Clarity

When I woke up the next morning barely clothed, my hair a mess, and my body as sore as if I had an hour and a half workout, you could say I was anything less than confused. But then I turned my head carefully and saw Michael laying next to me, his eyes closed and mouth parted slightly, I realized where I was and what had happened.

I sighed and sat up slowly, stretching my sore arms out. I stood up carefully and winced in pain.

Damn that attractive hockey player.

I heard Michael’s obnoxiously loud cough, and I turned quickly- too quickly- to see him sitting up. He smiled at me and stood up and walked over to me. Unlike me, he had at some point in the night put his shirt back on and had his boxers back on.

I stood like an idiot in my bra and underwear. Classy move, Elena.

“Morning,” he winked, breezing past me out the door of his bedroom.

I rolled my eyes and pulled on my shirt and slowly wiggled into my jeans, then walked into the kitchen where he stood in front of the open fridge, staring blankly inside.

“Need some help there?” I asked slyly, leaning against the island.

He turned his head back to me and shook his head. “Watch it, I’ll come over there and attack you.”

I fake gasped and laughed. “You wouldn’t dare.”

He went back to looking in the fridge. “Try me.”

I laughed again and stared down at my phone, which I had put on the island when I arrived last night. I had three missed texts from Caity, all from about a half hour ago.

come home

elena

ELENA COME HOME NOW ITS IMPORTANT

“Shit,” I mumbled and stood up quickly, almost knocking over the chair I was had bee sitting on.

Michael turned around, his eyes wide, almost dropping the spoon he had in his hands. “What’s wrong?”

I looked up at him, almost forgetting what I had to ask him. “Uh, can you drive me home? Caity asked me to, it’s an emergency.”

He nodded, walking past me towards his room to get some pants. He came back quickly, holding his car and house keys. “What’s going on?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, I’m gonna ask her though.”

As we reached the door, it unlocked and Carl barged through, almost knocking his Canadian best friend over. “Shit, sorry man,” he muttered, barely looking up.

“Dude!” Michael called after him. Carl reluctantly turned around, his eyes hard. “Did something happen with Caity?”

Carl shook his head and put up his hand as he turned away. “Girls and their dumb feelings, ugh!” he cried, slamming the door to his bedroom shut.

Michael nodded. “I have a hunch it involved my dumbass friend.”

“Yeah,” I said quietly, throwing the door open and rushing out towards the elevator.

------

We made it to mine and Caity’s apartment rather quickly, considering all the New York traffic, but Michael knew some backroads that made it almost five minutes shorter than it would’ve taken.

After saying goodbye to him and almost running out, he grabbed my wrist and kissed me, then let me run up to my probably upset best friend.

I unlocked the door quickly and ran in the apartment, letting the door slam. I didn’t even bother to lock it, and walked past the living room and kitchen to not find Caity. I threw the door open to her bedroom to find her sitting on her bed. And it was not a pretty sight.

My usual strong, witty best friend, who never lets anything get to her, was sitting on her bed, her eyes focused on the floor, tears streaming down her face. I stared at her, my heart almost breaking in half.

“Caity,” I half-whispered.

She looked up at me slowly, her eyes glossy. I sighed, walking towards her. “Oh, Caity, what happened with Carl?”

She sighed. “How do you know it was Carl?”

“He barged into the apartment complaining about feelings.”

“Are you serious?” she asked, the sadness in her eyes going away for a slight moment.

I nodded and she sighed in frustration. “What happened?”

She uncrossed her legs and moved back against the wall. “Okay, well after we got here we were sitting on the couch and he started kissing me and I was getting really tired of just being like friends with benefits and that shit and so I asked him if we were like official and he asked why it mattered and I just wanted to know and he had a nervous breakdown about how it didn’t matter if we were official or not and I started screaming cause I didn’t want to just be friends with benefits and nothing more cause I like him and ugh, I don’t know what to do cause he just got up shaking his head and left.”

I looked at her, my mouth wide open. “Hold one second.”

Immediately, I pulled up mine and Michael’s conversation and texted him.

your friend is a dumbass.

Almost immediately, I got his response, which I showed to Caity.

didn’t I say he was a dumbass? and ik he told me what happened, kinda siding with caity here, he’s acting like a girl.

Caity laughed, a genuine laugh. “I love him, you are a lucky girl, my friend.”

“I think Michael’ll talk some sense into your boy, don’t worry,” I assured her, making a mental note to tell him that.

She nodded and stood up, grabbing my hand and pulling me inside. “Okay, so now, did you and DZ have your makeup sex?”

“Mhm,” I nodded quietly, texting Michael back.

talk to your friend about it cause caity’s pretty upset

Caity grabbed my phone as I hit the send button and tossed it on the couch. “Hey, I was texting Michael!”

“This is more important than Michael!” she exclaimed.

I frowned. “Caity, it’s about Michael.”

She shook her head. “Whatever, you know what I mean. Now let’s hear it, what happened.”

I shrugged. “We got to his place, he apologized, I accepted it, then told him I shouldn’t have overreacted the way I did and he was all sweet and told me it wasn’t my fault then he kissed me and bam, makeup sex. And it was good, too.”

Caity frowned. “God dammit I miss Carl’s sex.”

“If he isn’t a dumbass and listens to Michael the way I had to listen to him you’ll get it back eventually.”

“Hmph,” she pouted. “I better.”

Leave it to Caity to miss the sex most from a guy.