Grace felt the oncoming head ache minutes before it began to cause any real trouble. She had been up late the night before toiling away over her current situation. She hadn't seen Darrin Reed in years, and couldn't even recall the last time she spoke to him. She only remembers having to listen to his answering machine too many times before finally giving up. She sighs and takes a few Tylenol to cut back the pain in her head. She's going to be late, it's nearing the time now that Judith had specified for her to come over and she's still tangled up in her gold sheets trying to figure an excuse as to why she shouldn't go.
He probably doesn't even remember me, she thinks to herself. It had indeed been long enough that he might not recognize her, and she had changed a lot over the years.
I doubt he wants to see me either, even if it would be nice to see her childhood friend again she was not under any illusion that he wanted her around. After all, he cut ties with her, why would he want to see her now? She figures this is all Judith's idea anyways and Grace would have felt bad if she said no to the woman.
"Alright Grace, time to suck it up and act like a woman!" She tells herself, tossing off the sheets.
It takes her less than twenty minutes to get dressed and comb her hair into a more manageable mess. She never did much with it these days, the upkeep of dying her roots every now and again was enough of a problem without having to deal with styling it. Grace barely looks at her clothes, selecting a
plain black top and a pair of
denim skinny jeans. For good measure she makes sure to grab her
jacket in case the weather isn't very favorable. Her sneakers squeak annoyingly against the tiled floor as she moves around trying to gather up her stuff.
Once her keys, phone, and purse are gathered up she prepares herself for whats to come.
"I hope I don't regret this."
Grace drives on auto pilot, having memorized the directions she was given. Her head swims with thoughts and questions that probably won't ever be answered. She tries to keep her emotions reigned in, she doesn't want to show up and have the first thing out of her mouth be some rude question. Though she certainly wants to know Darrin's motives for his past actions she knows she doesn't really have a right to know, at least not yet. She recalls a particularly nasty memory from her past concerning Darrin and his apparent inability to keep in touch with her. She had been at college for no less than a year when it first happened.
She met him in a bar and that probably should have been her first sign that he wasn't exactly the greatest guy to be around. Not to mention he was way older and had a dangerous look to him. Grace knew her parents wouldn't have approved if they had met him. But this man -Anton Parelli- had the charm of an angel and Grace just couldn't resist....
Weeks later and Grace was a complete mess, failing grades and missing classes, always trying to avoid Anton but coming to find that the man wasn't so willing to let her go. He constantly stalked her, at home, while she was in classes, or even when she was out doing errands. Grace needed advice, someone to talk to, she needed her friend but Darrin never returned her calls. She didn't even know why she thought he would, he hadn't before and this time was no different.
Things escalated to the point Grace had to get a restraining order. It was a solution to keeping Anton away but it wasn't to her other dilemma of having no one to talk to. She wasn't a popular child growing up and didn't trust her friends at the college nearly as much as she had trusted Darrin....but from that moment she knew he wouldn't come to her aid, and that's when she finally stopped trying.Grace tightens her grip on the wheel and sighs, its no use remembering things like that. This is the here and now, and she needs to focus if she's going to try and not make a complete fool of herself.
Time to tune into my inner child, Grace muses to herself, realizing its going to take more than pushing it to the back of her mind to get over this bitter resentment.
She pulls up the the house nearly ten minutes later, anxious to know how this is going to play out. She cuts the engine and is thankful for the silence. The house itself is large, much larger than her little two bedroom one bathroom house that sits dead in the middle of nowhere. Of course she didn't expect any less than a large home for someone famous. It wasn't really in her nature to be jealous, certainly not of a house but she felt a little loneliness by simply looking at the house. No matter how long she worked there would be no way she could afford a house like this.
I wonder what his kids are like... She hopes they aren't spoiled brats or anything like that. She's usually okay with kids, but doesn't know if she could handle kids that throw fits when they don't get what they want. But knowing Darrin...or at least remembering how he was before she doesn't think they will be bad. Well, more like she hopes they wont be.
She sighs and folds up her sunglasses, adjusting her jacket and working up the nerve to go up to the house. After a little bit of debate and convincing herself that
no, she can't go back on her word now, she makes her move.
She must look like a windswept mess, and she hadn't even bothered with make up today. Hopefully no one mentioned it, she wasn't sure if she could hold back any insecurity as well as any other emotion.
Judith answers the door a lot faster than Grace actually expects.
. "I'm so glad you're here. Come in. Come in. I'm almost done fixing breakfast. After we eat, I can show you around the property." Grace fixes Judith with a wide smile, grateful to see a friendly face. It hasn't been so long since she's seen Judith, but its still nice to see that there hasn't been much change.
"Thank you," Grace answers, shrugging off her jacket once she's inside and hanging it up. "How have things been?" She asks, weary for an answer but determined to hear one anyways.