Craving Rebecca

Staring dead at my phone sitting on my working table, I zero in on the four missed calls from my Hawaiian best friend Bailey. She's been calling me for hours, reminding me of her daughter Kai's school event. She has a talk show party, where all the kids in her class perform before the whole school in their hall, and they present and talk about a project they each worked on during the weekend.

Kai's presentation, as I'd helped her during the week, was a little volcano, with a red mouth. I painted it myself, and it was filled with orange paint mixed with red. We'd gotten that one from her father's garage. And when she pressed a little button on the body of the volcano, it pushes a rubber inside, the volcano, tipping off the paint all over the body of the volcano.

Genius! I know Grin!. I was always ahead of everyone in my science class, back in high school. Always made high grades, and had rich blondies rolling their eyes at my excellence. All that paid off in my college when I got a scholarship. But here I am, in one of the biggest fashion industries in New York, working as a fashion designer, if I can even call it that.

So many times I've come across popular models, like Gigi Hadid, Bella, Kendal Jenner, and so on. I cleaned off the champaign stain from Gigi's dress once, when she'd mistakenly ruined it. I was happy right? Living my dream job. Yes! Besides me always wanting to be a science guru, I had a thing for fashion and so I majestically worked my way into it.

"Are you going to stare at that phone all day?" Reid, my co-worker calls me out and I snap back to reality. He's wearing a purple shirt, a yellow tie with black polka dots and brown trousers. It creeps me out, the way he dresses to work sometimes, and he works in the fashion industry.

"Nope. It's just my friend calling" I sigh, walking away from the table, with the box of used clothes worn by the models. I'm headed to drop them at the dressing truck.

"I thought I was your only friend" Reid pouts and I narrow my eyes at him. He's not my only friend with that suit and tie. I drop a kiss on his cheek before rushing out, the box in my hand. I dispatch it in the dressing truck that is headed for the theater very soon. My boss, Nikki gives me a weird stare that could narrow me out.

"Bye, Nikki" I mutter and hurry to my car.

My phone pinged with a message from Bailey.

I swear if you don't get here now...Kai is about going on stage you wicked godmother.

I gasp, my hands flying to my chest. I've always known Bailey to be a mean thing but that was harsh. I chuckle setting my car on drive as I reverse out of the parking lot, careful not to knock over the garbage can.

°°°

I spot bailey seated in the crowd. There's an extra seat next to her, and I know she reserved it for me, so I navigate my way there, doing the occasional sorry, excuse me, as I pressed between rows to get there.

Bailey stares at me before looking away.

"What? Please don't tell me Kai was already called up...there was traffic and..."

"Shh... she's not yet up," She says, rolling her eyes. A smile crests my face as I relax now. Bailey looks tensed, I can see it. Her pretty, tiny Hawaiian eyes just keep widening, and her lips are pressed in a thin line.

Ok, let me tell you a little about Bailey. I've been with her for ten years straight to know when she's nervous. She's a pretty tamed-skinned girl that loves water a lot and her smile is heavenly, only now, I can't see it because she's mad at me.

I spin my head to her so fast. "You're nervous aren't you?"

She sighs, slapping her palms against her jeans, clothed thigh. "Of course. It's her first presentation at school" she whines and I place my hand on her shoulder, giving it a tap.

"Don't worry. She'd be fine. Kai is very brilliant" I say and then look around. "Colton didn't come?" I ask her about her husband and she stares at me, her eyes dull.

"You know how busy he is, Becca," She tells me and I narrow my eyes. I'm pretty sure she knows what I'm thinking because I've told her a million times. "He's not having an affair " she adds.

"You say that all the time, but the guy is distant. For God's sake! It's his daughter's first presentation" I raise a brow, expressing my annoyance.

"He explained to me. You don't need to think about it."

I take my hands off her shoulder, rolling my eyes. "Whatever"

I hear her sigh as her eyes fix on the stage where a little boy is talking about butterflies. Pfft!. Lame. Wait till they all see Kai's presentation.

