The door stands ajar as I reach her house, so I enter. As she notices my presence, she rushes to my side and takes one of my bags. "You were worrying me. Usually, people get lost when coming to my apartment." The concern in her eyes is unmistakable, proving that she isn't faking it.

"Thank you so much for this. I'll be out of your hair before you know it," I reply with a grateful smile as I place my bags down.

"Oh, come on," she pauses, attempting to come up with something, "you got me fired, so now I get to wake you up with cold water."

I simply respond with a humph.

The room quickly fills with silence, neither of us breaking the peace, or rather, the awkwardness. We hardly know each other, and I'm surprised she said yes to letting me stay with her until I find my own place. She didn't bother asking why or what happened, she just told me to give her a second and unexpectedly sent me her address.

"My name is Aaliyah," I say as I offer my hand for her to shake. Instead, she raises her eyebrows, and then unexpectedly throws her arms around me for a hug. "Stop being so weird. I'm Selena, and we're going to be like sisters who share the same father's DNA. Only, I'm the prettier and nicer one."

I burst into uncontrollable laughter and Selena joins in, sharing the moment. I don't regret calling her because I had two options: her or Aiden. I went with the first option because I don't know what would happen if Aiden and I were alone in a house.

I take a look around her apartment. It's neither huge nor small, and it's not the fancy, elegant place I expected. Instead, it's cozy and simple. There's a small living room with beige chaise sofas and two accent chairs, and a smart television about six feet away. A coffee table with a white tablecloth sits in front of the sofas, adorned with a small flower pot, two remote controls, and a tissue box.

A doorway separates the living room from the kitchen, and everything is meticulously placed and structured.

"I've put your stuff in the second room. Make yourself comfortable, and when you're ready, I'd be happy to hear what happened to you. If is about someone who hurt you, tell them to keep their eyes open when they're sleeping." I nod happily, not sure of what to say, and head to the room she just came out of.

After locking the door behind me, I quickly send Cora a message.

Me: I ended it with Sebastian.

She replies almost instantly, as she always does. She's never one to delay a response, which makes her easy to talk to. If I were ever kidnapped by Aiden or anyone else, I could easily text her my assumed or described location, and I'd be discovered in less than two hours.

Cora: What?!!!! I'm getting my butcher knives, and I'll be there in twenty minutes to pick you up. You're not staying at his house. I mean, I've hated the guy from the start, and you know it. He always acted weird and suspicious.

A smile spreads across my face at her overprotectiveness. She doesn't know what happened, but she's already assuming things and getting ready to confront him. I'm not surprised that she's happy we broke up. She always complained about him not being good for me and that he was using me.

Me: I couldn't even look at his face after what he did. If I did stay there, his balls would have been chopped off. Then I'd cook them and flush them down the toilet so they'd go into the ocean, becoming dinner for any marine biodiversity that discovers them. But I value my freedom as a non-prison inmate, so I packed my stuff and left as soon as possible.

Cora: Baby, tell me what happened! He didn't cheat on you, right? For you to say you'd do something like 'chopping off his two-year-old dick,' this must be serious. Let me find my phone to dial triple zero. The police need to be ready; there's about to be a murder in your house.

I laugh at how she's reacting.

Her phone? This girl is delusional; how is she texting me if she can't find it? She doesn't wait for my reply before sending another text.

Cora: Where are you? Send me the address. I'm bringing every chocolate, popcorn, and tissue I find in Woolworths with me. Oh shit, and ice cream too, all kinds of flavours. We're going to have a crying party, and then you're going to have rebound sex and forget about his cheap arse.

I laugh at how she's reacting.

Me: Nah, I'm staying with a friend, and I don't want to freak her out. Give me at least a week to settle in.

Cora: FREAK HER OUT?! Do you think I freak people out?! Fuck you. I'm going to be texting you every millisecond of the day until I can come there. Oh wait, you didn't tell me about your interview. How was it? I'll give you three days, and then I'm coming there to check up on you. I don't give a shit how your new friend feels about it.

Me: I have to go now. Bye, monkey face.

I don't wait for her response before putting my phone away. I know Cora won't stop throwing questions at me; that's the kind of friend she is, always caring about me more than I care about myself.

I don't want Selena to think I'm hiding from her or anything, so I take a quick shower, get dressed, and walk back to the living room.

I notice she's now wearing a big grey shirt, so big that even I could fit in it with her, along with black shorts above her knees.

Turning around from whatever she was looking at on her phone, she says, "I've been waiting for you. Or did you think I'd be preparing dinner?"

Scrunching up my eyebrows, I walk closer. "Huh?"

"I said you're cooking for the two of us. So, get your arse in the kitchen."

Stupidly, I start laughing. Does this girl really think I can cook? I've lived on takeout and fast food ever since I can remember. The only person who knew how to cook when I lived with my parents was me, and the only thing I could cook was water. Scratch the cooking part, I mean boil water, because I can never cook to save my life. That's what happens when you have a mother who only cared about her beauty and job rather than her child's hunger.

"Is there something on my face?" She asks, turning her phone camera on to check.

"No, there's nothing. I just find it quite amusing that you think I can cook. Give me rice or anything to cook, and I will burn it. I've even boiled water to the extent that the inside of the pan turned black. So, love, you've got to find yourself a better and more qualified cook."

She stares at me with her mouth agape. "How old are you?"

I try to think of possible reasons why my age has got to do with not being able to cook. "Twenty-five. Why?"

She shakes her head unbelievably.

"What the hell?"

"Basically, you've been surviving on convenient foods-"

"Fast foods too, like Thai food and McDonald's," I interject.

She rolls her eyes, annoyed by my interruption. "Since you were little. That's good because I'm a great cook and teacher. Only $100 an hour, and since I like you, I'll reduce it by 0.1 percent."

Who told this girl I want to learn how to cook?

"Umm, would you rather live with only knowing how to boil water for the rest of your life?" She questions.

I look at her, surprised that I said that out loud. Or maybe she's just playing some mind tricks on me. "Okay, fine, but don't boss me around," I finally concede. She's right; I need to learn some basics at least.

"We'll see about that."

We both settle into a comfortable silence for a few minutes before I think of something: "Because it's late can we please order pizza."

She pauses for a moment to consider her options. "You can do it. But, in order to burn those pizza calories, we have to go to the gym tomorrow. Anyways, could you perhaps get a pineapple pizza for me?"

I nod and walk over to the couch, sitting next to her before placing our pizza order on Uber Eats, praying that it won't take too long to arrive. Selena soon gets up and walks into her room, leaving me alone in the living room.

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