It’s been 2 weeks since the last day of college. The girls could no longer call themselves students now since they had given up all their student identification, which meant the ugly truth, they had to start looking for jobs. Amanda was feeling unfazed since she had another semester to go, so she couldn’t help but rub it in their faces, that she didn’t have to adult so soon. It was a chilly Saturday evening, Gwen and Sierra was lazing about on the couch, noses buried in their phones while Tasha was doodling a new design on the coffee table.

“Yo Lahlings, we have nothing in the pantry to cook. Imma call JB to get us some dinner.” Amanda sticks her face into the fridge searching for food to satiate her hunger. She picks up her phone and dials JaeBeom’s number.

“The hell you doing?!” Gwen sits up and javelin-throws a pillow at Amanda. “I don’t wanna see him! Can’t you call Mark?”

“Too late…” She places her forefinger over her lips, signaling Gwen to shut it. “Dude, you busy? How about you return that favour you owe me and buy us some dinner tonight?” She nods her head as Gwen strains her ears to listen to the conversation from across the room. “Indian food sounds good! Consider this 1-1. No more favours.” Amanda ends the call, pleased with herself.

“What favour does he owe you?” Gwen asked curiously.

“He told Mandy not to tell you tha-“ Sierra announces the deal between Amanda and JaeBeom.

Amanda runs to the couch where Sierra was lying down and smothered her with the cushions. “Smolly smol smollllll……” she tickles Sierra. “Now where are those lost ies you were talking about…” Amanda struggles to pull Sierra’s top off playfully and laughing hysterically.

“STAAAHHHHPPPPPP IIIITTTT!!!!” Sierra screams in between fits of laughter while Amanda tickles her and tries to poke her hands through her top. Gwen joins in the laughter and chants ‘Go bammie go bammie go bammie!!’.

Tasha, too focused on her doodles, threw a pillow at Amanda’s head. “Bammie cut it out!” She goes back to doodling.

“Owwwwww…” Amanda stops tickling Sierra and rubs her head. “This is not over Smolly!” She gets off the couch and plonks herself next to Gwen on the other side of the couch feeling breathless after all that tickling. Sierra sits up straight and straightens her top and throws a pillow aiming point blank at Amanda but stops immediately as Tasha puts up her hands in the air.

“STOP IT, I SAID!” Tasha raises her voice. She’s on the edge.

“ooohhh touchhhyyyy….” Amanda teases.

Tasha had been a lil emo lately and the girls knew why. So they decided when Tasha had her moments, they’d leave her alone. They’d had many drinking sessions over the sudden outburst Tasha has had recently since Jackson’s MIA the night after their whirlwind wedding.

“So Gwen, you haven’t updated us on your ‘outing’ with super cute Daniel.” Amanda forms inverted commas with her hands.

“Oh yeah… about that….” Gwen trails off.

Just there’s a knock on the door. Sierra gets up from the couch and walks to the door. She peers through the peephole fish-lense on the door. She sees JaeBeom and Mark standing outside. She mouths ‘JB’ to the girls and points to the door. Gwen runs to her room to change out of her tank top and shorts while Amanda straightens the couch and rearranges the pillows back to its original position. Tasha still focused on her designs, hadn’t left her seat on the floor and continued doodling.

“Tee… the boys are here.” Amanda places her hand on Tasha’s shoulder. “You ok?”

“Yeah… I’m cool.” Tasha clears her color pens from the table and places her stationaries on the shelf.

Sierra opens the door to let JaeBeom and Mark in.

“Everyone decent?” Mark smirks. “Imma use Mandy’s toilet. Mandy… you cool?” He points to Amanda’s room door.

“Noooo…!! Use Gwen’s!” Amanda half-yells from the living room, running towards her door to shield it from Mark entering her room. Gwen walks out of her room, in her khaki pants and white tank top. “There she’s out of her room. It’s cleaner than mine!” Amanda points to Gwen’s room.

Gwen smiles at Mark, mouths a ‘hi’ and opens her door for Mark to go in. “Aim properly, thanks!” She warns Mark and giggles as she walks to the kitchen.

Gwen walks to the kitchen and opens the fridge, taking out four bottles of Hite Pale Larger while JaeBeom was setting up food and taking out cutleries. An awkward silence brewed between them in the kitchen. They don’t greet each other, instead they went about with their chores in silence. Gwen clears next to JaeBeom signaling for him to open the drawer he was blocking. She placed the bottles on the counter and takes out a bottle opener and sticks it between her teeth.

“You can make two trips, you know.” He breaks the silence between them and watches her walk away.

Gwen ignores him and carries two bottles in each hand while clenching the bottle opener.

Sierra, Amanda and Mark were whispering amongst themselves in the living room.

“Oh… so she’s still mad at him?” Mark asks.

“Yeah… that day…” Amanda offers a story but realizes Gwen had stood by her placing the beer on the table.

“Gossiping about me, are we?” Gwen smiled, opens one bottle and places the bottle opener on the table. “For the record, yes, I’m still mad at him.” She then walks over to the balcony to where Tasha was and offered her the opened bottle.

“You ok, hun?” She side-hugs Tasha who looked dazed leaning over the railing. “Yeah… I just miss him, y’know? But I’m ok, don’t worry. After this….” Tasha points to her bottle. “…. I should be ok. You go ahead. I’ll join in for dinner in a bit.” She takes the bottle from Gwen and continues to stare off into space. Gwen mirrors Tasha and leans on the balcony railing. The view from the 7th floor was of the sprawling campus, where the buildings showed age and wisdom, covered in moss and creeping flowers all over the external walls.

“You sure? I’m free to listen if you wanna talk, ok?” Gwen nudges Tasha’s shoulder.

“I’m good, don’t worry. Don’t stay mad too long. He’s dying, I can see it.” Tasha nods towards the living room.

Gwen hugs Tasha and sighs as she walks back into the living room. The food is already on the living room table and everyone’s already digging in the food. Gwen takes out a bottle of cheap white wine from the fridge, pours it into a blue mug and joins the rest in the living room.

Gwen stands behind the two-seater couch which Amanda and Mark shared. She glances over to Sierra who had settled into her single-seater chair munching on her pita bread, which left JaeBeom sitting on one end of the three-seater couch, with two empty spaces available next to him. Gwen rolls her eyes and grumbles, knowing fully well that there were three accomplices who were already seated, planned the seating arrangements. Gwen takes her food and sits at the opposite end of the same couch JaeBeom was sitting on. She could tell from the stolen glances between Mark, Amanda and Sierra that they were all holding in a hidden agenda.

Comfortable silence passes by for a few minutes while everyone gobbled down dinner.

“You didn’t finish your story just now, Gwen. What happened with your day out with Daniel?” Sierra attempts small talk as she places her plate on the table and reaches for her beer.

“It was… confusing.” Gwen sips her wine, swallowing down her last bit of rice.

“Pray tell, babe.” Amanda asks