14. Self-Care Saturday

Work at the cafe flies by that afternoon.

Wren and I offered to pick up a few extra hours to cover Kal's shift so he could stay home again and rest one more day. He tried to insist he was fine, and he did seem ok, but both of us already had to work so we assured him it was no biggie.

Wren had the morning shift, so she was already there when I arrived since I'm scheduled for a mid-shift today. The cafe is busy, bustling with rotating traffic and humming with the static crowd, but there's three of us working and we get into a good rhythm.

I'm not in training anymore and I've gotten a handle on using my weaving for hot bar, so it comes a lot easier now and our other coworkers have caught onto this being my specialty. We still swap positions sometimes to give each other some reprieve and switch it up a little.

I usually have a cup of coffee (it's free for us) to re-energize myself, but as my shift gets closer to ending it occurs to me that I never needed it today. I slept so well last night—despite being rudely woken—and felt quite invigorated after yoga this morning.

After being stretched and given purpose, both my body and mind are awake and alert... but calm, not jittery like I can get with caffeine.

I'm not sure if it's the yoga, the sleep, a combination, or something else, but it feels incredible. I'm usually sluggish and anxious, and now I'm... not.

Wren was more than happy to point out my "life-high" and tease me about it before she left to go home.

The rest of my shift comes and goes easily, but I'm still excited for it to end so I can head back home as well.

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I open our front door to find my friends making a ruckus in our living room.

Four of them are crowded around the coffee table so I only see the tops of their heads. Jasper is sitting on the couch, but his back is to me so all see is his mop of red hair too. They're all arguing together about something or another...not loudly or angrily... just bickering.

I hear Ronan above the others, "You're hogging them all, Wren! You can't take all of them!"

"Well I want a few at least! There's still plenty of others!" Wren counters.

Jasper stands from the couch to peer over their shoulders in observation. He's the only one I don't hear talking—not that it's a huge surprise.

I even hear Aster speak up, "I think I like this one, it's nice."

They're so entranced that they don't even notice me come in or walk closer, until I finally say something when I'm standing right behind Kal. "What are you guys doing?"

All their frantic motion stops, Kal jerks in surprise (payback for those times he tries to sneak up with his cold hands), and they all whip their heads to me—

With face masks on?

I squint my eyes at them, trying to make sense of everything: Ronan's got his usual headband on and it looks like Jasper was made to wear one too, while Kal and Aster's hair are both pulled in a bun. Ro is wearing a fluffy bathrobe and the others all have pj's or sweats on... and the center of attention, on the coffee table, is a ton of nail polish bottles...?

"We're painting our nails," Wren cheerfully answers.

"Uhh, yeah I see that now. Cool... Why?"

Jasper rolls his eyes with a sigh. "Because Ronan's forcing us."

"He's forcing you," Kal corrects. "The rest of us joined in."

"Jasper broke up with Mira today," Ronan comments loudly. He's always loud. "For good this time. He came home like an hour ago and mentioned it—with a little prodding on Wren and my part—and so I decided we're relaxing with a Self-Care Saturday. We already did yoga this morning so now it's spa time: face masks and mani's. Go change and come back down to join us!"

"Wait, you broke up with her for good? What happened? And wait, why are you all home? Don't ya'll have jobs or something?"

"I worked this morning at the café with you, dumbass—"

"The flower shop sent us home since we were slow—"

"Well, I finally broke up—"

"GO! You can gossip when you get back." Ronan interrupts, with a few snickers from the others. "But no, I don't have a job currently since I start my internship next month... now GO! Change-y change-y, chat later."

I hold my hands up in defeat, "Alright, alright."

I've never painted my nails or done a "Self-Care Saturday", but whatever... they all seem like they're having fun (besides maybe Jasper, but you can never really tell with them anyways). If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?

They go back to arguing as I retreat upstairs, and when I return in some comfy shorts and a t-shirt I finally overhear what they were arguing about: colors.

Aster sits on the ground, content with the lilac purple she keeps admiring in the light—although I'm not sure if she even realizes what color it actually is.

Wren has at least seven bottles in her grasp of all different colors because she "can't decide on one, so I'm doing a rainbow!".

Ronan curses her out under his breath, because she took one that he wanted, but continues searching as he mumbles, "I want something different... green? No one wears green nail polish. Oh! I like this mint green, that's kinda cool..."

Jasper looks them all over before grabbing the darkest, most obvious one. "If I'm forced to do this, I'm going with black. Like my soul."

"Of course you would," I slyly comment as I move around to the couches. Ronan slides over and yanks me down to the middle cushion between him and Kal. They all took off their face masks while I was gone, so at least they're not quite as freaky looking, but I glance over at Ronan in his robe. He has no pants on under it.

"You better be wearing something underneath that," I grimace.

"Nope!" He pops the P and grins wickedly.

"What! Dude! Ew, I don't want to see that!" Jasper cries.

Everyone throws a mixture of amused and grossed out looks at Ro as he cackles, then, thankfully, admits that he is, in fact, wearing underwear.

Kal picks out a deep red, burgundy color.

"It suits you," I say before I can stop myself.

