Tomorrow was the day.

The day my article would, hopefully, go viral. The day my name would be at the very bottom of the magazine, titled as Walgreen's next top author.

I was so proud of myself.

It had been three days since Laylah had gotten my article, and now it was just in progress. I had not heard any feedback of my colleagues, but I was reassured that no one had anything to complain about it, also.

I walked down the hallways happily to just get to the cafeteria. I avoided it the last days, either because Jenna forced me to go get something else to eat some elsewhere, or because I would meet Christina here. Although, I had sworn Christina my friendship back in College, it now was a little issue for me that she got accepted by our rival of a magazine.

As well as Chicagomics, we also had good contacts with different companies and business people. I knew that they also had their own long-standing contact with Harry and John, but here we had the difference that, A: Miss Smith used her contacts very well and insisted that it needed to be maintained, plus B, I was now also responsible to keep it just as long-standing.

When I wanted to sit down on a chair, I saw Jenna already bring coffee and food to our, usually, regular table. I remembered the day when Miss Smith had come here for one of her little announcements.

"Hola!" Jenna happily greeted me and sat down on the opposite chair of me. I had now finally moved back to mine and felt, well, incredibly fresh, because I could finally use my own toothbrush and also, my own shower, my own clothes, my own bed. Jenna had wanted to stop me from going, but then left me to it after I decided to make my way back home.

"Hi," I greeted her back just as happy and took one of the two coffee cups she had placed on the table.

"Why the happy mood?"

"Well, you're gon' publish your first article tomorrow!" She smiled at me brightly. I took a sip from the coffee and then put away from my mouth immediately.

"Dang, I shoulda' told you that it's still hot," Jenna apologised and stood up. "You need some water?"

"Oh, yes, please!"

"I'll get you so-" Just as Jenna got up, Laylah was standing in front of our table.

"I can get you a water," Laylah interrupted Jenna. "I just wanted to get one. Do you want one, Jenna?"

Laylah laid her tray on the table and waited for Jenna's answer. Jenna was surprised by her sudden presence and sat down again as she evened her skirt with her hands.

"Uhm, no," Jenna answered. "But thank you."

Laylah nodded to the both of us and then turned around as she made her way to the water dispenser.

"What's she doin' here?" Jenna asked me and pulled her eyebrows together as she crossed her arms.

"I guess Laylah and I have somehow become friends," I explained amusingly, keeping my voice low in case Laylah came back soon.

"Yes, apparently!"

I questioned Jenna's behaviour, as Laylah just tried to be nice, and I couldn't imagine Jenna to be possessive or even jealous. It didn't fit her personality. Just because we once gossiped about Laylah, well, Laylah barely had anything to say as a deputy boss and Jenna and I found it funny, it didn't mean that I didn't like Laylah.

I liked her quite a lot, actually.

People just gossip. That's what Christina and I had done in college, too.

Now, talking about Christina, I had no idea where she was. Usually I always met her here.

Just as the dining room was getting more and more crowded, Jenna and I saw Laylah coming back with two glasses of water before she put one of them on my side of the table. She sat next to me so we could both face Jenna.

"Thanks," I murmured.

"I hope I don't disturb you?" Laylah began, saying her sentence in a kind of questioning tone, before she took a bite of her sandwich that was on her tray.

Jenna, too, had brought me and her something to eat, a small salad box actually, but my hunger somehow got away.

"No, you don't," I answered for both Jenna and I and smiled at Laylah.

"Good," Laylah said. "Because I have some news!" She smiled at me, totally ignoring Jenna, who was looking at us angrily, probably cursing in her little redheaded mind.

"Jonathan is likely to be accepted for Creative Writing!"

"Really? That's great!" I was happy for her brother. Creative Writing was one of my favourite workshops, but many of them got cancelled this week among others, because Miss Smith still wasn't here.

I, slowly, doubted her meeting.

"Totally!" Laylah agreed. "I called Miss Smith and she said she'd think about it."

"That's not a Yes." Jenna commented as she opened her salad box and looked at me, signalising me to also open mine.

I pulled mine closer to myself and then looked at the salad, which now looked quite dry through the transparent foil, also almost old.

