Stay With Me - Book 1

My week had been a long one, and the last thing I wanted to do was leave the comfort of my fleece PJs and a glass of wine. But I knew that if I didn’t get my ass in gear, Mel was going to do more than just text me nonstop. The bitch had a key to my apartment, and she was not above showing up and letting herself in when I went AWOL to her texts.

“UURRRRGHHHHHHH!” I moaned loudly over the music playing through the small Bluetooth speaker next to me. I stared straight ahead and sipped from my glass as the messages pinged my phone.

“Kara!”

“Kara!”

“Kara!”

“K”

“A”

“R”

“A”

I hated when she did that... I knew I had no way out of this. She had tried to get me to go shopping with her last weekend, and I managed to wiggle my way out of that with “cramps”. She didn’t need to know that I wasn’t on my period at the time. That wretched monthly “gift” needs to be good for something. I took a deep breath and tried to zone out and decompress while I listened to the smooth voice of Justin Bieber. He wasn’t the best, but after a glass of red wine, he was good enough for my current mood.

“PING! PING!”

“NO!” I yelled at the phone as if she could hear me.

“PING!”

“Fuuuuuuuuuuck!” I threw my head back in 100% dramatic fashion and laid my arm over my eyes, hoping to hide from the world just a little longer. But I knew it was just a matter of time before…

“BZZZZZZZT BZZZZZZZZT BZZZZZZZZZT!” I didn’t even have to look at the phone to know it was her. I loved her more than anyone else in the world, but my fucking god, the girl was persistent. I swiped the call to hang up, shaking my head and pinching the skin on the bridge of my nose.

“I’m not going.” I said to the phone as someone knocked on my door.

“BZZZZZZZT BZZZZZZZT BZZZZZZZT!” I growled, setting my empty glass down on the coffee table and picking up my phone.

“When is the last time I told you how much I hate you?” I spoke into the phone without even checking the number as whoever it was knocked again.

“Don’t play. You know you love me.” Mel’s happy and bubbly voice poured through my phone and into my brain.

“Hold on, someone is at my door.” I muted the phone and flipped the lock before pulling the door open to find Mel standing on my front step. “Are you kidding me?” I groaned, throwing my phone on the old blue cushioned chair by the front door.

“Oh, stop it. You weren’t doing anything other than sitting on your couch afternoon drinking by yourself,” Mel shoved her way through my front door, knocking my “Welcome” sign crooked. “Why do you need to do that when you could come and afternoon drink with me at Josh’s?” Mel picked up my phone and quickly punched in the code to access my music list. She switched the song to Sam Smith’s newest single and tossed my phone back on the chair while the bass almost vibrated my speaker off the arm of the couch. I leaned my head on the door, gripping the doorknob, and severely reassessing my standards for my best friend. I closed the door after righting the sign, and Mel pulled a glass out of the cupboard to help herself to a glass of wine.

“Have a glass,” I gestured sarcastically to her, throwing myself back onto the couch. In all honesty, what was mine was hers and vice versa, but at that moment, it just felt right to give her a hard time about not even asking me if she could have some.

“Please, Kara, I bought you this!” She drained her glass and read the writing on the side of the bottle. Mel shrugged her approval of the grocery store vintage and leaned over the counter looking at me. “Ok… get dressed.”

“What if I don’t want to?” I pulled a crocheted blanket across my lap, like that would be a good reason why I wasn’t able to get up.

“I don’t give two shits.” She put her glass in my sink and walked across the wood floor of my living room, with her sandals popping with every step she took. “Get up, get dressed, do that thing with your hair that makes you look cute, and let’s go!” I flipped her off and rolled my eyes as she grabbed the blanket off my lap and tossed it to the other end of the couch. “I’m going to be in the car waiting for you. If you are not out there in 10 minutes, I’m coming back in and dragging your ass out the door by your feet. I CAN do it!” She threatened, pointing at me. “I’m stronger than you, and you know it.”

“I’m buying you two fewer presents for Christmas!” I shot back at her without moving from my spot on the couch.

“I don’t want your crappy gifts!” She winked, checking that she hadn’t messed up her lipstick drinking my wine, in the mirror that hung next to the door. “Besides…” She opened the front door. “It would be worth it if it gets your ass out of this house. Life is more than work and cheap bottles of wine and sucky music.” My mouth dropped open.

“You bought me that wine!” I squinted my eyes at her, trying to envision myself making her disappear. I wish I could do magic like that.

