R O S E

I open the door to my apartment, empty coffee cup and phone in one hand and the sheet in the other.

Shutting it behind me, I let the sheet fall to the ground and stumble my way to my bedroom.

I snuggle under the covers, prepared to sleep for the next few hours when the phone rings on my bedside, right next to where I placed the empty coffee cup.

I squint my eyes and glare at the screen but answer it as the name registers.

"Hello." I mumble into it.

There's silence "Are you hungover?"

I smile at Asters voice, my eyes still squeezed shut. "Possibly."

"You bitch." Aster whines "You got drunk without me?"

I laugh. "Aster, we live in completely different states to one another." I remind my twin sister.

"At my wedding, we are going to get drunk together, I don't care about Matt."

I hear a faint 'Hey!' in the background.

"Just kidding, love you Matt." Aster calls back to her fiancé.

I hear him murmur something back but I don't catch it before Asters voice sounds in my ear again.

"We are getting drunk and thats final." She whispers the next part. "Matt can go home alone, I'm spending the time with you."

"It's your wedding night." I inform her, rolling my eyes and settling back into my pillows.

"So? You're my sister."

"And he'll be your husband."

"Meh, He'll be my husband every other night too."

I roll my eyes but concede knowing she'll be going home with him at the end of the night no matter what she proclaims now.

"Okay, we can get drunk and dance on tables like we used to."

"Thank you, it's appreciated." She puts on a haughty tone, her voice turning nasally.

"Why'd you call?" I ask through a yawn, my eyes dropping.

"I don't know, I just did but I'm hanging up now cause you sound like a bear and need your beauty sleep to catch up to my beauty." She quips.

"We're identical." I remind her as I pull my quilt higher up my body.

"So they say."

I laugh and mumble a goodbye before hanging up and promptly falling asleep.

• • •

I pull at the skirt I wear, winceing when the pounding in my brain makes itself known.

James looks at me, holding up his mimosa. "You don't feel it if you don't stop drinking."

I give him an eye roll and sip my water, waiting impatiently for my food because a girl is hungry and food is the only thing I want right now.

I can feel eyes staring at me so I subtly glance from the corner of my eye before turning and facing the curious gaze.

"What?" I ask Zhala as she leans forward, elbows leaning on the table as she scrutinises me.

"How many times?"

"Oh my god." My cheeks flame as I give her a withering glare. "Stop asking me that."

"But it's important information!" She whines, tapping her manicured nails against the linen.

"That I will not be sharing." I snap.

"Did you at least get his number?" Patrick asks, sipping his own mimosa and double parking with another in his left hand.

I eye both drinks with a curled lip, my stomach recoiling at the idea of putting more alcohol in my system.

"No." I answer.

"She got his sheet." Reece pipes up, smirking over at me with twinkling grey eyes.

"I wish I could've seen that." Lachlan grumbles, kissing his fiancé's cheek.

"I took a photo!" Keelie announces, scrabbling for her phone to show proof of my withering dignity.

I groan and slump further down in my chair, wanting to hide my face from the world, or at least until food arrives.

The phone gets turned my way and I glare as Lachlan snickers.

I try to grab the phone, intent on deleting the photo when it disappears from my view.

I glare as the smiles on all my friends faces widen as they relish in my embarrassment and pain.

"I need new friends." I point out to them, turning my nose up.

Food arrives before any of them can answer but I hear the four boys whispering between themselves.

I eye the group before looking at my other two best friends. Zhala and Keelie both shrug.

I roll my eyes.

When I moved to this city, Keelie was my roommate and my very first friend after leaving my family behind. Leaving my sister, my best friend behind was tough and it felt like I'd lost a limb the first few months away. Thankfully I had Keelie to remind me that it was okay for me to be an individual now, to be just Rose and not Rose and Aster, the Sterling twins.

Living with Keelie introduced me to another way of life, the tall leggy blonde with light blue eyes and a curvy figure. She was trying to be scouted as a plus size model, and she had the looks for it and the mindset to reach any goal she set her mind to.

Now eight years later and she's had her dream fulfilled through hard work and even harder criticism. But my best friend doesn't let sad excuses of people get her down, since she is healthy and thriving and earning that good money by doing something she loves while also educating people on the misinformation of different sized bodies.

Small doesn't mean healthy and big doesn't mean unhealthy, the size you are does not always depict your level of health and it definitely does not depict your self worth.

Easier said than done. The mind is sometimes too strong to flip a switch and have it become your best friend. The mind needs just as much training as the body, if not more. I just wish everyone in the world could see the beauty they carry and know that they are enough and that their looks don't define them. What you do and who you are as a person defines the legacy you will leave behind, whether to one person or to thousands. You will always have an impression on someone.

As soon as I met Keelie, I knew she'd change my life. And she has.

Without her, I would probably look in the mirror and see my stretch marks and the stomach that always seems to appear at the worst times and think of myself in disgusting ways. I would look at the occasional pimple or blemish and cringe.

But don't get me wrong, I still do that. But now I teach myself self love and I always tell myself it's normal.

Keelie taught me how to reach my highest potential in self love and I'm glad I met her, if not for her friendship then for her wisdom.

She and I lived with each other for almost a year before I met Patrick. He was the secretary at my job and to say we hit it off would be a lie.

We clashed at every opportunity, no matter what it was. We disagreed and we hated each other. Maybe hate is too strong a word, but we definitely didn't have any like in the relationship at all.

Then I met James out at a bar once. Now he and I are a different story. We hit it off like we had known each other since birth. He was practically the brother I never knew I needed until I had him.

And I wouldn't let him go.

That was until he met Patrick, then it was who got to keep him. Patrick vs Me.

James threatened both our asses with court when we wouldn't stop fighting. I mean it didn't work, he can't take us to court for our petty squabbles even if he is a hotshot lawyer but the threat was enough for us to put aside our differences and realise that we were hurting James in the process of our own selfishness.

So finally, I got to know Patrick. And turns out we are two sides of the same coin, couldn't be more different on the outside but internally we thought the same. We balanced each other out and in him, I found a true friend.

After that it was Zhala. I met her through Patrick, since she is his cousin. And Lachlan, I knew about but never met as he is Keelie's brother. When I did meet him, it was hard to get him to focus on anything but Zhala. The man only had eyes for the petite brunette with brown skin and even darker eyes. Zhala was very much the same. Couldn't keep her gaze off the blonde man with the lightest blue eyes she'd ever seen.

It was no surprise when they started dating two weeks after meeting.

Reece was the newest edition to our group. Although I wouldn't say new when the man had been apart of our lives for almost four years, dating Keelie for three of them. He's also a lawyer, James and he had gone to university together before finding themselves fighting for the same position at the same firm.

It worked out well for them because another firm fought for Reece to work for them and he took it, forming a friendship with his old university buddy and ultimately digging himself into Keelie's heart.

And then there was me. Still single. Still thriving. Still not caring about a ring on my finger or a man in my bed.

Well, maybe just one man.

I shake my head to rid of the thoughts and look around at my bickering friends and view behind them.

Skyscrapers reach high for the sky, the colour blue uninterrupted by clouds for the day and the sun bearing down on the concrete jungle below.

This city is my home and it is where I belong.

I've lived in this city for eight years and I only travel home for holidays, and even then it's sparse. Aster and Matt come here for the Christmas holidays because the environment is more lively and Aster is a sucker for Christmas. It's the only holiday she's ever cared about.

Me, I just like holidays.

Oh, and alcohol.

And food.

The holidays don't even have to be apart of the equations. Alcohol, food and me. Love our throuple we have going on.