Sammy and I met up to check out apartments. We ruled out her apartment complex in Arlington just because it was too far out for me. Dallas and Fort Worth are the major cities. A lot of smaller cities and suburbs comprise the rest of the Metroplex. Arlington is a city close to Fort Worth. Sammy and I both work in Dallas and I really don't want to be that far from my friends and family. Trevor and Cam both live in Plano, a city close to Dallas; Rocky's house is in North Dallas; and Ethan lives in Carrollton, a suburb of Dallas. We decided to look for apartments closer to Dallas instead.
We narrowed it down to the city of Addison. It was right in the middle of everyone. It's a cool city that has a little bit of everything. Upscale shopping and living, and a great night life scene; but it also has parks and beautiful residential communities. I think it was a perfect location for us, and thankfully, Sammy agreed.
The first apartments we looked at are luxurious apartments in Addison Circle. Most the festivals and events that happen in Addison take place in Addison Circle. The complex itself is surrounded by office spaces, small businesses, and shops. The amenities are out of this world. Renting the apartment comes with full access to 2 fitness centers, resort style pools, a private theater, and a game loft. It was expensive, but you definitely get what you pay for. The apartment itself was awesome. It had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and an upgraded kitchen. They have a waiting list but assured us they should have apartments available in October. The second one we ruled out. It's nice, but tiny. The one that was available only has 1.5 bathrooms. Neither one of us wants to compromise on that and there are no washer/dryer connections. That was not a problem for Sammy. She doesn't have a washer and dryer anyway, but I was used to being able to wash at home. I planned to buy a washer and a dryer for wherever we moved to.
The 3rd is a townhome located near a city park. For the same price of the first apartment, we get a two story apartment, both bedrooms on the top floor (with their own bathrooms!), with 2 living areas, a large patio, a fireplace and a two car garage; and full size washer/dryer connections! It doesn't have the same amenities as the first apartment, but it has a pool with a sun deck, tennis courts, and picnic and bbq areas. I was in love with it. I thought it was perfect. The only thing that gave me pause was the bedrooms being so close together. I remembered Rocky's comment about looking forward to hearing Sammy have sex. I guess that's what ear plugs are for.
Sammy likes the amenities and the location of the first one better. The leasing agent informs us that the townhome will be ready first thing in July and they have a tendency to rent fast. That sold it for Sammy. She doesn't want to wait until October. We go ahead and fill out an application.
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After that, I went home. I was surprised to see Brandon, Rocky and EJ playing outside. Apparently, Megan had an appointment, so Brandon was babysitting until Ethan came to pick him up. I went inside, changed my clothes, and joined them outside with a cut up watermelon. I set it on the patio table. EJ came running over and inhaled a piece before asking for another. After he devoured that one, he ran back to grab the football. We all watched him in amazement.
"If anyone ever questions his blackness because of his skin tone, just put a watermelon in front of him..." Brandon joked.
Rocky and I laughed. We all continued to play catch with the football. Brandon threw a long pass to EJ. He caught it and ran to the fence.
"All right! Touchdown!!!" We cheered for him.
"Oh yeah!!" EJ celebrated, throwing down the football and shaking his shoulders in a wild dance.
"That's right homie. Shake 'em off." Brandon laughed at him, joining in the dance.
"That's horrible!" Rocky laughed.
"Yeah, your touchdown dance needs work." I commented, smiling at them.
"Would you rather him dance to Shipoopi?"
I turned around to see Ethan at the gate entrance of the backyard. "OMG, did Ethan Carter just reference Family Guy?!?!" I exclaimed, in a valley girl accent. "I can totally die happy right now! Like, you learned something from me!" I grinned.
Ethan smiled as he entered the backyard with us. "What's Family Guy?" EJ asked.
"A show for grownups." Ethan answered him.
"What episode was that?" Brandon asked.
"When Peter joins the New England Patriots. He scores a touchdown, and they all dance to Shipoopi. Do the dance with me Rocky!" I said, excitedly.
"I will not."
"You will or I will call Trevor and we will upload the footage of you doing it." I threatened. In college, we watched the episode together. Then Rocky got drunk one night at a party and busted it out. Bilal put it on Facebook until Rocky sobered up and saw it. She threatened us all bodily harm if we didn't delete it.
"Good luck with that. I made sure to watch y'all delete it."
"You watched one copy of it being deleted...." I replied.
"I hate you." Rocky said, but she got up and did it with me. We were all laughing by the end of it.
We decided to have dinner together. Brandon left to go pick something up. Things were a little tense when Rocky said she wanted to go with Brandon. Brandon made a comment about not needing her help to bring home food. I was waiting for Rocky to snap back, but she just said, "Whatever" and went in the house and Brandon left.
