Michelle walked through the halls of the building where Rachel's small company now flourished. With a little help from a new CO-owner, things there had been doing quite well. Not long after Adam and Rachel had gotten married, Rachel had sold half of her company to a woman named Teresita. A woman with a business head on her shoulders.
It had been four months since the wedding, and the happy couple were doing very well. They were even expecting a baby in April. They proved the doctors wrong, Michelle thought with a smile. it was either that, or they had a lot of practice. With Adam and Rachel, it was probably a lot of practice. She hoped it was a boy, Michelle thought as she sipped water from a fountain.
She walked into Rachel's office, expecting to see her with her feet propped up on the desk and her glasses on. Instead she found an empty room.
"You looking for Rachel?" Teresita asks, as she walks up behind her. "She's probably in the bathroom."
"Is she sick?" Michelle asks, as Rachel appears from the bathroom.
"Are you guys talking about me?" Rachel asks laughing. "it's my tenth trip to the bathroom."
"Hey Rach!" Michelle says. " I just came to see if you wanted to go to lunch. I was going to call first, but I decided to come out and visit."
"I need you to look over something first for me Rach." Teresita says, before Rachel can reply.
"Is it Meri's work?" Rachel asks, as she takes the folder with papers in it.
"Yes, I really don't know how much longer we can keep her here. I know she is your friend, but something really has to be done in order for work here to go smoothly." Teresita replies.
"I'm sorry Mich, duty calls." Rachel says, to Michelle.
"It's OK. Beth is meeting me at Donnie's Grill in about an hour. If you get the time, come on over." Michelle says, and leaves. She takes her keys out of her purse, but when she reaches her car she decides to walk. The fresh air felt good to her lungs. She took a deep breath, as she took a seat on one of the benches that lined the avenue. Tears started to run down her cheeks, as she tried not to think. It seemed that she was always crying, and she wished she could stop.
She really needed someone to talk to. She had come such a long way, and been through so much. Why did one little break up with a man hurt her so much, she wondered?
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Beth drove by Michelle's house, thinking that she was supposed to meet her at her house. Michelle had sounded so down on the phone, that she had gotten really worried. Maybe she had decided to go on to the restaurant, she thought as she continued on.
She parked circled the restraunt parking lot, and didn't see Michelle's car. She stood on the sidewalk and looked around, and spotted Michelle sitting on one of the benches, with her eyes closed.
"Michelle are you OK?" Beth asks, as she notices the drying tears on Michelle's face.
"Love sucks." Michelle says, without opening her eyes at the sound of Beth's voice.
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Keith sat in his truck staring at the Gulf of Mexico. He had been living in Panama City, Florida for the past few months. He couldn't take being in the house in Chicago anymore. There were too many reminders of Sherrie and Shawn there. The apartment he had rented was cheap, but now he considered it his home for the moment.
He entered his apartment thinking about revenge. He put together his gun in a matter of minutes. There was no more lust for life, only lust for blood. If he didn't kill himself, the next person on his list was Michelle. It was her fault two people in his life had been taken from him.
He pointed the gun at his head, and then towards his reflection in the mirror and shot at his reflection. The silencer worked perfectly. The glass in the mirror fell in splinters across the bathroom floor.
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Josephine hated to hitch a ride, but she was in the middle of no where. She had set out on this great big quest to "Find Herself" and she had. She found herself broke and with a car with a blown transmission. Thank goodness she wasn't wearing heels, she thought.
A black Lincoln Towncar pulls up along side Josephine, as she sits on a suitcase. The window rolls down and she sees a man of about fifty and his wife out on an evening drive.
"Where you headed?" The man asks in a southern accent.
"Tampa Florida, Sir." Josephine replies.
"We can take you as far as Jasper Alabama. That's our stop" The woman says, as her husband gets out of the car to put Josephine's suitcase in the car.
"That's great. As close to Tampa I get is fine with me!" Josephine says, as she hops in the car.
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Jay paced the halls of the L.A. Arena. Denise was supposed to be there, but her plane had been delayed. She had called him from Germany on her cell phone, and now she had the phone turned off. And she wasn't at home. He was more than worried.
"Has anyone seen Michelle?" Stephanie asks Jay, Adam and Chris.
"I haven't seen her, maybe she is with Kurt." Adam says as he ties up his boots.
"No, I saw Kurt with his wife a few minutes ago. That's why I am looking for Michelle." Stephanie said, as all eyes turned to her.
"What? He went back to his wife??"Chris asks, with anger in his voice.
Andrew walks up behind steph and puts an arm around her. "He called it quits with her about a week ago. Kurt and his wife decided to give it another go. Kurt said that she was just a fling, and she hoped she didn't take it too personal." He said, and kissed Stephanie's cheek and excused himself.
