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“Mike. Are you high?” I croaked.
“Oh, I missed the two of you. I didn’t see you guys at all this summer,” Michael said.
“Stop. Please. I beg of you,” Allison said breathlessly.
“I’ll kill you in your sleep,” I hissed.
Michael released us and we both dropped to our feet. Allison and I heaved for air, then I stood back and surveyed her outfit. Typical, for her parents. A bright pink collared shirt with a pale blue emblazoned Ralph Lauren logo against her chest. A khaki skirt with boat shoes that were, somehow, the same color as her khakis. I giggled at the laces matching the pink hue of her shirt and the pale blue earrings twinkling in her ears. I shook my head in fascination, never ceasing to be amazed at the outfits her parents could conjure.
I snickered. “Your parents single-handedly keep Ralph Lauren in business.”
Allison held out her arms. “What? They’re good clothes. You mean you don’t like this outfit? I wore the blue just for you.”
Michael grinned. “Well, by the looks of Rae, black and brown are in this year.”
I rolled my eyes. “Says the boy wearing eggshell-colored shorts that come two inches above his knees.”
Allison nodded. “I’m just impressed you know what shade ‘eggshell’ is.”
Michael faked a tear. “Mom would be so proud of you.”
I looked down at my outfit and shook my head. I looked like a maniac. My hair was frizzy from no conditioner. My black shirt had lint and dust all over it. And my brown pants were so baggy my inner thighs rubbed together when I walked. None of which took into account my bright green flip-flops Mom had purchased for me this summer on a whim to apologize for some fight she had with her boyfriend.
A fight that wound up destroying my hand-me-down iPod because it got thrown against the wall.
“You guys ready for school?” I asked.
But my two best friends in the entire world were giving me ‘the look.’
I sighed. “Guys, not now. Please.”
Allison quirked an eyebrow. “Did you have that nightmare again?”
Michael narrowed his eyes. “Or did your mother do something?”
I shrugged. “Why can’t it be both?”
Michael shook his head as Allison let out a string of curses under her breath.
I giggled. “Don’t let your mom hear you talk like that.”
Michael wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Anything I can do?”
“Yeah. You can stop dwelling on it and help me get to school faster.”
The three of us fell in line, abandoning my rundown neighborhood in exchange for perfectly-manicured lawns and sprawling homes. That was the Riverbend High area I knew. Not the rundown shacks in the shadows of the town I lived in, but the massive homes Allison and Michael lived in. They lived perfect lives. They had perfect families. Michael with his adoptive parents that loved him as if he were their own. And Allison with her biological parents that were still very much in love. It seemed that with the nicer suburbs came nicer lives. Nicer parents. Nicer homes to be raised in and nicer food to eat. I envied them for the lives they had. I envied the relationships they had with their parents.
I’d kill to have that relationship with my one parent.
Allison cleared her throat. “So what are you two doing this weekend?”
Michael smiled. “Please, oh please tell me this is leading into another weekend visit at your place. I love your basement, and girl talk is always fun to listen to.”
I laughed. “You know I’m not doing anything. I only work every other weekend at the grocery store even though I beg for more hours. You know how it goes. Why?”
Allison linked her arm with mine. “Well, my parents are going to Palm Springs Thursday evening for a spa retreat. Won’t be back until Monday afternoon.”
Michael thrust his fist into the air. “Yes! Girl time! Nailed it!”
