Stand By: Chapter 3
| January 3, 2023“This is our moment, Chay,” Dassi forged on. “Let’s finally do it! Get an apartment together!”
When your list of things to do was longer than the day could possibly handle, you learned to maximize your time, which meant Chayala usually spent her 12-minute drive to work on the phone. Today, though, she needed to ruminate in peace. The night before had ended off with a lot to think about.
Her father’s bombshell had stunned her. But perhaps more shocking was the realization that the home she’d always known was no longer hers. The reality that she had no place of her own to move on to loomed large. She hated this unsettled feeling, like she was untethered, a floating ship with no anchor.
Get a grip on yourself, she thought. You’ve been feeling out of sorts living in Ma and Tatty’s house for a long time anyway. You’ll survive this.
A familiar ringtone cut through her ruminations. Dassi’s name lit up on her dashboard.
“Good morning, Suuuuunshine!” Dassi sang, with all the energy level of a person who woke up at the crack of dawn to be yelled at by a spin instructor and was thrilled about it.
Chayala groaned, the wordless sound a half-hearted rebuttal to Dassi’s enthusiasm.
Dassi laughed. “I refuse to let you stress, Chay,” she said. “Everything is going to be great! Shira offered for you to move in with her, in classic, amazing Shira fashion, which is why she is and always will be the best person we know.”
Chayala rolled her eyes. “Shira is the best. But I’m not moving into her parents’ house for an extended sleepover. That’s ridiculous. I would sooner move with my parents to whatever apartment they find.”
Dassi chuckled. “Oh, cute. We both know you’re not doing either of those. Which is why I called, and spoiler alert, I’m channeling my masculine fix-it energy this morning.”
“Women fix things too.”
“I am a woman who fixes things, hun.”
Chayala laughed despite herself.
“Fiiine, I’m listening, Miss Fix It. What’s your brilliant plan?”
Oops! We could not locate your form.