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Chapter 6
Millie
Ican’t get out of Lexington fast enough. My heart is racing. Mark is here. Mark Winters is in my building. I knew he was back. I knew I would see him at some point, but I never would have imagined that I would run into him while at work. And of course, he looked incredible. Because why wouldn’t he? That would make seeing him for the first time since the wedding too easy.
I try to shake off my nerves before heading back into Quimby. I have to pull myself together if I’m going to make it through the rest of the day. The last thing I need is Trina quizzing me on what the new guy is like. My whole body will give me away, and then I will never hear the end of it. I lean against the wall and stare at the door, not ready to go in, but I can’t stay here in the hall. What if Mark comes out of Lexington and finds me just sitting here? I’d look like some kind of stalker. Maybe I’ll just give myself ten more seconds, then I have to go back into work.
My time is up. I need to put on my metaphorical big girl pants and just go back into my office. My hand is inches away from the door handle when my phone dings with a notification.
Jonathan: These teacher in-service speakers are killing me. I’m so bored!
Millie: Only a little longer.
Jonathan: Is this how my students feel during class? Because if so…
Millie: Stop it! You’re a great teacher. They are lucky to have you!
Jonathan: Thanks, Mills. Break’s almost over. See you tonight.
“Just pick a movie already!” Jonathan yells from the kitchen. It’s our weekly movie night that we have had pretty much every week since we were kids. Over the years we haven’t changed much, only adding Tori and then our roommates when all of us moved back to Ridgeview. Every Friday night we get together and eat copious amounts of food and watch as many movies as we can stand. Or rather, as many as we can agree on.
“I already gave my suggestion!” Tori yells from down the hall.
“We’re not watching Pretty in Pink again!” Amara calls back. “We’ve watched it four times in the last three months.”
Tori barrels through the hallway and launches herself onto the couch next to Kiersten. “It’s not my fault you don’t appreciate good cinema.”
Amara tosses a handful of popcorn at Tori, who responds by throwing a pillow. The two of them go back and forth until Kiersten finally has enough and grabs the pillows. Without a word she puts them back on the couch and picks up the remote, choosing a movie.
Amara bails somewhere between movie two or three to go hang out with her boyfriend, Duncan. Then we lose Kiersten around midnight. Jonathan, Tori and I pushed through to the very end topping out at six movies, not quite beating our long-standing record of eight. Still, we outdid ourselves with the copious amounts of junk food we consumed. I was more than happy to oblige when it was suggested somewhere around 2:00 AM that we skip our Saturday morning run.
I finally stagger out of my room around 11:00 AM with my head pounding. With the way I’m feeling, you’d think we partied harder than watching movies and eating an entire five-pound bag of gummy worms.
“Are you just getting up?” Amara asks as I enter the kitchen. I have a vague memory of her coming home last night, but I have no idea what time.
I muster a nod. “Yeah. We haven’t gone that hard on movie night in a long time.”
Amara hands me a couple aspirin. “You should probably eat something that has some sort of nutritional value.”
I sit and wait for the rest of the lecture, but she doesn’t continue. Amara is the most health conscious of all the roommates, but I guess that’s to be expected when your parents are some of the top medical professionals in their respective specialties in the country who didn’t allow any refined sugar in the house when you were growing up. It didn’t help that she also studied nutrition when we were getting our undergrads. Over the years, Amara has become our resident foodie and has very strong opinions on what makes good food. If Amara likes the food from an establishment, then it’s bound to be excellent.
I roll my eyes at her as I go to the fridge and grab the eggs. “Yes, Mom.”
Amara laughs and swats at my butt.
“About time you got up!” I hear Tori say from behind me. I turn to see her in her running clothes guzzling water. “I’ve already gone for my run and had a full workout and you’re just getting up?” Tori wipes at the sweat beading her hairline.
“How do you have the energy for all that?” I gape at her. We didn’t head to bed until well after 4:00. Here I was thinking I was doing pretty good getting up at 11:00, and she’s already had a full day of exercise?
Tori shrugs as she grabs an apple and heads down the hall towards her room, passing Kiersten.
Kiersten turns and watches Tori disappear into their shared room before facing us. “She’s not sleeping again.”
“Again?”
“Not more than a few hours at a time. I haven’t seen her this bad in a long time. Any idea what’s going on? She usually talks to me, but she hasn’t said anything.” Kiersten is our mother hen, and she and Tori have a special bond that I used to envy. I used to be the person that Tori told everything to, but as much as things have stayed the same since we were kids, they have also changed. I know I don’t tell her everything like I used to. Not that I don’t want to talk to her about it; it’s more that our lives aren’t as synced as they used to be.
“Duncan said he ran into her at one of the bars he plays at a few weeks ago. Do we think she’s partying again?” Amara asks.
