For a Mess Like Me

Joey Carter, a red headed light spirit sat on her front lawn to tan in one of her many colorful bikinis’. She was about 5”9 and it always gave her an advantage on everything. She didn’t mind that she was taller than most of her friends to be honest, she enjoyed being able to reach things for herself without acting like such a whiny bitch. She was waiting for her best friend, Eleanor Dustin Colton aka Dustin, to arrive at her family’s new home. It was in a quiet suburban street in Baltimore. Big houses but they were pretty cozy and the neighbors were extremely friendly. A car pulled up just as Joey turned to get some tan on her back. Dustin ran up, her short bleached hair spiraled out wildly as she ran really fast and crash landed on top of Joey.
“Holy crap Dustin!” Joey edged her body from under Dustin’s weight and fell face first, to the ground. Dustin laughed and turned her body so that she was sitting perfectly on the lounging chair.
“I have big news!” Dustin said as she watched Joey pick herself up, dust herself off and sit on the edge of the lounge chair.
“What?”
“I got a boyfriend!” Dustin said, almost singing it. Joey smiled and nodded for Dustin to pass her the shades she had dropped on the ground.
“He’s the best thing in the world. Like honestly, I think that I’m in love with him.”
“What? You barely know him Dustin. Pace yourself. How long have you guys been dating?” Dustin waved her hand in the air as if to dismiss what Joey had just said.
“We’ve been dating for five months!”
“And you just tell me… Why?”
“You’re busy with your life and it would just annoy you I guess.” Dustin shrugged and played with a piece of grass. She tore it off slowly and glanced at Joey, her face unreadable.
“What? Just say what’s on your mind Joe.” She threw the remaining pieces of grass back to the ground and crossed her legs right under herself.
“I mean, I feel like you think I don’t pay attention to you anymore Dustin and that is defiantly not the case. I care what goes on in your life Dust. Don’t worry; I will always have time to hear your BS and stories.” Joey smiled and lightly punched Dustin in the arm. Dustin smiled and held open her arms for a hug. They hugged for a bit when Dustin pulled back. She got up from her seat and fixed the crinkles in her shirt. She walked back to her car and turned around to yell; “By the way; they have this lake house and they invited us so we’re going.” Joey shook her head because, of course, Dustin never checks in with Joey to see if she doesn’t already have plans. But of course Joey doesn’t so it doesn’t matter.

Midafternoon

Joey went back outside to tan in her zombie bikini. Her ex gave her this bikini when she was in her hardcore scene days. It’s still, to this day, her favorite just because she gave everything to her ex and so did he for a while before he gave up and cheated on her. She can remember every little detail about him. Honestly, she never got over him. His nice jawline, his perfect voice, the way he cared about what happened to her. He was just perfect for Joey. His name was even perfect. Alexander William Gaskarth. But of course he left her for this girl named Lisa. She was pretty but she had never met anyone as annoying as Lisa. She tried too hard and that even irked Alex. He dumped her after 3 months of being together and went on tour with his band. She never spoke, saw, or heard of Alexander Gaskarth again. Surprising really considering she used to live by his parents. It never occurred to her that maybe she should go catch up but will they even let her in or tell her anything? It wasn’t worth the risk to get rejected so she continued to tan and dwelled on the fact that Alex and her aren’t and will never be together again.

Night

Once again, Joey was in another bathing suit but instead of being on her front lawn, she was in the backyard with her sister, Alaska, and her sister’s boyfriend, Damon. They were cute together but it kind of pissed Joey off that even her sister could get a boyfriend and she couldn’t. They were in the pool swimming around and sneaking kisses now and then while Joey sat on a lounge chair and flipped through a magazine, pretending to be more fascinated by the mag instead of seeing her little sister suck faces with the neighbors son. Joey got up and walked back inside because someone was knocking on the door.
“Coming!” She jogged the short distance to the door and opened it wide.
“Hi! How can I he-“ In front of her very eyes stood the boy she once was in love with.
“You guys must be new to this neighborhood. I’m Alex. I got this gift for you because my mom made it. She couldn’t come and give it to you herself because her leg is messed up but yeah… It’s good pie, trust me.” He smiled and Joey remembered those same British teeth that bit her plumped lips just right. Those same lips drove her crazy.
“Uh, yeah thanks. I’m Joey.” Alex extended his free hand and she shook it.
“My cousin said he saw you earlier and he didn’t recognize you so I knew you were new and I had my mom make her infamous pie.” I smiled and caught a whiff of his mother’s delicious pie.
“Thank you Alex. Tell your mother that this was nice of her.”
“Can I ask you something?” She gulped but nodded anyways.
“How many bikinis do you own?” Mental sigh. “My cousin said he saw you in like 2 already.” Alex smirked and flipped his hair out of his eyes.
“Was your cousin spying on me or something?” Alex laughed and shook his head.
“I don’t know. Probably. You’re cute, why wouldn’t he?” Joey blushed and Alex smiled again.
“Look, I gotta get going but it was nice meeting you Joey.” He smiled and extended out his hand towards her again.
“It was nice meeting you too Alex.” She let their fingers linger for a bit before she dropped her hand back to her side. He waved back at her and walked down the street to a house almost identical to hers. She shut the door quickly and slid down, sighing and mentally cursing herself. Why didn’t he remember her? Or did he and didn’t want to bring up the memories? Either way, it bugged her and made her heart clench. She got up quickly and walked back to the pool where she found Alaska and Damon sucking faces. She scrunched her nose and went back inside. She honestly couldn’t deal with relationships right now.