Love, Lies, and Deception(2)
My room, with its earthy green walls and bedspread, would be neat if it wasn’t for the stack of books strewn haphazardly on my bed. They were my usual bed partners on most nights, and I never went to sleep without at least cracking one of them open.
Emily made me promise that I wouldn’t study while we were gone, so reluctantly I left my books where they laid. Checking myself in the mirror by my closet, I rolled my eyes at the sight of the skimpy dress Emily made me wear. Love her heart; she bought it for me especially for spring break because she said she was tired of seeing me in T-shirts and jeans. The only good thing about the dress was that it was a light emerald green and it brought out the green in my hazel eyes.
She insisted that I wear it on the plane so that when we got to Fiji I’d be looking good and ready to party. Honestly, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about looking good. I just wanted to relax and enjoy the beaches when I got there; maybe do some snorkeling. We didn’t have long before we graduated college and I wanted to enjoy the time off before having to get a job full-time.
Turning my bedroom light off, I shut the door and joined Justin back in the living room. His fingers were flying fast on his phone, and I knew he was probably trying to beat my high score on Bejeweled Blitz.
“Beat me yet?” I teased him.
“Not yet,” he remarked, biting his lip and staring at the screen. “But I’m not far.”
Emily came back into the room and rolled her eyes at Justin, who wasn’t paying attention to her. She glanced at me and smiled mischievously. “This trip is going to be epic. We need to find you some hot guys to hook up with while we’re there. I’m sure there’ll be some nice looking cabana boys for you and maybe for me if that one …” she said, pointing to Justin, “… keeps playing on his phone the whole time.” Winking, she bounced over to Justin, gave him a quick kiss on the lips, and sauntered out the front door. I could hear her flip flops snapping against each stair as she descended.
Justin finally put his phone away and chuckled. “She’s delusional if she thinks I’m going to let her hook up with a cabana boy. I doubt she wants to see how jealous I can get.”
Adoringly, he watched Emily through the open door as she began loading her bags into his SUV. There were still several more of her bags waiting by the front door that needed to be taken down. Hopefully, Justin’s car would hold all of our things, and if not I was going to accidentally misplace some of her bags. She wouldn’t know until it was too late.
She’s going to have one hell of a luggage fee when we get to the airport, I thought. I only had one large suitcase and a bag slung over my shoulder because I was determined to cut my usual packing in half to avoid that fee.
“I’m sure she’d get a rise out of watching you get jealous over her. She lives off of drama, Justin. You know that as well as I do. She also may be a little excited because of what happened the other day.”
“What happened?” he asked curiously.
Sighing, I bit my lip. “I broke up with Jason a few nights ago.”
Justin’s eyes went wide and he smiled. He opened his mouth to speak and quickly closed it. He finally said, “Wow, Marissa. I’m shocked you finally had some sense knocked into that thick skull of yours. Your boyfriend was a complete douche. I never liked him, even when I tried to for Emily’s sake. What made you decide to break it off?”
It was hard breaking up with Jason, but we slowly grew apart over the years. I wasn’t in love with him anymore, and I hadn’t been for some time. Hurting him was not something I wanted to do, but I knew I had to. He wasn’t happy about it, but he at least sounded like he understood my reasoning for breaking it off.
“Things started fizzling out with us a long time ago. It was time for me to buck up and do what I needed to do. Besides, we never saw each other anyway. I’m sure the long distance stuff works for some people, but it just wasn’t for me, not since I was the only one trying. I guess I just got tired of it.” Sometimes I wondered why I even tried keeping us together when deep down I really didn’t care anymore.
Justin sighed and pulled me into his side, draping his arm over my shoulder. “Well, I’m glad you finally got some common sense. You’re the smartest girl I know, but I was beginning to question your intelligence on men.” I scoffed and pushed him away, making him laugh. “Do you need help with that?” Justin asked, looking down at my huge suitcase.
I waved him off. “No thanks. I think I can handle it. Besides, you’re going to have your hands full with all of Emily’s stuff there,” I said, pointing to her mountain of bags.
Groaning, he gazed down at her things and started picking them up. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Following him out the door, I rolled my luggage onto the landing of our third floor apartment. We’d lived at that apartment complex for the past two years, but before that we stayed in the co-ed dorms on campus at ASU. Appalachian State University had been my home for the past five years, and it was almost over, but I was ready for a new adventure. This was my last spring break before I graduated with a biology degree, and headed down to Wilmington to get my master’s in Marine Biology.
Until that time came, I planned on enjoying my haven in the mountains of Boone, North Carolina for as long as I could before moving to the hot, sandy beaches of Wilmington. I locked the door to the apartment and put the keys in my purse before trudging over to the stairwell. Carrying my huge suitcase down the three flights of stairs was not going to be fun.