The following day, I woke up from my restless sleep. The nightmares had come back again with a vengeance. With the fog that was over my brain last night, I had forgotten to take the meds my doctor prescribed me to keep them away.

The nightmare was always the same. I was in the car with Ezra and he was driving way too fast. The road was dark, too narrow, and wound viciously. Our baby cried in the backseat of the car for me. I turned to soothe the little one only to find an empty seat where the baby should have been. I turned back around to plead to Ezra to help me when the guardrail twisted and warped towards us. I braced for the impact as it moved closer. I always woke up when the sound of the tires screeching and the crunching metal ripped through me.

Sweat was pouring down my face and back. The nightmares wreaked havoc on me mentally and physically. I could almost feel the pain where my two cracked ribs were. The doctors told me my injuries had all healed, but my mind still created the phantom pain due to my trauma. They said it would go away after time and it was just a residual side effect. It had been months and it still felt just as fresh as the day it happened. After all this time, I was still inside that car, wishing I had never woken up to face the pain I was going through.

I forced myself up again and left my bed to go to the kitchen to make some coffee. Some random blond guy was hanging out in just his boxers near the fridge. He had it open and was looking through it.

This must have been Brynn's conquest from last night. Most of her hookups left before the sun came up. I was a little surprised to see this one snooping around our kitchen.

"Don't waste your time. There's not much in there." I said, opening a cabinet and pulling out a tin of coffee. I moved to the coffeemaker and started to prep the pot that I desperately needed to make it through the morning.

The blond guy ran his eyes over my tight tank top and booty shorts. He licked his lips and adjusted himself shamelessly while I watched, unimpressed. He looked like an eager kitten ready to pounce on a piece of string.

Brynn had terrible taste in hookups. To put it nicely, this guy was differently clued. His mind had decided to wander away and never came back.  All looks with no think in his brain tank. He was dumb.

At least he was pretty?

He flexed his chest muscles when he saw me looking him over. I had invented a new game where I liked to assign a rating to the men on the Brynn hookup scale. He was a solid six.  Points to him for nice hands, broad shoulders, and killer abs, severe deductions for orangish self-tanner and douchery. 

"Hey, you." He said with a toothy smile. "You must be the roommate."

"In the flesh," I said as I continued to pour the water in the coffeemaker and pressed the button to turn it on. The aroma began to fill the kitchen immediately, causing my mouth to water.

"I haven't met you before, have I?"  He asked, stepping closer to me.

"Not likely."  I said, moving away when he reached his hand out towards me.

"Maybe you and I should go hang out sometime.  Get to know each other."  He suggested slinking over to me again, trying to corner me.

"Boyfriend." I lied.

Not interested in you, sorry random guy standing in my kitchen. These hormones were closed for business today.

"Oh damn, that sucks.  Well, if you change your mind or you get bored, Brynn's got my number."  He said, backing off.

"Oh, most definitely." I said, laughing to myself.  That was never going to happen.

Brynn walked out of her room in her underwear. I was glad she was wearing something at least. My eyes had seen naked Brynn more times than I could count since we moved in a few months ago. I was convinced she had developed an allergy to clothes.

She walked up to the creeper and stuck her tongue down his throat while I stood there tapping the side of the empty coffee cup impatiently. She turned when she saw me and winked.

"Hey girlie, how was work?"

"Long," I said, grabbing the pot of coffee when the machine beeped. I poured the steaming liquid into my cup while silently thanking whoever discovered the magical wonders of a coffee bean.

"Anything new going on?" She asked as she ran her fingers down the blond's chest. 

"Nope."  I said, taking a sip from my cup.

Having company this morning made me decide to hold off from telling Brynn about my Ezra encounter last night. She would ask questions that I wouldn't have answers to and I didn't want to talk about it in front of her newest one nightstand. I just didn't feel up to bringing his presence back into my life again this morning. Denying it really happened was my new coping mechanism.

"Do you have any plans today?" She asked me while moving to grab her own coffee cup. We were talking like the blond guy wasn't even here.

He was staring at her ass and then turned to ogle my chest. My eyes traveled down briefly to his boxers to see the fabric pulling tightly against him. Disgusting. Points deducted for creeper vibes. He was now a borderline three. He'd be a two soon if he kept pushing his luck.