"He's not cheating on me..." I hear Bailey sigh again. "I have his daughter, and I'm currently carrying his son" She emphasizes the last part, her hands going to her growing baby bump.

"All men cheat. They're liars" I tell her.

"Because your college boyfriend left you doesn't mean all men are like that, Becca," she says but I'm not convinced.

"One man does it, the rest does it. Right?" I ask her and she bites her bottom lip because that was exactly what she used to comfort me when Jacob left. My first love. I gave that guy everything I had. My time, my love, he was even my first in everything, both kissing a guy, and getting intimate. Then next came Ben, but I won't classify him as a boyfriend. We only dated for two months after I left college before I found out that he had a fiance. The nerve!

I was laying in bed with him in his apartment when a crazy-ass woman walked in and started yapping. Embarrassed, I picked up my things and left, vowing to never be in a relationship again.

"Becca," she calls my name.

"I don't want to talk about it" I shrug and she nods her head, looking at the stage. The audience claps and I sit up, a smile on my face as Kai enters the stage, her little bun, tied up, a smile on her face. She has more of her mother's look, with pretty tiny eyes, and a pretty nose, but she took Colton's milky skin tone.

I clap and cheer, screaming "Go, baby girl!" "You can do it!" Until I'm cautioned by one of the teachers to stop making so much noise. I roll my eyes in disgust. Kai still laughs when she noticed me, and she's relieved of a whole lot of tension.

She places her hand on the white-clothed project and I tap the edges of my fingers, in anticipation.

"And now we have Kai Richer from class B, having her presentation now"

Kai takes off the clothe and my eyes fall on the little transparent box filled with tiny plastic fishes. What? I look at Bailey.

"You didn't think I was going to let her bring that volcano to school did you?"

"Are you kidding?! It was cool!"

"You told her the mountain was in my village, and it was going to erupt and kill my grandma" Bailey scolds me, and I bite my lip. I didn't say it like that exactly. I only said it was going to erupt in mommy's village.

"And you thought an aquarium was better?" I say, making her smile, bobbing her head from side to side with glee.

Betrayer!

Kai clings to my hand after her school presentation. In her other hand, she held a popsicle.

"Are we headed home now?" She asks her mom who nods with a smile.

"Kai, why don't you tell aunty Becca why you didn't use the volcano," I say and Bailey gives me a strained stare like why would you bring that up to the kid.

"Mommy said not to use it. She said volcanoes are dangerous" Kai said with much innocence that I stick my bottom lip out, oogling her.

"Oh yeah? And you can't drown anyone in school with your aquarium?" I ask Kai.

"Ok! That's enough!" Bailey pulls me away from her five years old daughter, throwing me a death glare. I shrug, a smile on my face.

"Hey look! daddy!" Kai screams with joy and then runs into the distance. Sure enough, there's Colton in his suit, a smile on his face as he embraces his little pie as he likes to call her. And it has me wondering what he calls Bailey. I was going to ask s but Kai joined us again.

"Hey, Colton," I say and he smiles at me.

"How're you doing, Becca? You on leave?" He asks me and I nod.

"Really?" Bailey gasps. "Why didn't you tell me?"

I turn to her. "You were too busy with Kai's project," I say and she relaxes.

"Good then..."Colton says with a smile cutting both I and his wife short, before he kisses her cheek and she smiles holding his hand, I look away, grabbing my car keys from my bag.

"You leaving already?" Bailey suddenly asked me.

"Yes. I have to go rest my tired eyes. See you all tomorrow" I say and she hugs me before I pull away. I kiss Kai on her cheek before rushing off.

Anyone would mistake my odd behavior, that I wasn't happy for my best friend and her marriage but I am. I am. I just don't trust men, and if Colton hurts Bailey, I'll castrate him. Two, I've not had good experiences with men.

But something about Bailey and Colton just motivates me to want to try again. They seem happy even though Colton can fuck up sometimes. So with that in mind, I skip into my car, and drive out of the school's parking lot, heading home to prepare for the blind date Reid set me up with, for about two weeks now, but I've been putting it away.