1
HOPELESS ROMANTIC
Fuck,my cheek stings.
I really know how to pick them, don’t I?
It’s raining as I stand outside of Jameson’s apartment building, clutching my phone in my hand thinking of who I should call to help me get out of this situation. My parents are absolutely out of the question, I think I proved to them one too many times that I’m a complete fuckup. The disappointment in their eyes when they realize I’m nearly thirty and still don’t have my shit together is too much.
Everything always feels like too much. I thought by now my life would click together, I’d be married with kids and not making the same stupid fucking choices repeatedly.
I would call Aiden, but he’s going through so much right now, he doesn’t need to add my bullshit on top of that.
I scroll through my phone and land on one of my twin cousin’s names.
I call Gavin first, as he’s more likely to pick up. Benjamin is a little more aloof, he might answer a text, but definitely not a phone call.
“Hey, Pen,” Gavin answers.
“Hey, Gav. Do you think you or Benjamin could pick me up?”
“Totally would, but we’re in Atlanta looking at properties this weekend,” he says.
“That’s right. No worries, I’ll just get an Uber or something.”
“Everything alright?” Gavin asks.
I have to hold back my tears, because no, everything is not alright, and all I want to do is go home and cry in bed. The thought of getting in a car with a strange man is definitely not what I want to do right now.
“Yeah, everything is fine,” I lie, which I’m too good at. Sometimes my stomach sinks when I do it and sometimes it rolls off my tongue easier than a truth ever could.
“I know Aiden is probably at the hospital, but Linc should be home. I mean, you two do live in the same building,” he says.
Yes, the building our family owns and I live in as a complete freeloader. It feels like another kick to the chest while I’m already down. I know Gavin has no idea what I’m going through right now, no one does with the way I bottle up all this festering failure, but I really don’t want to call Lincoln.
My options are to call my cousin who seems to hate the fucking world, or have some stranger drive me home. I sigh, realizing I have to choose the former.
“Thanks, I’ll call Lincoln.”
“We’ll hang out when we get back, okay?” Gavin says.
I’m closest to my twin cousins, since we’re closer in age we grew up doing a lot of the same activities together.
“Sounds good, night.”
“Night,” he says before hanging up the phone.
No way do I have the balls to call Lincoln, instead I text him.
Hey, sorry to bother you. I know it’s getting late, but would you be able to pick me up?
Lincoln
Send me the address
Curt and to the point, that’s how Lincoln operates.
If he wasn’t walking around, I’d wonder if he had a beating, functioning heart. He wasn’t always like this, really only in the last few years has he turned into this angry shell of a man. When we were kids he was always sweet, he never let the twins gang up on me when we played and I appreciate it. I’m not sure what flipped a switch in him, but he’s turned into somewhat of a grumpy old man.
