Kairyn Cortez
Quince immediately stopped walking as soon as he saw me standing there in absolute shock. Looking between the two of us he spoke. “Do you know her?”
“Yes babe, I know her,” I replied with surprise and a great amount of curiosity. How the hell did she even know where I was?
“I’m Annissa Rosario,” she introduced herself, extending a pale hand towards Quince.
Ignoring her hand, Quince gave her a curt nod of acknowledgment. “Quince.” Grabbing my non-broken hand he held it firmly. “This is my girlfriend Kairyn.”
“Oh.” She replied with a forced smile.
Returning a forced smile I glanced up at Quince. “I already know her.”
The silence that followed momentarily felt like an eternity. Seeing as I wasn’t going to say anything Annissa took a deep breath and spoke. “I just wanted to apologize for everything that happened.”
Staring at her in disbelief I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The banshee who got me locked up for a murder I didn’t even commit was apologizing? That didn’t sound right. She continued speaking, pulling me right from my thoughts.
“And as an apology, I was wondering if maybe I could get you dinner.” She looked serious as she put this offer out. I continued to stare at her in utter disbelief as I processed what she was asking. Without even giving it a second thought I gave my answer, my voice coming out cold and firm. “No.”
Tugging on Quince’s hand, we started making our way to the parking lot once again. We didn’t make it far as we heard what sounded like a desperate, “Wait.” Ignoring her I continued walking away from her. “Please.”
I didn’t even look back as Annissa continued to plead, begging me to stop. My anger boiled as I thought of all the things I wanted to do to get my revenge for framing me of murder. What the hell made her think I wanted to go to dinner with my accuser? That would be complete bullshit. As I hastened my pace I heard as Quince spoke. “Listen, no means no. Now leave.”
As soon as we got to the car Quince unlocked it and without missing a beat, quickly pulled out of the parking space. Laying my head on the window I watched the scenery pass by as we sat in comfortable silence.
Once we got home, I rushed out of the car and practically ran to our apartment. Unlocking the door I started taking off my clothes as I went. Opening the door to my room I grabbed my towel and rushed to the bathroom.
Turning on the water I was about to step into the tub, but then I heard banging on the door. “Kairyn I know you’re having a Cortez moment right now, but I am not your damn servant. I’m your fucking roommate. Now since I’m nice I left everything in your room.”
I heard as Quince left, but not before I heard him shout out, “Oh, and Kairyn your arm can’t get wet. Put a bag over it otherwise, we’ll have a repeat of today.”
Glancing down at my arm I realize that I forgot to get a bag in my rush to hit the shower. Wrapping the towel around me I stepped out of the bathroom in search of a bag. Quickly grabbing one from underneath the kitchen sink I wrapped my arm in it, then made my way to the bathroom once again.
Stepping into the tub I let the hot water run down my body. Of all the things that could possibly have happened to me these past two days, at least I knew I could check two things from my bucket list.
One, being accused of a murder that I didn’t commit and two breaking my arm only to have it rebroken. A possible third would be that unwanted dinner invite from my accuser. Damn, I hated that woman.
Reaching for my pouf I put soap on it and began to scrub away the past few days’ worth of stress. I must have been in the shower for a long period of time because I felt the water go from scalding hot, to warm, to cold forcing me to get out.
Walking through the small stretch of hallway to where the rooms were located I passed by the framed pictures of us from when we were tiny toddlers, to now almost college graduates. I could hear the pots and pans clattering in the kitchen and smell tonight’s dinner. Once I got to my door, I closed it and quickly put on random sweatpants and a borrowed shirt from Quince. I left my room, but not without grabbing my dead phone and tossing the pile of clothes that Quince had left in my basket.
“Spaghetti today?” I asked Quince as I peeked over his shoulder.
“Yup, with made from scratch meatballs and steamed broccoli,” he replied sounding proud of himself.
“Why don’t you just leave your current occupation and become a famous chef?” I questioned as he lifted the spatula with his homemade sauce up for me to try.
“Because I happen to like my job currently.” As Quince went back to stirring the sauce I went to go plug my phone in. “Ryn don’t you dare unplug my phone. It’s at two percent.”
“Oh yeah?” I replied back with my hands on my hips, “Mine’s dead.”
“Go get your own charger.” He replied without a hint of empathy.
Heading back to my room I glanced back at him. “You’re heartless.”
