The girls arrived in front of the exclusive four storey luxurious apartment and were greeted by the housing agent; a middle-aged woman with the brightest smile, who stood outside the apartment waiting for them. As they walked towards her, she polietly extended her hand to Dixie who declined her handshake but she wasn't upset by Dixie's action, instead, she smiled at the other two girls and cheerfully said, "Welcome Miss Bach, hope you had a smooth flight."
Dixie nodded and said, "It was good. So, these are my friends, Avery and Evie."
"Hello ladies"
"Hi" Avery responded with a casual smile but Evie was on a call so she just nodded in acknowledgement.
"I'm Giona, the estate agent. Let me show you up to your apartment. You're on the third floor. I just know you'd like your place. It has the penthouse vibes you asked for, we customized it to your taste." She continued excitedly describing the apartment to the girls who were more interested in resting than what she was going on about.
Sensing that the only way she might get their attention was to compliment them, she noticed Avery's handbag, it was a limited edition and she had been waiting for almost a year for that bag edition. "Oh my God, is that the limited edition spring—" reaching out to touch the bag but Avery stopped her and said, "It is."
"I've been dying to get my hands on those. I was told severally that it was out of sto—"
"That's why It's called a limited edition collection, Givionna" Dixie interrupted, giving her a nasty look.
"Uh, it's Giona, and, I know it's limited but I have been waiting for almost a year to get those. I can't believe—"
Avery looked at her bag again, then turned to Giona and said, "I got this two days after it launched"
"Wow, that's interesting"
"And, the price would have been overwhelming for most people" Dixie said, clearly dissing Giona.
Giona just smiled embarrassingly and said, "Well, it's a lovely bag. Uh, how about I show you to your apartment?"
Then she led them to the building.
Scanning around, Avery noticed the limo services by a corner but she focused on imagining what the new apartment would look like.
The front door was opened by the security guard and he wore a warm smile for the girls. As they walked into the lobby, Giona signalled the conceirge to bring in the girl's luggages. They took the elevator and while Giona continued talking to the girls about the estate services, she didn't get a response from any of them.
"Every apartment is protected by a security lock system that captures your face immediately you enter the code. The footage is immediately sent to all the emails of the inhabitants of the apartment."
"That's nice. I like the effort" Evie responded with an indifferent expression, she was done with her phonecall.
Avery laughed out at Giona's use of the word "inhabitants", she even echoed it but it didn't offend her, instead she said, "Yeah, we try to take care of everyone who stays in any of our buildings."
The elevator opened at the third floor and they got out. From their expressions, it was clear that the girls were impressed by the place.
"Are there all students here?" Avery asked as she spotted a girl whom she guessed was their age entering a code to one of the apartments.
"Mostly" Giona replied as they walked through the hallway.
The hallway was huge and quiet. The walls shone and there were expensive paintings on the wall, strategically positioned where the light bulbs were. The floor was covered with a dark blue velvet rug. The doors to each apartment was noise proof. They walked past the girl who briefly exchanged pleasantries with Giona before retreating into her apartment. She barely looked at the girls and they didn't pay attention to her either.
As they got to their own door, Avery noticed the apartment directly across theirs. She wondered who lived there but she didn't ask. Giona showed the girls how the code worked. She handed them a key card too.
"There's three of us and one of that." Evie said gesturing at the key card that Giona handed to Dixie.
"I'll make provisions for extra two. The key cards is just for emergency situation if you forget your code or something."
"Right. Do we have to come up with the code now?"
"Not at all, take your time. Immediately you activate it, the security panel will get a notification and they will contact you to be sure you created the code."
Giona opened the door and the girls looked at each other, it was exactly what they wanted.
The walls were a perfect white and the furnitures in the apartment were white too. The kitchen had a white marbled counter with a trendy kitchen light that hung almost low, covered in a thin cylinder-like gold ornaments. The flowers in the house was plastic as they wanted. They immediately ran into their rooms when Avery reminded them of her "dibs". When they saw the three rooms, Avery decided she wanted the room on the right side of the apartment, it was closest to the kitchen. Evie settled for the room in the middle while Dixie took the one close to the door. Each room had a window and a small balcony, a walk-in closet and their own bathrooms. The beds were all king-sized and had the softest mattress just as Dixie had requested.
