The plan for Friday was to pregame and eat cake at Brady’s then go bar hopping. I got the cake along with champagne (why not?), tequila and zero calorie margarita mix. When Carly arrived, she looked at my spread then looked away like she wasn’t impressed. Whatever. I was impressed with myself. I cut myself a huge slice of cake and poured a glass of champs.

Kendra, John, Preston, Nicole and Lexi showed up and we took shots/the usual. Nicole was being annoying and I heard Carly say to Kendra, “I seriously cannot deal with her.”

“Oh my gosh, same,” I piped up.

Carly giggled. “How is she even a real person?”

So that’s how Carly and I started talking again. First we talked about how annoying we think Nicole is, then we made tequila sours, then we were so drunk that Carly was sitting on my lap while she told everyone how scared she was to move.

When it was time to leave, our group was conflicted. Preston and Nicole wanted to go downtown and the rest of us wanted to stay nearby in Lincoln Park or Old Town. Originally I did suggest downtown because that’s where we go frequently, but honestly I wanted to go where my boyfriend was going.

“Seriously Reese? You said you wanted to go downtown earlier, why are you pretending like you don’t want to go now?” Nicole asked.

“I’m not pretending. We can make our way downtown eventually if the other places suck,” I suggested.

“I don’t want to stay in fucking Lincoln Park,” Nicole said, basically throwing a tantrum.

“Well, have fun. Maybe we’ll meet up eventually,” I finally said.

“But I want to hang out with my baby boo before she leaves,” Preston said, pulling Carly into a hug.

We literally fought about where to go for thirty minutes. We finally decided to go to Old Town then downtown which was super annoying. I decided before we even left that I wasn’t going downtown at all.

Nicole apparently knew one of the bartenders so she ran into the bar screaming. She turned to us and said, “Order whatever you want. My friend is the bartender.”

Obviously I was going to order whatever I wanted anyway. We got a table and sat around talking. Carly and I got bored and decided to go upstairs to see who was up there. We got up there and snagged a booth and ordered mozzarella sticks.

“Who am I going to eat mozzarella sticks at the bars with after you move?” I asked.

Carly smiled wickedly and then she burst into tears. I instinctively pulled her into a hug.

“What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” I asked her.

“I don’t know,” she sniffled. “I’m kind of freaked out. I know I’m making the right decision because I can feel it, I’m just kind of scared.”

“Scared of what?”

“Everything. I’ve never lived anywhere else.”

“That’s exactly why you should go. You can’t live here forever. Honestly, moving away changed me as a person completely. I didn’t know myself until I was away from my family and friends and everything I knew.”

I knew I was drunk because I started crying too. It’s true though. I changed a lot once I went away to college and was independent. You learn a lot about yourself. So Carly and I just sat at the booth crying and apologizing to each other and eating mozzarella sticks for a while.

After we finished eating I checked my phone and saw that Brady had texted and called me a few times. He’d said, “Hey, where are you?” and “Did you leave?” and “Why did you leave?” and “We’re meeting you downtown,” and the last message was the name of the bar they were all at which is downtown.

“Are you fucking joking?” I said and quickly explained to Carly what happened.

“I told Preston we were coming upstairs!” she said. “And Chris didn’t even text me.”

At this point I was so exhausted from crying in the middle of a bar that I was ready to go home. So I texted Brady back, “Over it,” and called an Uber to pick us up.

We got back to the duplex and I immediately got in bed and fell asleep, but I woke up when Brady came home.

“What the fuck? I can’t believe you left me,” I greeted him.

“I didn’t mean to leave you. I couldn’t find you and Nicole told us you left,” he replied defensively.

“Why would you listen to Nicole?! She’s a fucking meth head!” I shouted.

“How was I supposed to know? You weren’t answering your phone so was I supposed to just stand around and wait?” Brady shouted back.

“Yes!” I screamed.

“Okay.” He started getting ready for bed and I laid back down.

Once I felt him get in the bed next to me I said, “Will you bring me water and some Cheezits?”

Brady said, “No,” and I swear I gasped.

“What?”

“No. Get it yourself. I’m going to sleep,” he said.

I just stared at him in the dark for a few seconds. No? What does no even mean? Luckily I fell asleep and forgot about my Cheezit and water craving.

When I woke up on Saturday morning, there was a bottle of water and the box of Cheezits sitting on the nightstand next to me. Brady was not in bed though. I got up and found him in the kitchen on the phone. I waved and hugged him then sat on the counter until he got off the phone. I think he was talking to his brother and I could tell he wanted to hurry and hang up since I was in the room and obviously listening.

“Morning,” he said after he hung up.

“I’m sorry about last night,” I said. I felt bad about yelling at him and I felt bad that he obviously felt guilty about telling me no.

Brady seemed surprised that I apologized and said, “Oh, I’m sorry too. I honestly thought you’d left.”

“Do you really think I would leave without you?” I smirked.

“I mean, I didn’t know. Nicole had us all convinced that you told her you were leaving,” he said.

“She’s so weird,” I concluded.

And now I really think she’s weird because later on, we realized that every medicine item from the main bathroom was gone. The cough drops, the cough syrup, the Benadryl, the ibuprofen, etc. Except the ibuprofen bottles were still there, just empty. It was so fucking bizarre. I’m not saying she did it, but she did use the bathroom and she is fucking crazy. I never want to hang out with her again.

Anyway, so Carly and Chris are gone now which is super sad. I’m glad we were able to make up even if it was at the very last minute. It’s so crazy that she and Chris are like living together now and I just randomly suggested they hook up when he was our waiter last year. Funny how life works out.

Also, my parents are visiting me for the holiday weekend. They are getting along now and when I mentioned to my mom that I miss them, she suggested they make a trip. The scary thing though is that Brady said his parents are going to be near the city over the weekend too. He told them that we were considering traveling for the weekend (because we were until my parents decided to visit), but they mentioned wanting to see us (him). Can you imagine my parents meeting Brady’s parents? If we ever do get married, it’ll obviously have to happen eventually but I don’t think I’m prepared for that right now. Hopefully there isn’t a run in this weekend. That would a hot mess.