer.”

“Oh...then go ahead.”

“I like her because she makes me feel like the only man alive.” He said after a moment’s thought. Adriana did have a knack for doing that. Glancing at him again, I smiled a little.

“Well, Grant. I think you deserve to be with someone who believes with her whole heart that you are the only man alive for her.” He turned to me and smiled, brightly and my stomach twisted a little.

“Thank you, Felicia. That’s really nice.”

“Call me Felcy.” I mumbled, blushing. “Would you like to stay for dinner?”