Half Of Rhea

The Dress

s**t. She started walking back in the direction towards her home. She was roughly 9 kilometres away from her house. Not too far that it was unreachable on foot, but far enough to f**k with her day. Sighing, she looked at her phone wondering if there was anyone, who wasn't busy, that could pick her up. Scrolling through her recent messages..... hmmm she glanced over her contacts.... her eyes landed upon a trusted name, Sage. 

The dial tone connected and on the fourth ring, she heard a familiar voice .

"You kids better shut the f**k up... Rhea-rhea! my mate!..... whats happening?" Sage's chilled, casual tone, always had a habit of putting her mind at ease, even in the most dire situations. 

"Oh hey girlfriend, nah not much, um....I was just wondering what you're up to... are you busy right now?" There was a slightly higher inflection in her voice, towards the end of that sentence. She couldn't hide her anxiety even though, she was trying hard, not to sound desperate.

"Me and the kids are just at home doing nothing girl...... what do you need?"

"Umm... can you please come pick me up friend?"....

....."What did that fucker do?" she stated... Her tone going deeper.

"Ugh, you know what he's like Sagey..... I swear this is getting worse by the day, I'll explain when I see you.... I'm just down the road from the kindy... You'll find me... Dressed like I'm heading up the mountain in the middle of winter, hahaha"

"hmmm figures... on my way, gimme 5 minutes." She hung up the phone.

 She was always quick to pick up on any confrontation that had occurred between Rhea and Zane. Determined and ready, there was never any hesitation, from her friend to help, whenever she needed it. Sage knew, the ins and outs, of Rhea's relationship and was well informed and opinionated on the subject. Some may even call her an expert on the pair. Although they had been introduced through Zane, she had been a steadfast and loyal friend to Rhea, from the moment they met. 

Sage pulled up along the road and Rhea hopped up from the gutter and dusted her jeans off. Relief washed over her as she got out of the hot sun. It had been beaming down and reflecting heat off the concrete. The lack of shade, making her armpits sweat, and her jacket cling to her tightly. She regretted that damn high necked, black top even more now. As she got in the passenger side, all these little arms started hugging her and the seat, from behind. 

"Hi Aunty!"... "Yayyy... Aunty Rhea-Rhea".... "We haven't seen you in ages! Where have you been?" 

There were hoots and acknowledgements and pouts, as three beautiful, little people tried their hardest to get her attention from the back of the van. 

"Sit back in ya f*****g seats!... My godddd... These bloody kids... Do my freaking head in."

It wasn't uncommon for her to speak to her kids like that, but she was genuinely, one of the most loving mum's Rhea had ever had the pleasure of being around. Those kids wanted for nothing and Rhea often looked up to Sage's no frills, honest style of parenting. She pushed her dramatically oversized, black sunglasses up, on to her fluffy, curly, black hair and looked straight into Rhea's eyes. 

....."So."

Rhea huffed and turned back to the road, avoiding Sage's intense stare.  

"He kicked me out of the car. I have to go get groceries. Sonson has to go to the doctors after kindy and I have no ride" she stated.

"f**k this... you know you deserve better ay?"

"I know... I guess.... I dunno... I just keep hoping things will get better." Rhea felt guilty admitting that. She looked down at her shoes and tried to fight back the swelling tears, that were threatening to drop at the corner of her eyes.

"Well at least you know." She shrugged and because she never liked to press Rhea too hard and upset her, she let it go.

"No point in reiterating the same s**t, over and over again to you, ay girl?"

Rhea was grateful that she knew her so well, and she nodded in agreement, as her eyes started drying out.

"Now let us go have a f*****g drink and then do groceries and all the other s**t you have to do." She smiled and popped her glasses back on resolute, turning towards the road and taking off.

"It's too early Sage and you have the kids..." Rhea, half giggling and half questioning her, doubtfully.

Sage waved her hand in the air dismissively, "It's 5pm somewhere in the world Rhea-Rhea and I'll drop these little mongrels off to their nan."

Sly smiles crept across both of their faces, as they looked at each other. She was determined to not let this day be ruined and she checked her banking app, to see how much money she had. 

"hmmm... I don't know if I can go for a drink mate, I don't have a lot of money to waste." 

"I've got you sis." She looked at Rhea again, this time an even sneakier grin on her face, as Rhea looked slightly puzzled, waiting for her to elaborate.

"I went and jammed the pokies before picking the kids up from their fathers and won 800 bucks."

"Nooooo".... Rheas mouth was left open, with no sound coming out anymore.

"mmmhmmm. So let's not worry about that, we got cash-money baby." 

"Well then"... Rhea sighed. Taking her time to think about it, purposefully leaving Sage waiting in anticipation.

 The potential for this day, had definitely increased ten-fold. Was she going to let Zane's tantrum stand in her way? There was that little niggling voice, in the back of her head however, reminding her that his wrath hadn't left him and leaving for the day with Sage, was going to make it a lot worse. She counter-argued, normal people don't just leave someone on the side of the road and then get angry if they make alternative arrangements and end up having a good time. Hmmm but Zane is not a normal person. She held the internal argument with herself and came to a decision. To hell with it. She'll accept the consequences later. 

..... "What are we waiting for?" She smiled. That was all she needed to say and Sage raised a knowing eyebrow at her, with a half smirk.

They stopped at Sage's mum's and the kids hauled ass out of the van and ran off inside the house. Excitedly yelling for their Nan.

"Stay here, I won't be a minute mate."

Sage followed her kids up the driveway and disappeared into the house. After about two minutes she stood in the doorway waving at Rhea.

"Come here!"

"Why?" she poked her head out of the car window.

"Just shut up b***h and come here!"

