Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Of course, one of the floorboards creaked as soon as I made it out to the landing at the top of the stairs looking down. I almost yelped out loud when I saw the back of someone’s head moving toward the kitchen. The way the person was moving, they either didn’t know that I was there or didn’t care.
I’m not sure how I knew, but I was almost certain they weren’t here to murder me. It could be the hint of expensive perfume, or the custom-fitted dress and silk stockings worn with killer red bottom heels. At least my fashion sense didn’t take a hit; I can still spot couture from a mile away. Just the thought almost made me throw up in my mouth. There were too many questions about what my future held and whether or not I’d ever get my hands on all the designer wear I’d left behind again.
“So you’re up.” She didn’t even turn around when she spoke as if she owned the place.
“Who the hell are you, and what are you doing in my house?” Too late, I had the thought that maybe this was the new owner.
“Your house? Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t your family lose everything, including this house?” She finally turned to look at me, and something about her face and voice struck a chord.
“Don’t I know you? Who are you?” I made my way down the stairs, no longer feeling fear.
“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me already.”
“Kill the bullshit, who are you? Why do you look so familiar?”
“I should; you tormented me every day for four years.”
“Four…. Oh, right, you’re that Jessica girl, the reject the school took in as one of their yearly tokens.” Even now, I sneered with disgust at the memory. The prestigious private school my parents, had paid out the ass for me to attend had given up to some sort of outside pressure and started letting in society’s rejects to please some blowhard.
I remember Dad and some of the other parents blowing a gasket at the fact that they had to pay out the armpit for their kids to attend, only to be saddled with welfare babies and crackhead spawns. “You can’t be her, she was….”
“Fat? Ugly? Unwanted?”
She carried on into the kitchen, and I followed. There were loads of grocery bags on the counter, and she rifled through one to grab a carton of eggs. “Yes, you were.” It’s not like I made it up. She always looked like her hair never met a comb it liked, and her clothes were always from the low end of a thrift store rack.
She wasn’t the only reject at the school, but she’d stood out like a sore thumb because of her scruffy black skin. Most, if not all, of the others over the years had looked more like me and were given a past, but this one….
She looks so completely different. Gone was the nappy mess she called hair, and in its place was a well-ordered coif full of health and bounce as she moved around the room. She must’ve lost a good fifty pounds or more between high school and now because there wasn’t an ounce of fat on her svelte body encased in the form-fitting designer dress.
“Well, I’m not anymore.” Her face? What happened to her face? Where are all the pockmarks from poor hygiene and acne scars that had plagued her as a teen? This woman looked and sounded like that Jessica person, but there was no way this could be here. It had only been a little more than a decade since we’d last seen each other, and I know she didn’t have the money back then to do all this.
Her presence, her very existence, pissed me off. “What the hell are you doing in my house?”
“Like I said, it’s not yours any longer, and to answer your question, I’m your new roommate.”
“Roommate? What the hell are you talking about?” She walked to the table where the Hermes Kelly sat and opened it to remove an envelope.
“Read it and weep. Actually, you live with me, not the other way around. In case you don’t know what that means, I’m in charge here.” I looked at the piece of paper through blurry eyes, trying to make sense of it all. That little bitch again, I’d almost forgotten her. How the hell did she get ownership of my house?
“Is this some kind of joke? I’m going to call my dad and have you kicked out of here right now.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be possible for the next twenty-five years or so.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You didn’t know. Oh, well then, let me do the honors.” This time, she pulled out her phone from the overly expensive bag and turned it on before turning the screen to me.