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Epilogue
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37 Days Goodbye apartment 307
It’s Friday morning.The last day in my San Diego apartment that I’ve spent the last year in. Let me rephrase that, the last shit show of a year. I spent the last year putting my life and career on hold to stay close to my parent's house taking care of my father. In the last three years, he pissed away all of his and my mom’s savings on booze and drugs and ended up foreclosing on the house.I don’t even know why I bothered, he hated the sight of me and after all my efforts he just ended up killing himself to heroin. It wasn’t always this way though. I was once “daddy’s little girl” and he adored me, he was an amazing father and husband up until three years ago when all that changed.My phone buzzing in the back pocket of my jeans breaks me of my thoughts. The phone screen reads Steph. My best friend of fifteen years. I answer by the second ring.“Hey, Steph! I’m just packing up a couple more things and I’ll be on my way.” I may have lied a little.I have a lot more than a couple of th
37 Days Broke
I pull onto the freeway and start my journey to Los Angeles.Shit, I need an oil change soon. I like this car but it’s got more problems than I’d like to admit. I need a new one but I can’t afford it quite yet. My dad financially drained me after financially draining himself. I’ve bailed him out of jail twice for possession of drugs and bought gift cards to grocery stores because I’ve made the mistake of giving him actual cash one too many times just for him to blow it on cocaine. That was his usual drug of choice, until it turned into the harder stuff a year ago, not to mention I paid for rehab facilities and a cheap apartment in a bad area for him about thirty minutes from my apartment because he refused to move in with me.I worked hard at Ricks Restaurant waiting tables for the last several years just to stay afloat. I offered to take additional shifts when I could barely stay on my feet for a moment longer but it’s what needed to be done. The tips were good, especially later in t
37 Days Stephanie Taylor, the free bird
Stephanie Taylor. I love the girl to death, I really do but boy is she a rough one sometimes. She is the epitome of a free bird. I met her when I was eleven. She lived just down the block from me growing up. Her parents were always out of town for work so she stayed home a lot with her live-in grandma, which now that I’m older, realize she must’ve had dementia. God rest her soul she was such a sweet woman.Steph was usually hanging out at my house growing up, my parents basically raised her as their own. When high school rolled around and her parents weren’t home she had so much free range which included lots of parties. She was always the cool girl in school, but never a mean one. I envied her at times and still do now, just in a different kind of way. She’s gorgeous, she can be Barbie’s twin. She’s tall, long blonde hair with deep blue eyes that carry a sweetness to them. She always had the boy’s attention, she could get an A+ with flirting.Now, I’m not going to tear myself down an
37 Days Sunset Avenue
I’m nearly there now with only seven minutes to go according to Google Maps. I would be a whole lot more excited if it were just Steph and I living together but that couldn’t be further from the truth.I only really know a little bit about where Steph lives from what she’s told me. She lives in a huge house which I suppose at one point was a hotel.From what I know, there are about fifty people that live there. The fiftyish or so include the owners, workers, and “the girls”. Apparently, it’s sort of equivalent to the Playboy mansion with half-naked girls everywhere.Who are the owners may you ask? I have no idea. There are about 10 of them and I have zero idea what they do, I don’t even think Steph knows to be honest.Although Steph can be one of those “girls” in a heartbeat, she’s not. She got a job there a while ago through an ex-boyfriend of hers. While Steph was attending community college years ago, she had a job as a travel agent, she would find great deals sometimes and we’d ta
37 Days Lost confidence
I see two large black doors of the front entrance begin to open, before I even reach the stairs I see my crazy best friend running to me full force, jumping on me and nearly taking me to the ground.“Finally! I’ve been waiting just watching the clock, come on let’s go in!” she says and grabs my hand tugging me through the door.“Okay love, come here, let’s go into the kitchen, I want you to meet some people,” she says as we make our way down a long hallway.There are dimmed lights in black lantern-like fixtures hanging on the walls and it’s actually really beautiful against the cream colored paint. There are several closed doors on each side of the hallway until we reach the kitchen.When we step into the kitchen I’m blown away, it’s spectacular. It’s always my favorite place in a house. All of the appliances are stainless steel and high-tech. The countertops are white marble maybe? With a matching large island in the middle of the room with black barstools wrapping around it. The con
37 Days The suite
Steph slides her key card into the door and when the small circular light turns green she opens the door to a beautiful suite.This room was obviously a suite before the new owners took over, all they did was redecorate it to make it more homey. There’s the main living room with a couch and TV, on each side of the living room are two dark wooden doors which I’m assuming lead to the bedrooms. Off to the side of the living room is a small kitchen. The kitchen has a mixed black and white granite countertop with three dark wood cupboards that match the doors. It contains a small glass table with two black chairs around it, a mini fridge, a microwave, a sink, and an air fryer that sits on the counter. It’s a really cute small kitchen but clearly not compatible with cooking any real meals. Steph tells me I’m welcome to anything and to make this place my home as well. She says that all the actual meals can be made in the common kitchen area downstairs or we can request the cook to make somet
37 Days The rules
I wake up to darkness.I grab my phone that’s sitting on the nightstand beside the bed. The light from the screen makes my eyes squint. The time reads 7:50 pm. Wow, I slept for a while. I hear several people talking throughout the suite.I turn on the light sitting on the nightstand and lazily swing my legs over the bed to stand up and stretch. I look out the window where the balcony is and see the beautiful, dark, calm ocean. “What a view,” I say to myself. I turn towards the door and walk out of the bedroom.I see Steph and Mia alongside two other girls hanging out in the living room and kitchen. I recognize one girl from the common kitchen area but I never got to officially meet her.Steph exclaims “Hi sleepy head! Hope we didn’t wake you up.”I reassured her that she didn’t wake me and apologized for sleeping so long. “Here, Mills come sit down and I’ll introduce you to these lovely ladies,” Steph says. I walk over to the black leather couch and plop down.“This here is Ellie, you
37 Days Hangover 1, Steph and Mia 0
I toss a little hearing noises outside the bedroom door. It’s Steph. She stumbles in laughing with and to absolutely no one or anything. She’s drunk.She throws herself in the bed and lands on top of me. “Ow!” I yelp.“Oh shit Mills, I forgot you were here.” Steph laughs.So not funny.Steph becomes a child when she’s drunk and needs a babysitter which looks like it’ll be me for the hundredth time. “What time is it?” I ask.She slurs “I dunno. Like 4?”I don’t know how she does it, if I stayed up drinking until four am I’d be hospitalized with a month-long hangover. Years ago, I could take that like a champ but now it just catches up to me.I roll over so my back is facing Steph. I snuggle my head into the pillow and stare at nothing. “Hey, Steph?” I ask.She replies with “Hmm?”“Do you think that we’re safe here? That I’m safe here?” I ask.She grunts and says “Yeah Mills. I’d never put you in a situation where you weren’t. Now go back to sleep. I can’t stay up for a second longer.”
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