Page 4 of Emily

“I appreciate that, hun, but it wouldn’t get me my job back.” Emily interrupted her friend. As much as she appreciated the righteous anger, she didn’t have the energy to join it. She mostly wanted to wallow.

“I’m sorry, hun,” Katrina said, shifting gears immediately in response to Emily’s unvoiced request, her voice full of sympathy. That was the best thing about being lifelong best friends; Katrina knew her so well, she didn’t even need to ask. “That really, really sucks. Fuck them. They suck. All of them suck. Marianne especially sucks. She sucks big, fat donkey dong.” Some of her anger remained in her ranting, but it had lost the edge.

Despite her roiling emotions, Emily couldn’t help a watery giggle. This was why she’d picked up the phone. Despite her deep envy for Katrina’s life, her bestie always knew how to make her feel better. She missed her so much. This was one of the times when it sucked that she was all the way across the country.

“Maybe not, but it’s not like there are a lot of options around here.” Emily sighed, the feeling of total defeat washing over her again.

“Hey, it’s been a while since you’ve looked, right? Maybe there are more now.”

Emily sniffled again because, despite Katrina’s encouraging tone, they both knew the truth. There just weren’t many jobs around them that she could use the bus to get to and that wanted someone with nothing more than a high school diploma. There were also a lot of things Emily hadn’t told Katrina because she was too ashamed.

Like how her credit card bills had mounted up, the high interest making them even bigger every month, even when she didn’t use them. Like how she hadn’t been able to pay the electricity bill the past two months. Like how she was living off of noodles and the meals at the diner.

If she couldn’t get another job that fed her, she didn’t know how she was going to afford everything else. More tears welled up in her eyes.

“Right,” she said. “I’m gonna start looking tomorrow.” Katrina didn’t need Emily bringing her down. And she was right. Maybe there would be something.

“And if you need money for anything, I can help you out in the meantime,” Katrina said sternly.

“What? No, you can’t do that.” Emily was flabbergasted. She knew exactly how much college cost. “You’re not working, are you?”

“Not yet, but I will be, and I have savings?—”

“No.” Emily interrupted her with a firm denial. She knew Katrina meant well, but anything she was able to share with Emily would be a mere drop in the bucket, and then she’d owe money to a friend, which was so much worse than owing it to a faceless company. Especially since she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to pay it back. There was no way she was going to risk her friendship like that.

“I’m just saying.” Katrina sighed with exasperation. “Look, I know it’s considered gauche to talk about money, but I can help you.”

The only reason she thought she could help was because Emily had deliberately omitted a lot of facts about how bad her situation really was. The familiar feeling of shame flowed through her. She didn’t want Katrina to know how bad it was. Didn’t want anyone to know.

What she really wanted was to be able to fix it and never have anyone else know how bad it had gotten… unless she was telling them how she’d gotten out of it.

“I’ll be okay. I’m going to look for a new job, and I’ll get by until then.” The food she’d brought home tonight would help with that. Hey, she might even drop a few pounds since she was going to have to ration the food, and none of it was fried. Though that didn’t feel like a good thing right now.

“You have to promise me if there’s anything you need, you’ll tell me,” Katrina insisted. “I know you. You’re the suffer-in-silence type, but I don’t want you suffering at all.”

Katrina didn’t know the half of it. She’d be so pissed off if she did. This was one of the upsides to her bestie living across the country. She had no idea how bad it had gotten for Emily.

“I will, I promise.” That was an easy enough promise to make. She wasn’t really lying. She didn’t actually need anything yet. ‘Need’ was a very strong word. She’d be fine for now, and… she’d figure things out. She would. Just talking to Katrina helped bolster her determination because she wanted to be able to give her friend good news. “It was a long day, though, and I just want to get to sleep.”

“Okay, sweetie. I love you. Take care of yourself.”

“Right back at you. Love you.” Emily’s smile faded after she hung up, and she sighed. Settling down onto the hard wooden chair, she slowly ate her fruit, savoring every sweet bite while doing the very bitter work of scrolling through job sites. She had her resume all queued up and saved in her phone. She’d had to put it together at the library and email it to herself, but it made applying easy… the hard part was getting a response.

Send.

Send.

Send.

It was something she’d done a million times before. She applied to a bunch of listings that all said they required four-year degrees because that was all that was listed on those sites before she went to the online community boards. That’s where she’d found her job at the diner. Maybe there were more restaurants hiring.

Her heart sank as she looked at the dearth online. Maybe everyone was doing in-person hiring? But she knew that wasn’t true.

Literally, the only listing was for the gentleman’s club that was in the next town over, about half an hour away by bus, but the bus did go there.

Gentleman’s club. Call a spade a spade—it’s a strip club, honey.

Emily stared at the listing, which boasted their young women could make thousands of dollars in one night. Her stomach cramped at the very thought.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com