"Be happy for me!" Laylah asked Jenna, looking at her amusingly. Laylah, apparently, didn't feel insulted.

"I do," Jenna lied, playing around in her salad with her for which she had taken for us.

"Really, Laylah, I Hope he'll be accepted here, I think he'd be very happy," I told Laylah, watching her expression lighten even more – if that was even possible.

"Shay, that means a lot to me!"

"Apropos Miss Smith," I began. "Where's she? I thought she was at this meeting?"

"Oh," Laylah said. "She's busy, that's what she told me."

Laylah shrugged and then looked at my salad weirdly, "Do you still want to eat this?"

"Actually," I replied. "No, you can eat it. I'm not hungry anymore." I looked at Jenna apologetically who only looked at me pissed.

"Sorry," I laughed and leaned forward to pat her shoulder. "Next time, I'll eat your great salad, wherever you got it from!"

"Girl, next time Imma cook for us in the morning and just take it to work," Jenna told me, shrugging her shoulders as her moved improved.

"I thought you knew," Laylah interrupted Jenna's and mine little conversation and turned to me.

"What?" I frowned and looked at Laylah weirdly.

"Jenna and I talked the other day, about what Miss Smith is doing in Florida, right? Jenna?"

Jenna looked at Laylah with wide eyes before she continued. "We've been joking around about whether she's having a secret holiday, and just doesn't tell us about it! That'd be so crazy! I could imagine Miss Smith to be this way!"

Laylah spoke her words, causing me to frown even more. I thought Jenna didn't know where Miss Smith was? So, I assumed she was not contactable. I wanted to talk to talk about the article with Miss Smith and wanted to know what she thought about it. I should have mailed it to her.

I turned to Jenna and looked at her questioningly.

While I did so, Laylah mumbled some words such as "Delicious" from aside and poked my stomach. "Are you sure you don't want anything?" She held up the box, making me shake my head.

"No, it's alright." I smiled at her until Jenna interrupted my thoughts,

"I guess I just forgot to tell ya about that..." She murmured, and took the first bite of her salad which she only swallowed against her will.

Though it wasn't a big deal, and it really shouldn't be, it was one big deal for me, at least.

Jenna knew how important this article was for me, and how insecure I had been about it, and how much I would have liked to talk to Miss Smith about it.

Just when Laylah finished eating my salad box, I heard Jenna sighing loudly, making me look at her immediately. She, kind of, looked like she was sorry. But it was now too late as the article would be published just tomorrow, and I hadn't gotten any feedback yet.

"Jenna, do you have anything left?" Laylah asked Jenna after licking her fort and then putting the now empty salad box on the table.

"Mhm?" Jenna murmured and looked at Laylah as if she didn't know what she said.

"I asked if you've got something left," Laylah repeated herself, holding the salad box so that Jenna could see that it was already empty.

"Oh," Jenna responded. "You can have it." She pushed her salad box closer to Laylah so that she could reach it easily.

"Merci!" Laylah thanked Jenna before taking another bite of her next portion of salad as Jenna laid her fork on the table.

To turn this awkward mood into something  more comfortable for the three of us, I turned to Laylah and smiled at her brightly, "You're still hungry!?" My voice sounded high-pitched and, just almost, too fake.

Laylah quickly defended herself, "I haven't eaten anything since yesterday!"

"Well, you're probably excited because of Jonathan!" I stared at her and she then turned away, laughing and hiding her mouth that was filled with salad.

I shook my head and blushed as I just watched the table silently.

"Hey, Shay?" Laylah looked at me and gave me a nice smile, "Do you want to go to Holt Paris Nightclub?" I knew that it was one of the best nightlife clubs for a fun night in Chicago, and was not as cheap as the one Jenna and I had gone to. Laylah had mentioned it once to me, before.

"Uhm, I don't know," I looked at Jenna who only looked at us with an insulted look on her face and didn't help the situation. Did I want to go out?

With someone else than Jenna?

I never went out, anyway, and the nights before had all been an exception.

God, Jenna, do something!

