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“Where are you going?” Girth asked him and King pointed to his watch. It was three in the morning.
“Do you have to say your morning prayers?” Slade said with a laugh, and Girth, King and I all shot him threatening looks. King’s religion was out of bounds, just like Moira was. Even I thought it was a little weird when I first met him, but by now we knew it was what kept him sane. He used to be a street kid, the gang was going to kill him if he didn’t get out and he believed it was his religion that had brought him to Elwood. We respected his beliefs. Slade seemed to be a slow learner and hadn’t caught on.
“Remember what your Mom said,” King said to me, and gestured a salute to me with two fingers. I smirked at him.
“Pussy,” I called after him as I watched him exit the bar, taking his leave from the others as he went.
Now it was just Girth, Slade and me at this end of the counter, still swirling our drinks. At least Girth had Sophie to see if he wanted to. All I had was Sheila, and she wasn’t exactly a human being. It was late and I’d had too much to drink but it was too early to go to sleep as well.
I slipped my cellphone out of the pocket of my jeans and I scrolled through the voicemails.
Meet me behind the bar
I texted the blond. The one who Slade had undoubtedly been calling all night. I could tell from the shifty look in his eyes that he was waiting for her to respond to his messages.
I’ll be there in ten minutes, hun - Barb
She replied almost instantly.
Chapter 2
Ava
I was standing in front of the mirror in Charity’s bedroom, staring at myself because I hadn’t decided if what I was wearing was good or terrible.
“Will this do?” I echoed my thoughts aloud. Charity was sprawled on her double bed, which we had been sharing for the past five days. She was scrolling through her phone and eventually looked up listlessly at me.
“Well, it depends, what impression do you want to create?” she said and I stared at my reflection some more. What impression did I want to create?
Please give me a job so that I can rent a matchbox sized apartment in the bad side of town. If you like the way my jeans hug my ass, maybe you’ll like the way I can pour drinks into an endless stream of glasses that you won’t mind if I break. Maybe if you give me this job, I’ll be able to save enough money to make it through college.
“I think this needs a black shirt,” I said, instead of replying to Charity, and began to roll my t-shirt off. I was walking around in the hot-pink bra I had on and a pair of jeans that were the only decent ones I could find.
When I looked up at Charity, I noticed the look of sympathy she had in her eyes. I didn’t want her to be sympathetic. I wanted her to help me find a black shirt!
“I would have offered you one of mine, but you’ll float in it,” she said and smiled. She liked to self-depreciate herself. She was what…a size 16? She was big and curvy and had the kind of boobs I was jealous of, but she liked to call herself that ugly word… “fat”. To me, she was beautiful and needed to embrace her body more.
“Don’t be silly, Charity, you seriously need to stop talking about yourself that way,” I said, bending down to fling clothes out of boxes as I rummaged through them.
“I’m being honest. You’re skinny, I’m not…which means that my smallest black shirt…you know, the one whose buttons keep popping open when I wear it, will be five sizes too large for you,” she continued in that same tone and I rolled my eyes at her.
I still hadn’t found it.
I was hunched on the floor now, flinging clothes around me. I was going through box after box but there was no sign of a black shirt anywhere.
“What the hell am I going to wear? Everything is in boxes. I need to be appropriately dressed!” I barked at nobody and nothing in particular.
“Just calm down, Ava, we’ll find you something to wear,” Charity said and I shook my head, still frustrated with everyone and everything. I knew I had no reason to be taking it out on her, but I was trying so hard to keep my emotions in check and now things were beginning to get a little out of hand.
“What am I going to do?” I said, a tear rising in my voice and she jumped out of bed and came over to give me a hug.
“I’m gonna go check the laundry and see if I can find something for you to wear, okay?” she said and I nodded my head and threw her a smile. I was grateful for having a friend like her, and I’d stopped myself from erupting.
The only way was the way forward and the sooner I left my frustrations behind me, the easier it would be for me to move on.
Charity left the room in search of a black shirt or something appropriate that might fit me, and I remained on the floor, flicking through clothes and other possessions…most of which I couldn’t even remember buying.
It was strange to see that my whole life had fit into five boxes. Five perfectly square cardboard boxes were the sum total of my life. I was just glad I hadn’t adopted the puppy I was going to last Christmas, this whole ordeal would have been a million times more difficult if I was also responsible for another soul.
