“Fine. I’ll put her information into the computer and have her called in the morning.”
“I want to call her,” I said, surprising her. “Myself.”
“If you can remember,” she smirked at me, as she finished putting everything away, and then stood up. Clad in leggings, with her red hair piled on top of her head, she looked every bit the successful dancer.
“You going somewhere?” I asked, feeling giddy with drink. “I thought I’d take you out to paint the town red.”
“Oh I see,” she replied, smirking, probably at the state I was descending into. “Literally?”
God, she was beautiful. Despite it all, there was something in me that knew that if she wasn’t stunning, I probably wouldn’t keep her around. That’s what you get when you spend years in Hollywood, frolicking with only the beautiful people.
Mind you, that’s also what got me into this mess to begin with. But tonight … tonight I didn’t care. We had worked hard for months to pull these auditions together, and now it was over, the choice was made, and we could relax.
“Literally,” I replied, reaching for one more drink. “I want to take my time tonight, find the best of the best. Isn’t that what we deserve, after all? So hold my hand, hold me back …” I started singing and she laughed, heading for the bathroom.
“Ok, hold on, let me try to make myself presentable,” she replied. “I have an idea, there’s a carnival about two towns over, small little place, but will be populated with tourists. Everyone will be dressed up, and no one will notice a little chaos…”
“This is why I love you,” I said, deciding to make the shot a double. After all, if it was going to be a long drive, I needed to be fortified.
CHAPTER 5: AMY
I knew the bills were overdue, but I had no way to know how badly they were until I woke up the next morning and found that my cell phone was not charged, nor did the lights in my room turn on.
“Dad?” I called, hearing his voice in the kitchen as I headed down the stairs. He was on our house phone, furiously arguing and scribbling something onto the back of an envelope. I headed to the stove and switched it on, hoping to make breakfast, but my hopes were quickly killed when the red light remained unlit.
Finally, my father hung up, continuing to write things on the back of the envelope.
“What’s going on?” I asked finally, and he sighed.
“We’re just…a little behind on things, Amy, that’s all. I had the bills set up to be withdrawn automatically, so I wouldn’t forget them…but it appears…”
“We don’t have enough money,” I filled in. “It’s not surprising. You’re missing a week or more of pay.”
“Thank you for reminding me,” he glared at me, as I sat at the table, mentally calculating how much we would be missing.
“Dad, let me come today.”
“No,” he said, sharply. “You missed yesterday, and that was enough. You should stay home, Amy and…”
“Work with an abacus and a pencil and paper?” I asked, unimpressed. “My computer won’t turn on, there’s no heat in the house, it’s Tuesday, so the library is closed, and I can’t even use my cell phone.” I knew I had a point, so I continued to talk. “So unless I can call into an online school and get all the information faxed over…without a fax machine…its better that I come with you. I can do homework on the school’s wireless, and work for half a day, make up the missing wages faster.”#p#分页标题#e#