ROSALIA
Viviana
I allow the remaining tendrils of confetti to touch the floor before I reach for the zip of my dress. My best friend can be quite dramatic.
Quite? No Very.
Because isn’t it ‘drama’ when you purchase and pop a confetti because your friend goes on one date. A very uncomfortable one.
Maybe it’s also because I haven’t gone for any in like forever. But I still consider it too much. Definitely too much, because what is a strawberry cake also doing on the counter in the kitchen?
Wow.
I think I have to pause hitting the shower for a while because she has to know I am never going for one again. Maybe I should become a nun.
“So tell me everything girl. How was it? I know you guys were the only ones in the restaurant and all but I want the nitty- gritty, the ittzy bitty deets, every little thing your eye took note of.” She squeals.
Rosalia is not meant for this world honestly. This world where everyone is either predator or prey, never anything in between. Sometimes I fear for my sweet friend. Her sweetness might be too much for some persons and they might try to take advantage of it and of her. But I don’t fear so much though.
Because out of the both of us, she is the stronger one. Apparently her father made her take martial arts classes up until she turned eighteen. Something I’m grateful for. And even then it was because college classes became more serious and she had to drop something from the busiest schedule that was the state of her life.
Her brown hair shine under the illumination of the single chandlier in the middle of our shared apartment and her rosy cheeks, appear even rosier.
“Why do you look that way? Did something bad happen?”
I quickly shake my head to dispel whatever notion she is cramming in her brain. I walk toward my bedroom and she follows right after.
I expect my room to be a mess, because it was when I was getting ready to go on the date. But in proper Rosalia fashion, she has already helped me in putting everything in place. My makeup brushes, the clothes that were pulled from their hangers, the broken shoe… everything is where they are supposed to be. I turn around and pull her into a hug. “Thank you sweetest girl” I say to her like I always do.
“You are most welcome Viv. Now stop trying to dodge my question and tell me what I need to hear before I jump from my skin in anticipation.”
I smile. “Relax molting skin. The meal was delicious, the spaghetti divine. The vibes were bearable until he decided that it would be a good thing that we danced. I tried to talk him out of it but you know how Jacob Bianchi can be. He had to have it his way.
We then begin to dance and my skin just feel like he is a bad idea. It was like I had bugs thrown on me. I was so uncomfortable-”
Now I am standing naked before my friend as I have succeeded in getting everything I had off. Thank God! I was getting itchier as the seconds ticked.
I go into the bathroom and she follows after me, pausing when she is in the middle of the bathroom. I complete my journey and turn on the shower. As the water cascade down my skin, I close my eyes and feel the cold droplets take away the stress from my shoulders and toes.
If no one ever told you this, know it… Water is life.
I turn the shower off and proceed to lather my body properly with my soap essentials. As I lather my skin, I continue with tales of the awful evening.
“But he didn’t seem to mind about anything. I can swear there was a time that man sniffed my neck. Or maybe I’m delirious-”
Rosalia throws her head back in laughter. I smile even as I roll my eyes at her.
“I’m sincere. But something else kept bugging me.
His new bodyguard, a tall and huge man who replaced Matteo who was shot in the legs-”
Rosalia nods as she recalls.
“I saw him for the first time today and the creep kept staring at me. I caught his eyes on me more than once and if not because I know he must be like me who is crazy and desperately in need of money to be working for Jacob Bianchi, I would have informed Jacob. At a point I almost marched up to him just so I could ask him if he knew me from somewhere or if staring at me that way is a part of his job description.”
I close my eyes to wash my face and blue eyes with flecks of yellow cross my vision.
Wow! Now even his eyes are following my thoughts.