“And don’t give me that crap about being on your period this time! If you don’t think I know that you weren't actually on your period last time because you only do that every three months, then you obviously don’t know how much of a best friend I really am.” She explained, pointing at her chest as though knowing the fact that I was on birth control that changed my entire schedule was a requirement of being my friend. She nodded at me and gestured to my bedroom. “Go!” Mel began to pull the door closed behind her, and I tossed my slipper at the door. I managed to hit it just before she pulled it shut, only for her to then flip me off through my window.

“Well…” I spoke to the empty room. “I guess I’m going to Josh’s.” I stomped across my soft, baby blue, fuzzy carpet, shutting off my speaker and picking up my phone. Mel honked her horn at me, and I yelled “I’M GOING!!!!!!!” to no one but myself and my wine.

“So, who is supposed to be here?” I asked Mel, leaning my head on my hand that was propped on the door of her new Audi. It was her baby. I was surprised she let me in it without fully wiping me down with baby wipes first.

“Well,” she started, looking over her right shoulder to see if she could change lanes through traffic. “Josh.” At that, I cut her off, feigning surprise from the passenger seat. My hands shot to my mouth, and my knees pressed together tightly.

“Josh?!?! At his own house?????” Mel rolled her eyes and kept talking.

“Josh’s sister Cynthia, who is home from school for the weekend, and I think a few of her friends.”

“Excellent!” I cut her off again, watching Mel fix her black hair in the rearview mirror while we waited at the red light. “I always wanted to hang out with a bunch of 20-something-year-olds.”

“Oh, would you stop being such a shit?!” Mel slapped my leg as the light changed to green, and the cars began to move. “Mark is there with Emily and a friend or two of his. Then Jamie, Alex, Lexi, Bryan.”

“How many more?!” I groaned, closing my eyes and slowly shaking my head. She was quickly approaching my max number of people. Too many people make things “too people-y” for me. I began to twist my long brown hair around the pointer finger on my right hand. I very rarely wore my hair down, and the odds were high that it would be put up in its signature messy bun before long.

“What is wrong with you?” Mel laughed. “It’s a cookout! You don’t have a cookout with 2 people?!” She slowed the car and flipped her blinker on to turn up Josh’s road. He didn’t live all that far from me, and if we had really wanted to, we could’ve walked, cutting through the neighborhood behind my complex, but again… her new Audi… she’d drive it from the couch to the kitchen if she could.

“Anyone else?” I asked, unplugging my phone from her charger and sliding it into my back pocket.

“Um… OH! Rachel, and she’s bringing her cousin. I don’t know his name, but he has a dog!”

“Lots of people have dogs.” I laughed, unbuckling my seatbelt and moving my hand to open the door.

“Yeah, but this dog is supposed to be really cool. Like she did things with him in the Army.”

“Like what?” The door shut behind me, and I fought the urge to run my hand all over Mel’s windshield just to bug her. Don’t listen to the voices, Kara. I smiled to myself, and Mel caught my expression. She knew me well enough to know right away what I was thinking.

“Kara Marie Baker, don’t you fucking do it!” She slammed her door and pointed at me. I winked at her and hovered my hand above the clear, clean glass. “Kara! God damn it, don’t!” She yelled again, running around to my side of the car and grabbing my hand. I laughed while making a mental note to leave a fingerprint right in her view from the driver’s side seat. “And how the hell should I know what the damn dog did?” Mel laughed, hooking her arm in mine, and we began walking up the front yard to the gate. I could already hear the music and the laughter of some of my favorite people.

I play a good game, but these people really are what keeps me going during shitty weeks like this one has been. Josh had hung party lights along his white privacy fence that enclosed his yard. A fire pit had been lit despite it being 90 degrees out. Mark and Jamie were playing horseshoes while Josh’s sister’s girlfriends were drooling over the older men. If they only knew that the only thing that made those guys different from them was that they were old enough to rent a car. We were all mostly in our early 30s. We had significant others from time to time. Lexi and Alex were a constant thing, but they had been since college. They just got engaged last Christmas. They were really the only ones pretending to be adults in our circle. The rest of us just tried to live paycheck to paycheck and make it to work on time. It wasn’t much, but this was my circle, and I loved them. Except for a few faces I didn’t recognize that littered Josh’s backyard, this was the same group of people that I had been hanging out with since I was a teen. With braces and those awful chunky blonde highlights that were big back then. I really can’t believe Mel let me have those done.

“KARE BEAR!” Josh yelled, flipping burgers and drinking a beer.

“Hey babe.” I walked up to him and put my hand on his chest. He wrapped his arm holding the beer bottle around me, and I kissed his cheek. Josh was a handsome guy at six foot one, with black hair and a style somewhere between Walmart and Target. He kept his face as naked as it was when he was thirteen, but his hair was long enough to wrap into a man bun. One of my favorite things to do was to braid it when we would drink enough that it was ok with him.