"This is the cutest little room I've had to live in, I'm practically obsessed!" Evie said as she walked out of her room.
Avery came out of her room after examining the closet and walked to the living room. She agreed with Evie and Giona was happy.
"What can I say, you were right Giona, we do love the place." Dixie said, finally coming out of her own room.
"I'm glad to hear that. I guess my job here is done. I'll see you girls soon, if you need anything, please don't hesitate to let me know" Giona replied very pleased with herself.
"Sure" the girls echoed.
"Also, the girl from earlier? Her name is Sherly. She's a senior and a sorority girl, so, if you're thinking of joining any sorority or just want someone to help you with navigate through school and all, she's your best option."
"Yeah, IF" Dixie replied as she rolled her eyes.
"She's a sweetheart, you guys would like her" Giona tried to ignore Dixie's sass.
"Of course we would" Evie responded in a sacarstic tone as she moved to sit on the couch. She continued texting whoever she was texting earlier. Avery and Dixie just looked at each other as they tried to hide their giggle. They knew what Giona was trying to do but they also knew that it was pointless. From their reactions, Giona immediately knew what the look they had exchanged meant, she had met a lot of spolit rich brats, especially the kinds in cliques who didn't try to go out of their way to be nice to anyone. They let people come to them, and even then, they didn't treat them well or value their contributions. She realized her mistake and tried to smile as she walked out of the apartment before things got any weirder. She had crossed the line, she hoped it wouldn't make the girls think she was being nosey about their circle. As she got to the door and opened it, she got a call that she'd been expecting.
"These ones are less condescending" she murmured before she accepted the call.
"You guys, rude much?" Avery said immediately Giona closed the door.
"Can you believe her?" Dixie asked, then tapped Evie to get her attention.
"I know right" Evie agreed with her. "She must think we're the worst humans she has ever met but in all fairness, she brought that upon herself."
"Who cares what she thinks" Dixie asked.
"Off topic, Dixie, you were more rude than usual" Avery said. It made Evie chuckle and she agreed with Avery.
"What's up with that? Are you okay?" She asked.
"Rude? I'm not rude" Dixie tried to defend herself.
"Exactly. That's mine and Evie's forte. You're sweet Dixie, everyone loves you for that."
Dixie shrugged, trying not to look or say anything suspicious but the truth is, she was scared. She was so scared that Avery would see how anxious she was around her. She had been like that all summer when she did something that she knew Avery would never forgive. She had a secret. A secret that would destroy the relationship she had with Avery and Evie and she knew how much her friends meant to her, especially now that her parents were going through a separation. Her father had had an affair with his secretary some months ago and her mother found out about it but after forgiving her father, she had her own fling with their landscaper and was now pregnant. The discovery led her father to move out of their mansion to the boy's quarters just to stay away from her mother but not enough to alert anyone. Her parent still tried to attend events together and act all lovey dovey but when they got back home, it was almost like her father, Dean Bach, could not wait to get rid of his pregnant wife, Fawn Bach.
All of these went on last summer and Dixie sought comfort in the arms of someone she should not have been with; Aubrey Musk. It all started at Jasper's party. She wanted to stop. She tried to remind herself of why she should not be with him but it only made her desire him more. For that, she had been avoiding Avery all summer. She declined almost all the invitations from Avery for all the parties, spa appointments, shopping spree, and casual Hangouts. Avery just thought she was going through a phase because she started acting like she was gothic and listening to sad songs all the time but that was because she was doing the wrong thing. She wanted to hang out privately with Evie but she knew that between her and Avery, Evie's loyalty laid with only Avery. The two had gotten more close over the summer and she felt like the third wheel—the anxious third wheel. She knew better than anyone the extent of Avery's wrath—she has been friends with Avery for most of her life and knew how cold and cruel Avery can be to people she doesn't like, or people who try to mess with anyone she cares about. She has also witnessed Avery go from loving a person to hating them and she feared that side of her— and she wished she could just wave a wand and make everything disappear by avoiding the girls but things got worse when they all got accepted into the same school—well, her parents paid for her to be in the same school as the other girls. She didn't have a say—as usual, so she just went with it.
