Yeah, our small three-bedroom place wasn’t anything special. There were water stains on some of the ceiling tiles in the kitchen, and our furniture—with the exception of Kayla’s pricy stuff—was secondhand, but it was our home. We lived close to school, within walking distance on a good day, and that saved me much needed wear and tear on my car.
Unlike Kayla, I didn’t grow up with money. Four kids in the house meant things were always tight and both my parents had to work. We struggled, even with help from my maternal grandma watching us after school, and there was no way they could afford college for us. My abuela had offered to put a mortgage on her house to pay for our schooling, but none of us had taken her up on her offer. Like my mom often said, we might not be rolling in money, but we had our pride. We all paid for our own schooling in one way or another. While it did give me the gift of feeling of being independent, some days I really, really wished I had a family that could help me out financially.
Especially when I realized with growing horror that we would be expected to come up with three months back rent, and the next three months paid in advance.
Even if I drained my bank account, it wouldn’t be enough.
A tremor went through me and the threat of overwhelmed tears burned my nose.
Hannah, my best friend in the world and second roommate, stared at me with shock as I paced. She was dressed to the nines in a cute pink and white shorts and tank top set that no doubt cost a small fortune, while I was sweaty and stressed in my polyester clearance rack pants that didn’t fit right, and fake silk shell top. While Hannah had smooth, dark hair that flowed like silk, my crazy ass curls had decided to frizz out. I’d given up on taming them and had thrown my hair into a sloppy bun instead.
Hannah’s very, very rich and very, very devoted boyfriend had given her those clothes, and I had no doubt he’d help us out with rent if we asked. After all, Leo Brass worked for one of the biggest business conglomerates in the western United States as a security expert, and he was rolling in cash. A pang of worry went through me as I wondered if Leo would use us getting evicted as an excuse for Hannah to move in with him. I was woman enough to admit that I was jealous of their relationship. Not only did it take away my best friend since kindergarten for increasingly long amounts of time, I also had to watch them fall deeply in love. The epic kind of love that they wrote fairytales about, while my dating history was craptastic at best.
The door to our apartment swung open, and Kayla stumbled through wearing a sexy little glittery emerald green dress and nude high heels. While the dress and heels were nice, Kayla was a hot mess. Her normally razor sharp black bob was totally fucked up in the back and pieces stuck to her sweat soaked forehead. She’d lost so much weight that the thigh gap between her legs had become the Grand Canyon, and when her bleary eyes focused on us, I noticed her pupils were all blown out. As if her stumbling home high as a kite wasn’t bad enough, three men followed her inside and they were dangerous. The hair on my arms stood up, and I suddenly found myself struggling to catch my breath. The men were all in their late thirties and looked like they’d lived hard lives.
The one in the middle smiled, and gold winked from a false tooth as he smirked. His grey peppered brown hair was swept back with a ton of gel, and he just reeked of sleaziness. More gold adorned his thick neck, and he wore rings on every one of his fingers—big, diamond encrusted, gaudy ones that sparkled in the light. I’d never seen a man who wore so much jewelry before—outside of a movie, that is—and the guys in the movies who wore rings like that were always big, big trouble. I felt a sharp, paralyzing fear like nothing I’d experienced before sending my stomach plummeting to my feet. Some primitive fight or flight instinct kicked in telling me to run, that danger was near.
For a long, scary moment there was complete silence. Well, other than our neighbor above us playing screaming heavy metal loud enough that I could easily make out the words. They studied us with the focused intent of true predators, and I tried to keep from freaking out.
I’ve always been proud of the way I stood up for myself, how I kept my cool in tense situations, but these men terrified me into silence. I froze, hoping to avoid drawing their attention as they tried to get Hannah and myself to do drugs with them. The more we put them off, the more insistent they became, and my heart raced with fear as they closed in on us.