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After work, Karen picked her up and they went directly to Sita’s mansion.
“You simply must see me in my new skirt. Of course you will. Do you think flatter will win you any points with me? Well you don’t have to stop, I just asked the question!”
Hazel watched Karen’s movements, her manner flirtatious even though she only talked on the phone to one of her various boyfriends. It had always fascinated her, all of Karen’s differences to her, all of her habits, the way she acted, her characteristics. They were completely different, but then again, as Hazel thought about it, Sita and her had just as little in common.
Hazel was the black sheep in her group of friends.
She had met Sita Perne around 6 months ago, and shortly after that was introduced to Karen Cooper, both girls originally from Florida. They had come down to the Big Easy together since both girls’ parents owned property there and they were sick of the scene where they used to live. But Hazel had always gotten the impression that Sita had left for other reasons as well, reasons she wasn’t prepared to disclose with her.
Karen was the typical rich, blond teenage girl, with too much money and time on her hands. She still had yet to really fit in with the natives of New Orleans, but she had made her share of friends, especially of the male species. Karen was the most easy going girl she had ever met, and amazingly generous, but at the same time totally self oriented. Hazel hadn’t found the interest in the girl to get close to her, but she did have to give her credit. She had an amazing car.
Sita was the complete opposite. Adored by everyone she came in contact with, she was the spitting image of perfection. A shiny mane of wavy black hair fell down her entire back and her clover eyes sparkled whenever one of her treasured smiles bestowed her face. Her skin tone was the envy of most girls, as if she took a bath in caramel every day, and she had little to no use for make-up. With her parents one of the richest families in all of Florida and a brilliant educational career under her belt, Sita was destined for greatness.
And behind all of the physical aspects, a sweet, kind, compassionate girl lived. That was what stood out from everything else, Sita’s flawless personality. Hazel had never been one to open up to people, but she felt as if she could tell Sita anything and somehow the girl would manage to understand her.
While both girls had a bright, colorful future ahead of them, Hazel’s future had been known to her even since she had been a little girl. She had lived in New Orleans her entire life, and had become a product of her environment. Her house had been run down, most of her relatives shared all of 5 teeth between them, education not a prime factor in her family tree. Her father and uncles had all worked the swamps or fishing boats, their livelihood dependant on the local wildlife.
Hazel had grown up to become a startlingly beautiful girl, considering how her sisters had turned out. But she had caught the stupidity gene from her parents, and as much as she had tried, she just couldn’t concentrate on school. While Karen and Sita’s vocabulary ranged from all over the English and some French languages, Hazel spoke with basic limitations, and found herself lost and struggling to keep up in conversation with the 2 girls.
Sita read great classic novels and Hazel just enjoyed sitting in bed with a nice romance book she had picked up from the local market. They wore extravagant clothing, and she kept it simple and ordinary. She lived in a small, shabby apartment duplex, and they stayed comfortably in their parents’ huge mansions.
The only thing that they truly did have in common was all three’s love for the nightlife. Karen and Sita loved the club scene of New Orleans, but Hazel lived for it. She had no expectations of herself to move on in life, to become a great success. She wasn’t ashamed that she would probably never leave her small apartment and make a sad career of being a camerawoman. She just knew this was it for her, she could never do any better and that was that. So she focused all her attention on going out every night and coming home at the early morning hours.
“Here you go.”
She had been staring off into space, but was startled back when an ice pack was brought in front of her. She took it timidly and brought it to her stomach, the cold causing an immediate painful feeling to her warm skin. “Thank you.”
Sita took a seat on the couch next to her, her wonderful green eyes coated in worry. “Was it Jared again?”
She lowered her eyes and nodded.
Sita sighed and sat back. “You have to stop seeing him. I don’t understand why you do in the first place, why you always put yourself in these destructive relationships.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“It is Hazel. I know you aren’t stupid, that you can see that he is abusive, like all the others, but you keep subjecting yourself to it.”
“What?”
“You...you always put yourself in the position to get hurt on purpose. I don’t understand why. You can do so much better.”
That was the thing with Sita. She just couldn’t allow herself to believe that what she saw in Hazel didn’t exist, that what the eye met was it. There was no better thing for her out there, she had attained everything she ever would in her life. She said nothing, keeping her eyes down as Sita continued to stare at her, waiting but not pushing for a response.
