CHAPTER 173.1
What happens next?
Early Riser
"ohshit-AAAAH!"
You hear Viv shout, making you and Tanya immediately sit upright after just having woken up from the screen. The two of you find Viv sitting on the floor of your bedroom, wincing in pain and rubbing her lower back; obviously having fallen from the bed.
"You alright, V?" Tanya asks her.
"I think you're going to need a bigger bed." Viv jokingly replies. Tanya offers her hand so that Viv can stand up from the floor.
"That or Tanya can get a smaller ass." Stella jokes, apparently having woken up from the noise too.
"Watch yourself, sweetie." Tanya playfully threatens her.
"I agree with Tanya, baby." You tell her.
"Well, I think that's a sign I'm going to have to sleep in my room instead." Viv announces.
"What? No. We can fit. We just have toβ" You try to prevent her from leaving, as she starts gathering her clothes; but she interrupts you from continuing.
"I've hogged you the past two days already. It's fine. Your other girlfriends deserve the 'best sleep of their lives' too." Viv assures you, while calling back to Stella's comment from last night about sleeping next to you. Viv then gets dressed in a hurry, and you stand up from the bed to get dressed yourself, so you can walk Viv to her apartment.
"Does your phone have magic to make a hole in the wall?" Viv asks jokingly, pointing to the connecting wall between your two bedrooms. You still shake your head in response despite knowing it was a joke. "Figures." Viv says in disappointment. "Anyway, good night you guys." Viv adds, and your other girlfriends greet her a good night again, before the two of you leave the bedroom.
Once Viv opens her apartment door, she turns around to prevent you from entering with her.
"If you put one foot in this apartment, you are not leaving without fucking me. Hell, I might not even make you leave even if you do." Viv jokes.
"I'm not saying this because I've suddenly become selfless. I just have work tomorrow and I can't keep skipping when our grand opening is soon. So you lucked out tonight, Jay. Otherwise, I'd be pulling you in here myself." Viv adds. As sweet as the sentiment of Viv's statement, there's one part of it that you focus on.
"Jay? Have I graduated from 'Virgin' now?" You tease her.
"You were
this
close for me to start calling you a stud forever, and then you had to fuck me like a virgin again towards the end, so it evened itself out." Viv jokes.
"That's a relief. I wouldn't want to be called a stud in public either." You reply, getting a laugh out of Viv.
"So I can call you a stud in private?" Viv jokingly asks.
"I'd rather you call me Daddy in private." You jokingly answer back, getting a smile out of Viv.
"Confidence is a better look on you...
Daddy
." Viv tells you.
"So I've heard." You reply with a chuckle.
"Anyway~, you should go back to bed before your daughter starts wondering if I kidnapped her Daddy." Viv reminds you. "Good night, Jay."
"Good night, Viv. Love you." You greet her before giving her a kiss on the cheek.
"Love you too. Bye!"
You open your eyes and the girls are still asleep next to you. You look at your alarm clock and it says it's only around 4:30 in the morning, and you're fully awake. Your mind isn't even a little foggy like it usually is when you just woke up.
Right. You bought the 'Seldom Sleepy' trait
.
You have more than a couple of hours to spare before you normally get up, so it's time to make the most of your extra time. You bought the trait by arguing 'time is money', right?
How the fuck should I spend this though?
You obviously didn't think this through.
In any case, you get up from bed, making sure you don't wake up your girlfriends as you do. You decide it's time to make the most of the combination of traits you bought, so a jog sounds like a good idea. You get dressed for a run, and head out of your apartment. Surprisingly, you're not the only one awake around this time, as you see someone familiar once you reach the stoop of your apartment.
"Hey, Brooke. You're up early." You greet her as she stretches on the sidewalk in front of your apartment.
Image: Brooke Taylor (Early Riser)
"Hey, Jay." Brooke greets you back. "I have to get back to my place before heading to the gym. I need to get back while I know Courtney's asleep so I don't have to deal with her just yet." Brooke explains. "What about you? Are you usually up this early?" Brooke asks.
"No, not usually. Although, I'm planning to be up around this time much more frequently in the future. Secretly exercise while the girls are asleep." You tell her, deciding to withhold telling her about the new traits you bought just yet.
"Look at you being motivated to get fit." Brooke reacts playfully. "I'm just going to jog back to my place, actually. You want to join me for a run?" Brooke invites you.
"I'd love to." You reply.
Brooke instructs you to stretch your legs first to warm up your muscles and avoid cramps later on. As she helps guide you in your stretches, Brooke starts making conversation about last night.
"So~, I heard you had fun last night." Brooke teasingly brings up.
