Enough is Enough

Lauren let me mope for exactly a week before she called in the troops.  The next Saturday afternoon, there was a sharp knock on my door, followed by the knob wiggling.  Then another knock.  I sighed and pulled myself off the couch, where I was sitting in pajamas with my hair piled on top of my head and not a single speck of makeup on my face.  I peeked out the window and saw Kinsley, Lauren, and Cassie standing on my front porch.  I groaned.

When I pulled open the door, they bustled inside.  Lauren had what appeared to be a large iced mocha in her hand, and she shoved it at me after Cassie had shut the door behind her.  "Enough is enough," she declared.  "You are drinking that, getting into the shower, putting on something hot, putting makeup on that beautiful face of yours, and coming out with us."  I started to protest, but Kinsley put her hand over my mouth.

"You are a disaster," she said to me, "and it's time for some tough love.  So sit down and drink."  She pushed me towards the couch, and I sat.  Lauren turned off the TV and opened my curtains.  When half of my coffee was gone, she plucked it out of my hands and pulled me to my feet.

"Up!" she demanded, tugging me towards the stairs.  "You go shower.  We'll find you an outfit."  She raised an eyebrow at my bare legs and called after me, "Don't forget to shave!"

I showered and shaved and when I went into my room wrapped in a towel, I saw a short black dress laying on my bed.  Next to it, someone had carefully laid out accessories.  A pair of sky high stilettos sat on the floor.

"I'm not wearing this!" I yelled down the stairs.

"Yes you are!" Lauren, Kinsley, and Cassie yelled back in unison.  I sighed, knowing it was a losing battle.  I closed my door firmly and slid the dress up over my hips.  I tugged the zipper up as far as I could get it without dislocating my shoulder, and went back into the bathroom to comb my hair.  I heard my bedroom door open while I was in there, and soon Kinsley poked her head into the bathroom.

"Good," she said with approval, stepping in to finish zipping me.  "That dress is hot."  She pulled open the doors under my sink, searching for something.  She came up with volumizer and blow dry spray, and began working both into my hair.  "Dry it," she said, handing me my blow dryer and plugging in a curling wand before leaving the bathroom.

When I was almost done blow drying, Lauren came in with the rest of my mocha.  She knocked, at least.  Lauren regarded my hair and picked up the curling wand.  She got to work after handing me the coffee.

"Have I told you lately that I hate you?" I asked her, as she curled my hair all over my head.

"Hmmmm, for being here now, or for tricking you last week?" she asked curiously, wrapping a stubborn piece of hair around the wand a second time.

"Both.  And neither," I said in defeat.  She nodded.

"I actually was surprised you didn't call to chew me out after last Saturday," she admitted.  "Then I was worried that you were too angry to even bother."

"I was and I wasn't," I said.

"You're so clear and decisive tonight," she joked.

I shrugged.  "I get why you did it," I explained.  "But it still sucked."

"I know," she said.  "And I'm sorry that it sucked.  But I didn't want you to make the mistake of not saying goodbye and regret it."

"But Lauren, it was my mistake to make," I said calmly.

"I know," she said again.  "But I was feeling god-like that day and thought I'd try to control your fate.  And also, he begged me to help him.  You know how well I say no to hot guys."  She raised her eyebrows pointedly at me in the mirror, and I couldn't help but laugh.  She put the wand down and hugged me from behind.  "I'm sorry, I screwed up.  But you guys were so disgustingly, stupidly perfect and I wasn't ready to stop living vicariously through you."

I squeezed her arms.  "Thank you.  But I'm not mad anymore.  I'm glad you did it, I think.  It sucked, but it was a good thing.  It would have been pretty awful of me to let him go to Miami thinking that I was pissed at him.  I understand why he's doing this.  He'd be stupid not to, not that it makes it suck any less."

She leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek.  "Okay, good, I'm glad you're not mad about that.  Now you can get back to hating me for dragging you out tonight."  She grinned and went back to curling my hair.  She finished, and sat on the edge of the tub while I put makeup on.  When I was done, she declared me "perfect," and helped me with the jewelry she had laid out.  I slid my feet into the shoes, and we walked downstairs.

While I had been in wardrobe and makeup, Cassie and Kinsley had been busy.  They had washed the 4 days of dishes in my sink, wiped off the counters, and swept and mopped the kitchen floor.  It also looked like they had vacuumed, which they must have done while I was in the shower, because I hadn't heard it running.   I looked around in amazement.  "You guys..." I said, trailing off.

"Don't say thank you," Cassie said.  "You can thank us by knocking off this moping around act and getting back to normal."

"And you look HOT!" Kinsley said, grinning.  I rolled my eyes.

"Come on, we left our stuff next door," Cassie said, putting down the dishtowel she was folding.

I trailed them to the door.  I grabbed my purse and my phone and locked the door behind me and we walked over to Cassie's house.  They caught me up on their lives while they were shimmying into short, tight dresses and doing their hair.  I helped Lauren with her makeup and then we set out.

They had made a reservation at a popular tapas restaurant, and as we were seated, I noticed heads turning our way.  I looked around at my friends.  We did look awfully hot.  We were there for over an hour, eating and drinking and laughing.  I finally felt normal again.  They were right to drag me out tonight.  I just hoped they wouldn't try to push me at any guys.

When we finished eating and had paid, we made our way down the street to a new bar that had just opened a couple weeks ago.  It was dark, packed, and trendy looking, but we managed to find a high table in the back.  We sat and ordered drinks.  We were there all of 10 minutes before two guys approached our table.  Kinsley and Lauren engaged them nicely for a few minutes, but when they offered to buy us a round of drinks, they declined and said we were leaving soon.  They guys shrugged and walked away.  They fended off two more groups of guys that night, and I knew they were doing it for me.  I was so appreciative of them at that moment.

We stayed until around midnight when I started yawning.  They didn't push me to stay out later, and suggested we grab a cab.  Lauren asked if she could spend the night, and the cab dropped Kinsley off first.  I hugged her quickly before she got out.  "Thank you," I said sincerely.  She just grinned and shut the door.

Cassie paid for the cab when it dropped us off in front of our houses.  I pulled Cassie into a tight hug.  "What would I do without you?" I asked, as I pulled back.

"Mope around for another month, probably," she tossed back.  I laughed and thanked her.

When Lauren came out of the bathroom after washing off her makeup and brushing her teeth, she walked over to my bed and flopped across it next to me.  I looked down at her.  "You are seriously the best," I said.  "Thank you.  I went from feeling like I would never be happy again to feeling normal again, all because you barged in here with coffee and a cleaning crew even though you were worried I hated you."

She scoffed, "You're always so melodramatic, you know that?  Knock it off."  But she sat up and hugged me.  "I love you, even when you're being an idiot."

"I love you too, even though you're always an idiot," I replied.

She laughed.  "Well how can I not love you when you talk to me like that?"  We both laughed then, for far longer and way harder than the situation called for.
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Don't forget that this week's Friday post will be from the main storyline.  See you guys then :)