Pulling up to the curb she noticed a small framed woman resting on the stoop. She wore a dark green coat that remained open, showing off her latest investments. They seemed just a bit too big for her petite figure. She possessed an extraordinarily light complexion framed by huge fiery red colored curls. A closer look betrayed the fact that her grey eyes were outlined with black eyeliner from the day before and her once red lips were pinker today, begging for a reapplication.
“You changed your hair again,” Natalie said to her, eyes straight ahead, walking past to unlock the door. “It has been red for three months,” she replied.
She paused as it sunk in that she had not seen her baby sister for at least ninety days. She pushed in the door after unlocking it and left it open behind her. Treasure stood for a moment waiting to be invited in before deciding to follow through after her.
Natalie removed her boots at the door, walked into the kitchen and began rummaging through her cabinets above the sink. She was hoping she still had a bottle of anything with a greater alcohol content than the warm, cheap, sweet red wine sitting in the middle of her table.
“Coffee? Tea? Water?” she asked her unexpected guest as she poured herself a shot of Crown Royal. “No thanks,” she said as she dropped her purse beside one of the kitchen stools at the bar and sat down. Natalie noticed that Treasure had not removed her coat and wondered if it was a sign that her thermostat wasn’t high enough or that she didn’t plan to stay too long. She was hoping for the latter to be true.
“Money? Shelter? Drugs?” she smirked and then drank the shot of warm liquor.
With a smack of her lips Treasure mumbled under her breath. She snatched up her purse and took off down the hall.
“I’m headed to the bathroom.” She yelled behind her without breaking stride.
“Still the room with the toilet in it. Wipe front to back!” she retorted.
It was often like this when Treasure first came around. She never stayed long, merely hours but sometimes days. By the end of the night, they were usually on better terms. This night held up to code.
Time flew past as the television provided un-needed background noise. Treasure showed genuine interest in what was new and cool in Natalie’s life.
“You still seeing Dwight?”
“As often as I can.” She sighed, half smiling.
“So… not very often.” Treasure implied.
“As often as I can.” She nodded.
Treasure, though in and out of Natalie’s life, knew more than most about Natalie’s situation-ship with her former employer. She was also one of the few who could put a face with his name. They were together when they saw the open position tacked to a bulletin board in the health sciences building at Cleveland State University. The paper had a row of contacts that were pre-cut at the bottom for anyone to take. The position called for a female model at DW Studios. Natalie pulled and pocketed a pre-cut tab from the bottom of the paper and they both interviewed at the same time. Treasure seemed to be everything Dwight wanted at the time in a model. The mention of nudity didn’t sway her at all, though it did give Natalie pause. She was hired on the spot as his full-time female model. Natalie received a call a week later offering her a position as well. She would be his part-time young female model. She wouldn’t have set hours it would be on an as-needed basis. As needed at DW Studios stood for as Dwight needed a second model, as Dwight’s main model was unable to show and eventually as Dwight’s main model became MIA.
Natalie filled Treasure in on her current situation concerning Dwight.
“So, judging by your flat ass stomach you didn’t follow my advice,” Treasure said, exhaling smoke.
“Dwight is a stickler for condoms …”
“So!! Poke holes in them bitches!” Treasure laughed.
“Well, I did for a while.” Natalie half lied “But when I got accepted into school it all seemed senseless. I mean, shit! What would I really do with a baby? I just wanted us to work, ya know,” Natalie shrugged accepting the joint that Treasure was offering her. “He would’ve worked and you could’ve just focused on school.” Treasure said. Then switching topics completely added “How’s Jade doing? She still hate me?”
“We don’t talk about you often but… I’m sure you’re not in her top five. She still avoids talking about what happened. Guess it is just too painful for her.”
Treasure stood and stretched. She mumbled more to herself than to Natalie, “Yea, well she ain’t the only one that lost somebody.” With that, she just climbed in Natalie’s bed. Soon Treasure was asleep leaving Natalie to tend to her thoughts. After flipping her iPhone over in her hand a few times, she sent Dwight a good night text.
After being alone with her thoughts for thirty minutes and still not receiving a reply she decided to call it a night. She climbed into bed with her sister, snatched her favorite pillow from under her head and rolled over. She didn’t even attempt to kick her out of the bed like she did most nights.
D's Quest for Extraordinary Pebbles 