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~Pink
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Chapter one
I calculated the amount…with the original twenty percent off and add the other fifty percent off clearance this dress would be…
“What? Seventy-five dollars?” I yelled a little too loud that the other customers looked at me. I flashed my eyes back to the tag. There was no possible way I could afford this without having to eat ramen for the next month. Yes, Eve, you’re that poor, I said to myself. I hung the dress back in its rightful place and strode out of the store. I didn’t even know why I decided to come to this mall. Every store that inhabited this place was ripping people off, a two hundred dollar shirt? What kind of people would buy that?
Oh…that’s right, those kinds of people who have money to waste. Maybe I should marry a rich man but then again rich men only married rich women and then their wallets go slapped together to form some mega-rich category. Those kinds of people who drive BMW’s and live in mansions with swimming pools and go overseas when they vacation. I wish I didn’t carry this debt with me. . .
My phone vibrated on my way to the parking lot and looked at screen. ‘Elizabeth Westmore’ was written in white. I shivered at the letters and tucked my phone back into my purse. I opened the door to my six year old Honda Civic and gunned the engine. I shifted to reverse and pulled back only to hit an oncoming car.
I instantly braked and blinked as the vibrations ran up and down my spine. Terror coursed through my veins as I realized what I had just done. I parked the car and looked back. It would have been nice if the car I hit was a shitty looking Chevy or maybe an ugly Ford but it was a shiny black SUV with silver trims. God, I was in for it. I thought about the car insurance plus the repair fees plus court and plus everything else I probably didn’t know about. I closed my eyes and contemplated my options carefully.
1. I cry and beg for forgiveness.
2. Faint in the car and argue that the impact had caused me to lose my consciousness. No matter how much that sounded like bullshit, I would have to put up with it.
3. I would ram his car right now, make a path and flee. I could go to Puerto Rico, no one ever checks there. They always think criminals flee to Canada first!
I watched as a tall man exited the car. He was wearing sunglasses and a thin bronze jacket that people only wore to look cool and not because it was cold outside. He walked up to my window and knocked. My hand went for the gear as option number three ran back into my head but I buried it away and finally rolled down the window.
“Miss, I think we have a problem here, can you please come out of your car?” he asked.
I studied his face because my father once told me you could tell what kind of person someone was if you looked into their eyes. I was planning on lying to him but that depended on his eyes. But unfortunately I couldn’t tell anything from pitch black. He had some nice facial features, besides his hair. His hair looked like it had been struck by lightning or he had just woke up. I noticed a small mole underneath his lip and another on his neck. If I wasn’t totally freaked out about my bank account I would have thought he was cute but in this circumstance he looked like the Devil to me.
I stepped out and faced the damage; obviously it was my fault since I hadn’t checked my mirrors. I glanced at the symbol in front of his car and dang, Mercedes. I hadn’t even realized how bad I had hit his car, it had a scratch running up the bottom bumper and it even had a dent at the corner. The left headlight had also been cracked.
“I’m going to call my Insurance agency,” he said, taking out his iPhone.
My eyes widened and reached for his hand without thinking. He gasped and even with the glasses I could tell he was looking at me as if I was crazy.
“Please, don’t call!” I dropped to my knees. My aim was to be dramatic and embarrassing, people naturally didn’t like to be next to someone who created big scenes in the middle of a mall’s parking lot.
“What?”
“I have six children! My babies!”
***
I curled the Chinese noodles around my fork, unenthusiastically. My phone rang and I picked it up. “Hello?”
“Eve?” The venomous voice of Elizabeth rung on the other line.
“Oh…yeah,” I answered, shocked. Why didn’t I look at the caller ID? I didn’t have this month’s payment with me.
“I didn’t receive this month’s payment. Do you perhaps not have it with you?” She asked, a smile behind her words.
“Oh no, it’s not that,” I answered hastily. “I’m just running late. I’ll have it to you by next week, I promise. Just give me one more week.”
“Well I trust you with that. I know you don’t want to lose the deed to your father’s house.”
Bitch. My hand fisted underneath the table and I felt like calling her bad names and swear words but I held back. “Thank you,” I said instead.
Alice, my best friend, had slid into the seat in front of me and pointed to the phone. “Who was that?”
“Elizabeth.”
“You know I could give you money this time? You were fired twice already and…”
“Alice. I don’t want your money. This is my debt and I’ll pay it off with my hands, alright?
“But as I friend, I can’t just watch you suffer. You’d help me if I was in your place so why won’t you let me help you?” She reached over and took a bite from my noodle dish. She licked her lips at the taste and she reached back for another bite.
“Because you’re saving money for your wedding and I don’t want to get in-between that. Plus I’ll figure the whole thing out, okay? I told her to give me another week.”
Alice sighed, dropping her shoulders. Alice had planned to get married by the end of the year, to her boss. He was the owner of some small store and he wasn’t that rich but she loved him so I didn’t care much. Alice had always wanted one of those fairy tale weddings so she’s been saving up for her wedding day since she started high school. I really didn’t want to put my hand in that savings account, nor did I want that pure money to be put into my tainted hands.
Money is clean, its people’s hands that make it dirty.
“So did you buy anything?” she asked while pointing to her own bag with the word ‘Macy’s’ on it.
“Uh…no,” I smiled. “I don’t think I want to go to the High School reunion.”
“What?” she spit some of the noodles on my face when she shrieked and I quickly wiped it off my cheek. Gross.
“You have to go!” She whined. “My fiancé’s going out of town so he can’t come but you have to come with me. Anyway it’s the last time you can see all our old friends again.”
“But-”
“No buts. I’m picking you up at six tomorrow. Wear a dress or come in slacks, I don’t care.”