He turns to me with soft smile. "Thanks. Can I pick yours out?"

"Of course."

He turns back to the polish pile and I turn back to Jasper. "So you and Mira? Do you wanna talk about it now?"

He shrugs. "It's fine. I finally found out she was cheating on me so I ended it."

"Oh...wow, damn. I'm so sorry, Jas!" What the hell do you say to your best friend when you just found out they were cheated on with their longtime girlfriend??

He continues, unperturbed. "When I came home afterwards, I think Wren felt something off about me. So after much probing, Ro insisted on doing this since I must 'be feeling terrible and need some time to recoup'," he scoffs. "I'm fine, honestly... if anything I'm kind of relieved."

"Really?" I ask.

"Yeah. I-it's been kinda toxic the past year or so... some shit would happen and she always found a way to turn it on me. Gaslighting me and blaming me. It's part of the reason we had broken up a few times... but we've been together for so long. I wanted to believe her, to give her yet another chance, but..." he pinches his lips together for a moment, before continuing. "I knew something was different recently. Neither of us had been happy, and she's been sneaking around a lot. I had a feeling she was seeing someone else, I just couldn't prove it and she said I was being paranoid. But then today... I went over there and found her in bed with some other guy—"

"The assholes deserve a good punch or two." Ronan interrupts.

Kal leans across me to give Ronan a funny look. "Ro, you can't even kill a spider."

"Mmph. Mira and that guy deserve it for hurting our Jasy-poo," Ronan grumbles.

"Aaanyways..." Jas continues, "I just told her we were over and left. I'm not going back. She's tried texting me, but I'm just ignoring her."

"You should block her number, Jasy-poo," Ronan says firmly.

Jasper sits in the chair next to Ronan, so he's in perfect range to kick his shin. "Would you stop calling me that!" He hisses.

Aster and Wren chuckle quietly at Ro's expense and there's a soft tap on my arm, so I focus back on Kal while they continue bickering in the background.

"How 'bout this one?" He holds up a bottle of deep, navy blue. "I thought if I'm doing red, it would be fun if you did blue. Figured you'd like the darker color better."

"Yeah, thanks. Good choice. I'm glad you picked it, cause I'd have no clue."

"No problem! You want me to paint 'em for you?" He doesn't even wait for my answer, just continues shaking the bottle as he pulls my hand over to his knee.

There's those butterflies again.

I nod anyway. "Go for it. I'd offer to do yours, but fair warning they probably won't turn out well."

"That's alright, I appreciate it, but it might be better for me to just do my own," he chuckles. "Plus yours'll be wet and I don't want you messing them up."

"Mmm, fair enough."

"So Jas," Wren begins, as she swipes some yellow color on her ring finger. For once, her face is bare of makeup and her ears are free of heavy earrings. She looks beautiful and relaxed and carefree. "I'm really sorry you had to go through all that, it totally sucks she cheated on you and breakups are hard no matter what... but can I finally admit that I never liked her? She gave off the weirdest emotions at the weirdest times and she felt, like, slimy and stuck-up. I knew you liked her so I sucked it up, but dude, now that I know the garbage she put you threw I'm over it. She's officially on my shit list. Sorry, not sorry."

Her thick lips are pursed in something like a duck-face while her eyes are narrowed into her painting. She's so focused on her nails she doesn't see the rest of us staring at her in shock. We all look at her, and then look at each other—

Then we start cracking up.

"Pfffft! 'She's on my shit list'!" Ronan imitates, and we all bust up again.

"Seriously though, if that ain't the truth," I get out between breaths.

"I never liked her either, actually," Aster adds with a tentative grin. The once pink daisy in her bun has subtly changed to a more purplish hue to match her nails.

Jasper tries to glare at us, but the effect is undermined by his amused, and quite embarrassed face. "I hate you guys."

"You love us," Wren corrects.

"Ya know Jas," Ronan continues to coat his nails as he speaks, one focused eye on the brush, one playful eye on Jasper, "if you ever need some comforting, I'm always available." He smirks.

"Uhh, no."

"No need to make a decision now, of course. My doors always open. My beds a little too big for just me." Then he frowns suddenly, his hand stilling. "Actually... I never thought to ask before... but are you even into dick?"

I choke on my spit.

Jasper rolls his eyes, but answers uncharacteristically easy anyway. "Yes, I'm into anyone."

Kal leans over me again. "Ro, remember us mentioning we kissed at that party? I feel like that answers that question."

"Well, you never know! Experimenting, or drunken mistake, or—"

It's Kal's turn to heel-kick him. "A drunken mistake?"

"Ow. Fuck, sorry, you know what I mean. I'd rather him just tell me instead of assuming shit..." Ronan turns back to Jasper. "But, uh, cool... same... good. That's a relief, I'd be a shame if you weren't. 'Cause ya know, I'm here, if you're ever lonely..."

"Ronan, I think he gets it." Kal comments as he finishes up my second coat.

"I could always set you up with someone, once you feel up to it!" Wren's eagerness is scary.

"Or, just enjoy being your single, independent self," I feel the need to butt in.

Jasper lets his head flop back in despair. "I really hate you guys."