Paige
“I got this for you,” Megan bubbles as I walk into the living room.
She holds out a shoe-box-sized present to me and a bright smile lifts her face.
“Oh Megan, you didn’t have to get me a present,” I answer. My heart squeezes, but I push my nerves away to show my best friend some gratitude.
“It’s a sort of pick-me-up present, something for luck and peace of mind tonight.” She tucks a lock of her dark blond hair over her shoulder as she sits on the sofa and hugs her knees to her chest.
“Thank you. You’re the best. I think peace of mind is a thing I would love to have right now,” I reply.
Although her smile gives me some reassurance, I know she knows I’m dreading tonight.
I may act like I’m fine, but there is no way in this universe that I would be okay with dancing naked in the Playboy Lounge at The Dark Odyssey, a sex club.
Nope, not at all. I can smile all I want, and I can fool myself into thinking it’s fine because there are other girls like me, but it’s not okay.
Megan knows that, even though she’s worked at The Dark Odyssey now for the last two years and was a weekly patron prior to her employment.
It’s the eve of the first day of our senior year, and my first night on the job at the infamous sex club designed for those with wild, dark fantasies and deep pockets.
I have an hour before I have to go.
I open the box and when my gaze lands on a pair of black Louboutin’s with little diamantes on the side my eyes turn to saucers. My jaw drops wide open as I try to speak, shock filling me.
“Megan, what the hell? How did you get these?” I gasp.
“I know you. You hate that the situation has come to this. If I could help more, I would. So, as your best friend, it’s my job to find another way. This is it. Give a girl the right pair of shoes, and she'll conquer the world.”
I can’t hold back the little giggle that falls from my lips, or the tear that drifts down my cheek. That’s a Marilyn Monroe quote. We both love her.
“Oh, Megan, thank you so much,” I say moving closer to give her a hug. I’m in complete awe. I’ve never had anyone do something so nice for me.
“You’re welcome. I thought that maybe if you had some classy shoes to wear, you’d feel better about later.”
“These are the classiest shoes I’ve ever worn.” I would never be able to afford shoes like this, even when things were better with me. Now things are bad, and I’m broker than broke, shoes like these only exist in my dreams.
“Well, believe me when I say you’ll feel better when you wear them.”
“Thank you.” I bite the inside of my lip and try not to cry anymore.
“You’ll be okay, Paige,” she promises.
“Thanks, I’m trying.”
“I know… I can see.”
I knew on the first day of freshman year that this girl would become my lifelong friend. We just shared too many similarities.
We’re both twenty-four, share the same likes when it comes to food, clothes, and makeup, and we both started college here at Raventhorne University two years later than everyone else because life threw the worse shit imaginable our way.
For me, it was my mother being diagnosed with coronary heart disease just before I graduated high school.
For her, it was having nothing left to her name when her evil stepfather stole her inheritance after her mother died, then disappearing without a trace.
We’ve been friends for the last three years, and we’ve both supported each other through that time. We’ve roomed together here on campus at Raventhorne for two of those years. Next year, if all goes well, we’ll be in grad school and our lives will change. She’s doing psychology, and I’m studying law. She hopes to move across the country to L.A to continue her studies and I want to stay here in Chicago.
I should imagine, though, that we’ll be the kind of friends who stay together for life no matter what happens or where or careers take us.