“Okay, it’s time to check out your wardrobe.” Anneli leaves the sofa.
“Why?”
“Because we’re hitting the streets tonight whether you want to or not.” She sashays into my bedroom.
“Anneli,” I say on a long suffering sigh.
“Hush. We’re going, and that’s final.”
“You’re not the boss of me!” I yell.
She sticks her head out the door. “I’m totally the boss of you.”
It looks like the next chapter of my life is going to be really exciting.
“Can you at least pretend to be excited?” Anneli asks as she maneuvers her car through traffic.
I turn from watching the drunken tourists make spectacles of themselves to peer at her. “No.”
Once Anneli told my mom about her plans to take me to a bar tonight, they both nagged me nonstop until I agreed to go for at least an hour.
“If you think I’m going to let you stay cooped up in your apartment all the time, you’ve lost your mind. You live in the Sunshine State now, where all the beautiful people are.”
“I thought California is where all the beautiful people are.”
“All the plastic people you mean.”
“Are you sure about that? I spotted several women whose breasts looked hard as rocks.”
“Okay, maybe half the plastic people live here. But you, my dear, are among the beautiful, so you’re going to have to dress like it.”
“What’s wrong with my outfit?”
“Is that a trick question?”
“I’m very stylish.”
“Oh no, you poor foolish thing. You are absolutely clueless. Turn your attention back out the window.”
My eyes scan the crowd of people. “What am I looking for?”
“Do you see anyone dressed similarly to you at all?”
“Well, not everyone can pull this off.” I rub my hands down my big bright orange polo shirt and loose-fitting cargo shorts.
“Yep, including you. We’re going on a shopping spree as soon as possible.”
“I can’t afford it.”
“No worries. I’ll foot the bill. Pay me back when you can.”
“You’ve already done more than enough for me.”
I wouldn’t have been offered the health and physical education teacher position without the glowing recommendation she gave to the principal of Westbrook High School, who also happens to be her boyfriend’s sister. I’m taking on the responsibility of assistant track and field coach as well. I start in three weeks. The high school is almost an hour drive from the apartment. It took a while, but I finally graduated with a bachelor’s degree in the spring. Mom and I moved in with Dad’s mother after relocating back to Phoenix. I thought it was going to be a disaster since they never got along when my mom and dad were together, but they were cordial towards one another. By the time Sebastian was born, Dad had remarried. He chose to spend all his time and money on his new family, not offering me a cent for my college education—much to Mom’s and my grandmother’s dismay. I opted to take part-time classes at a nearby community college and worked to help my grandmother with monthly expenses so we wouldn’t be a financial burden on her. Mom felt useless and continued to apply for jobs, only to be terminated within a month from the few positions she was offered. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place. The state wouldn’t approve free healthcare or public assistance for her, ruling she was fit to work.
“It’s no problem, Cin—”
“I’m not a charity case, so would you drop it already?”