“How was work this week?” He smiled, sipping off the green bottle in his hand.

“Ugh...” I groaned. “Don’t ask.”

“Oooooooooh,” He puckered his face, knowing all too well the type of week I had had. “I’m sorry, sweetie. Fuck them!” I snorted into his side, and he let me go to point around the yard. “Well, the drinks are in the cooler over there, I’m doing the manly thing and cooking animal flesh that you are more than welcome to eat once it’s done, and other than that...” He looked around the yard at our friends laughing and drinking. “I think you know pretty much everyone here.”

“Who is the outsider?” I asked, extending my chin at a man I had never seen before in our circle. He was sitting next to the fire talking to Lexi and sipping a bottle of water. He had a dog laying at his feet that looked like one of those shaved down German Shepherds but more manic. I was impressed it could lay there so calmly with all the crazy happening around it. Josh used to have a dog, but that little bastard was mean. I was happy when his mom fell in love with it and the little jerk went to live with his parents in New Jersey. See you later, jackass.

“Oh!” Josh swallowed another swig of beer and began trying to balance a plate in that same hand to fill with food. I smiled and took the plate, holding it out so he could stack his meat products on it. “That is Ethan… he’s Rachel’s cousin. He’s been here once or twice before. He’s an Army guy like Mark.”

“Do we like him?” I asked, watching him out of the corner of my eye but trying not to make it obvious.

“Yeah, he’s cool… the dog’s name is Jessie.”

“Woah!” I laughed. “First name basis with the dog… it must be serious!” I giggled, watching Josh’s face turn into that smile that drove all the college girls crazy. It still does, based on the looks he was getting from his sister’s giggling gaggle of cheerleaders or whatever the hell they were.

“Jessie is pretty cool… she’s pretty quiet though… she won’t talk to you.”

“We will see about that; dogs love me.”

“Mark Ruff-alo didn’t,” he shrugged.

“That dog was the devil!” I hissed, walking to the table next to the fire where all the food was. Josh laughed out loud, nodding in agreement. I eyed Ethan carefully while I dodged the mole hills in Josh’s backyard. That was the one thing I liked his dog for… it got rid of the stupid mole hills. I was far enough away that I couldn’t hear the conversation, but I watched the new guy lean back in his chair with a bottle of water in his hands. He kept tightening the lid on it as he talked to Lexi. He had dirty blonde hair that was styled with a fade cut: short on the bottom and longer on top. I thought Army guys were supposed to shave their heads. At least that’s what we told Mark the night before he left for bootcamp. That was a good night. It only took four beers before he let us shave his head. It was possible that he didn’t actually have to shave his head, but it was worth it for the pics that we took.

I got to the table and shifted a few things before setting the plate down for the group to devour. I reached under the table into a bucket of ice filled with random adult beverages and grabbed a wine cooler. I wasn’t in the mood to get really drunk, but a sweet sugary buzz may not be so bad. I walked over to the only available chair that just happened to be next to Fade Cut. I still wasn’t paying attention to his and Lexi’s conversation, but I was paying attention to the fact that he would run his hand through his hair and then pat it back down. He tried to get rid of the side swept sleepy look that most of the guys in this backyard actually styled their hair for. He sat forward in his seat and leaned his elbows on his knees as Lexi laughed at something he said. He reached down without looking and touched his dog that I was still not convinced was actually alive, as she hadn’t moved even an inch. Once he touched her head, one of his legs began to bob up and down like he was nervous, and he went back to over tightening his water bottle. His shoulders were wide, and he had to be as tall as Josh or taller. He was muscled and had the look that said he probably ran every morning, like in one of those grey shirts that said ARMY. Probably at like 4 a.m or some insanely early time that should be illegal for anyone to be awake unless they never went to bed.

As I watched the Army guy talk with his hands, I noticed that Jessie had opened her eyes and was sniffing the air without actually picking up her head. I’m guessing she could smell the plate of what did Josh call it? “Manly animal meat”? I don’t know. I smiled at her as her dark eyes blinked from her position flat on the ground at Army’s feet. I swigged off my drink and nonchalantly wiggled my hand at her, hoping it would entice her to come over and talk to me. Only her eyes moved. Not even her eyes, just her eye lids. BLINK BLINK. No tail wag… no wiggle… she didn’t even pick her head up. I tried again and made a kissy face, sure that would do the trick. BLINK BLINK. My lips pursed, and my shoulders dropped. This was unacceptable, as I said before, all dogs love me. I was not above going and grabbing a piece of meat off the plate just for her. I would buy my friendship with her. I had no problem with that.