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to take advantage of their flatscreen and have a
free therapy session with their daughter. I’m so selfish, because I just take
and take from them. Kate’s mum has a wonderful smile, and perfect teeth. She’s
always wearing a two piece outfit made from cloth with printed safari animals
on it. I presume she buys it from a place like Mozambique because she’s always
going there on holiday. I would too, if my husband was a successful
businessman. Don’t find this alarming, but coming over and hanging out in this
resort they call home, and having her dress like a safari queen, really does it
for me. Like, I’m done, I feel like I’m in a vacation spot. Oh right, would I
like some tea?
    “No thank you,” I replied, with a wide grin
on my face. “Thank you.”
    “Are your parents well, Celeste?” asked
Kate’s father, refilling his cup with more of the hot, healthy liquid. . His
voice was like a thunderous roar, almost like a lion, just clapping with depth.
I was always almost surprised by it. If it were any lower, no one would
understand a single word Kate’s father says because it would be too deep to
comprehend, if there were such a possibility.
    I passed on a weird and heavy nod. I don’t
think they understood what it meant. It’s not my fault they make me nervous.
Kate rushed in and closed the front door to prevent the dog from running inside
the house. I was so relieved to see her. She had come to rescue me.
    “Come on Celeste,” she screamed, ordering
me to her room.
    I looked at her parents and nodded again,
while getting up. I wonder if they think that there’s something wrong with my
neck. I hurried behind Kate and as soon as I shut the door behind me, I began
to unwind. I was no longer in the resort, I was in Kate’s room...the
catastrophe. She’s not very fond of picking up her clothes from the floor, and
all the papers, she’s told me that. I’m used to it. I no longer make any
comments about it, what’s the use. It’s so much of a contradiction to the
organised and neat persona she brings to the outside world. I will clean some
of the mess as we discuss movie night, otherwise where am I going to sleep?
You’d think she’d take a hint from my room and how organised it is when
she comes over to my house, but nope, it’s easier to live like a pig. Her bed
was in one corner of the room, and she had a couch next to her closet, it was
covered with clothes. Her desk was just overflowing with papers and books and
cosmetics. The only thing reasonable about the room was that it always had a
fresh smell, like...I can’t quite put my finger on it, but maybe the smell of
fresh linen perhaps.
    “Kate,” I said, brushing away some clothes
so that I could sit on her bed. Some of these clothes I’ve never even seen her
wear. “As I said over the phone, this is an emergency.”
    “Well, what is it?” replied Kate, going
over to sit on her couch.
    I hoped she would understand my
predicament, and the fact that this was a pity party. I got up and started to
slowly walk around her room, stating my motion.
    “Kate, I’ll be twenty-two in six months,
and you in eight.”
    She looked at me like I had lost the plot.
“Yes, I know that Celeste.”
    “Listen first and comment later!” I
demanded. “We have nothing to show for it and yet we are two grown women, still
depending on our parents. We don’t have boyfriends; I have never been kissed,
and we still haven’t decided what we are going to do once we go to college. We
are bums, Kate, losers, and I have had enough of these bullshit feelings I keep
having. I’m tired of being eleven, I want to be twenty-one, and I want to act
my age.” I stopped talking, waiting for a reaction from Kate. She was just
sitting there, staring at me, but I could see the same passion I had, begin to
fill her eyes.
    “Carry on,” she finally said, sinking
further into her seat.
    “This past week, I’ve spent swooning over
some dude who hardly knows I exist. But if you