Breakaway – By Unknown Author

Marlena let out a sigh of relief as soon as she entered her apartment. She headed straight for her room, collapsing on the bed. She had just finished her last final in her evening class, which indicated the beginning of summer and the end of her junior year of college. She was grateful for the break, all of the hard work and studying was starting to take its toll on her. She was looking forward to being able to relax and sleep in without worrying about some big test or thesis paper that she needed to dedicate any extra time she had to doing it. Relaxation is all she had to look forward to, that and mending her broken heart. She had spent so much time concentrating on her work, it eventually led to the ending of her off and on, three year relationship with Roman Brady, three weeks ago. The breakup was hard on Marlena but instead of dealing with her heartache, she bottled it up inside, swearing herself off from men and burying herself deeper into her studies.

Mending a broken heart would not come easy when you have to see the person who broke your heart, day in and day out. Roman was a rookie cop, fresh from the academy, working for the Salem PD along with his high school buddy Abe Carver, whom was dating Lexie Brooks, Kim and Kayla‘s roommate. Roman’s sisters, Kayla and Kim were Marlena’s friends and lived in the same building. Not to mention the fact that she was also still very close to his brother, Bo, whom happened to be dating Marlena’s other friend Hope, who lived a floor above them. Considering all of these factors, Marlena and Roman came into contact quite frequently.

For any other college girl wrapping up the end of the semester, their main agenda would be spending time with their boyfriends and if you didn’t have one already, you should be racing to find him before the rest of the good ones are snatched up. That wasn’t the case for Marlena. Her social and personal life had suffered tremendously due to her overextended course load Now, the semester is over, she has nothing to look forward to but hanging out with her sister and friends, when they had time, seeing as though they all had boyfriends. She had no plans to go out and get herself one…If only she knew what her sister and friends had in store for her this summer…

 

 

Chapter One

Sam, Laura, Hope, Jennifer, Kate, Lexie, Kayla, and Kim entered the apartment, their hands filled with shopping bags. They had just come from Salem Place celebrating the end of the semester. Marlena, at the last minute, decided not to go, she claimed to be tired and only wanted to stay at home and relax. After carrying her bags to her room, Sam decided to check up on her sister. She opened the door to find Marlena, curled up in the bed, watching some talk show.
“What’s the topic for the day?” She asked as she sat on the bed beside Marlena.
“How to spice up the sex in your relationship”
“That’s embarrassing…and somewhat depressing…I can’t believe you actually record this garbage”
“Not everyone has an active sex life such as yours, sister dear”
“I know, that’s why it’s depressing” They laugh.
“Did you guys have fun?”
“Yeah, We met some really hot guys too. You should have come, maybe you could have snatched one for yourself”
“No thanks, I think I’ll leave them where they’re at”
“Come on, Mar, you really need to start dating again. You and Roman broke up. It’s not the end of the world. Besides he wasn’t all that great of a boyfriend anyway” Marlena sits upright in the bed.
“And what is that supposed to mean? I thought you liked Roman”
“I never liked Roman. I tolerated him because you were in love with him. That’s what sisters do. Although, I don’t know how I allowed him to treat you like shit”
“Sam, don’t start, Roman may have had his questionable qualities, but he was a good boyfriend, I was the one who took him for granted”
“Yeah, right, but he broke up with you three week before the end of the semester? He couldn’t stick it out three more weeks? I guess that’s where those “questionable qualities” come into play”
“Sam-” Marlena is cut off when Lexie enters room.
“Hey Marley, I’m making margaritas, are you joining in?”
“Yea, I’ll be out in a second. I just need to change into some comfortable clothes”
“Okay” Lexie replies as she and Sam head back into the kitchen, leaving Marlena to ponder Sam’s earlier words.

“So what was Marlena doing back there?” Laura asks Sam as she cuts up the lime for the margaritas, while Lexie blended.
“Wallowing in her self pity, all thanks to that faux-freak Roman…” Kate comes into the kitchen as Sam said this about Roman.
“Sam, Roman really isn’t all that bad of a guy…”
“I don’t understand you Kate. For someone who is supposed to be *Marlena’s* friend, you seem to spend an awful lot of time defending Roman. What’s with that?” Laura enquires. Laura and Kate have never gotten along, they are only civil to one another for the sake of the rest of ladies. Ever since Kate slept with Craig, knowing that he and Laura had once dated, there has been bad blood between the two them.
“I just sympathize with the guy, that’s all”
“Still you would think that you would sympathize more with our friend. She’s the one who was dumped, not the other way around” Lexie rolls her eyes as she prepares for the usual battle. Sam could also feel the tension rising and immediately jumped in as mediator.
“Okay, ladies, let this go, for Marlena’s sake at least. We’re trying to cheer her up, remember?”
“I agree” Kate replies
“So do I” Laura replies forcing a smile.
“Good. Now, can we finish these drinks, please?” Kate returns to the living room with the others as Laura, Lexie, and Sam continued making the margaritas.

Marlena came out of the room about fifteen minutes later to find that the girls had started without her. She could hear the laughs and conversations from the hallway upstairs.
“I guess it was first come, first serve. Did you guys at least save me some?”
“It’s in the freezer!” An slightly drunken Jen replies while lying on the floor along side of Kayla, Sam, and Hope. After Marlena went to the kitchen and fixed her drink, she joined Laura on the couch.

A couple of hours later, all of the girls were drunk and ready to get into some trouble. Kim already had a date with Shane. Lexie and Hope had plans with Abe and Bo for a double date. Kate had plans with some guy that she was being awful mysterious about. Since both her roommates, Hope and Kate had plans, Jen had the apartment for the night, so she had called and made plans with Jack for a night in. Since Kayla, Laura, and Sam didn’t have boyfriends they decided to go out for a night on the town. They tried to convince Marlena to go out with them but to no avail. Marlena stayed behind because she felt that she would only depress the others and ruin their night. After they left, Marlena decided to go out and grab a bite to eat.

On her way back to the apartment, she stopped at Blockbuster to rent a few movies for the night. After looking around for about thirty minutes, she decided on Taking Lives, The Day After Tomorrow, Van Helsing,and an all time classics, Ghost, with her favorite actor, Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore and Dirty Dancing.As she headed for the checkout counter, she fumbled through her purse, which was inside of the basket along with the movies, looking for her card that she tossed into her purse before leaving the apartment. She continued walking, not paying attention to what was in front of her, so she did not see the person in front of her until she walked straight into them. She dropped her basket, nearly knocking herself off balance, as a pair of strong arms reach out to steady her.
“I am so sorry. I should have been watching where I was going” She replies reaching down, nervously, to pick up her belongings, but the man beat her to it.
“It’s all right. I got it” He says as picks up her movies and purse, putting them back into the basket and handing them to her. She is mesmerized by how handsome he is. His ocean blues eyes, that sweep you off your feet smile, and oh, those abs…those rock hard abs…
“Stop drooling, Marlena. You act like you’ve never seen a good looking man before…” She warns herself internally. His voice snaps her out of her reverie.
“Ghost and Dirty Dancing, huh? Good movies. Classics” Marlena, captivated by the man’s ocean blue eyes, could only nod in response.
“Yeah, they are.” She apologizes again before walking to the checkout counter and paying for her movies. The man watches her as she walks out of the door, silently berating himself for not getting the name of the beautiful hazel eyed, blonde that he had encounter moments ago…