"I don't know, I guess I'm tired from the flight." Feigning a yawn, she stretched and said, "I just wanna go to bed."
"So, I'm taking it that you don't want to come out to see the city with Evie and me." Avery asked. She knew that Dixie was faking being tired. She did not know why but she didn't want to go d out why anymore. She had noticed when Dixie started cancelling out on all her invitations, but she guessed it had something to do with her parents. Her mum had told her that something seemed off with the Bach's and that Fawn was desperately trying to make her believe that they were fine.
"Nahh, you guys can go without me. I need to catch some Z's" Then she walked off to her room.
Immediately she got inside, she ran to her bag, took out two pills and swallowed them. Then she moved to the bed and flung herself on it. She let out a deep breathe and murmured, "Not today Dixie, you're safe."
While Dixie walked off, Avery got a notification on her phone so she zoned out on every other thing. The notification was from the post she made earlier, it was still getting all the attention. As she replied to some of the comments, Evie said, "You know, I like Gina's accent. It's so southern."
"She's Italian" Avery replied.
"Oh" Evie said and walked into the kitchen for a glass of wine. While pouring herself some, she looked over at Avery and asked her if she wanted anything to drink.
"Water. thank you. Evie, am not imagining that Dixie just lied to our faces right?"
"Nope. She certainly did."
"Why, though?"
"Typical Dixie since last summer. She'll get around whenever she wants to." She walked over to Avery and handed her the chilled bottled water.
"So, who have you texting and smiling at, all trip?" Avery asked as she took the bottle of water.
"Me? Smiling?" Evie asked with an exaggerated feigned shocked expression as she sat beside Avery.
"Bitch, you know exactly what the fuck I'm talking about."
Evie giggled and said, "Wellll, he's this guy met at Jasper's party."
"Damn! Looks like everyone found love that night except me. Now, spill the tea and leave nothing in the fucking cup!"
Evie shrikes gleefully and said, "No way! I don't know if I can call it love though, but, we've been seeing each other for a while. He's a basketball player.
"Oouuuuu, a baller, that's cute!" Avery teased.
"Yeah, a baller... Anyways, I told him I wanted us to go slow—kinda like going with the flow till I see if I want to date him or whatever—so we've not—"
"You told him that?"
"What?"
"That you wanna go with the flow till you see if you wanna date him"
Evie chuckled, "Of course not. I'm just telling you."
"Right"
"Yeah, so we've not really attached a label to what we are. I just feel like it'll put too much pressure on both of us. But I really like him and I think he likes me too because he always tries to plan his stuff around mine. It's cute and all" As Evie went on about her love interest, Avery noticed that she genuinely liked this guy and it was beautiful watching her friend being that excited.
"His name is Jason and he has the cutest smile you can ever imagine. He lives at Beverly hills. He's 21, but he doesn't think like a twenty-one-year-old" Evie continued but they were interupted by the doorbell. "Are we expecting anyone?" She asked.
"Not sure but I'll see who" Avery responded walking towards the door. As she opened the door, the girl she saw earlier was standing there looking at her with the brightest smile.
"Avery Musk official on Instagram right? I'm a huge fan, I didn't recognize you at first but when I rushed to my instagram, you're wearing the same clothes from your recent post! Oh my God, I love you so much! I mean, I have loved you since I started following you, I hope I don't sound weird but I'd like to invite you..." She kept talking but Avery froze at the familiar face she saw talking to Giona in the opposite apartment as the door was opened by another guy whom she presumed lived with her "stranger" in the opposite apartment. He was trying to let the conceirge in with their luggages. He noticed Avery and smiled briefly at her.
"Um... Sure. Okay" Avery said still distracted as Sheryl walked off excitedly. Confused, she shut the door and leaned on it.
"Who was that?" Evie called out.
"Sheryl the girl from earlier. I think I accepted something without knowing what.
"Why? Were you distracted again?"
"What do you mean again? What are you talking about?" Avery asked as she began to move towards her friend. As she sank on the couch next to Evie, she picked up her phone.
"Well, earlier at the airport, you were distracted and even though I didn't know what that was about, I wanted to ask you about it."
"Oh, I saw this guy and it felt like nothing else mattered. He is gorgeous, really hot but I thought it..."