Three Girls And A Leading Man Read Free

coming from the living room. I
groaned. Tina was doing something else crazy out there.
    I looked over at my clock and was
shocked to find that I had been at it for almost two hours. I decided it was
time to go get a snack and maybe give my roommate a taste of her own medicine.
    I sauntered into the kitchen,
completely ignoring whatever she was doing in the living room. Instead I
started loudly singing Britney Spears to myself—it was the most annoying
thing I could think of. I heard the chanting pause, and then stop altogether,
and I grinned as I pulled a bag of potato chips down from the top shelf.
    “Excuse me,” Tina said, appearing
in the doorway. She was dressed in her normal get-up of black leggings and a
flowing tunic. Multiple scarves and bangles dangled from her neck. “You’re
really disturbing the vibes in this house with that garbage.”
    “What garbage is that, Tina?” I
asked innocently.
    “The singing,” she said, losing her
earth child demeanor and allowing her irritation to show through. I grinned
again. I loved it when her fake hippie persona cracked.
    “Sorry about that,” I said. “But
while we’re on the subject, did you ever think that your chanting might be
disturbing me ? I have a really big
audition tomorrow.”
    “My chanting benefits everyone in
this house,” Tina said, her misty voice returning. “Seriously, Annie, I would
think that you would thank me. I improve the aura of this house tremendously.
Ugh, if you could only see what it looked like when I moved in here.”
    I rolled my eyes. “It looked a lot
cleaner before you moved in here,” I said, gesturing around the kitchen that
was now cluttered with dishes, though it had been spotless before Jen and I
left for work. “Is picking up after yourself too mundane for someone with your
abilities for aura cleansing?”
    She glared at me. “You just have no
respect for the vibrations that I effect on a daily basis. It’s sad really. For
a supposed artist you are very closed-minded.”
    “What can I say, Tina? You’re one
of a kind.” I struggled to control my temper. “Regardless, I have a lot of work
to do, and I would really appreciate it if you kept it down. Or, you know,
left. That would work for me, too.”
    She turned around and stomped off
so quickly that her scarves billowed out behind her. I sighed. Jen would be mad
at me if she knew I had been so mean to Tina. We did need her for rent.
    Ever since Ginny had married Josh
and moved out, it’d been tough for us to make ends meet. Jen quitting her job
at a high-end event-planning firm in order to open up shop with her friend Kiki
hadn’t helped our situation much—not that I was complaining about that.
Jen was so much happier now that she was working with Kiki.
    I brought my chips and a pop out to
the now vacated living room and sat down on the couch, wondering when Jen was
going to be home. When she had worked at her old firm, I would know not to
expect her before dinner most nights. She worked herself sick there, always
trying to get ahead and prove herself. When Kiki’s family hired the firm to
plan her mega-platinum wedding, I was worried Jen might actually have a
breakdown. As it was, she got totally overwhelmed and almost completely ruined
Ginny and Josh’s wedding in the process.
    I know she still felt terrible
about it, even though she had managed to salvage the event at the last minute.
When she told us she was quitting her job and starting up with Kiki, who had
become a good friend during the wedding planning process, it felt like I was
getting my old friend back. So far, things had been going okay for them, no
doubt helped along by the fact that Kiki was totally loaded and knew a lot of
other rich people in desperate need of help in throwing parties.
    I finished off my chips and stood
up, stretching. There was no sound coming from Tina’s bedroom upstairs. Maybe
she had taken my advice and left after all. I figured I may as well use the
peace and quiet