Chapter 2 - Dime A Dozen
1074 Words
Cordelia
As soon as I got home, I decided to start another pot of coffee before taking a long hot shower. I may not have been physically dirty, but once I stepped foot outside that building, the realization that I had actually allowed myself to be treated like nothing more than a pretty face for two years of my life just for a job made me feel pretty disgusted with myself.
When the water started to cool, I finally got out and dried off, wrapped the towel around my body, and stared at myself in the mirror, trying to figure out what my next move in life would be.
I've always been good at adjusting to things, no matter what happened. As if that sh.it job wasn't proof alone, I also grew up in the foster system, having been taken away from my drug-addicted mother and not knowing who my father was, so not having any actual family members to take me in. No one wanted to adopt a drug baby, so I was passed around a lot. It's not really a big deal. On any given day, there are about 400,000 children in foster care, and in a single year around 200,000 children enter the system, so I was only 1 of many.
When I was in middle school, I was adopted by an elderly couple, Vera and Jack Craig. They had no children of their own and basically needed someone to take care of them, since their nieces and nephews were too good to bother, and they didn't want to have to go into assisted living. So, I was it.
Vera and Jack were extremely particular about how things were done, and many times I felt like a failure, but I was no longer in the system and that's what mattered. I thought of my life with them like nothing more than a job. When I was in my fourth and final year of college, they both passed away, six months apart. It was all very bitter-sweet. They gave me a place to live, they weren't abusive by any means, but I didn't love them, and I'm pretty sure they didn't love me. At least that's what I thought. Imagine my surprise when they left everything to me in their will, pissing off what family they had .....
"DEE! CORDELIA!" Harlee's voice bounced off the walls of the small house. The house that Vera and Craig left me was close enough to walk to the city when the weather was nice, yet far enough to get away, which I was thankful for since I walked home after being fired.
I grabbed another towel, wrapped it around my wet red hair, and walked out of the bathroom to see what she was doing at home.
As soon as Harlee saw me, her face lit up. "That was fu.cking awesome! You know, that's all everyone was talking about!"
I rolled my eyes. "Great, just what I wanted to be ... the one talked about at the water cooler."
Harlee continued to smile as she shook her head. "No, honey, you don't understand. Allen cried like a little bi.tch."
I couldn't help but contort my face in confusion. "Wait, what?"
Placing her purse and my box of belongings that I left in her car on the table, Harlee then went over to the coffee pot and poured herself a cup. "After you left, Allen stormed into his mom's office, just a bitching about everything. Of course, Marie coddled him, told him how perfect he was, blah, blah, blah. But before that, Marie must have called Sophia to get her to come in and cover for you. I mean, she's their go-to girl, you know? Bubbly, feminine, talkative, looks and acts like a lady should. Until she's pissed off, and boy, was she pissed off! She went right into Marie's office and flipped out."
I stuck out my bottom lip and wiped away invisible tears. "Oh, that makes me sad ..."
"No it doesn't."
I smiled and shook my head. "No. It doesn't. They all deserve each other."
"I won't disagree with that. Any who. So Sophia came in just a bitching, right? Because Allen told her that she wasn't going to be on until later, and she didn't want to interview crazy people, and yadda yadda. Well. I kind of snapped." Harlee took a sip of her coffee and looked up to the ceiling, avoiding eye contact with me.
"Harl, what do you mean you snapped?"
Harlee sighed and placed the coffee cup on the counter so that she could cross her arms under her large chest. "I told her to go back to Allen's and get out of the other side of his bed because there's no way I could cover that much ugliness as there's just not enough makeup in the world ...."
My eyes went wide from shock. "You didn't?!"
Harlee nodded her head. "Afraid I did. Then I walked out."
"You quit?!?"
Harlee picked her coffee cup back up and took another drink. "That fu.cker told me makeup artists are a dime a dozen, Dee. Well, then he can go find another one at the last minute. I can work anywhere. I could open my own shop, travel, whatever. I have more options than he could dream of. What he doesn't understand is that I hold the bigger stick here, and I have no problem shoving it up his ass."
I couldn't help but smile. "You quit because I got fired, didn't you? You wanted us both to be done there. That's why you kept telling me to quit."
Harlee shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, well, I was there longer than you were. I would have quit sooner, but I didn't want to see you get stuck there like a few of the others. That's what friends are for, ya know? To help get each other's heads out of our asses."
"You're a good bad influence, and I love you for it."
"You're welcome, now, get your skinny ass dressed. It's been a long time since we've gone out to breakfast together, and I think that we deserve a celebratory meal cooked by someone else," Harlee instructed as she pointed a demanding finger towards my bedroom.
"Yes, Ma'am!"
Breakfast out will be nice. Harlee and I can solve the world's problems while someone else gets to cook and clean for a change.
- Writer