"I hope Kurt didn't tell Michelle she was just a fling." Adam said, as he looked at Chris as Chris starts ranting about Kurt.
"Where is he, where is Kurt?" Chris said, as he punched a fist into his palm. Now he understood what Kurt was talking about a few weeks ago when he overheard him on the phone.
"Fighting will do you no good, Chris. Sweetie calm down." Stephanie says, as she leaves the room.
Chris sat hard on one of the couches in the room, and punched a pillow as hard as he could. Kurt's face, he thought, as he punched another cushion and watched it fly across the room.
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It was Tuesday night, and girls night out. The girls decided to close down the first bar they entered. All was good when Rachel was now the designated driver.
"I need to get wasted!!" Michelle yelled over the loud music.
"I'll race you!!" Beth says, as she orders her first beer. "You're going to be a sad drunk tonight."
Rachel looked around the room in hopes of finding Meri. Usually she met them there, it looked as if she wasn't going to make it though.
The drinks arrived, as Meri staggered up to them. She had been there an hour already and was completely wasted. She had been hiding in a corner, willing herself to get up and move.
"Mind if I sit here?" She asks as she sits next to Michelle. "Rach, Rach...I have something to tell you." Meri says to Rachel.
"What is it?" Rachel asks, as Meri puts a beer mug to her forehead. "Are you trying to read the beers mind??"
"Can you overturn something? You're half owner, and only half fired me. HALF!! I need another beer." Meri says, and gulps down Michelle's beer.
Michelle looks at Rachel, and realizes that Meri was fired by Teresita. "Wow, does anyone at this table not have problems??" Michelle says, as she tries to get her beer away from Meri.
"Problems?? What are those?? Here, lets raise our glasses!" Rachel says as she lifts up here water.
"To Problems." Michelle says laughing at Meri, as Meri puts a finger on Michelle's mug to say the toast.
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Nights were so hard sometimes,. Keith had the same dream every night. He hated that damn dog, he thought. Michelle's murdering dog, Fear. In the dreams, he had been mauled by that vicious dog. He lay awake until daybreak, fearing that if he closed his eyes he would see the dog again.
His apartment suddenly became too small, and he had to get out. He practically ran, leaving everything behind. The tires on his truck screeched out of the parking lot, as he made his hasty escape. The anger in him rising more than his fear finally, as thoughts of Michelle being alive and happy took over.
He touched the metal that seemed attached to him. Somehow it soothed him.
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Rachel lay on the couch, and looked at her friends sprawled on the floor. Michelle had passed out at the bar, and the nice bouncers had carried her to the car. Beth lay next to her with a pail. In her one-second of soberness, she had requested to sleep next to it. Meri lay half under the coffee table, and half under a chair. The last time Rachel had seen her, she was laying in the kitchen, and Rachel wasn't about to pick her up.
The phone rang, startling Rachel. She answered it to find Teresita on the other line.
"Rachel, are you coming in today??" Teresita asks when she hears Rachel's voice.
"Ah, what time is it?? Oh the night went by too fast. I probably will be there in a few. I see that you fired Meri yesterday." Rachel said, as she tip toed through the sleeping ladies.
"I did it for you. I didn't want you to have the stress, and your friend hating you." Teresita replied. "That new editor is coming in today too."
"Today?" Rachel asks, as she looks at a clock, and then at the ladies sleeping." I guess I could let these drunk fools sleep some more." She says with a giggle.
They hang up, and Rachel runs upstairs to take a quick shower.
"Rachel?" Adam says, as he steps in behind her.
"You scared me." She says, as he kisses her neck.
"I just got home. What went on last night. It looks like a war went on down there." He says laughing and scrubbing her back.
"We went out, and they drowned their sorrows in a barrel of beer. There has been so much going on, I don't know where to start." Rachel says, as she turns to look at him.
"Believe me, I know some of it. Poor Michelle."Adam says, as he pulls Rachel to him.
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Chris and Amy stand in the kitchen sipping on coffee. They had passed through the room where the three women were passed out, and they both wondered who had gotten the drunkest.
Putting his coffee down, Chris sits next to Michelle on the ground. He strokes her hair, and pulls her hair back. Cheek exposed, he kisses her cheek. She groans a little, and turns over the other direction.
"She's going to have a hangover, I can still smell the alcohol." Chris says, looking at Amy. He watched Michelle sleep for a few moments more and stood up. " Tell Adam I had to go." He takes one last look at the ladies on the floor, ending with Michelle. He smiled at the small smile that was playing on Michelle's lips. He hoped she was having nice dreams, and maybe dreaming of him.