I grimaced as I stepped outside. We were in the middle of a heat wave that made the Nevada night unbearably oppressive. I would've been more comfortable in shorts or a skirt rather than jeans, but I'd learned early on that coming out of a strip club wearing something even the slightest bit revealing invited more comments from the men going in and out. With my hair in a sloppy ponytail, wearing regular clothes, they rarely noticed me, too intent on whatever they wanted to see or had already seen.
I walked briskly down the brightly lit street, heading towards the apartment I called home.
Home.
Until two years ago, home had been Philadelphia, the city where I'd been born and raised. The city where I buried my mother after four years of illness. I'd waited tables for seven years, four during high school, three after, saving every penny I could to pay for dance school. Two years into my mom's illness, the job that had provided her health insurance finally figured out a way to fire her and my savings had been all we'd had to live on.
I'd moved out here after she died, thinking a fresh start on the other side of the continent would be a good idea. I should have known better, nothing in my life had ever worked out and this grand plan wasn’t an exception. So here I am, stuck, barely making rent, much less earning enough money to move back, even if I'd wanted to.
And I didn't want to. Philadelphia may have held a lot of great memories, but it also held painful ones.
I was almost to my place when my phone rang. I sighed, hoping it wasn't the club calling me to work a double. Maybe it was just my roommate, Rosa, letting me know she wouldn't be home tonight. It wasn't either one.
“Anastascia?” I didn't try to hide my surprise. Anastascia Galaway had been my best friend in Philadelphia, my only school friend really. She was the only person from back East who bothered to keep in touch since I moved. She'd also been the one who'd given me strength during those four terrible years. Especially the last few, even worse, weeks.
“Hey there, stranger!” Chipper as always. “I just got back from Paris and had to give you a call.”
If it had been anyone else casually dropping that they'd been in Paris, I'd have said they were bragging. Anastascia wasn't like that though. She'd never been like that. My first day at St. George's, a very expensive private high school in the Chestnut Hill district, had been miserable up to my last class when I'd met her. I'd endured the whispers and the not-so-subtle stares, refusing to give any of them the satisfaction of seeing me cry. By the end of the day, I'd been ready to crack when a stuck-up blonde bitch made some comment about taking out the trash. I’d almost lost it when this tall girl with caramel-colored skin and wild black curls came over and saved my life.
“You sound like you enjoyed your trip,” I said, snapping back to the present.
“It was amazing. You really have to come with me to Europe sometime.”
“Sure, as soon as pigs fly and hell freezes over,” I replied. “I can barely afford my rent.” I changed the subject before she could offer to loan me money. I loved that she was generous, but I hated feeling like I owed anyone anything. “What are you doing up this late?”
“Still on French time, darling,” she said. “I'm a combined seven hours ahead, which means it's almost eight in the morning for me.”
I laughed. “All right then. What are you doing calling me at eight in the morning?”
“I just wanted to make sure you were planning on coming to our reunion this weekend.”
I sighed. I'd completely forgotten about it. No, that was a lie. I'd made myself forget about it. “Why would I want to go back to a place where no one wanted me in the first place?”
“Come on, Piper, it'll be fun,” she begged. I could almost see the pouty look she'd be trying to use to guilt me into coming. “We can see who didn't lose the freshman fifteen and who's already divorced.”
“You can do that reading the society section,” I reminded her.
“Well, you don't have a choice,” she said.
“Excuse me?”
“I've already bought you a ticket. You leave Friday evening and I'll pick you up at the airport.”
I stopped in front of my apartment building. “What? No. But,” I stammered, then sighed. “I don't really have a choice, do I?”
“Nope.”
Even as much as I hated the idea of seeing all those people again, I couldn't help but smile at the thought of seeing my best friend. I missed her terribly, the one person in the world who really cared for me. I realized I would ensure just about anything to see her again.
Plus, it wouldn't be hard to get a few days off. I could pull some double shifts to cover the missed time. Before thinking too much about it, I agreed, “I'll be there.”