Rhea got out of the car and walked into the house. There sitting at the table was Sage's Mama. She was an alternative, spiritual lady. The house smelled of incense and Lavender, there were crystals and wind chimes. Walls were covered in inspirational quotes and dream catchers. She smiled at Rhea.

"Hello sweetness, how are you?"

She had a beautiful soft voice that matched her flowing blonde and purple hair.

"I'm good thanks Ma." From the first day she met her, she had insisted on Rhea calling her Ma too. It became so normal, like second nature. 

Ma relit the half cigarette, that was hanging from her lips. She just nodded solemnly and Rhea knew, Sage must have filled her in on why she was there.

"Well baby, I have something for you..... It's over there in that bag." She pointed to a black bag on her couch and Sage clapped her hands excitedly.

"I figured since it's a hot day and you're rugged up like it's the middle of frigging winter, you might as well pop it on now."

Rhea opened the bag and inside was the most beautiful, casual, white, summer dress. It had spaghetti straps, hugged at the waist and was slightly low-cut, revealing a little but not too much cleavage. It flared out to below the knee and was made of the softest, linen like material.

"It's stunning".... she breathed out slowly.

"Go try it on baby." Ma waved at her to go into one of the bedrooms. 

She went and put it on, and when she emerged, Sage started clapping excitedly. 

"f**k Yeah! Oh my god yes! you look beautiful."

Rhea went slightly red in her cheeks and mumbled a thank you. She felt weird, she hadn't looked this good since she put on weight. And she said so, to the two lovely ladies who were at the table. 

"Nonsense." said Ma, "You were too tiny before you had Laken anyway." 

"Girl you just got an even more juicy ass and bigger boobs... that's about it."

Rhea giggled at these two awesome ladies. How can two people make someone feel so much better? Sage stood up, kissed her mum and headed for the door.

"Thanks Ma, we will be back later, text me if you need anything." She turned towards Rhea, "You ready Cinderella?"

"YES!"

They headed off, back into the car and towards the bigger, neighbouring town. They drove down the main street, looking for a car park. Sage found one and they hopped out, paying the parking metre and walking arm in arm, towards the restaurants and bars.

"Its 1030 so most places will be open" Rhea giggled. "It's not such a good look, going drinking at this time though?"

"When are you going to stop worrying about what other people think of you mate?" Sage asked earnestly.

"It's a hard habit to break." She admitted.

"Well you look f*****g beautiful, so if anyone looks it's because they like what they see and not because they're judging us for morning drinking.... And if they are judging us, well f**k em!"

They laughed together as they walked into what was a nice bar and restaurant. A waiter came over and asked, "Table for two, for brunch?"

"Yes please, and the drinks menu too." Sage stated with the confidence, Rhea wished she could muster.

They sat down by a big wooden window in a booth, it was a little busy for this time of the day and it was obviously popular with people coming here for brunch. The waiter returned smiling and popped the food menu and drinks menu, down on the table. 

"We'll have two mimosas, and a bottle of your sparkling Pinot Gris to start, and for food we will have the bruschetta for two, with extra hashbrowns." Sage ordered, without even looking at the menus. 

Rhea just nodded and handed the menus back to the waiter. 

"I ordered the damn food to make you feel better" she smirked at Rhea.

Rhea laughed knowing that because they had ordered food, it did make her feel better, like people would judge her less.

"Thank you," she grinned at her friend.

The drinks arrived and they sipped them slowly, chatting and gossiping about all the people they knew, who was seeing whom, who was cheating on their partners. For a little town, this place sure had a lot of drama. The bottle of sparkling Pinot Gris arrived and they went down even more smoothly. Rhea's head started feeling fuzzy and the familiar buzz and light headedness engulfed her senses. She no longer cared about Zane or what he would do, when he found out how her day went.  

....."I still can't believe he cheated on his missus with that crackhead!" Rheas inhibitions were subsiding as she engaged the conversation.

"I know, I know!.... seems like that s**t is getting to everyone these days." Sage said, reflecting on the state of their town. 

Crack, methamphetamine or P, had been infiltrating every aspect of their community. From lawyers to doctors, even teachers were not immune to the alluring nature of that drug. It was infiltrating families and tearing people apart. Gone were the days of having a quiet joint in the shed. Now people were brazenly pulling out crack pipes to hand around.

It was in the middle of that conversation, a handsome man walked into the bar. Rhea looked at him, taking in his tall, confident stature and strong jawline covered in a neat brown beard, with slight tinges of grey in it, giving him a sexy mature vibe. He had spiky brown hair and tattoos on his neck, that she couldn't make out. He was laughing with one of his companions when they said something to him and he turned his head around to stare straight at Rhea. His piercing blue eyes bore down on her. She quickly averted her gaze and pretended to be even more interested in the conversation she was having with Sage.

"Anyway enough about crack and the tiny little crackhead sluts, that go around breaking up families and sucking c**k for bags." Said Sage with bitterness in her tone.

Her ex, who they promised to never speak of again, was one of those dumbasses, who fell for one of those skinny, crack head sluts. 

"I'm just going to pee my mate, I'll be back in a second." 

Rhea nodded, knowing that she wouldn't be long. While she was sitting there scrolling through f*******:, on her phone, she heard a deep, sexy voice.

"Bit early to be sinking down bottles isn't it?" he said with a smirk on his face. She looked up into those piercing blue eyes, that stole her attention before.

"My mate said, if people wanna judge then f**k em." She shrugged her shoulder in his direction and picked up her glass, sculling back what was remaining.

"Well in that case, let me get you another one and I'll join you, in your rebellion towards society."

He had the biggest grin on his face and sat down uninvited.

Rhea's heart was pounding in her throat. Oh no, she was in trouble.