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CHAPTER TWO
Susie
My eyes took in the bright neon sign.
The Pink Flamingo,it screamed. And just to be clear, the words Girls! Girls! Girls! flashed below an outline of a flamingo, in case you thought they were actually a pet store.
This isn’t where I want to be, but it’s where I’ve ended up. Because after the horrible encounters with Chester and Cheryl, I dialed up my best friend from back home, Mary-Kate.
“Heya Suse,” my buddy burbled. “You just caught me baking a pie. You know there was a bonanza of apples this season, and after we got back from the orchard, we had so many bags that it was crazy. But when God gives you apples, make apple pie!” she squealed happily. “Get down, Buster! I said, get down! No apple pie for you,” she scolded.
I smiled and my heart flipped over a bit. Suddenly, homesickness washed over me, and my mouth curled downwards involuntarily.
“Mary-Kate,” I said with a waver to my voice. “I want to come back.”
“Down, Buster!” called my friend again. “No pastry dough for you either. Down, down!”
I choked back a silent sob because I could see what was happening in my mind’s eye. Mary-Kate was engaged to her high school boyfriend Darnell even before we graduated. And two days after we got our diplomas, Mary and Darnell tied the knot at her parents’ house with all of us watching. It was really sweet, actually. My friend’s dream is to be a homemaker, and she was happily ensconced in her kitchen now with her dog and the yummy smells of home-cooking. It was a far cry from where I found myself, alone and miserable in a shabby apartment. A painful lump rose in my throat.
But Mary-Kate and I have been friends since first grade, and she could sense my distress from thousands of miles away.
“Why, what’s wrong, Suse?” she asked, the snuffling of Buster still audible in the background. “What’s got you down? This is your first day in the city. It can’t be that bad.”
But I swallowed again painfully, tears springing to my eyes.
“It is that bad,” I choked over the phone. “The landlord wants an extra thousand dollars in rent, and I don’t have it.”
“What?” asked Mary-Kate disbelievingly. “Didn’t you already pay that company a thousand bucks upfront? Now they want even more, on top of that?”
I nodded again even though she couldn’t see.
“Yeah, it’s this weird thing called key money,” I said pitifully. “And I have to have it by tomorrow afternoon.”
I could almost hear my friend’s thoughts. I’m so glad I never wanted to go to the big city. I’m so glad that it’s Susie having these problems, and not me.
But Mary-Kate is kind and would never voice feelings like that aloud. So my buddy shuffled into the bathroom and closed the door, locking Buster outside.
“What are you going to do?” she asked in a hushed voice.
A small sob escaped from my throat again.
“I don’t know,” was my croaky reply. “I don’t have the money. Maybe I should just get on a Greyhound and come home now. It’s what I deserve, isn’t it?” I asked ruefully through the tears.
Because the good citizens of Littleton would laugh if I came back so soon with my tail between my legs. After all, I was the golden girl of the local high school. Not only did I graduate with straight A’s, but I was also elected Homecoming Queen and Class Vice President. I didn’t ask for these things, believe it or not. They just happened to me because I was there.
But success breeds jealousy, no matter where you are. So if I came home licking my wounds and looking worse for the wear, people would coo with sympathy but more than a few bitches would also be secretly happy. Looks like someone got taken down a couple notches, they’d whisper. Seems that someone wasn’t able to make it in the big city, hmmm?
I didn’t want that to happen, especially not so soon after leaving. But at the same time, what were my options? It was better to go back home than to stay at a homeless shelter or out on the streets.
But fortunately, Mary-Kate still had her wits about her.
“How about your brother Oscar?” she suggested. “Wasn’t he living somewhere out there too?”
I sighed.
“I haven’t seen Oscar in years. In fact, no one has seen Oscar in years. You know that once he left Littleton, it was see ya, peace out. He wanted nothing to do with us then or now.”
Because it was true. While I rebelled against our small-town upbringing by excelling, Oscar chose a different path. My older brother became a delinquent, and the minute he turned eighteen, he high-tailed it out of the Midwest and disappeared to parts unknown.
