Pop music blares through our living room speaker and girls are mingling around pregaming before we head downtown to the bar.
Red Saturn Bar is a little redneck for my liking, but Ella loves to line dance so she got to pick where we'd go.
"You didn't get these from work, did you?" She's asks me around a champagne burp, taking the flowers I'd grabbed for her earlier.
"Of course I did." I smile and she grimaces looking down at the flowers in her hand. "They're pretty, like you." I smile wider and she looks up at me and tugs a lock of my hair.
"I'm going to pretend you lied to me and said these were in fact not from a funeral, but that you picked these out for me from the store." She laughs, taking them into the kitchen and putting them into a vase from under the kitchen sink.
I know Ella loves flowers, but I also know she doesn't love when I bring her death flowers as she likes to refer to them.
But hell, unlike Miley Cyrus, we can't all afford to buy ourselves flowers. That shit gets really expensive really fast. Especially for something that will die soon anyway.
If you think about it, all flowers are kind of death flowers. It's inevitable. Death is an unavoidable part of living. Not a single person gets out of here alive.
"Shots!" Gabby screams, standing on the coffee table while Yeniffer and her friend Jaslyn are trying to make sure she doesn't fall.
There are about fifteen girls squished into our tiny apartment and the chatter somehow beats out the loud music.
I know some of them, most are friends of Ella's who she works with or has met from various places. A couple are Gabby and Yehnifer's friends. Then there is me.
I stagger back from the crowd and mix myself another drink.
I can already feel the alcohol buzzing in my brain, making me feel light and giddy. It's a good buzz. I feel good right now.
I sip on my drink, making sure I add enough juice to disguise the taste of the liquor inside of it.
When I'm feeling really good, I take out my phone.
Hayden: I'm really good
I don't even think about it, I type out the text and hit send.
I smile to myself for accomplishing this small task of replying to Ben's out of nowhere text from earlier.
That is, until I see the reply.
Ben: 😂😂 you're really food?
I scroll up, confused and then see where I'd fumbled the word. Of course.
Ben: what kind of food are you?
I feel my cheeks flush.
Hayden: a giant double cheese burger with everything on it and a side of extra crispy salty fries, duh.
Ben: interesting. I had you for lunch earlier.
I stare at the screen, my eyes wide.
Ben: upon rereading that, it sounded weird. Disregard. So aside from food, how are you?
I'm so glad he recovered from that faster than me, because I won't lie and say my mind didn't go to exactly the place it shouldn't have.
Hayden: I've been good. Really busy. Going out with the girls tonight actually.
Ben: I'm glad! I'm sure you will have fun. Make sure you actually eat a cheeseburger or something first though lol
Hayden: I believe it is already too late for that
