Fate is a fighter

Chapter 1 - bad dates

"Avery, you're coming on this triple date no matter what," my best friend, and flatmate, Tabitha, looked at me sternly, her arms folded across her chest. I looked between her and my other best friend, and flatmate, Noah, who had the exact same expression, and stance, and knew then that I had already lost the argument without even being allowed to take part in it.

"Why?" I droned out the question.

"Because you suck at first dates on your own, so you need our support," Noah answered.

"It's never my fault, you guys stick me with creeps," I objected.

"Name one," Noah said, raising an eyebrow.

"I could name a million," I stated. "The one that was obsessed with lizards and talked about them for the entire night, and when he asked me back to his house it wasn't to have sex, but so that I could stroke his lizards, with absolutely no innuendo intended at all."

"What about the one that 'forgot his wallet' and made her drive all the way to the train station so he could go for drinks with his friends and asked for her to pay for the train ticket?" laughed Tabs.

"Okay, maybe they are all weirdos, but what about that one at the party in first year? He was cute!" Noah suggested.

"Oh, you mean the guy who drank one shot of vodka and threw up over me," I folded my arms, and Noah and Tabs burst into fits of laughter.

"Can't be worse than-"

"You two shut up!" I shouted at the two of them, and they turned and looked at me, trying to hold back laughter.

"Okay, last one... the dentist who kept trying to look at your teeth over the dinner table."

"In all honesty," started Noah, "when he said he was a dentist I thought that would be a good catch; they get paid pretty well you know."

"I'm not even interested in dating at the moment," I huffed.

"Ever since Jordan, which was four years ago might I add, you've never been the same about boys," Tabs claimed.

"Don't talk about him," I cautioned. "I've had boyfriends since!" I complained.

"Shit ones," Noah chimed in, "and those were definitely not all my fault, you did say yes to them."

"Lennox?"

"Was obsessed with sniffing your hair and instead of kissing you on the cheek he would lick your face," sniggered Noah.

"Whatever. Rupert then? Oh, right yeah, Rupert was bad."

"Yeah, if you call being extremely possessive and threatening to kill me because I hugged you bad, which everyone does by the way. He genuinely thought I was lying when I told him I was gay," Noah added, "and he threatened to burn me in my sleep if I didn't move out of the house we were sharing."

"Joel was awful too, the med student who kept scolding you for what you ate saying that you would get fat, so he kept replacing all the junkfood in the flat with salads, even when it wasn't your junkfood," Tabs stated.

"Fine, I'll go on this dumb date, but if it is awful, you will not drag me out on another one again."

"Promise!" the two of them squealed in union.

I had known Tabs since I was a toddler, and we had always been close. We were basically sisters. Noah, I had known since the first day of high school, where someone picked on him for being gay, and I sucker punched them in the face and made their nose bleed. Since that day, Noah loved me, and he also became absolutely ripped, so that he could fight his own battles, and also any battles that Tabs and I had. As Tabs didn't go to the same school as me, but Noah did, I introduced the two of them, and we became thick as thieves.

After high school, Tabs and I managed to both get into the University of Cambridge, where we studied law; a dream of ours for as long as I could remember. Noah, who wasn't as academically inclined as us, but who also couldn't actually live without the two of us, went to Anglia Ruskin University, which was also based in Cambridge.

With the help of Tabs' ridiculously rich family's connections, as well as our amazing degrees and people skills, we both got really good jobs based in London, so we moved there into an apartment bought for us by her parents, with Noah, of course, following us there. We had been working for about four months now, and I was absolutely loving it, as was Tabs. London was beautiful too, but it was only really Noah who was appreciating it all, considering he was yet to actually get a job. He managed to complete his degree, somehow, because he never actually worked for it, in Fashion Design, and was just looking for the perfect place to work that fit his 'vibe', whatever that is.

The two of them were obsessed with me, my social life, my personal life, and my beauty life, constantly giving me makeovers, like I was their little doll. It was quite fun, I'll have to admit, although the waxing and eyebrow plucking is kind of painful. It all went downhill when I finally caved in and let the two of them give me my first makeover, which was about five years ago. Since then they haven't left me alone about it all, although I am much better about my own 'upkeep', as they call it.

"Wear this," Noah said, barging into my room whilst I was just walking out of my bathroom with a towel wrapped around myself. Of course, it didn't faze him; we had all seen eachother naked a lot, it comes with living together, and being as close as we are. I looked at the garment he was holding. It was basically a little black dress, with a mesh neckline, wrap bodice and bodycon fit.

"Thanks babes," I said, taking the hanger off him.

"No worries darling, and I'll accessorize you once it's on." He left the room, and I put on the dress, which hugged my curvaceous body in all the right ways.

I played a bit with my hair in different styles, before deciding to curl it loosely. My hair had changed a lot over the years, with it being different colours of blondes, red, browns, black, and even pink for a bit of time when we went crazy on a holiday in Ibiza. Now, however, it was back to its natural colour – dark brown, and it was pretty long, ending halfway between my nipples and my belly button. I put on some warm shades of eyeshadow, because according to Noah it 'brightens' my sky-blue eyes, and added a pop of colour to my lips.

Once Noah had accessorised me, and everyone was ready, we headed out to the restaurant where we were meeting the boys. Tabs was meeting a boy she really liked called Cooper, who she had been on multiple dates with, and they were trying to set me up with Cooper's best friend, who was called Tristan. Noah, who didn't want to be left out, brought his own date, who was Raphael, a Portuguese man, who was also Noah's booty call whenever he, and I quote, 'wanted some dick loving.'

The night was kind of successful, kind of. Tristan was a nice enough guy, he was interesting, and he was interested in me too. He was also kind of attractive, which was a bonus, but there wasn't any spark there, and he was too nice. I got the 'ick' straight away, and I definitely just could not imagine having sex with him.

"Yeah, that guy wasn't for you," Noah stated as he climbed in the back of my car.

"He was nice..." Tabs tried to say, trying to rectify the situation, I guess because it was Cooper's friend.

"Yeah, exactly, no one wants a guy that nice, I like my men hunky, rough around the edges, a little possessive, but not Rupert level, and dominating in the bedroom," Noah explained to us, in more detail than Tabs or I really wanted to know about.

"Well, a deal is a deal," Tabs started, "we promise to not force you to go on anymore dates."

***

1358 words

4/01/2021