Election Day Hangovers...

Lauren sat down at the table, "Am I late?"

"Nope, we were early." Emily passed her a menu.

"So, don't take this the wrong way, but you look really tired."

Lauren laughed at Mandy, "Well I would be offended, you look tired is normally code for you look like shit, but I do look like shit and I am tired."

"Were you up watching election returns? I finally gave up. There are going to be too many late ballots to count to know who all really won for awhile. But it looked good for the blue team. Not as good as we wanted, but good."

"No, I didn't even pay attention to that for long. Tyler and I broke up."

"Yeah, Halloween right? When he ditched you at Julianne's party..." Mandy paused then, "Oh don't tell me you took him back after that!"

Emily rolled her eyes, "Seriously?"

"He left you at the party and walked out with Candy, or Misty, or Sunshine or whatever the fuck her name is."

"Suzi. And she had a family emergency and he helped her out and then he was gone for much longer than he had planned and by the time he got back I had left."

"And he couldn't call or text you to tell you that?" Emily asked.

"He lost his phone at the party and didn't realized it so he couldn't."

Mandy smirked, "Right."

"No, really, I didn't believe him either but Julianne vouched for him."

"Seriously? I can't believe that."

"Yep, her exact words were, 'OH my god, I so don't want to tell you this, but I totally did find his phone on the floor in the bedroom where we were storing the coats. It was kind of half under the bed, you know? And so yeah, he left it there, but you could still be mad about it, right? I mean, this doesn't mean he still didn't walk out and leave you there. So you could still be mad.' So yeah, she vouched for him losing his phone while still not really vouching for him."

"Why would she still want you to be mad?" Mandy was confused.

"There was a friend of hers at the party that I talked to for a while that she wanted me to be dating. So, Tyler and I still together she doesn't get to pretend that she was some sort of matchmaker in a meet cute story."

Emily and Mandy laughed. "Okay, that sounds like Julianne. But she was right. He still left."

"He did. And he did it because Suzi needed him and he really likes to be needed. But he didn't sleep with her, or anything, it was not great, but at the same time, if he had had his phone and could have let me know it wouldn't have been that bad."

"Girl..."

"Okay, yeah, it still would have been, I guess. But I really wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt."

"And since you two broke up last night I'm guessing he didn't deserve it?"

"I just can't be that girl, you know?"

Emily shook her head, "What girl?"

"The one that lets herself come second. Tyler constantly said that he liked how smart I am, how independent, how strong, but this wasn't the first time I was left behind while he took care of someone else. Suzi for sure, but others as well. He likes being the hero. I don't need him to be one. So he keeps finding other places to be heroic."

Mandy and Emily shared a quick look.

"What?"

Emily smiled, "Well, we are just glad you finally realized that. He was trying to make you his damsel in distress and you never were. It was tiring to watch him do it."

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't you ever notice he would try and make your problems his problems? Or tell you how to do things and then get mad when you explained why that wouldn't work?"

Lauren stared at Mandy for a minute thinking, "He wasn't mad, he was just..." she trailed off. Her friends were right. For how much Tyler had talked a big game about like a strong, independent, woman, he really never did. He wanted to be in charge and she wasn't that girl.

"Oh well, it's done now. What are you ordering?"

--------------

Andrew sat on the couch flipping through channels.

"You know you could actually stop and watch something for longer than a few seconds."

"Sorry, just bored. I've been feeling restless lately." He tossed the remote to James, "You can be in charge."

"Why don't you call that girl from Halloween, ask her out?"

"I don't think so."

"Why not? You two hit it off really well right?"

"Yeah, we did. But she went back to her boyfriend, the one that ditched her for the Playboy Bunny that night? I just can't date a woman with that low of an opinion of herself. You know? I want a woman who is strong and smart and independent and would kick a jerk like that to the curb."

"You could convince her, you know, ride in on your white horse and whisk her away from all that!"

"No way, I'm nobody's hero."