The light of the morning drifted in the dark room through the opening in between the curtains covering the window. She stirred and rubbed her face against her pillow, before sighing and blinking herself to awareness, slow to get up as she forced herself to sit up in bed.

Edeline was tired and achy in the mornings, and had been that way since she was younger. At 22, that fact really hadn’t changed at all and had probably become worse. Shuffling towards the bathroom, she got ready for the day and went through her regular routine quickly.

As soon as she got out of the bathroom, steam followed after her and she put on some comfortable clothing. A comfy Ed Sheeran shirt paired with some cotton sweats kept her warm for the chilly morning. She dried her hair some more before she tossed the towel to the side.

She ran her hands through her hair, gently combing through with her fingers before she reached out for a brush on her nightstand. She made a disgruntled noise as she fingered her silver hair, considering for once dying it to a normal color.

“Edel! Come see this!”

Edeline sighed and put down her brush, glancing at her hands. Small, pale, thin…

“Edel?”

“I’m coming!”

She let out another sigh and got up, walking out of her room. A small smile played on her lips as her roommate screamed in agony, jumping up from their couch to pull at her hair and scream obscenities at the TV.

“What did our TV do to you?”

Cherie, with her pretty natural curls and slanted dark eyes, pouted exaggeratedly and jabbed a manicured finger at the screen, show on pause to display the couple frozen on the TV.

“Stupid people on Reality TV, what else? Ugh, she’s totally empty-headed!”

Edeline snickered, coming to sit on the couch, where Cherie rejoined her straight after as she pressed play, letting the show run in the background.

“I don’t know why you watch these things, when you always get agitated at these people?” she asked, shaking her head at the older female.

“I like watching their outrageousness and the crazy,” Cherie answered matter of factly.

Edeline burst out laughing. “Okay, okay. I can’t argue with that.”

Cherie chuckled. “Anyway, I was going to show you this,” she took out her phone and showed it to her. Edeline peeked at the contents, blinking as she read the entire thing.

“Oh. Is Cassie going to be okay?”

Cherie shrugged, glancing nervously at her phone. “I suppose so. She didn’t call and the message itself isn’t…really alarming. She’s just going to be stuck in Paris longer than she thought she’d be.”

“Well…at least she’s with her fiancé there. It could be worse —she could be all alone and trying to figure out what to do in a panic. She’s never been too good at figuring things out on her own,” Edeline grimaced, thinking about their wayward friend.

Though it was nice that Cassandra was abroad and enjoying her overseas travels with her fiancé, if it had been just Cassandra, both she and Cherie knew (along with Cassandra herself) that she would be hopeless and more than a bit uncomfortable with trying to think what she should do next if she ran into a problem.

It would be nice to meet this fiancé of hers though.

“Even though she’s told us about him and has apparently known him longer than us, I still think it would’ve been nicer for us to have met him before they went off to see France,” Edeline sighed, worried about the other young woman.

“Eh, that’s what friends are for, Honey,” Cherie hmmed, scrolling through their friend’s social media and pausing the show. “To worry insanely. Oh, look! They posed in front of the Eiffel Tower like dorky tourists! How cute.”

Edeline leaned into her friend’s side so she can look at the phone too, a smile easily growing on her face. Shyly grinning at them, blonde and actually slightly tanning, Cassandra was happily wrapped around the arm of a handsome, older red-head, who was smiling much more easily at the camera. He was also affectionately leaning into their friend.

It made Edeline think of her own boyfriend, who was coming back from a company retreat the next day. They would be meeting up and celebrating their 7th anniversary, and she was excited to show him the gift she had managed to scrounge up for him.

“Ugh, looking at your face, it’s obvious who you’re thinking of,” Cherie pouted. “Me and my single self is just going to keep binging on these romance reality shows.”

Edeline blushed heavily, rather embarrassed to be caught. “Sorry —you know Hugh and I are going to be celebrating our anniversary tomorrow and seeing Cassie’s pic with her fiancé reminded me. I hope he loves the gift I got him; I had to really beg Professor Montague for the help!”

“Oh? What did you get Hugh?” Cherie looked curious. “It must be something damn really impressive, if you had to go and include Montague for the effort.”

Edeline couldn’t help the secretive smile. She had worked hard for her old college professor to get Hugh’s gift.

“It’s a secret,” she declared, causing Cherie to give a stinkeye. She just smirked at the Filipina and wagged a finger at her. “I’ll tell you tomorrow after I give it to him. Only fair the recipient knows first!”

“Blah! Suit yourself! Goddamn, I really need to go and find myself a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. I’mma start singing Journey, girl,” Cherie poked her shoulder.

“Won’t somebody find me —?” Edeline couldn’t help the lyrics, but she deadpanned it all the way, causing Cherie to grab a couch pillow and try to smack her with it, cutting off the rest of the words.

She laughed and let it hit her, guffawing all the way as Cherie grumbled and grabbed the remote to start playing the TV again.

“Do you think I should try going on one of these reality shows?” Cherie asked in amusement. “I think I’d make for great television, don’t you think?”

“You’d get fired for excessive force.”

Her friend snorted. “Nah, they’d love it. Probably think the audience would eat it up. I would get all the promotions and guest appearances, maybe a redemption arc.”

She chuckled and readjusted herself on their worn but much loved couch, head throbbing a little. Her body sort of slumped against the armrest while she wiggled her toes into the indent in the middle of the small loveseat, and she gazed at the TV while half listening to it and her friend mumbling comments about the show.

The girl on the screen was pretty, a classic brunette with dark eyes and average height compared to the man she was standing opposite of. He was at least a head taller than her, his hair messy as he looked at her with too serious eyes and a small grimace on his face.

“I’m so, so sorry. I never wanted to hurt you,” he said to the girl and Edeline couldn’t help herself, leaning a little towards the TV to watch.

Guilty pleasures and all, she and Cherie kind of really adored these reality shows a little too much.

“If you didn’t want to hurt me, then you shouldn’t have said all those things to me last night!” she cried back to him and the man was reaching out and cradling her crying face.

“Bet her makeup is gonna run,” Cherie interjected, which made Edeline blink back into focus in their living room and giggle.

“No way, not when they got professionals making sure the makeup stays perfect.”

“Nah, gotta make it as dramatic and ugly as possible, maximize that drama and all.”

Edeline bit down on her lip to stop herself from laughing, knowing that if she started now, she wasn’t going to be able to stop and she was going to end up wheezing uncontrollably like a lunatic.

“I meant them last night. In some ways, I still do, Angie —but I can’t choose you when I know what I’m feeling right now and right now I have love for you. I have so much love for you. But I love Melanie.”

Edeline’s amusement died down and she watched the show with a frown now, shifting in her seat as confusion set in.

What did that even mean?

“Tut tut, poor girl. In hindsight, I don’t think he was as interested in her as much. I really was cheering for her though —I actually thought they were cute and had a lot of chemistry, and he seemed like he was in love with her…”

Cherie’s voice was like background noise now though and Edeline’s frown grew. The whole thing of what the guy said was…

“…Ridiculous,” she scoffed, shaking her head. Cherie looked at her. “I don’t get it. How can you have love for someone and not love them?”

Cherie shrugged. “I dunno. It seems to be the trend and what all the regular shows and reality shows are saying nowadays. Celebrities and everyone else too. Maybe it’s a disease?” she chuckled but Edeline was still shaking her head at it all.

You love someone or you don’t.