Everything & More (Book 1 in the E.C.N Series)

Chapter 2-Martha

Sitting on the shower floor almost felt peaceful as water pellets continued to rain down on me. This was my safe haven, the one place where I didn't feel like my life was falling apart. The one place that I could cry and not feel judged.

Inhale, exhale, you're okay, just in-

"Martha!", banging came from my bathroom door bringing me out of a daze, "Chica if your ass is not out in the next five minutes I'm going to assume you fell, and then I'm going to break the fucking door down!"

I sighed as I reached up for the knob and turned it until the water shut off. "I'll be out in a minute" I called back.

As I exited the shower I was thankful it was still steamy. The ritual of looking in the mirror could be skipped for one night. I wrapped the towel around my body as my hair dangled past my shoulders, still dripping wet.

Inhale, exhale...you're okay...you got this.

Opening the door, I came face to face with my best girlfriend, Lori. Short Chestnut pixie hair, caramel tanned skin, natural plump pink lips, with big hazel eyes with lashes to die for. The dress she wore was a blood red, her signature color. It stopped slightly above the mid thigh and had a deep V to show off her cleavage. The choker around her neck was black with a small round silver pendant in the middle. Lori was the epitome of gorgeous and everyone who came across her thought so too.

"Hey," I said with a small smile hoping she'd let me off the hook.

"Hey?", Guess not, her arms were crossed with a raised brow paired right with it, "That's all you have to say for spending almost two fucking hours in the shower?"

My eyes widened at her accusation, "What?!". I hurried toward my dresser picking up my phone, "I was not in the shower for..." Turning the phone over I saw exactly what time it was. "Wow, an hour and 45 mins. Sorry I must have just lost track."
    When Lori and I made eye contact, I immediately regretted it. She can read through me like a book and because of that, I've been avoiding her for weeks. I saw the internal battle she was having about the next words to leave her mouth. Probably between asking me questions that I didn't want to answer and just leaving it alone. Thankfully she chose the latter.
    Lori began waving her hand at me and towards the bed, "Whatever, your outfit is on the bed. And don't you dare think of changing, that outfit is perfect!"

"Look, I'm not really in the partying mood." I chewed on the inside of my cheek hoping my last attempt of getting out of this would work.

She started turning her back to me, "I don't care, you've been dodgy for the past few weeks and I can't for the life of me figure out why," slowly she turned back, "though, I would be willing to let you off the hook if you just told me".

I'm not ready to talk about this.

I let out a nervous laugh and shook my head, "Lori, I swear I'm fine. I don't know what else to tell you."

She narrowed her eyes, "Fine don't tell me but we are going out tonight, so go and get dressed."

~~~~~~

"Four shots of vodka please?" Lori yells at the bartender over the music. My eyes widen at her request and I grab her shoulder for her to face me.

"Um...what the hell are you doing?"

"Uhh...getting us drinks." She said in a "duh" tone.

"And you want to start the night doing vodka shots? Have you lost your mind, you know this isn't going to end well." Her hands immediately found my shoulders and she leveled herself so I would look right into her eyes.