one.

STEVIE DIDN'T WANT TO CRY, PURELY BECAUSE HER MAKEUP WAS FAR TOO NICE. Why waste her precious time, energy, and expensive(ish) products just to smudge it with her tears? She'd spent an hour trying to perfect her cut-crease, making it through several screw-ups that left her screaming into her bathroom towel in frustration.

He called it perfectionism, she called it effort. Perhaps that was why it didn't work between them.

She had never been one to support proposals at someone else's wedding; it took something special away from the bride and groom. So, when her boyfriend of a year and a half took the microphone in the middle of a Whitney Houston song and declared his love for her, the first thing she wanted to do was throw up in the bouquet she had caught only an hour prior.

She loved Scott, a lot. But when he bent his knee and pulled out a ring that looked far too small to fit on her finger and a box with her incorrect initials stamped on the lid, she felt deep in her gut that whatever this was, it wasn't right.

Mrs. Stevie Grigorovichen. It didn't exactly roll off the tongue. What would they have called their kids? He'd want something stupid like Oak, Kiwi or Vaughn. He'd raise them to think football was the second most important thing, after going to church every Sunday. He was the only reason she'd read the bible from cover to cover, and pretended to believe every word when his mother would go on and on about it.

"Nice dress, ma'am," the taxi driver snickered as she clambered into the car, lifting up the frilled skirt so she could make it inside. "You going somewhere?"

"Leaving somewhere," she muttered, reaching for her heels and throwing them onto the seat beside her. "Binford Building, please."

"You got it," he responded with a shrug, seeing through the rearview mirror that the young British woman probably wasn't in the mood for conversation. So, he turned the volume on the radio up, and began softly humming along to the upbeat music.

He didn't mention anything when he noticed a single tear fall down her perfectly contoured cheek.

★☆

Stevie's dress dragged along the sidewalk as she turned to enter the apartment building. She instinctively reached to her side for her bag, only to realise she didn't have it. She hung her head and exhaled loud enough for strangers to stare her way.

"I love your dress!" a bright voice jumped out of the blue, and Stevie turned to see a woman in a quirky outfit, with glasses hanging off her nose and a bright smile on her face. "It makes your butt look really good."

"Thanks." Stevie's lips twitched a little at the strange compliment. She saw that the woman was holding a reusable shopping bag in one hand, and a set of keys in the other. "Do you live here?"

"Yep!" the woman beamed, leaning forward to let herself in the building. "I'm in 4D! I've not seen you around before, which is kinda weird considering I made the rounds around a year ago when-"

"Great," Stevie cut her off. "Um, I live in 3B, but I left my purse at my sister's wedding. Do you mind letting me up with you?"

"Sure!" Jess nodded, using her foot to hold the door open so that Stevie could enter first. They both stepped into the elevator together, and within seconds of the door closing, Jess reached into her bag and pulled out a small box. She held them out, and Stevie saw that they were cupcakes with little stars frosted on the top. "Help yourself. You never told me your name, by the way."

Stevie looked at the cupcakes, then at Jess, then back at the cupcakes, then back at Jess.

Then, she burst into tears.

Jess' eyes widened and she awkwardly stepped back and forth. "Oh my God, did I do something? I'm so sorry, I just thought you'd like a cupcake. I can't believe I made someone cry, we've been talking for like, five seconds and I've ruined everything, did I ruin everything? Are you okay? I have tissues, makeup wipes, some peanuts and an iPod shuffle with just Cyndi Lauper on it..."

Stevie bent down to sit on the dirty floor and sobbed, the elevator music playing softly in the background. Jess hesitated, before pulling the emergency stop button and joining her on the ground.

"My boyfriend proposed to me and I ran away," the blonde choked out, and Jess' eyes widened. She picked up a cupcake and broke a bit off, handing it to her. Stevie took it and shoved it in her mouth. "This is a really good cupcake."

Jess smiled, before reaching out and placing her hand on Stevie's shoulder. "Thank you, I found the recipe on a shady website, but it worked nonetheless."

The raven-haired girl fed her another piece of cake while Stevie resisted the urge to wipe her cheeks. She didn't want to get make up everywhere, especially not on the dress that she was planning on selling as soon as she got out of it.

Jess watched as she lifted her head and began to blink furiously, trying to stop anymore tears falling. "You must have a lot of feelings right now."

Stevie sniffed and nodded. "He doesn't even know what my initials are. And he keeps buying me chocolate strawberries. Like, almost every single date. I'm allergic to strawberries. I've had to pretend to eat them when he's not looking, do you know how hard that it?"

"I think that's the saddest part of the story so far," Jess admitted, continuing to feed the messy woman bits of cupcake. "Strawberries are, by far, the sexiest fruit."

Stevie managed a chuckle, and she looked up at Jess with a smudged face. No matter her efforts, her ruined makeup made it look like she was melting. "Do you want to be friends, Jess?"

Jess' face brightened. In response, she handed Stevie another cupcake. "I would love that more than anything."

Stevie reached out and pulled Jess in for a hug, resting her chin on the woman's shoulder. Jess hummed softly and rocked her back and forth. Stevie then sighed and sat back, feeling tears well up again. "I don't have the keys to my apartment."

"You can stay with me until you get your purse back, okay?" Jess assured her with a smile, before she grimaced. "I don't think it's a great idea to ask Remy for a new key."

Stevie pulled a face, and nodded in agreement.

With that, Jess helped Stevie to her feet and pressed the button to get the elevator moving again. They went past level three and went straight to the fourth floor, where the two women walked side by side to 4D. Jess unlocked the door and swung it open, revealing two men throwing...remotes at each other, while another man shouted for them to stop. Once they heard the door slam shut, they all silenced and looked over at their roommate, and the strange panda-eyed woman in an orange bridesmaid's dress.

"Jess, stop bringing home stray animals! This isn't a shelter!" the bearded one in the middle cried out, before yelping as he was hit in the head by a remote. "Schmidt, you bitch!"

"He didn't mean that," Jess muttered, before clapping her hands to get their attention. She then held her hands out towards Stevie. "Guys, this is my new friend. Her name is..."

Everyone looked in Stevie's direction. She lifted her hand in a wave, not realising that her mascara was halfway down her face, her dress was stained and torn, and there were cupcake crumbs around her mouth. "Um, hello. I'm Stevie. Nice to meet you."

★☆

honestly idec if my writing is bad or not i just need to write s o m e t h i n g that isn't for uni right now