twenty-nine | it's a bad idea, right?

(@dionnestanley via instagram stories!)

viewed by taracarrigan.

DIONNE'S LIFE SEEMED TO HAVE BECOME A NEVER ENDING STREW OF MONDAYS. It seemed she was always flicking off the Monday morning alarm and shuffling into the office not quite rested from the weekend that'd blown by too fast for her liking. Since her demotion everything had a melancholic edge to it and she didn't know how to make the feeling go away. She'd tried taking up hobbies like going to the gym and crocheting but the latter just frustrated her too much and the former made her think of someone she want allowed to be thinking of anymore. Too many things reminded her of him, for that matter.

As she sat down at her desk, Korra looked up at her with the same sad smile she'd given Dionne every morning since—what she was dubbing—"The Incident". And while she'd not spared many details, in fear of judgement, Korra had managed to put a lot of the pieces together herself. She'd always had her suspicions, ever since Vegas, she'd just kept them to herself for Dionne's sake.

The office gossip had died down as the clock ticked on. The first week had been the worst, the brunette hadn't been able to walk into a room without someone whispering about her. It was so high school of these grown ass men and women. She'd tried not to let it get under her skin, especially when outlandish versions of why she'd been demoted got back to her (like, seriously, who started the 'Dionne aborted Timothee's baby' rumour?).

Lyra from accounting had been talking really loudly about the brunette when Korra had asked for her attention. "Let's go sit in the sun for lunch, I need to cleanse my aura after breathing the same air as some people," she said, shooting a glare at the middle-aged bleach blonde who just scoffed at her.

Dionne just shrugged, allowing herself to be dragged into the elevator. "Works so bleak now," she admitted as the doors closed on them. "I didn't know I enjoyed making videos as much as I did."

"I went from actually using my degree to edit videos to photoshopping tears on players again," Korra grumbled, spamming her finger against the ground floor button in hopes the elevator would move faster. "Not that I blame you, Timothee's a freak."

Dionne shrugged again. "He's just doing what'd best for the company, I guess."

Korra sent a pointed look her way as the doors opened. "As if you're defending him after everything," she replied, dragging the woman through reception. "You mightn't have ever given me the full story but I can read between the lines."

"There's no lines to read between. I started an unprofessional, sexual relationship with a player," she deadpanned, ignoring the memories that flashed across her mind. "Turns out it was written into my contract to forbade those kind of relations," she added. Something she hadn't known until after she'd been demoted. She'd almost wanted to call Timothee weird for adding that clause but she should've read her contract more thoroughly before signing, she supposes.

"Hey, you're not the only one," Korra muttered as they reached a metal table in the courtyard. "At least yours had the decency to acknowledge your existence afterwards. . ."

Dionne's head shot up, eyebrows raised. "Wait, what? Who?"

Korra's cheeks lit up and she stared down at her fruit salad with an embarrassed look. "You weren't the only one who had fun in Vegas," she mumbled. ". . . While you and Carrigan were having your whole dramatic love story, I. . . I hooked up with Reece Walsh."

If Dionne had a dollar for every-time a friend hooked up with Reece Walsh, she'd have two dollars (which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's now happened twice). "Oh, my god. . ."

"What's even more embarrassing is I tried to DM him after and he declined the message request. Meaning he read it," Korra said quickly, resting her head against the cool metal of their lunch table. "At least Carrigan probably wanted to date you."

Dionne coughed awkwardly, trying to absorb all the information she'd just been told. "Was it a good night at least. . . ? Before the, erm, ghosting?"

"Top five," Korra replied, voice muffled from her talking into the table.

"Wait, how did you know about me and Patty?" Dionne said suddenly, doing a double take.

"Besides the fact that you acted like year two's with big fat crushes whenever you were in the same room?" Korra offered, "you guys weren't exactly subtle with your interest in each other."

"Oh. . ." Dionne sighed, "well, it doesn't really matter anyways. I had to block him to keep my job."

"And we're back to Timothee is a big fat weirdo," Korra announced, finally lifting her face off the table. "You know what we need?"

Dionne tilted her head to the side, a curious look being sent her friends way. "What do we need, Korra?" Whatever she was about to suggest, it was prob going to end horrendously.

"Work drinks and then clubbing," Korra declared, an excited look on her face. "No Timothee's allowed, just the cool people in the office." There were approximately three other people Dionne didn't mind in their office: Erik (the AFL writer), Lory (the receptionist) and Quinn (from Human Resources). . . especially all the other employee's under the age of thirty.

"Do you not remember the last work drinks you organised?" Dionne responded, eyebrows raised. The last time, all the senior members of the team had found out and crashed their night. The karaoke room they'd booked somehow squeezed seventeen people inside, all screaming Billy Joel off key. If the night had ended there, it wouldn't have been bad but it didn't. The entire group had squeezed into two Maxi Taxi's with a one way ticket to Fortitude Valley. Many shots had been consumed inside a gay club (Erik's idea) until Yuval, a forty-nine-year-old bald man, decided they should go to a strip club as a 'team'. It's safe to say Quinn had a headache come Monday morning writing everyone up.

Korra cringed at the memory. "It'll be a smaller group this time," she insisted.

Dionne sighed, knowing she was going to end up at whatever club Korra chose night matter what—there was no point fighting her on this. "Fine," she huffed as she sipped her water.

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💌 KARLA YAPS !

decided to split this chapter in half , just for funsies lol. we're getting closer to the end though, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. it's actually crazy how many of you guys actually read my silly little story.

if you do read & enjoy, please consider throwing a follow my way <33 i've planned out multiple other nrl stories for later down the track & i'm sure you wouldn't want to miss out on those lol.