"As much as I love seeing you on a Friday night sweetie, you can't fool me, you're avoiding him," Bree said as she scrolled through the movies on Netflix.
As Bree and Harlee sat in the low lit living room streaming movies from the chrome cast. The weeks had fallen by the wayside around them. At this point most nights they hardly saw one another. Which for them was fine. It was a place to lay their heads and shower. They were modest about the things they had in their apartment. It was affordable and it was close. With basic cable and a small selection of DVD's they only spent money on keeping the lights on rather than what the watched on the television. The apartment was 1153 square feet with the most of the space being in the kitchen area. The two bedroom apartment had a shared jack and jill bathroom and no real bedroom spaces.
Their apartment was dressed appropriately for two college coeds. The living room had two small rectangular windows. The cheap pale yellow sheer curtains, they hand hung up freshman year, hung just under the window's ledge.
Scattered around the room were empty tequila bottles filled with different colored grains of sand as flower pot decorations. All the walls were painted the same washed out gray color with the exception of the single accent wall that was a pale yellow tint that appeared green in certain lighting. The walls were mostly bare, with the exception of the 4 ceiling to floor mirrors that hung on the back wall of the tiny dining area.
The living room was essential for two girls on their own. The plush sectional couch sat directly in the middle of the room. A large brown lamp hung over the couch creating light in the poorly designed living room, as there were no overhead lighting in any part of the gathering areas. The sectional was on the smaller side it sat 3 comfortably without occupying the chaise. It had 4 gray patch-stitched brown throw pillows and 3 large back cushions. The frame was a dark brown faux leather with gray pillow soft cushions.
Just a few short steps away was the dining area. There sat a bar-like eatery table with 3 backless wooden cushioned stools. The tables rectangular shape usually housed a mixture of clean on one end and dirty set of clothes on the other. Along with the two square windows touching daylight into the apartment social area was a large sliding glass door that leads out to a small tattered cement 4x4 patio. The patio littered with leftover pollen from spring and the ambered leaves that had fallen in the fall air. It was fairly empty besides the old footprints and the small the cannabis plant shaped ashtray that was left in the farthest corner filled with used Black n Mild and rolling paper buds. The view was the polar opposite from the spectacular view at Alex's place that overlooked the city. The complex buildings were poorly positioned behind the Walmart distribution center.
The apartment opening into the kitchen, arguably a horrible design flaw. Slightly off to the right of a brief walk in opened up to a full yet oversized kitchen. Once Inside the updated, all black appliances and amaretto washed brown cabinets that stowed mismatched Walmart cookware and better than plastic cutlery. There were no cookbooks on the counters or smell of fresh baked cookies roaring from the kitchen. There was no sense of order among each piece of accessories on the counters and the bowls from yesterday's breakfast still sat in the sink half clean. Yet it had discrete woman's touches throughout every room. Fake pink and purple orchids resided on a nearby windowsill, a set of matching oven mitts hung above the stove. Each window had its one clean and delicate curtains dressing them. Fashionable throw pillows and trashy periodic table of shots on the central wall was led to by a cozy rug laying on the carpet. It wasn't much and it was obviously ridiculously over priced but it was their home. The home they shared the last three years as roommates.
"Am I not allowed to spend a Friday night at home with my best friend and drink beer and talk about how much we miss old Wayne?!" Harlee said, stuffing her feet under Bree, playing nice.
"Harlee! I'm not stupid. You haven't spent a Friday night here in weeks. What happened?" Bree said.
"Nothing happened... Not really anyway. I just didn't want to see him tonight."
"If ya ass ain't on shark week then you must be up to something else. So when you decide to tell me the truth, then you can sit on the couch" Bree said pushing Harlee's legs off the couch. "
"He... He just wants to take me out to some art show and I really don't want to go okay. There's nothing wrong here." She lied.
"So, what I'm hearing is you being boring as fuck and won't let cho boo take you out?!" Bree said eyeing up at her from her phone.
Harlee didn't respond verbally, instead, she folded her arms and rolled her eyes. She hated how much Bree knew her. In fact, Bree was the only person who knew her inside and out. She was the best working relationship she knew. Bree knew all of her tells. Harlee could try her damnedest and Bree would sniff out her lying from a mile away. Truth be told she could do the same about her.
It bothered Harlee talking about her feelings to anyone and Bree knew that. However, that never stopped her from prying.
"Har, you really have to let this man take you out, though. The dudes at school might sure as hell not want to do shit with or for you but hell at least Alex is trying." Bree said rationally, turning to face her.
"Bree, he's just not... I don't know it's hard to explain." She said as she shook her head losing the words rushing in her head.
"Well try and we can figure it out together," Bree said compassionately.
Harlee took a deep breath and she thought she was going to word vomit all her pent up feelings right then and there, but instead she leaned back into the couch cushions and just collected herself before she started to talk.
"What if this ends up horribly? Who's to say me allowing myself to feel something emotional for him will play out in my favor. I mean... after all, what do I really know about him besides the way his dick feels inside me. The way he makes me feel just clouds my mind. And now he's our photography teacher." Stopping briefly to put her hand in the air to stop Bree from interrupting.
"Aah, and before you fix your lips to say how fucking awesome it is to be fucking your teacher, it's really weird as fuck if you think about it." Harlee rambled on without taking breaths between words.
"I like him I really do, but when people start looking at us as a couple it becomes real, and I don't want to add that extra nonsense on my plate right now. I have gone the last four years keeping my head out of the clouds and focused on the books. I don't even fuckin around like that anymore. I am trying to get out of here and head back to the C."
"...but have you told him that?" Bree said.
"I kinda don't give him the chance to talk about it." She said, lowering her head to her knees as she pulled them up to her chest.
"If we talk about it, it becomes a thing and a shit storm is bound to follow." She added.
"Boo, you have bigger issues than just talking to him. You can't keep fucking him if you never actually give him a chance to talk about his wants or needs. He ain't like these niggas at school, he actually has shit going for him. Hell, at least he got a career and a dream, what 22 you know has that?"
"He's not 22," Harlee argued.
"I know he's not and neither are we, but let's be honest. We are not going to be in our twenties for the next 10 years, so if a man is man enough to take you out on a real fucking date, and I am not talking about to a free game or a "chill" session, then you at least owe it to yourself to see where the fuck this goes." Bree said.
"But what if this..." She stopped.
"Fuck a what if. You and I know that this shit is dead. Once we graduate the men we slept with will be behind us. Hell, ya mama met yo daddy back in college and they were married for like eva." Bree said.
Harlee knew she had a point. If it wasn't for her mom dying in the car accident when she was twelve they probably would still be married. Harlee didn't want to make the relationship she had with Alex real because that would mean she would have to give up on her freedom. She didn't trust herself with happiness; somehow someone would always find a way to ruin it for her. She knew that she really did like Alex, he was everything that she could have asked for.
"I guess I can at least let him take me out in Atlanta. Just take it slow."