“Not now Stace!” I yelled from my room after Stacey’s fourteenth attempt to knock on my door.
“I come bearing cookies. With huge chocolate chunks. Don’t tell me your mouth isn’t watering smelling all the freshly baked goods.”
I sighed. She was right; Stacey knew me too well. The aroma of the cookies baking had definitely attracted my attention, but if I knew one thing about myself, it was to not allow binging on sugar while I was upset. It usually started with one cookie or just a spoonful of ice-cream, and next thing I knew I would be laying amidst a mountain of wrappers and empty tubs of ice-cream. I was such a freaking stereotype sometimes. Since I literally had no time for the gym in my schedule between work and classes, this always ended up being a horrible idea.
“Thank you, but I honestly just need to continue stuffing my head in this pillow and ignoring humanity for a little bit longer.”
“What if I promise not to make you talk about whatever it is that’s bothering you?” Stacey offered patiently. “Though I assume it’s Zayden related. You can talk to me when you’re ready, but don’t take it out on yummy sugary deliciousness.”
“How delicious?” I couldn’t help but ask. Stacey was a master baker, so it was a stupid question, in any case.
“Better than Halloween.”
I gasped and jumped to open the door. Damn it, Stacey.
“It can’t be better than Halloween. You had peaked. That’s physically impossible,” I said reaching for one giant cookie, while Stacey made herself comfortable in my bed.
One large bite and I was ready to collapse, all my troubles temporarily evaporating. The cookie seemed to be ninety percent chocolate and just the right amount of crunchy, with buttery sweetness and the tiniest hint of vanilla. I closed my eyes and ate the rest of the cookie in slow bites, savoring every aspect of the immaculate taste and texture. For a moment I completely forgot why I had myself locked in my room for the last few days.
“Good?” Stacey was grinning at me, all prideful, when I opened my eyes.
“Horrible,” I said returning her grin. “Absolutely disgusting.”
I reached out for another one and devoured it. “Seriously, the worse cookies I’ve ever had.”
Stacey chuckled. “I’m glad you think so too. Now listen, I know you don’t want to talk about whatever is bothering you, and that’s fine. But you’ve been locked in here for days and that’s not healthy. Let’s do something. Outdoors.”
“Nah, I’m not feeling it,” I said automatically. “You go ahead though. Leave me the plate of horrible cookies, of course.”
“Aria. Come on. This isn’t good. You haven’t gone to work and you need the money! And you missed your Stats mid-term, didn’t you?”
No one was supposed to know about that. This was unusual for me: letting personal matters affect my academic performance. But I was in no mood to run into Zayden or Rick or deal with any of that bullshit.
“I told my professor I had diarrhea. He was all too glad to let me make it up.”
She raised her eyebrows suspiciously. “Does not sound like the Stats dude, at all.”
“You want to see the email?”
I wasn’t lying. Apparently the professor had recently suffered from food poisoning himself, and preferred staying away from anybody with stomach related issues. My make-up test was next week.
“Fine. What about your other classes?”
“I have As in everything. They aren’t going to bust me for missing a class or two. I’m the best they have.”
“How do you manage to stay so modest?”
“I don’t have to be. It’s true, you know it’s true. And when have I done this before? Don’t I deserve one tiny break?”
That made Stacey hug me for some reason. “Never. You have never done anything like this before, Aria. Which is what makes me worry so much. You didn’t even miss a single class when Dick cheated on you. That doesn’t mean you don’t deserve a break! Of course you do. You work harder than anyone I know.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry for being such a recluse. I just have a lot of things to sort through my head. I’ll tell you all about it eventual
ly. Right now I’m just confused and frustrated and just need a little time to think things over. And the cookies helped. A lot. You’re the bestest friend ever.”
“You know what else will help? A night out. Just you, me and Nick, goofing around. No boy-talk, no moping, no worrying, just an obscene amount of shots.”
“I lost my fake I.D. remember? Can’t get in.”