I sighed. “Hey, you know what happened today?” I asked, leaning over.
“Hmm?”
“I hit a Mercedes in the Mall parking lot.”
“You did what?!” She shrieked. “Are you insane? You can barely afford your own groceries, why are you going around hitting expensive cars?”
“I didn’t do it on purpose, stupid,” I retorted.
“Well, what happened?”
“I told the driver I had six kids and he let me off the hook.”
She barked a laugh. “You did what? How did you even pull that off?”
I grinned. “I just made a scene.”
Alice shook her head. “Darling, I don’t know how you’re able to keep your cool after embarrassing yourself over and over again. You did it in High School, you do it now and I’m pretty sure you’ll create a scene the day you die too.”
“Well, that’s a nice thing to say,” I muttered.
She laughed. “Oh, you know I love you!”
***
I looked in the mirror and combed back my brown hair into a bun and clipped in a silver flower that I brought from the dollar store. I even re-tailored my prom outfit to fit the 2010 trend. This way was a lot cheaper than buying that seventy-five dollar dress, I spent less than half of that. The soft pink reminded me of flower petals and my silver jewelry dangled elegantly down my ears and neck. Wow, I was pretty glad that the money my father borrowed from Elizabeth paid for something.
The door bell rang and it was Alice, in a very sexy looking black mini dress with shiny black heels to match. I gave her smile and we were off. Once we arrived at our old school, I caught another Mercedes SUV in the parking lot and I shivered. We went straight to the girl’s bathroom and reapplied our make-up. Just in case.
“Wow, Eve, you looked cute. But I can’t help but say I’ve seen this dress before…” Alice said, tapping her lip.
“Yeah, it’s my old prom dress, remember?”
“Oh my god! I do remember. Hah, I can’t believe you didn’t buy a new dress,” she laughed. “But this one looks good too. It’s a good thing you went to fashion school. At least it paid for something,” she said sourly. “I can’t believe you still fit in your prom dress…I’m too fat,” she muttered under her breath.
“Actually…I altered it a bit,” I confessed even though I didn’t want to.
She laughed. “Come on, sweetheart.” She pulled me out the bathroom and we walked into the gym. The gym was decorated in a sweet elegant theme with maroon colors and the tables were set evenly with light colored drapes and nice looking chairs they probably brought out only once a year.
We walked over to the drink table and looked around at the few familiar faces that we recognized. There was Tim the nose picker and Alissa the whore. Mac, he always cried in the boy’s bathroom. There was fat Jessica, we used to be friends in Middle School but when I made new friends in High School, they didn’t like her because she was an outcast. Although even if they didn’t like me seeing her or talking to her, I never really ignored her presence.
I locked eyes with her and she smiled, giving me a small wave. I waved back and she returned to her other friends.
“Ew, look. It’s Brittney,” Alice pointed.
A tall blonde was standing near the cake table with another guy. She had on a white thin dress that cried to be ripped off, it was so revealing! She had platform heels and sparkling jewelry that shined at every damn angle. Brittney was that two-face girl who said rosy words to you but her thoughts were thorns. That bitch stole my first boyfriend and smiled at me and told me she was sorry. I think I remember that she cried a little too. What a fake.
“Hey…isn’t that Pace Elwood?” Alice asked, now pointed to the guy she was standing with.
I stared at him. Tall, dark fuzzy hair and a black suit that said “I’m rich and I know how to dress”.
Pace was one of the norms’. He was just so regular you forgot he even existed. I had him in my science class and I know for a fact he was a genius, well in my mind anyway. There wasn’t much to say about Pace back then but I remember he had moles on his face. There was one under his lip and another on his neck and cheek bone… wait…
Alice elbowed me. “That is Pace! See those moles? Oh my god, he’s such a hottie now,” Alice squealed. I swear she almost started drooling on my shoulder.
“Quiet, Alice,” I hissed. I took another peek and then it hit me like a freaking rock in the face. Mr. Mercedes was…Pace. I grabbed Alice’s arm with full strength.
“Ow, what?” She squeaked.
I leaned in. “Pace…Mercedes…Pace,” I whispered, keeping my eyes on him.
“What!” her eyes shot open and she began shaking her head. “And you told him you had six kids? Oh shit, you’re in for it,” she laughed. “How do you plan on explaining?”
“I’m not,” I retorted, facing the other way. There only two options on my mind right now.
1. If Pace recognized me as the crazy chick who hit his car, I would have to explain that I lied and by the looks of it, I’d have to pay for a least half the damage. A Mercedes vehicle wasn’t a cheap fix.
2. Or I would have to go with my lie and confess that I have six imaginary kids waiting for me at home and that, I really didn’t want to do.
There was only one thing to do if I wanted to avoid both outcomes. Escape.
“I have to get out of here,” I whispered.
“Wait, you can’t just leave me by myself!” Alice hissed.
“Look, this is the only option I have, I can’t just go around and tell-”
Someone tapped my shoulder and Alice held a frozen look. I turned around to see Brittney and Pace standing behind me with wide smiles.
“I knew it was you!” Brittney cooed, giving me a big hug. I felt her breast stab my chest and I cringed. I only hoped they were fake.
“Oh…hey,” I tried to sound delighted.
“It’s been a long time, how have you been?” She asked with wide eyes. Did she honestly think after all this time we could still be friends? I hated this girl even if we were the only two humans left on earth I wouldn’t talk to her. I’d probably knife her and die alone.
Pace stared at me and I tried to hide my face from him by looking the other way. Please, I begged, you don’t know me. You don’t know me. Better, you don’t even remember who I am.
