Chapter6:A FRIEND IN NEED, A FRIEND INDEED
1321 Words
STACY
“Hey, girl. You look terrible, and it’s just ten am.” Tessy pulled me into a hug as soon as she spotted me where she had told the driver to drop me.
I almost cried on her shoulders, but held it in, reminding myself we were in public.
“Let’s go.”
The rest of the walk to her apartment building wasn’t far. Barely a five minute walk and she was leading me into an old, but well-cared for building. Seconds later, I was in her single room apartment.
It was nice and cozy. Barely furnished but had the essential things a home needed to have.
A TV, two old sofas and a table.
Then a small kitchen on the right, and the bathroom on the left.
“I know this isn’t what you’re used to, but I bet you can stay here for a while until you figure out what you’re going to do.” Tessy motioned me to a sofa, then went to a small sized fridge to get a carton of juice and proceeded to the kitchen to get two glasses.
“You’re right, Tessy. This isn’t what I’m used to, and I’m ready to get used to it. Living in a big house with all the opulence surrounding me, yet I don’t have anything to call my own, isn’t the best way to live. That house was a prison I was forced into. I envy you, Tessy.”
She let out a good-natured laugh, pouring cold drinks into our glasses, “I think I see where you’re coming from.”
“Mm-hm.” I nodded, taking a sip of the cold drink. “I wouldn’t have minded living in a rat house if it meant having my freedom to do and say as I please.”
“Yeah,” she considered, “I get you. I mean, they wouldn’t even let me come visit you. They just want to cut you off from everyone and everything. That’s crazy. It’s even a miracle you were able to get out of the house that night for the night business.”
“You don’t want to know how much sneaking around I had to do, the sickness I had to feign just so they wouldn’t mind me too much.” I shook my head, sadness enveloping me. “I… I’m just broken it didn’t work out. I feel like that night was a waste.” I dropped the glass back on the table.
“Hey, stop saying that.” She moved closer to me, pulling me into a comforting hug, “It wasn’t a waste.”
“B-but Zaya died. My little girl died…” Tears ran down my face, guilt squeezed tight my chest tight. I buried my face in the nook of Tessy’s shoulder, accepting the comfort while dealing with my own burst of emotions.
“Shh. That’s not on you, Stacy,” Tessy soothed, “even Zaya will know her mama tried. As for her daddy, well, I hope he gets his karma for what he did to you and Zaya.”
A sob broke through.
“Moreover, if the money didn’t save Zaya, it could save you and that little life growing inside. You still have the money, right?”
“Yes.” I nodded my response, sniffling, pulling back from the hug.
“Good.” She wrapped me in one last tight hug and curved her lips, “stop crying and start thinking. What do you want to do for yourself?”
I bounced my shoulders in a shrug, realizing I hadn’t thought that far what I wanted to do with the money. “I don’t know. Maybe I could find a job, you know.”
“What kind?”
Giving another clueless shrug, I idly picked up the glass and took a sip, and then clutched the glass in both my hands, “I haven’t thought of it yet.”
“Where’s the money? Did you deposit it in a bank?”
“Remember, I don’t have an account.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I erupted into a small, self-pity laugh.
“What’s funny?” Tessy frowned, watching me with concerned eyes. She probably might be thinking I had gone insane.
“Tessy, at twenty-three, I do not have an account. I have never used a credit card or earned my own money before. I’m an adult. God, my life is so pitiful.”
She took a hand and patted, “Stop it. None of whatever happened to you is your fault.”
“I don’t even know how to drive a car because I don’t own one and William and his family decided I wasn’t worth giving one too. Eleanor is my age mate, yet she owns her own car and a phone that isn’t monitored. A bank account that receives a weekly allowance from her brother. Same thing with their mother.” My voice shook, fresh tears welled, but I blinked them back furiously.
Tessy listened with genuine sympathy gleaming in her eyes, “As I said, Stace, none of it is your fault. You just have the world’s most evil father, a mean husband and in-laws from hell. But you’re out now and that should be all that matters, alright?”
Another nod, I squeezed her hand right back in gratitude, “Thank you, Tessy. If not for you, I have no idea what I would have done or how to go about my life from here. I promise not to be too much of a discomfort and if you ever feel like my time here…”
“Swallow the rest of those words, Stacey.” Tessy warned, her brows furrowed in a disappointed frown, “I don’t think you should ever talk like that. You’ll never be a discomfort, neither will there be a time where you’ll be unwelcomed, okay? Stay for as long as you need to.”
“Yes. Thank you.” I expressed in a tiny, quivery voice, swallowing tears.
“Alright.” Her gaze shifted to the black duffel, “are these all your clothes?”
“I didn’t really pack much so I wouldn’t rouse suspicion. Well, see how that turned out,” I said, referring to being caught by Eleanor and Victoria, “but I got enough to hold me till I would go to a thrift store and get some affordable clothes for myself.” I felt a certain thrill saying that.
Getting my own clothes with money I had earned — even if it wasn’t in the way I had envisioned, still it was mine. No one was going to yell at me for asking for necessities for myself.
“Get myself bathing soap, shampoo, pads…”
“Pads?” Tessy quirked a brow, amused.
“Oh.” I snickered, “sorry. I forgot I’m pregnant. But I can get the others without begging for it.”
“You mean you have to beg to get sanitary pads and your basic necessities?” She sounded genuinely shocked.
“You don’t want to know the half of it. Well, that’s gone now.”
“Yeah, it is.” She mirrored my big smile, “so where’s the money?”
I patted the black duffel, “in here.”
Her eyes widened, “you mean you carried such amount of money in that bag all the way here? Wow. You’re lucky you weren’t robbed.”
“I’m lucky.” I drank my juice, emptying the glass.
“You know what?” Tessy suggested, “I feel like we should celebrate your freedom. So I’m going to get the only bottle of wine I think I have in this apartment, make us some hot pasta and chicken to go with it. What do you say?”
My lips stretched in a mile-wide grin, “oh yes.”
- Writer
