Stacy – I declared a major (2)

"Hello Joey," I said, unwilling to have my raised spirits dashed.

"It's Joseph," he snapped. "Don Angelo is furious," said Joey, stating the obvious. "He wants you on the first flight out."

"Just call him dad like a normal person, Joey," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Joseph," he hissed again.

"I'm not coming home, but tell daddy I hope he's proud. His little girl just declared a major. I'm going to business school," I said, with a happy squeal.

"Don Angelo is going to feed your boyfriend to the fishes if Luca doesn't do it first," said Joey.

I could hear the smirk in his voice, but I wasn't going to waiver. It was time to look past the fear in the pit of my stomach and push back.

"Believe it or not, I didn't come here for a boy. I came to make a life for myself and dammit, that's what I'm going to do. If daddy has a problem with that, he knows where to find me. Otherwise I'm done playing Don Angelo says. I'm a grown ass woman. I don't take orders anymore," I said, hanging up the phone.

Surprisingly all the missed calls were from home. None were from Scott, the one person I wanted to see right now. That stung.

I went home and watched the seconds tick by for hours until my flight had officially departed.

"Daddy's going to kill me," I panicked, exactly one minute after the departure time. "This is crazy. I'm crazy."

I had gone back to being afraid of my phone. If it rang and this time it was daddy, I didn't know for sure that I wouldn't be on the next flight to Chicago. It not ringing also meant that Scott wasn't calling though. Neither of these options being acceptable, I turned off my phone again to preserve my sanity.

That did nothing to stop me from getting into a cab in the dead of the night and giving the cab driver Scott's address.

"What the fuck am I going to say?" I said to no one in particular.

Everything that had gone down between Scott and I just that morning had me forcing the cab driver to drive round and round his block for a good half an hour before the man finally said, "You do have cash, right?"

That was my cue to get out. I spent the elevator ride pacing up and down, wringing my hands.

"So, I declared a major. Yay. About the whole mafia thing, I was totally just kidding. Not getting married either. Psych," I said, doing hand guns with my fingers, before flattening my body against the wall. "Nope, he won't buy that. Can't say that."

I sighed, feeling completely deflated. By the time I was standing in front of Scott's apartment, I had gone through a million scenarios for how our conversation would play out. My hands were shaking as I made a fist to knock.

Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. When the door finally opened, it revealed a young brunette. For a second, I thought I was at the wrong apartment.

"3B?" I asked.

"Yes, who is asking?" she asked.

She was beautiful. Couldn't have been older than nineteen. After pretending to size me up for a few moments, recognition crossed her face.

"Nevermind," I said hurriedly, turning around to leave.

"Kidding. You're Stacy, of course I know that," she said, reaching out to touch my shoulder. "Saw you on the news this morning."

"That was—"

"Scott's being a little bitch, if you ask me. Team Stacy all the way. Come on in," she said, taking my hand and pulling me into the apartment.

I looked around the apartment like I'd never been there before. Everything was the same and yet somehow different.

"Coming here was a bad idea," I muttered under my breath, as we entered the living room.

"He's been brooding in his dark room for ages now. Don't worry though. I'll have him out in two shakes," she said with a wink.

"I wouldn't intrude on his dark room time. It makes him grumpy. Also, who are you?" I turned around and asked, but she was already gone.

How had I made it all the way up to his apartment, thinking things would be just like they always were? Everything was different now, wasn't it? I sat down slowly, my eyes drifting to all the ways to exit this room. That moment when he turned his back on me and walked away hit me hard and suddenly I couldn't breathe.

The presence of some random girl in his apartment didn't help.

No, I hadn't stayed in New York for Scott Brady. So why did the idea of him not wanting me hurt so badly?