"You and Viv already talked?" You ask, surprised that she already talked to someone about the festivities last night.
"Oh no, I literally heard you had fun last night." Brooke replies with a laugh. "Tanya wasn't kidding about probably needing ear plugs." Brooke jokes.
"Oh shit. Sorry! I hope we didn't keep you up!" You immediately apologize.
"It's all good! Don't worry. Like I said, Tanya directed me to the ear plugs just in case I'll need it. I think she and Viv hatched a plan yesterday." Brooke informs you.
"Oh? Here I thought Viv was just being a brat spontaneously." You reply.
"I think Viv's a brat
naturally
." Brooke replies, and you both get a good laugh out of it.
"Still, my apologies. You left your apartment so you can get away from a noisy roommate, and we cornered you into a situation with noisy neighbors instead." You apologize again.
"It wasn't actually bad. I slept like a log last night despite the noise. Maybe it's because I know the people I'm hearing fucking aren't doing it to intentionally annoy me, or it's because of your magic; but the noise didn't bother me at all." Brooke informs you.
"Is Courtney fucking guys to annoy you too? I thought she was doing it to spite Chad?" You ask.
"Pretty sure she partly blames me for some reason, or she's doing it so I'll relay to Chad that she's doing that to hurt him." Brooke explains.
"How is Chad, by the way? You mentioned he didn't go to the gym yesterday. Have you talked to him?" You ask her.
"He's talking to Brad about it. From what Brad told me, Chad's a little heartbroken since he thought Courtney already liked him and liked him enough that she wouldn't judge him for being a, quote-unquoteβ '
weirdo
'." Brooke explains.
"What advice did Brad give him?" You ask.
"Give it time. Wait for Courtney to calm down and think about what it is she's actually doing. Brad said that if Courtney's angry enough to do this to spite Chad after only like... three days of dating? To Brad, it means Courtney has enough feelings for Chad that once cooler heads prevail, she might give him another shot at explaining himself and another shot at dating." Brooke shares with you.
"You think Brad's onto something?" You follow up.
"Nope. Knowing my roommate, she's just being crazy as usual." Brooke answers. She does take a deep sigh afterwards, realizing how dismissive she is of Courtney's feelings. "Okay. That was mean. I admit it." Brooke recants.
"Brad could be onto something, but they've also only been dating for less than a week. Chad doesn't have your magic, so normal rules apply to him. So if I'm a betting person, I'd bet whatever connection they had is superficial at best; and that Courtney and Chad will just go back into the dating app pool." Brooke explains.
"That kinda sucks for Chad. Especially since Courtney seems to be weirdly comfortable with the idea if that's her method of spiting him." You observe.
"Yeah, well, as much as I like Courtney when she's making sense; I can also feel relief for Chad since he's probably dodging a bullet with how crazy Courtney can be." Brooke admits. You can't help but laugh at her statement though, making Brooke ask you why you're laughing.
"Courtney's your Chad. At least, how I feel about Chad sometimes." You explain, and Brooke understands what you mean and laughs about it too.
"Well, at least you don't have to live with 'your Chad'... and also, technically, work with your Chad. How I'm still sane, I have no idea." Brooke jokes. "Anyway, should we get going? You warmed up enough?" Brooke asks you, and you nod.
You and Brooke do a light jog towards her gym. She's not going too fast since she says it's early enough, and she doesn't want you to tire too much since you have to make your way back to your apartment afterwards. Brooke's apartment isn't all that far from your place, and is actually just a couple of blocks away from her gym.
The two of you use the elevator to get to the seventh floor and Brooke leads you to her shared apartment with Courtney. As you make your way to their living room, someone from the kitchen grabs yours and Brooke's attention.
"Someone got busy last night, I see."
CHAPTER 174.1
What happens next?
Courtney
"Jesus! You startled me." Brooke reacts in surprise.
Image: Courtney Madison (Apartment Encounter)
"I did? Sorry about that. I didn't know it would be surprising to be in
my own
apartment." Courtney replies sarcastically.
"Don't start with me, Court. It's too early for that." Brooke tells Courtney, dead serious in tone. Courtney just takes a bite of an apple she was eating before you and Brooke came into the apartment.
"Speaking of early, what are you doing up?" Brooke asks Courtney.
"First, I can't be in my own apartment at this hour; now I can't be awake at this hour too?" Courtney continues to be sarcastic.
"Court!" Brooke shouts in annoyance.
"Ugh. Fine~. An alien's still in my bedroom and the dude snores like a motherfucker. Couldn't get back to sleep with how loud it is." Courtney finally answers.