"I'm meeting up with JD and Anna for brunch. Anna wants to talk about the wedding." I took another sip of the coffee; it was too hot on my tongue. I blew on the cup before going back for another.

JD asked Anna to marry him right after my car accident. No one was surprised when she said yes. They were getting married in less than seven months.

Anna asked me to be her maid of honor. I tried to back out, but she reminded me that I had promised her one drunken night long ago. Anna was like an elephant; she never forgot anything. She didn't know I was just saying it at the time to get her to take JD to bed so I could go be with Ezra without them knowing. Karma always had a funny way of coming back around and kicking me in the ass.

"Yuck," Brynn said, sticking her pierced tongue out at me. "I hate weddings."

Her blond guy was still drooling between us. It was time for me to go change into my clothes. He had enough of a free show for the day. I walked past Brynn and she smacked my butt, adding to his delight. His eyes lit up and his boxers were about to rip at the seams.

"You better go take care of that." I said to Brynn, pointing back towards the blond's tight boxers.

"You two are so fucking hot." He drooled with his mouth hanging open.

Brynn gave him a sideways glance and he turned his attention back to her. "You're so hot, babe." He corrected himself.

"That's what I thought." She said before dragging him by his manhood back to her bedroom.

I went into my room and shut the door. I turned the lock to keep unwanted guests out. That guy seemed like the type who would finish with her and then try to come watch me change. I pulled out a teal sweater from the top of my clothes pile. It was tight and low cut with buttons the led up to my cleavage.

I had recently cut my hair up above my shoulders and dyed the tips teal, which matched my sweater perfectly. The shorter cut was supposed to make me look older and more mature. After the accident, I had the urge to make myself look like what I was feeling on the inside, different. It didn't work; I still looked like myself, now I just had shorter hair with teal tips.

I wiggled my too-tight skinny jeans up over my hips. They sat low on my waist, exposing my belly button ring. Another Brynn inspired item on my body. I'm not sure why I let her talk me into these things. She was a terrible influence. She did try to convince me to get my nipples pierced the last time we went. That was when I drew a line in the sand on the piercings, no more holes in my body.

I pulled on my boots and grabbed a hoodie. I wasn't quite sure what the weather would be like. It was May in Ohio; the seasons never played by the rules. There was a saying in my town, "if you didn't like the weather, stay for a minute; it will change".

I opened the door and heard the rhythmic thumping I had grown accustomed to. Maybe having Brynn as a roommate was a terrible idea. Living with Brynn was never boring, but I craved the quiet life after the last few months.

"I'm gonna stick it in your..." That was my cue to go. I did not want to hear where he wanted to put it. He was an idiot, so he would probably try to stick it in her nostril if she let him. 

The heavy security door slammed behind me as I went into the hall. I jumped as the sound echoed through the building entryway. My body was on edge from last night's encounter with Ezra and I barely remembered to lock the door behind me. Every little sound or noise had my skin crawling with fear. 

Ezra had made it clear last night that he wouldn't let this go and I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Part of me missed him for reasons I couldn't even explain; the other part hated him for breaking me apart. I was a heaping pile of foolishness topped with a dash of disarray. I was a disaster.

I ran to my car and prayed it would start for me. I needed to buy a new one, but I didn't have enough money to make a car payment with the apartment. I was trying to save up for something a little less crappy. Anna had slowed down my savings when she decided she needed a big extravagant wedding. Most of my extra money was put aside to get my dress, hair, and makeup. I had already paid out a couple of hundred dollars just for the dress and the wedding was still months away.

The car turned over and I was thankful that I wouldn't be stranded. Anna would never forgive me if I bailed today, even if the reason was my crappy car wouldn't start. I put the car in drive and headed towards the little café on the corner for the wedding planning brunch. I had laughed in Anna's face when she suggested a wedding planning brunch. Wasn't brunch what little old ladies did when they wanted to catch up on gossip with their friends? Who went to brunch? Apparently, Anna did because she cursed at me for two hours when I laughed at her.

Some sister-in-law she was going to be.  She got the ring and she lost all her fun.  This was going to be a long morning.