“Yes, I know hon. Now hurry up so we can eat dinner.”
Just as quickly as I left, I was back. Plugging my phone into a charging port, I went to go get dinner. Once I finished I made my way to the living room where Quince was busy scrolling through Netflix.
We ate in comfortable silence, while Quince continued scrolling though already watched movies before he stopped scrolling and turned to look at me. “Care to explain why you were gone for two days and didn’t answer my fucking phone calls Kairyn?”
I stopped eating and looked down at my food. Taking a deep breath I started. By the time I had finished we were done eating and had done all the dishes. We were currently eating ice-cream while facing each other on the couch.
Quince went silent for a few moments before he went, “Damn! Is that what happened? And that girl we ran into was the person who had falsely accused you of murder?” Rubbing his temples, he looked at me with a look of sheer disbelief. “That’s fucking insane.”
“Yeah, but I guess what’s done is done,” I said with a shrug.
“Why didn’t you call me to pick you up though?”
“My phone was dead.” I simply replied.
Pulling out my laptop I opened my emails to delete all the useless ones and unsubscribe from annoying ones. I also needed to email my teachers about what I had missed for the past two days. I hadn’t even been on for more than ten minutes before I saw a new email pop up. Clicking on it I planned on skimming through it but paused when I saw the sender. It read:
Dear Kairyn,
We are writing to you because we have noticed the talent and abundance of potential that you possess. From the moment we had the opportunity to work together we could see the spark of creativity and teamwork in you. As a photography major in the fashion industry, there are many great opportunities for a creative mind such as yours to blossom in many ways. Our team has reviewed your past and present works and would like to cordially invite you to join our team in Vogue as both a fashion photographer and model.
Kind regards,
Team Vogue
I couldn’t help the squeal of excitement that came out of my mouth. Quince, who was in the middle of watching Pirates of the Caribbean glanced up and rolled his eyes. “You know for such a tiny thing, that squeal is deceiving.”
I continued to read the email and in it was a time, date, and address to a vogue office. The date was in a week’s time, which gave me time to prepare.
The days that followed could not go any faster. It was finally the day of the interview and I was bubbling with excitement as I waited in the lobby. Holy hell I’m actually here. I squealed with overflowing joy inside my head. I was so wrapped up in my excitement that when my name was called, I almost missed it.
Gathering my things I stood up and greeted the lady who had called my name. She had short red hair, cut in a bob with bangs. Her outfit consisted of a grey business suit with matching heels. Any makeup that she had on if any highlighted her natural beauty and high cheekbones. “Welcome to Vogue. My name is Diane Castbelle and I will be conducting your interview today,” she greeted with a smile. “Please follow me.”
Nodding my head I followed her to her office. Diane’s office reflected simplicity, yet it showed signs of a creative mind through the sketches that were scattered all over the room. She sat behind a large desk and gestured me towards the seat in front of the desk. Turning on her laptop she clicked on a few things before glancing up to face me once again.
She started with simple questions at first such as getting to know me, then moved towards the more serious ones. As I answered the questions, the whole time I felt as if I was giving out the wrong questions to begin with. By the time we got through the whole interview, forty-five minutes had passed. We stood up and she walked me out, leaving me with a, “Thank you for being patient with today’s interview. We’ll send out the details in a follow-up email asking you to complete a few things. Congratulations on joining our team.”
I thanked her and made my way out to my car, before squealing at the top of my lungs. As I sat there celebrating, my victory was short-lived when I remembered that I needed to go grocery shopping. The shopping itself was supposed to be done by Quince, but no matter how many times I said something about it, he somehow managed to come back home without the groceries. Pulling out my phone I sent a text to Quince telling him I was going to get the groceries before I started the car.
Since we hadn’t gone shopping in a while, I had to get a lot of things that we needed. I cursed under my breath as I thought about how many trips I was going to have to make. Pulling into the parking space next to Quince’s car I gave a sigh of relief. He was home early today, meaning I could get him to come and help me. Grabbing as many bags as possible I started making my way in a tedious fashion towards the elevators, giving an awkward wave towards the receptionist.
As soon as the elevator doors opened on our floor, I quickly made my way to the apartment door because my arm had started to get sore.
Just as I was at the door to our apartment, I saw that oh so familiar figure. Gripping the grocery bags in my hands tightly, I just stared at her.
Fuck.
It had been several days since I had last seen her, so why was she here? How did she even find out where I lived?
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