"Come on," Laylah begged me. "It'll be fun. Look, tomorrow's Friday, your article is coming out, you've had so much work to do these days... What speaks against it?" Actually, I had hardly any work to do these days. Most of the workshops had been cancelled for this week.

"Shay doesn't have no time tomorrow," Jenna said, kicking my leg with her foot. "That girl broke her phone, and we gon' buy her a new one, right, Shay?"

Jenna watched me and looked at me with a forcing look, while I thought about my next answer.

"We're going to buy a new one?" I questioned as I couldn't read her gaze.

I, indeed, needed a new phone, because all of my important contacts were still on the memory card and I had no replacement phone.

On the other hand, Miss Smith was "sick", or on her "meeting" anyway, and I would get the latest news emailed by no other than Laylah personally.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, Laylah." Jenna said now, watching Laylah with a fake apologetically look as she set a sad expression on her face. Sometimes, I thought, she should just give up her career at Walgreen and go to an acting school.

Everyone would fall for Jenna.

For the gorgeous, beautiful Jenna.

"So, you don't have time, Shay?" Laylah looked at me as she waited for my confirmation. "Now, that's a pity! I've been thinking about it since Monday."

"Wait," I said to my own surprise. "I mean, why not?"

Jenna lifted her head so she could just look at me now and tilted her head. Her thoughts were, well, right here. I barely went out for a "party", nor for a "good time".

"You can come with us too!" Laylah suggested, and looked at Jenna. Jenna exchanged her gaze between Laylah and me, thinking about her following response what she firstly hesitated with.

"I'll think about it."

"Amazing! Three chicks from Walgreen, what's better than that!?" Laylah clapped her hands together and finished her now second salad box.

This woman could take a lot!

"I've got to get going now, and hopefully, Miss Smith will be back by tomorrow."

"Yes, hopefully!" I agreed, and I, indeed, hoped so. Her opinion was the most important to me.

"I'm sure, she'll be back by tonight," Laylah reassured me, "Tomorrow's your debut!"

"Whatever you say!"

Laylah gave me a kiss on both, my left and my right cheek, and winked to Jenna smiling, put both of the now empty salad boxes on her tray and took everything with her.

Jenna and I watched her closely as she put everything to restitution before she disappeared through the exit and made sure to wave to the both of us one more time

"Dang," Jenna breathed out. "Why did she need to get an extra tray for some shitty sandwich!?"

Jenna laughed loudly and smiled at me for the first time ever since Laylah had gone.

"You don't like her, do you?" I raised my right eyebrow and crossed my arms so that Jenna knew very well that I was serious about my question, and that I already knew I was absolutely, and totally, right with my assumptions.

"She's okay," Jenna said. "A little pushy, but okay."

I laughed at Jenna's use of the word "pushy", before she continued. "But, girl, when she asked if you wanted to go out partyin', you said yes immediately! Whenever I asked ya, I needed to beg! I needed to go on my knees!"

Jenna raised her voice with every single word, making sure that not only I but what felt like the rest of the room could hear each very well.

"I'm sorry!" I defended myself. "But thanks to you, I got used to partying, or else I wouldn't have said yes! You know what I'm like." Jenna, really, knew who Shay really was.

The one who would, usually, never go out "partying", let alone go drunk, push things over the edge, making out with other businessmen, nor anything close to that.

But my striving of adventure and an exciting journalist career brought me in full swing, making me do things Shay wouldn't usually do.

I guessed that Jenna noticed that by now.

"You know, we'll look absolutely hot tomorrow!" She then suddenly pointed out, this time raising an eyebrow, copying me.

"What? You are coming with us!?"

"Shay, I won't miss a drunk Shay, and your article will be out tomorrow! Fuck that Laylah girl."

I smiled at Jenna brightly and only wanted to kiss her whole face by now. Whenever I needed Jenna, I knew that I could always count on her.

She might be some possessive, but she was Jenna. My Jenna.

"Now let's get goin'," Jenna mumbled, as she stretched her arms out. "I've also got some work to do,"

"With the editor?" I asked, happy that the mood between us finally improved completely.

For Jenna, Laylah was some virus in our friendship.

"Yeah, it's gettin' hot!" Jenna whispered so that no one else could hear her.
 
"Whatever you say!"