“Ok, so are we on for tonight?” Karen asked, hanging up the phone. “Cause I’ve already got a date.”
“I think I’ll just stay in,” Sita said. “I’m tired.”
“You are not,” Karen retorted. “Stop being so melodramatic about everything.”
“Shut up Karen,” Sita said quickly.
“Why don’t you like to go out anymore?” Hazel asked, completely oblivious to both of her friends’ tense positions. All she could figure out was that Sita had been staying in at recent nights and was often caught with a lost, wistful expression.
“I’m just tired, that’s all.” Sita smiled warmly and patted her arm. “I’ll go tomorrow night, all right?”
Karen rolled her eyes and stood up. “I’m going home to get ready. You coming Haze?”
“Yea. See ya,” Hazel said as she followed Karen out the large front doors of the huge house.
~~
Ever since Lance had left the tv station, he had suddenly felt even more lonely than usual.
During the interview he had caught himself daydreaming. First he had thought of nothing, just stared at his shirt sleeve, but then his imagination had started to churn. A chain of images had brought him to the one he had gotten stuck on, the empty ballroom.
It was an enormous, classic room, with a large wooden dance floor placed directly in the middle of the lake of red carpet laid on the ground. The room was dim besides the single spotlight that shone down on him and the girl he was dancing with, slowly. Tables floated on the sea of red, but they weren’t set for anything, columns of chairs sitting on them.
He was dressed in a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt.
The girl he couldn’t see in his vision, but he knew that he was enjoying dancing with her greatly. They were each comfortable with each other and he could feel, in the dream, how much he cared about her and how she felt exactly the same way. He knew so much about her, but he couldn’t see her.
He held onto her preciously yet strongly, because she was frightened of something and needed him. That was an impression he felt intensely, how much she needed him and how he would do anything for her.
He was ready to see her face, and lifted his own to catch just a glimpse of this girl he had been looking for his whole life.
That’s when JC tapped his arm to inform him the interview was over and they were going back to the hotel.
Now he waited in his room for Justin and Chris to finish getting ready so they could check out the party scene of the legendary Big Easy. To say he wasn’t exactly as thrilled as the rest was an understatement. The others were looking for a good time, and it wasn’t like he didn’t want to have fun as well. It was just, he wanted a steady someone to have that fun with.
Stability. It was what he needed. While the rest of his life remained in constant chaos, he wanted that stability to go home too, to run to whenever he needed it to escape. And he often needed to escape.
Growing tired of sitting, he stood up and walked out to the hallway to roam around the corridors until the rest were ready to go. He was about to go one way, when he noticed a figure standing at the other end, gazing out of the window. Knowing the distress that still lingered in his friends’ mind, he approached the dark hared man. “Hey JC.”
JC looked back and forced a smile. “Hi.”
“Are you ok?”
He nodded and turned back to the window, an ever-present emptiness entering his blue eyes. “I’m all right. I think I’m going to stay in tonight though. I’m not in a partying mood.”
Lance understood immediately, he being the only person that could understand since JC hadn’t revealed his secret to anyone else. “All right.”
“Yo Lance!” Chris called from down the hallway. “You coming or what?”
“See you tomorrow,” Lance said, pausing for a moment before walking back to the group waiting for him.
~~
Despite countless arguments she had with herself, Hazel ended up breaking and calling up Jared to take her out that night. Her logic in the end was that since she had no car, and he did, the only way she could go was by him. Karen was off with another boy and Sita wasn’t going, so her last resort was Jared. It made sense, at least at the time.
Now she sat beside him in his huge white truck, watching the city lights pass by in a blur as he babbled about something she hadn’t the slightest bit of interest in. She had never cared much for Jared, but again, like all things with her, made the assessment that she could do no better and had to deal with it. It wasn’t something that depressed her, it was just her life.
“Are you listening to me?” he asked harshly.
She blinked and looked at him. “Yea.”
“Then what did I just say?” She had no answer for him, and he scowled as he parked the car a couple of blocks away from the club. “Don’t piss me off tonight Hazel. I’m not in the mood for it.”
“Neither am I,” she mumbled under her breath as she got out of the car.