The door opened and Mia popped her head in. I swallowed a groan at seeing her already this morning. It was shocking more than anything. Mia was not a morning person, unless that is, she was coming in from a late night of partying.
It seemed like Mia was behaving herself more, though, after everything that went down. I had to really think about letting her stay here. I knew it I wasn’t the only one it affected, so we called our first ever house meeting, held over cartons of Chinese take-out and a bottle of cheap wine. Zoey and Callie were up in the air. They didn’t like how Mia treated me and really didn’t get along with her, but they felt like I needed to make the final decision. I felt like we were having a council meeting and I was the deciding vote. So, we decided to have a talk with Mia. If she promised to start making some changes, she could continue to live with us. I don’t know why she really felt living with us was necessary. I’m sure if she just called Gerald, he would give her any money she wanted. We weren’t the party police. If Mia wanted to go out, then more power to her, but she needed to start actually being nice to us. So, she promised she would work on it.
“Hey, Della. Do you have class?”
“Yeah, I just have one today.”
“’kay, well I’m glad I caught you. I actually got in early last night. This is the first time I’ve been up before eight in a really long time.”
I raised one brow as I nodded my head, surprised that the word early was even in Mia’s vocabulary. “What’s up?”
“Well, you know how we were talking about getting along better and all that the other night? I think I came up with a way.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” She clapped her hands excitedly, a little too chipper for me at this hour of the day. “I think the four of us should have a girls’ night! What do you think?”
“I don’t know, Mia.” I responded slowly, visions of her idea of a girls’ night playing out in my head. I’m sure it was a whole lot different from the ones we were used to.
“Oh, come on, Della.” She pouted her bottom lip. “I’ve never been invited to one.”
“Ever?”
She shrugged one shoulder at me. “No. If you haven’t noticed, I don’t really have any girlfriends to hang out with, I’ve never really gotten along with many girls.”
“Well, I guess we could do something.” I can’t believe I said that.
“Awesome!” she squealed. “Do you think everyone’s free tomorrow night?” I nodded my head in response, not wanting to tell her that we were already planning a girls’ night of our own. I felt guilty for never thinking to invite Mia, but I guess it had been partly her fault, too. She never seemed like she wanted anything to do with us.
“Even better. I’ll plan everything then.”
“Mia, I don’t think that’s such a—”
“Don’t worry, Della.” She waved one hand at me, backing her way out of my room. “We won’t do anything too crazy.”
Oh, shit. What did I just agree to?
Class went by quickly, and soon enough, I was on my way home before heading to my grandparents’ house. My phone rang right before I turned into our driveway, and I smiled when Marley’s name flashed across the screen.
“Hey girl, what’s going on?”
“Not much. Heading home before I go out tonight.”
“Sounds like fun, I wish we lived closer.” I frowned as I stepped out of my car. Who knew when I would be back for a visit, it wasn’t as if I went to see my mother that often. Plus, I wasn’t even sure if husband number-three-to-be lived in Connecticut. She could be moving to California for all I knew.
“I know, me too. We need to get together for a visit soon, maybe I could come down there during break or something.”
“That would be awesome.” I collapsed onto the couch, the silence of the house greeting me.
“So, I was actually calling for a reason.”
“Oh, yeah. What’s up?”
“Well, you know how you were talking about how you were kind of not happy with the way things went down between you and Chris the last time you saw him?”
How could I forget? The last time I saw Chris, my mom was kicking him out of my bed. Talk about awkward.
Chris Zander was my high school sweetheart. My first love. My first everything.
And the father of the baby that I aborted.
His name didn’t bring up many good memories, to say the least. When I thought about my first time, I thought about something romantic and sweet, not shit-faced drunk at some party. I tried to stop Chris; at least I think I did. I’m not saying he raped me, because I don’t think Chris would do that, but I did tell him that I wasn’t ready. He talked me into it eventually since I was so drunk, promising to pull out since he didn’t have a condom, but he broke that promise.