Lily made her way up the stairs of her apartment building, her wet dress sticking to her cold skin. She tightly gripped the strap of her purse, as she walked quietly. Even though it failed to properly cover the shame she felt, she still held it in front of her. Asher had instructed her to go change her wet dress, hinting that she was going to be a distraction for the other students. He hadn't thought about that before he went ahead to pour water over me, she murmured in her mind as she reached her apartment floor.
Walking past her neighbors in the hallway, she said nothing to them. Aware that they had their gazes on her, she continued to drag her feet along. She was too occupied by her own thoughts and too embarrassed to lock eyes with any of them. She knew what they were thinking, she could hear their thoughts in hers. In fact, their thoughts were all she could hear. Why is she wet? Did she soil herself? She could even hear some of them laughing at her in their heads. The walk to her door seemed longer than usual and there seemed to be a lot more people outside their doors. Barely noon, but her day was off to a terrible start.
After what seemed like forever, Lily arrived at her front door. She fumbled with the doorknob to check if it was open. It was. She dragged herself in, finally away from the quizzical stares of the other humans.
"Who's there?" Joan's loud voice traveled from the bedroom.
Lily and Joan shared an apartment together. It had been that way since they were both freshmen at Grentford University, ending up in the same dorm. When they discovered they got along so well, they rented an apartment together in their second year and it's been that way ever since.
Lily didn't respond, taking her purse strap over her head. She threw it over the only three seater couch in the living room, dragging her feet to the kitchen, specifically the fridge. Just as she opened the fridge door, Joan ran into the living room.
"Oh Lily!" she sighed out loudly.
"I thought it was an intruder." she added, chuckling under her breath.
Lily didn't respond. She took out a bottle of water, slammed the fridge and began gulping down the contents of the bottle. It didn't take long before Joan realized something was off about her best friend. The smile on her face faded, replaced quickly with concern.
"Lily?" she whispered, slowly making her way towards her friend who was still going non-stop at the bottle of water in her hand.
When she was close enough, Joan noticed Lily's soaked dress. Her concern deepened and her brows furrowed. "Lily, what happened?"
Lily said nothing, waiting until she had emptied the whole bottle before throwing it angrily across the room with a loud frustrated scream. Joan ducked just in time to miss Lily's furious throw. When she straightened up, she noticed tears had gathered in Lily's eyes.
"Lily," her voice was almost inaudible, rushing towards her best friend with arms opened wide.
The minute Joan's arms wrapped around her, Lily broke into a quiet sob. She held onto Joan's arms while she stroked Lily's hair gently. Saying nothing to each other, Joan let Lily cry out her frustration. The touching moment went on for a few minutes before Lily started to sniff, wiping her wet cheeks. She slowly pulled away from Joan's hold, reaching for a paper towel on the kitchen counter to dry her eyes.
Joan waited patiently until her friend was done before speaking. "Are you ready to tell me what happened?" she looked over Lily's wet dress. "And why your dress is soaked from the neck down."
Lily took a deep breath to rid herself of the depressing emotions. "It's Asher," when she noticed her voice was croaky from crying, she paused to clear her throat. "When I went to his house this morning, as he instructed yesterday," she paused, as if dreading what she was about to say next. "He emptied a bottle of water over my dress."
Joan's jaw instantly dropped, completely stunned by the information she had just heard. She looked over Lily's dress again, returning her puzzled gaze to her friend. Almost immediately, she was overtaken by anger.
"Why on earth would that jerk do something like that to you?!" she yelled furiously.
"Who the hell does he think he is anyway?!" she yelled again before Lily had the chance to respond. "Being a millionaire doesn't give him the right to treat anyone like shit!" Joan was out of control. Her hands were frantically flying in different directions.
She opened her mouth to scream again when Lily stopped her. "I poured wine on him first!" she yelled her admission loud enough so Joan could hear.
Joan's eyes widened. The anger she felt was replaced with shock. "You did what?" she mumbled in disbelief. "How? When?"
"The night you dragged me to his house for that party," Lily's eyes fell as she began to narrate the events of that night.
Joan gasped, exclaimed and took her hands to her mouth as Lily told her every single detail from the night at the party to her presence at his home this morning. She started to piece two and two together, understanding why Asher was absent minded when she went to him for a picture. She also understood why Lily was in a hurry to leave and why Asher had a change of shirt later that night.
"It's still very childish and petty of him to do this to you in the spirit of revenge." Joan blurted when Lily finished her narration.
Lily's eyes darted to her dress that was slowly drying up. "I don't know if I can go on Joan," she murmured with a shaky voice. She lifted her eyes that threatened to leak water, meeting Joan's gaze. "You should have seen the look in his eyes," tears started to cloud her sight. "He is determined to make working with him a nightmare."
"Hey," Joan said immediately, taking her thumb to wipe away the tears that dropped from Lily's left eye. "You love art Lily," she continued, gripping Lily's shoulders with both hands.
"You're an amazing person and an even more amazing painter," Lily's eyes fell to the floor as her friend spoke. "Are you going to let your dream of becoming a world renowned artist go down the drain?" Joan's strict tone made Lily look her in the eyes. She slowly shook her head.
"Are you going to give up your lifelong dream all because of one self-centered, ugly jerk with no heart?"
"But he's not ugly…"
"Focus on the point Lily!"
Lily snickered at Joan's blurt. Joan couldn't resist her laughter either. Eventually, both girls ended up giggling for a few seconds.
"Okay he is insanely handsome," Joan murmured, rolling her eyes while her friend nodded in agreement. "But that's not the point Lily," her tone became serious again.
"You have so much more ahead of you, don't let him be an obstacle to achieving those big, scary dreams of yours."
She lightly shook Lily by her shoulders, hoping to shake away the anxiety. Lily loosened up, showing a shy smile. She knew Joan was right. Ever since she began to walk and talk, all she ever wanted to do was art. Giving up now was letting down her younger self who had big dreams for her older self.
"You're right Joan," she whispered, watching Joan's eyes light up.
"I'm not going to let him stand in my way," it was more of an admission to herself than to Joan. "I'm going to show him that I'm not afraid of him," the more she spoke the more confident she felt.
"Yeah. Fuck him and his money!" Joan yelled, herself feeling a boost of confidence.
Lily burst out into a loud laugh. "Yeah, maybe not that Joan, but you're in the right spirits."