All I Want for Christmas Is You
Chapter Twenty-One: Time…
Veronica heard a car door and she glanced at the clock on the wall. 7:00. She grinned to herself and turned to the front door and waited. It opened and I quietly walked in and shut the door. “Well, well, well look who the cat dragged in at 7:00 in the morning.”
I jumped, not expecting to see my friend. “Damnit, you scared me!” I hissed. “What are you doing up so early?” She gave me a look, and I rolled my eyes. “Oh right.”
Mrs. Cynthia appeared in the foyer with her hands on her hips, the expression on her face was blank. She looked between me and Veronica. “Girls, I liked to speak with the both of you privately in my office.”
I glanced at Veronica. “Mrs. Cynthia, is everything okay?” I asked, unsure of why she wanted to speak with us in her office. We never went into her office to talk, not even if it was important. We followed her into her office and sat down.
Mrs. Cynthia pulled her chair out from under her desk and rolled it over to us. She sat down and said, “Ladies, let me just say, first of all, I love you girls and I would do anything for you two.” We smiled. “It’s come to my knowledge from the younger girls that you are seeing Justin and JC?”
We nodded and I said, “Yeah.”
She nodded and paused for a moment, as if she was trying to pick her words carefully. “Girls, I don’t know how to say this, but you can’t see them. Not as long as you live here. This is an orphanage for young girls and these girls watch you. They look up to you, and I can’t have you coming in late at night and sneaking in early in the morning. As much as I hate to say this, I think it’s time for you girls to find an apartment of your own. You’ll be able to come and go as you please. You don’t have to worry about curfew.”
Veronica and I glanced at one another, and I said, “I don’t know if we have enough money to live in an apartment.”
“We have enough,” said Veronica. She looked at me. “We have been saving for months. We should have enough for an apartment and some food.”
I nodded. “Okay.” I looked at Mrs. Cynthia. “We’ll start looking for an apartment.”
She nodded. “I don’t want to think I’m kicking you out. I’m not. You girls will always have a home here.” We smiled at each other.
Later at work during our break, Veronica sat at a table with a newspaper, looking for apartments for rent. I pointed to an apartment. “What about this one? One bedroom, one bathroom for rent...”
Veronica looked up at me. “There are two of us. Where does the other one expect to sleep?”
“Sofa.” She gave me a look. “Look at the price.”
“I admit that a pretty good price, but you’re not sleeping on the sofa.”
“I know I’m not. You are.”
“Forget you!” She laughed. “I’m sure we can find something waaay better.”
“We’ve been looking all morning. There’s nothing NICE in our price range.”
“There has to be,” Veronica said, flipping through the newspaper. “We’re just not looking hard enough.”
I sat back in my chair and sighed. “Maybe if you sell that cell phone Justin bought you we can get a nice apartment.’ Veronica narrowed her eyes at me.
“Shut up.”
I chuckled. “I’m just saying maybe if you sell some of that stuff Justin has bought you, we can use that money to rent a nice apartment,” I said half jokingly.
Veronica stared at me for a moment and then stood up. “Well if that’s how you feel you can find an apartment this is just right for you. I’m going to call Justin and tell him my situation and ask him if I can move in.”
I looked at Veronica in disbelief. “I don’t want to live by myself.”
“Well you should have thought about that before you asked me to sell the stuff that Justin bought me. You know I never asked him to get me anything. He just buys me things because he loves me.”
“Veronica, it was just a joke.” I watched her walk away. “Veronica, I’m sorry.” I sighed and looked down at the newspaper. “Great. Now what am I suppose to do?”