❝Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.❞
― Epictetus

4 || put your money where your mouth is

time || morning

I enter a store.

I'm trying to get away from Brolin now, not only is he stalking me, but he will NOT shut up. He keeps trying to convince me to spend the day with him.

"Welcome to Lovee's!" A blond woman, greets me. I'm about to return the greeting, it's when I see that I've stumbled into a lingerie parlor that stops me. I feel the blood quickly vanish from my face. Not that I'm prude, but seeing this kind of stuff only makes me want to drown in a sea of turtles.

"Ooh newlyweds? Or engaged, and something for the wedding night?" The woman asks. I see an amused smile doing a tango on her glossy lips.

I back up a little, knocking into someone.

"Woah,"

It's Brolin. She really thinks I'm with him? I don't try to correct her, when I can't get over the fact that I'm in a lingerie store. What if someone I know sees me here?

"Come on, baby," Brolin says, I feel him link his arm with mine and guide me over to a rack.

Get me out of here... get me out of here... get me out of here.

He grabs something from the rack that NOT only makes me want to go hide in the wild alone, but mentally visualizing myself in that makes me want to hide even more.

It's a bright red lace negligee with a matching thong. He then guides me over to a nearby mirror, and standing behind me, he puts the matching set in front of me. "Yeah, this will fit you perfectly." he whispers close to my ear, his mouth almost touching my earlobe.

I blush. This is weird. Really weird. I would never wear that, much less in front of a man. I'm not comfortable enough with my body, to even think of putting that on. I walk away from the mirror and I struggle to find the door. My heart's thumping frantically against my chest as if it's just wanting to jump out.

"Is that all?" I hear the blonde say.

He's not really buying that, is he? I don't even stop to see, for when I'm able to locate the door.

I flee.

:: :: ::

"Hey, this is Justice. If I didn't answer. That means I'm either busy or I just don't wanna talk to you. But if you know who you are, and you know that I DO wanna talk to you. Please, don't fail to leave a message... Buh-bye!"

Beep!

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, uh Justice, this is Karen. I really need to talk to you. When you can, please call me."

I slide the red icon across the screen, and lock my phone, putting it back into the pocket of my dress. I've called Justice about 3 times, and she hasn't picked up. I know news travel fast, and if she heard about my Dad being broke. She doesn't know the whole story.

Wouldn't she want to hear the truth from her own friend?

I choose to sit down on a bench at a bus stop. Thankfully no one else is sitting here, and it's just me.

Who knows? Perhaps me and Justice aren't friends. Ever since she started spending more time with her slutty new friend Gwen, our friendship hasn't been the been the same since. We're slowly but surely drifting apart, and it's all because of Gwen.

It'd be fair to say, that Gwen didn't like me before I didn't like her. I'd actually tried being her friend before, but something had already confirmed to me, that we weren't going to be the best of friends. I don't know if it was the subtle shade she'd throw to me every time we were in our usual group setting, during lunch. All I knew was she hated my guts, and I borderline hated hers.

I don't try to hate people. It's not my specialty, and I'd much prefer if everyone just got a long.

"Hey,"

I slightly jump, but when I know who it is. I roll my eyes. He's holding a bag in his hand that makes me recoil in disgust. I know the negligee is in there. He better have bought that for Fatima, and not me.

"When can you leave me alone?" I ask him. He sits beside me on the bench, making me roll my eyes again. He chuckles and looks at me for a long time.

"What?" I ask edgily. I'm really starting to get annoyed with him, like I'm not kidding.
I glare at him as he hands me the bag.

"Look inside?"

I don't take the bag. "Y'know what?" I get off the bench and facing him with my arms crossed. "I don't wanna hang out with you, call someone who's really worth your time, instead of me."

"Wait, wait," he says as I start to walk away.

He grabs my arm.

I stop.

"Really just go away," I say stiffly, snatching my arm away from his grip. "You already thanked me for the coffee and I really don't want that sex toy you're holding in your hand."

He sighs. "Fine, okay, but what if I just wanna spend the day with you? And my friends are away at their jobs. So... I don't really have anyone to hang out with."

I almost protest.

"And before you mention Fatima, she broke up with me. And I'm not trying to have sex with you, or seduce you, or whatever." He finishes.

I crack a small smile.

Who knew him saying all of that, would convince me to spend the whole day with him.

"Fine," I say, "just throw away that bag... and I get to chose the first place we go to."

:: :: ::

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