Me and Ethan just looked at each other. What the fuck was that? EJ went inside to use the bathroom, leaving Ethan and I alone.
"It's good to see you. I feel like it's been forever." I said, when EJ went inside.
"I know. You've been keeping busy. How was your trip to Austin?" He asked.
I smiled, pleased that he was keeping up with what I was doing on social media, even though he didn't like or comment on my posts. "Yeah, it was good. Nice to kinda physically get away from everything. It put things in perspective."
"And what's your perspective?" Ethan asked me.
"Hmmmm, still working on that, but I did talk to my brother. We are working on our relationship."
Ethan nodded. "That's good to hear."
EJ then came back outside and ate more watermelon. He started talking to us about his birthday party coming up.
"We got the invitations yesterday. I invited the whole soccer team, even though I don't like Caleb and Miguel. I invited my friends from school."
"Am I going to get an invitation?" I asked him, smiling.
"Yes! You've never been to my birthday party before. It's going to be fun!" EJ promised.
"I've been to your party before, you don't remember?" I asked him. He looked at his dad for confirmation. In that moment, I instantly regretted that I even brought it up.
"Yes. Your 5th birthday. We had it at home. It was a Cars Party." Ethan said, looking at EJ only. I couldn't tell if it was because he doesn't want to remember that memory either.
"Oh yeah." EJ nodded his head.
"Do you know what you want for your birthday?" I asked, desperate for a subject change. He listed off games and toys he wants while Ethan watched me. I focused on EJ. I don't want him to know I'm thinking about that day. I didn't even want to think about it. Thankfully, Brandon returned with dinner. We went inside and managed to have a pleasant dinner together, despite the weirdness with Brandon and Rocky. And without me putting my foot in my mouth.
***Flashback of EJ's 5th birthday party***
2 years Prior
I spent 40 minutes looking in my mirror, trying to fix my hair and makeup. For me, that was 2 times as long as it normally took me. I wanted to look nice, but not like I was trying too hard. Megan was going to be at the party of course and I didn't want to look frumpy compared to her. EJ's grandparents were going to be there as well and it was going to be my first time actually meeting them. It will also be the first-time seeing Ethan after he confessed his feelings for me...
That thought made me put my make up away. I didn't want to encourage him. This was EJ's day: One of the last chances I have to hang out with him before I moved to California. I put my straightened hair back with a checkered headband and got dressed in black capris and a white fitted tee.
When I get to Ethan's house, I was 30 minutes early. I applied a cherry red lip gloss before I made my way to the house. I saw Brandon's car, so I knew I had at least one ally there. He was still trying to get Rocky to go out with him, so he had to be nice to me. EJ's grandmother opened the door. She is not many inches shorter than me, with few extra pounds on her frame, but she carries the extra weight well.
"Hi Mrs. Carter. I'm Lily. I don't know if you remember me-"
"Of course Lily! Even if I didn't, the way EJ talks about you, there's no way I wouldn't know who you are. Come on in!" She smiled friendly at me.
I stepped into the house. The living room is filled with black and white racing decorations, Lightning McQueen posters, and Cars themed balloons.
"My best friend Lily!" EJ exclaimed, running from the couch to me. His smile warms and breaks my heart at the same time.
How am I going to say goodbye to him?
"My best friend EJ! Happy birthday little man!" I said, pushing those thoughts away. I gave him a huge hug. He latched on to my neck, so I was forced to pick him up. I didn't mind, I held him tightly in my arms.
"You're 5 years old now- Getting too old to be picked up." Megan said to EJ, giving me a tight smile.
"Oh, it's his birthday. He should get whatever he wants." Mrs. Carter declared.
"I want to play outside." EJ complained.
"Let's go see if your daddy is done out there. The grill should be cooled down by now." Mrs. Carter said. I followed her out, carrying EJ.
Outside, there was a Cars jump house and orange cones with red balloons scattered throughout the backyard. There was a happy birthday banner and racing flags covering the fence. A battery operated Chevrolet Camaro ride-along car sat by the door with a red bow on it. Now I saw why EJ was so anxious to come outside- It was a 5 year old's dream.
"Hmph, great timing Lily. Get here when all the work is done." Brandon grinned at me from a patio chair.
I smiled. "Looks like you didn't need my help. It looks great out here." I said, putting EJ down. Mrs. Carter took him around the backyard to look at all the decorations.
Ethan nodded at me. He was securing the pegs on the bounce house. I waved back.
Okay. We can get through this.
"Coulda used your help with the food. Or at least setting it up so no one gets food poisoning. " Brandon complained.
I scoffed. "Whatever. I'm officially a doctor now. I don't need to know how to cook." I said, playfully.
"You Baylor girls like to throw your accomplishments around. Congratulations by the way."
