three.

“Are you just gonna scroll on the comments on your story all day?” Brooke asked me, setting down the cup of tea on the coffee table in my apartment. “Both of us don’t have any work today and yet you’re spending your free day glued on your phone.”

I didn’t stop. “Meanwhile, you’re spending your day off in my apartment watching me scroll through my phone. I’m not sure which one of us is wasting their time here, Brooke, because it can’t be me. I’m actually enjoying what I’m doing.

Brooke sighed. “You know why I’m here, Zoey. You’re lucky I’m the one who came instead of your brother. Hell, you’re lucky that I haven’t told him yet.”

I knew what Brooke wanted to talk about. It was this big elephant in the room that I was purposely ignoring. It came when she arrived, looking forlorn and disappointment clear in her heavily make-up caked eyes. I knew that she was desperate to get me to talk and tell her the reason behind the resignation I submitted yesterday to our boss.

And I also knew that she deserved an explanation because she was the one who got me the job. The thing was though, telling Brooke my reason meant my brother knowing what it was and evidently, my entire family would be on my case again. That was not something I wanted to deal with and as of the moment, Brooke wasn’t someone I wanted to deal with.

“You’re not getting anything out of her,” Noah said from her room. She was sitting cross-legged in the middle of her room, door wide open so we could see her doing weird yoga positions. Brooke scrunched up her nose, visibly showing her distaste towards my roommate. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Noah, it was more like Noah was never someone she would hang out with but she never had a choice since we lived in one apartment.

Brooke let out an exasperated sigh. “Zo, there are already so many questionable things that you’ve decided that we chose to ignore. You still live in this shabby apartment and choose to have a roommate when you can afford to pay the rent with your pay check and even afford to move into a better one.”

Still, I continued scrolling through the comments on the latest story I was working on in Storyx. On the couch, Brooke still continued to point out the areas that seemed to be poor life decisions I made. “You still use a beaten up mom van when our company provides us with better cars which you declined.”

“My car works perfectly, Brooke. They agreed that they could turn it into gas money.”

“We have gas allowance!” Brooke countered, struggling to win the argument with me. She already knew before she arrived here that she wouldn’t win. I didn’t really see the point why she bothered but I could commend her for trying. “Zoey, it’s not bad to spend a little more to live a comfortable life.”

This time, I set my phone down and sighed. “I’ve been working for that company for nearly three years and not once had I been happy with what I was doing. Everyone wanted me to go for this because they kept telling me this was the more practical approach as I waited for my big break. Three years later, the big break hasn’t happened and I’m stuck in a job that I do not love.”

Brooke’s eyes softened. Despite the fact that she was always on board with whatever intervention my family wanted to do with me, she cared about what I felt too. Brooke wasn’t simply my brother’s girlfriend, in the years that she has been with Zane, she became my best friend too. My only best friend.

“Zo, you know that I love you and whatever the reason you decided to resign, I’ll respect whatever it is. But you also know that because we love you, we want what’s best for you.”

Best for me my ass. It’s a common statement that my family has been telling me for years. From my parents to my older siblings, my twin brother, our youngest, and now, my brother’s girlfriend, they all wanted what was ’best’ for me. They didn’t even know what I wanted because they chose to oversee that fact.

I was tired of trying to reason with Brooke. Noah’s phone pinged a notification and she quickly looked at me, nodding. “We gotta go, Zo.”

Brooke eyed us both suspiciously. “Where are you two going?”

I got up from my seat by the window and started looking for my shoes. “We’re getting weed from the guy that sells it to me.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at Noah’s answer. She loved getting on Brooke’s nerves to entertain herself and frankly, it is entertaining to see perfect Brooke getting annoyed and losing her cool. But now wasn’t the time to press Brooke’s buttons and Noah and I needed to meet with the person that just texted her.

Placing my hands on Brooke’s shoulders, I squeezed her gently. “When everything’s settled, you’re the first one I’ll call to explain everything. But right now, Brooke, I need you to trust me.”

There was a flash of hurt in Brooke’s brown eyes and I felt a little guilty. She knew how much she meant to me and she knew that I would tell her everything. It was just that, now wasn’t the time for her to know what I was up to. As much as I loved her, I didn’t want her reporting anything to my family just yet. The last thing I needed was them meddling in my plans and convincing me to take the practical approach in life yet again.

Our drive to the building that we were seeing was quiet and I knew Noah was letting me be lost in my thoughts. Brooke was right, I didn’t really need a roommate but I had a spare bedroom and Noah needed a place to stay. She worked as a cleaning lady in one of the hospitals that one client I had worked in.

Noah and I met in a cleaning closet and ended up eating our lunch there together. I was trying to escape from the pretentious people I had to work with and the equally pretentious doctors that I had to convince to buy my products. Having lunch with them was too much for someone like me and I thought the cleaning closet was empty but Noah was just about to have her lunch we ended up eating together.

She mentioned to me then she needed a place to crash. I told her I had a spare bedroom and I had her pay the minimum amount of rent there was possible. Technically, it was like she lived off of me but I honestly didn’t mind. For some reason, I found her presence comforting. She was the least person likely to judge me with my actions and report my decisions to my family. She was the ally I never thought I needed.