The truth is I didn't even really want to leave. I know a lot of people can't wait to leave home but I loved it there. My parents were great and sure there were times when things got a bit strained but that's the same in any family and it doesn't mean that things are bad, it's just the natural way of people. You coop anyone up for too long and they're going to get on each other’s nerves. My parents always gave me everything I wanted and they set me up well for life. My mom was the best cook as well and the thing I miss most about home is her cooking. But I mean, I could have stayed there and been quite happy. It's nice to have people around that care about you, to have a bit of a safety net.
But when Bea said she was leaving I knew I had to go. We were more than friends, more than sisters, and I knew that our destinies were tied together. I couldn't imagine life without her and when she set her mind on something she could not be shaken from her focus, so although it wasn't ideal for me I found myself packing my things and trying to stop myself from crying whenever I was around my mother, because she was always one second away from collapsing in tears. I often wonder whether Bea even bothered to give her parents warning that she was moving out. It wouldn't have surprised me had she just up and left one day, and not even bothered to leave a note. She was like that, Bea, sometimes she could be so selfish and single-minded that she tore a destructive path through everything, like in senior year when casually mentioned that Mel had been cheating on Chad with his brother. Mel was furious, and Bea didn't even hate her or anything, she just did it because she said she was bored.
Sometimes I thought that was Bea's favorite word. She always said that she was bored and this led to her having a myriad of careers. She started off working as a waitress in a coffee shop but ended that when she said the manager tried to harass her, and that made me gag when I thought about anyone having to do anything with his greasy palms. Then she got involved in helping a political campaign, just working in the office. I never understood why because Bea never really talked about politics. I'm not sure what she believed in, since she never seemed that bothered by anything.
Everyone's the same, they just wear different colors. What's really changed? Really? As soon as anyone gets in office they have to undo what the previous President did and then the person who follows them undoes whatever they do. Better to just not worry about it. It's easier on the mind.
I kind of hoped that working in the environment would have a positive effect on her, but in the next campaign she got a job working for the rival. Go figure. What else did she do? Oh yeah, she worked at the cinema, which was great because she got me in to see loads of films for free, then she tried her hand in an office but that didn't even last a day. Bea wasn't good with rules. She was a free spirit in the truest sense of the word, and any authority figure is going to have their work cut out for them if they try to get her to do anything she doesn't want to do.
But Bea never had a direction in life and again it contrasted how opposite we were. I knew exactly what I want to be and I had managed to work my way up the fashion industry to where I was the assistant to the editor at a prestigious magazine. Bea wasn't impressed, and thought that I was setting feminism back fifty years by working in the fashion industry. She thought it was too narrow-minded of me to be pigeonholed in that industry, but that was just the way she was and I knew she didn't mean it personally. I think part of it was borne from the frustration that she didn't know what she wanted to do. I think she always thought that I had it easy, and that things just worked out for me.
You're the pretty one, all you have to do is flash those baby blues and people melt.
What she neglected to remember was that she was just as pretty as me, she purposefully gave herself a look that was confrontational. I guess from this picture you probably think that she's a nasty girl without any redeeming features, and you're probably wondering why I put up with her for so long, and how I could even love her. I've often noticed that love is complex and takes on many forms. There have been so many words and songs and movies written about it that I thought it was going to be difficult to sum it up, but really it's quite simple. Love doesn't have to be complex all the time. Sometimes it's a self-evident truth and that's the way it was with us. You see, for all of her faults, and like anyone she had plenty, Bea was loyal, and when she took you under her wing she would make sure that nothing ever harmed you. She protected me, and she cared for me. She was there for me when I needed her, and no matter what she did to anyone else or how she behaved I knew that she would always have my back.
Chapter 2
Living with Bea is mostly fun, but there are periods when it's difficult. Sometimes she'll go off for days and I won't hear anything from her until she gets back. The first time she did it I blew up at her but it rolled off her back so there was no point me getting angry again. I just had to deal with it. That's what you had to do with Bea, change yourself to accommodate her, because she was going to do anything she wanted. Sometimes she would go off with her latest boyfriend. Her relationships never lasted that long, and I don't think she was ever truly invested in any of them. Like everything else, it was just something to do, something to keep her occupied. If I had my way she would have been more... selective in her choice of lovers, as I don't think many of the men were worthy of her. Sometimes I could hear them in the other room, the heavy moans and the grunts. The walls shuddered as the bed shook and then the thunderclap happened as whichever man it was at the time released his fury within. The strange thing is, I never heard Bea scream in ecstasy. Not with the men anyway. When she was alone in her room she did, and I wondered who she thought of when she was pleasuring herself. But whenever I heard her soft moans crack through the silence my own hand slipped in between my thighs and I felt the sweet pleasure overwhelm me.